Tomas Venclova on being a dissident in the Soviet Union

Tomas Venclova (b. 1937) is a Lithuanian poet, writer, translator and literary scholar, who taught Russian and Polish literature at Yale University until 2012. He has received many awards, including the Prize of Two Nations (together with Czesław Miłosz) and The Person of Tolerance of the Year Award from the Sugihara Foundation. In 1976, he co-founded the Lithuanian Helsinki Group, the first dissident human rights organization in the Lithuanian SSR.

In 1977, he was forced to emigrate to the United States and was deprived of his Soviet citizenship.In conversation with Dr. Donatas Kupčiūnas, Tomas Venclova will discuss his dissident years in the Soviet Baltic of 1970s, shedding light on Brezhnev-era repressions, the power of hope and despair, and on the broader significance of the Helsinki Accords for the gradual liberalisation of the USSR.

The event will be recorded and followed by a drinks reception.

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