The Legacies of Andrei Sakharov: A Public Lecture by Dr. Robert Horvath

21 May 2021
Russian House, Melbourne
Event organised by The Young Guard and Svoboda Alliance AU&NZ

Dr. Robert Horvath deliveres a talk about Andrei Sakharov, the father of the Soviet H-bomb and Nobel Peace Prize winner, who became the world's most famous dissident during the final decades of the Cold War.

The lecture examines Sakharov's public activity in two arenas. The first is human rights, which emerged from obscurity to become a crucial issue in international diplomacy in the 1970s. No other figure made such a crucial contribution to this transformation. The second is the struggle for democracy in Russia. As a parliamentary deputy, Sakharov spearheaded the creation of political opposition, challenged the constitutional supremacy of the Communist Party, and campaigned for the creation of a rights-respecting state. He remains a potent symbol of Russia's democratic tradition.

Dr. Horvath is a senior lecturer at La Trobe University. His latest book, Putin's Preventive Counter-Revolution is a study of the programme of reforms and repression that transformed the face of Russian politics during Vladimir Putin's second term as president. His current research includes the election in the former Soviet space, the politics of Russian nationalism, and the human rights movement in Russia. His commentary has been published in The Age, The Australian, The Diplomat, Inside Story, and The Canberra Times.

Russian House has served a key role in reconnecting the Russian community after the lockdown. The building is a base for Young Guard, a Russian-speaking youth collective in Melbourne that regularly organizes events for anyone who is interested in Russian culture and history. Follow us @:

https://www.instagram.com/young.guard
https://www.facebook.com/young.guard11

Svoboda Alliance AU&NZ is an informal movement of likeminded people in Australia and New Zealand who advocate for the defence of human rights, the freedom of speech and conscience and democratic institutions in Russia and other former Soviet republics.

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