Post-Event Summary
In the first lecture of the 2012–2013 Bradley Lecture Series on Monday evening, Leon Aron of AEI discussed the non-violent revolution that resulted in the collapse of the Soviet Union, emphasizing that the revolution's moral underpinnings were the principal cause of the country's dissolution. Aron described the communist regime's demise as a "secular reformation" that began when powerless Soviet citizens started to question the omnipotence of the state.

These historians, philosophers, literary critics and other "troubadours of glasnost," said Aron, were first and foremost moralists who spoke and wrote about the quest for dignity, truth and the moral renewal of the modern Soviet citizen.  He claimed that in today's Russian protest movement, the protesters do not have merely tangible demands for honest elections, lower corruption and better roads, but also call for dignity, honor, conscience and free will. He likewise suggested that the glasnost revolution extends beyond its Russian roots to authoritarian countries around the world. 

Aron concluded his speech with a tale of an Iranian journalist who asked if he could publish a censored version of an essay written by Aron about Russia's 1987–1991 moral revolution. The Iranian government subsequently shut down the magazine in which the essay was published, Aron explained, which indicates that authoritarian regimes recognize the threat posed to their survival by moral awakenings.

--Katherine Earle

Event Description
In this Bradley Lecture, Leon Aron, author of “Roads to the Temple: Truth, Memory, Ideas, and Ideals in the Making of the Russian Revolution, 1987–1991,” will explain the collapse of the Soviet Union as a moral revolution prompted by Russian citizens’ quest for dignity in truth, democratic citizenship and political and economic liberty. Aron will discuss how these moral underpinnings can be found in contemporary anti-authoritarian movements as well, including in the Arab Spring and in current movements in Russia, China and Iran.