Ukrainian Helsinki Movement (1976-1991). Human Rights and State-Cultural Aspects

Abstract

The article examines the preconditions of the establishment of the first human rights organizations in Ukraine during the Khrushchev`s "thaw". The emergence of the Helsinki movement in Europe after a conference in Helsinki 1975 is traced. Basic problems in which the Helsinki Group in USSR got involved, and its interaction with other similar groups on the territory of the Soviet Union and beyond is analyzed. The main directions and specifics of the Ukrainian Helsinki Group under the totalitarian regime of the USSR are examined. The main social and political changes in the Soviet Union, which helped to move the human rights movement in the political sphere are defined. The attempts of cooperation with the West and the Western response to the transformation of the human rights movement into a political movement are traced. The effects of the Helsinki movement for the establishment of the independence of Ukraine are analyzed.