#005 - To the Success of Our Hopeless Cause with Ben Nathans

Historian Ben Nathans joins Michael Kimmage and Maria Lipman to discuss the Soviet dissident movement and the research behind his new book, To the Success of Our Hopeless Cause. The conversation explores how dissidents used law, rights, and decentralized samizdat networks to challenge an authoritarian state that had lost ideological conviction.

Nathans reflects on the movement’s key turning points, its most influential figures, and the lessons contemporary leaders still draw from this history. Topics range from political trials and constitutional activism to Jewish emigration, Solzhenitsyn’s singular role and the long arc between Soviet dissidents and figures like Navalny.

Key themes:
• Dissidents as a collective movement
• The KGB’s struggle to interpret legalistic resistance
• Samizdat as a medium of circulation and community
• How political trials shaped public consciousness
• The Soviet Union as a “lip service” state
• Continuities between past and present dissent