Between Prison and Freedom: Memoir of a Soviet Dissident

This thrilling memoir documents the early life of Russian journalist and human rights activist Alexander Podrabinek as he and other dissidents fearlessly fought against the Soviet Union.

Between Prison and Freedom chronicles Alexander Podrabinek’s deeply personal recollections of his early life fearlessly opposing the injustices of the Soviet Union. He vividly describes his turbulent journey from silently protesting at Pushkin Square as a teenager to his exile in a brutal prison camp for publishing Punitive Medicine. Between Prison and Freedom is a powerful tribute to the Russian dissidents, desperately loyal to their country and to each other, as they fought for freedom and justice, all while cunningly evading the KGB’s nearly successful efforts to break—or kill—them.

Through his personal experiences, the dissident reality unfolds as an onslaught of surveillance and false accusations, corrective labor camps and exile, and a consistent disregard for basic human freedoms. In this captivating story about standing against tyranny, Podrabinek captures the spirit of the dissident movement, the painful intersections between personal and political in a dissident’s life, and the solidarity that kept the resistance moving forward.

© 2025 University of Notre Dame Press (Ebook): 9780268209629

Translators: Marian Schwartz

Release date

Ebook: 1 August 2025