The State Security Committee`s use of extrajudicial repression against the Ukrainian Helsinki Group (February 1977 – February 1979)

Abstract

The purpose of the article is a comprehensive analysis of the extrajudicial repressions of the punitive structures of the Soviet regime against the Ukrainian Helsinki Group (UHG) during February 1977 – February 1979. Methodology. The methodological basis of the article was the principles of historicism, objectivity, comprehensiveness, and continuity. The work used the methods of analysis (to study various specific repressive methods), synthesis (to write generalizations and conclusions), and abstraction (the focus was on the repressive actions of the SSC against dissidents, while excluding the actions of other Soviet authorities, as well as the features of the public activity of human rights activists). In addition, during the research, problem-chronological and retrospective methods were used, as well as the method of comparing and contrasting information from various sources (primarily KGB materials and memoirs of participants in the dissident movement). The scientific novelty is due to the introduction into scientific circulation of a set of little-known documents from the Sectoral State Archive of the Security Service of Ukraine (SSA SSU), which allow us to reveal the key methods and means of using extrajudicial repressions against UHG participants by the State Security Committee (SSC). The article is the first to carry out a comprehensive analysis of the SSC `s secret operational and preventive measures against Ukrainian human rights defenders during 1977–1979. Conclusions. In 1977–1979, the SSC of the Ukrainian SSR implemented a large-scale and targeted campaign of extrajudicial repressions against the participants of the UHG, which combined a wide range of methods – from operational and preventive measures to intelligence and compromising activities. Analysis of a diverse source base has shown that the SSC was not limited to judicial instruments of pressure, and along with them actively used “soft” forms of influence aimed at demoralization, isolation and division of the dissident environment. Repressive policies included administrative supervision, searches, surveillance, calls for preventive conversations, provocations, discrediting campaigns, the spread of disinformation and blackmail. Taken together, they were intended to destroy the group`s structure and reduce its public activity. The multifaceted and flexible nature of the KGB`s actions deserves special attention, as the measures were carefully adapted to the psychological, social, and personal characteristics of individual movement participants. The case of Oksana Meshko, as one of the key figures of the group, demonstrates the particularly harsh nature of extrajudicial repression, which included systematic surveillance, isolation from like-minded people, agent development, and psycho-emotional pressure. Despite a powerful wave of repression, the UHG continued its activities, demonstrating resilience, solidarity, and internal potential for resistance. The SSC `s policy towards the UHG in 1977–1979 became an example of a complex and repressive mechanism for curbing civil activity under the conditions of the late Soviet totalitarian regime.