Book on Soviet dissidents wins Pulitzer Prize

"To the Success of Our Hopeless Cause: The Many Lives of the Soviet Dissident Movement" by Benjamin Nathans won a Pulitzer Prize on May 5.

The Pulitzer Prizes are awarded annually in New York. In May 2024, jailed Russian journalist and opposition figure Vladimir Kara-Murza won the Pulitzer Prize for commentary written from his prison cell in Russia.

The judges noted that Nathans connects the struggle of dissidents in the Soviet Union to the same issues that persist in Russia under the rule of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"An extraordinary account of the Soviet dissident movement, "To the Success of Our Hopeless Cause" shows how dissidents spearheaded the struggle to break free of the (Soviet Union's) totalitarian past, a struggle that continues in Putin’s Russia — and that illuminates other struggles between hopelessness and perseverance today," the Pulitzer judges said.

Nathans has previously won the Koret Jewish Book Award, the Vucinich Book Prize, and the Lincoln Book Prize.

Since the onset of Russia's full-scale war against Ukraine in February 2022, the Kremlin has strengthened its grip on dissent.

Russian journalist Ekaterina Barabash was placed under house arrest for making posts on Facebook critical of Russia's war against Ukraine. She escaped house arrest on April 21 and later escaped to France.

Russia has gone after journalists in Ukraine's Russian-occupied territories. Ukrainian Journalist Viktoriia Roshchyna disappeared in August 2023. She died after being tortured in Russian captivity. Roschyna's body was returned to Ukraine in February with missing organs.