dissident

The examples and perspective in this article may not represent a worldwide view of the subject. Please improve this article or discuss the issue on the talk page.

Andrei Sakharov, an anti-communist dissident in the Soviet Union, who received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1975.

A dissident, broadly defined, is a person who actively challenges an established doctrine, policy, or institution. When individual dissidents unite in a common cause they may become known as a dissident movement.

The noun was first used in the political sense in 1940, with rise of totalitarian systems, in particular to the Soviet Union.^[1][2]

Soviet dissidents

The term dissident was used in the Soviet Union during the period of 1965–1985, including Brezhnev stagnation, for citizens who overtly (or sometimes even subtly) criticized the practices or the authority of the Communist party. The people who used to write and distribute non-censored non-conformist samizdat literature were criticized in the official newspapers without any of his works being published. Then, many people accepted the term dissident with respect to themselves.^[3] This radically changed the meaning of the term: instead of meaning a criminal, who opposes society, the term came to mean a non-conformist, who insists on the enforcement of officially published laws, including the international agreements, signed by the Soviet government.^[4][5][6] An important part of the activity of dissidents was informing society (both inside the Soviet Union and in foreign countries) about violation of laws and human rights: see Chronicle of Current Events (samizdat) and Moscow Helsinki Group.

Cuba

According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, Cuba is the world's second biggest prison for journalists.^[7] Héctor Maseda Gutiérrez, a jailed journalist, received the International Press Freedom Award in 2008.^[8]

Republican dissidents in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland

The term "dissidents" has become the primary term to describe Irish republicans who politically continue to oppose Good Friday Agreement of 1998 and reject the outcome of the referenda on it.

Unlike Sinn Féin, they oppose the Northern Ireland Executive.

The political expression of Irish republican dissidents are Republican Sinn Féin, the 32 County Sovereignty Movement and the Irish Republican Socialist Party.

In addition to these political parties and groups, there are also a number of dissident Irish republican paramilitary groups which espouse violent methods to achieve a United Ireland.

These groups are: the Continuity IRA (founded in 1986) and the Real IRA (founded in 1997) and Óglaigh na hÉireann (a CIRA splinter that emerged in 2006). Another group, the Irish National Liberation Army is currently on ceasefire.^[9]

See also

• List of Chinese dissidents
• List of Singaporean dissidents
• Dissent
• Political dissent

References

External links

Look up dissident in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• Free dictionary, http://www.thefreedictionary.com/dissident
• Dissident Movement. Russian History Encyclopedia, http://www.answers.com/topic/dissident-movement