From November 3 to 5, 2025, an international conference titled “Readings in Memory of Anatoly Marchenko” will take place in Milan. The event will bring together historians, human-rights researchers, and literary scholars to examine the life and legacy of Anatoly Marchenko — one of the most prominent Soviet dissidents, who died in prison in 1986 after a prolonged hunger strike.
Marchenko’s uncompromising stand against political repression and his writings about Soviet labor camps made him a symbol of moral resistance. His 1968 open letter on the plight of political prisoners declared:
Our civic duty, the duty of our human conscience — is to stop crimes against humanity. The crime begins not with the smoking chimneys of crematoria, nor with ships bound for Magadan — it begins with civic indifference.
Posthumously, in 1988, Marchenko received the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought from the European Parliament. A year later, his works — My Testimony, From Tarusa to Chuna, and Live Like Everyone — were officially published in the USSR for the first time.
Despite his historical significance, Marchenko’s civic and literary heritage remains under-studied. The upcoming Milan conference aims to change that.
Key themes will include:
- Marchenko’s biography and archival research;
- His texts as documentary testimony and part of Russian literature;
- Translations and Western reception of his works;
- Marchenko and the Soviet dissident movement;
- The relevance of Marchenko’s moral witness to contemporary human-rights debates.
Working languages: Russian, English, Italian.
For inquiries: [email protected]
Programme and registration details:
🔗 Anatoly Marchenko International Conference — Milan (3–5 Nov 2025)