They Chose Freedom

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They Chose Freedom
RTVi
Release date
  • December 1, 2005 (2005-12-01) (Moscow)
Running time
86 min (2 of 4 episodes last 21 min and 2 other episodes last 22 min)
CountryRussia
LanguagesRussian, English

They Chose Freedom (

USSR from the 1950s to the 1990s. It was produced in 2005 by Vladimir Kara-Murza.[1]

The documentary tells the story of the Soviet dissident movement from its emergence in the late 1950s with the weekly public

1965 Glasnost meeting and 1968 Red Square demonstration, and the harsh repressions unleashed by Soviet authorities against dissenters including forced psychiatric "treatment", prison camps
and deportations, are all part of the film's narrative.

The third episode deals with events leading to the collapse of Soviet dictatorship and the democratic revolution of August 1991. The final episode is dedicated to the period after 1991; in it former dissidents discuss why the emergence of democracy in Russia proved to be short-lived, and how it was possible that a former KGB officer, Vladimir Putin, was elected to the Russian presidency.

"They Chose Freedom" is narrated primarily through the interviews of dissidents themselves. The film's participants are

Naum Korzhavin, Natalya Gorbanevskaya, Viktor Fainberg
and Vladimir Dremlyuga.

According to director Vladimir Kara-Murza, the principal goal of his documentary was to show that even a small group of citizens that is prepared to defend dignity and freedom is eventually able to prevail over a totalitarian dictatorship.

They Chose Freedom was premiered on

Ekaterinburg
.

In February 2007 They Chose Freedom was presented at a human rights seminar in Harvard University. On 11 February 2014, the Harriman Institute and Institute of Modern Russia presented the English-language version of They Chose Freedom.[2][3]

References

  1. NEWSru.com
    . 1 December 2005.
  2. Columbia University in the City of New York
    . Retrieved 18 February 2014.
  3. ^ "Film Screening: They Chose Freedom: The Story of Soviet Dissidents". Freedom House. Retrieved 18 February 2014.

External links

See also

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