The Campaign to Discredit Dissident Valentyn Moroz from the Side of the Soviet Regime

Abstract

The article analyzes the main measures of the Soviet regime to discredit the dissident Valentyn Moroz in the 1970s and early 1980s. This problem has not been studied in Ukrainian historiography yet. The basis of sources is previously classified documents of the Sectoral State Archive of the Security Service of Ukraine (SSA SSU), as well as materials of the Central State Archive of Public Associations of Ukraine (CSAPA), the Soviet press, memoirs of participants of the dissident movement. The chronological framework, stages and tasks of the discrediting campaign are singled out. Among its methods there is the distribution of false information about the dissident through the Ukrainian and foreign press, the initiation of conflicts with the participation of V. Moroz in the Mordovian colonies and in emigration, diplomatic pressure on the governments of the West. The author concludes that the KGB campaign has become one of the most important factors that led to a fall in the reputation of V. Moroz at the turn of the 1970s-1980s.

Keywords: Valentyn Moroz, Ukrainian dissident movement, Soviet regime, discrediting campaign, disinformation, Ukrainian diaspora