The Universe behind Barbed Wire. Memoirs of a Ukrainian Soviet Dissident

Books by Fellows

This memoir by a prominent Ukrainian dissident, now in English translation, offers a unique account that spans the entire postwar period, from the author's childhood in newly Soviet western Ukraine and coming of age within the Communist system to the collapse of the Soviet Union, concluding with his reflections on culpability and justice in the post-Soviet context. Marynovych's description of the varied landscape of Ukrainian dissent in the 1960s and 1970s focuses on the emerging human rights movement, especially the creation of the Ukrainian Helsinki Group, of which he was a founding member. He vividly recounts his encounters with the Soviet repressive apparatus, including his arrest and trial, and offers a rich picture of daily life in a Siberian prison camp and his internal exile in Kazakhstan.

More information here and on the publisher's website.

Roles
Author: Myroslav Marynovych
Translated by Zoya Hayuk
Edited by Katherine Younger
Foreword by Timothy Snyder