In 1965, two writers were accused of publishing anti-Soviet material abroad.

The arrest of Yuli Daniel and Andrei Sinyavsky was seen as symbolic of the new era in the Soviet Union.

The liberal leader Nikita Khrushchev had been ousted in favour of hardliner Leonid Brezhnev, and dissenting political views were being cracked down on.

In a moment considered the start of the dissident movement in the Soviet Union, hundreds of protesters demonstrated in Pushkin Square, in Moscow, for the writers to be given an open trial.

Vicky Farncombe tells the story using BBC archive and an interview with Yuli Daniel's son, Alexander.

Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive. Witness History is for those fascinated by the past. We take you to the events that have shaped our world through the eyes of the people who were there. For nine minutes every day, we take you back in time and all over the world, to examine wars, coups, scientific discoveries, cultural moments and much more. Recent episodes explore everything from the death of Adolf Hitler, the first spacewalk and the making of the movie Jaws, to celebrity tortoise Lonesome George, the Kobe earthquake and the invention of superglue. We look at the lives of some of the most famous leaders, artists, scientists and personalities in history, including: Eva Peron – Argentina’s Evita; President Ronald Reagan and his famous ‘tear down this wall’ speech; Thomas Keneally on why he wrote Schindler’s List; and Jacques Derrida, France’s ‘rock star’ philosopher. You can learn all about fascinating and surprising stories, such as the civil rights swimming protest; the disastrous D-Day rehearsal; and the death of one of the world’s oldest languages.

(Photo: Soviet authors Yuli Daniel (left) and Andrei Sinyavsky sit in prisoners' dock. Credit: Getty Images)

This Is Moscow Calling

Mentioned by

Mentioned in 1 episodes

The AI-powered Podcast Player