Modern Biographies Roy and Zhores Medvedev

The unique trajectory of Soviet dissident twin brothers Roy and Zhores Medvedev takes us through a century of history, from Stalin to Putin. They achieved fame as the first authors of independent research on Stalinism from within the USSR, but their lives were also marked by controversy. Roy and Zhores Medvedev, two identical twins with a unique fate, not only lived through a whole century of history, from Stalin to Putin, they wrote and made history. Their research on Stalinism, the first to come out of the Soviet Union in the 1960s-1970s, turned them into famous dissidents overnight, but their criticism of the regime always remained loyal to Soviet power. The story of their lives provides a snapshot into the history of Soviet dissent, from psychiatric hospitalization to forced exile, and from KGB interrogations to collaboration with Western news correspondents. Yet their trajectory was also marred by controversy with fellow dissidents, and in the post-Soviet era active support of authoritarian rulers, including Vladimir Putin.