Helsinki’s Echo: The Fight for Human Rights in the Soviet-American Cold War

Abstract

This thesis explores how the 1975 Helsinki Final Act transformed Cold War diplomacy by reframing ideological competition between the United States and the Soviet Union through the lens of human rights. I argue that the détente era shifted the Cold War away from a militaristic competition towards a moral and ideological competition. The Final Act’s recognition of human rights offered a powerful political tool for dissidents inside the Soviet Union. The formation of the Moscow Helsinki Group in 1976 exemplified a form of “radical civil obedience,” where activists like Yuri Orlov and Lyudmila Alexeyeva demanded that the Soviet regime uphold both its constitutional commitments and international obligations under accords like the Final Act. This thesis positions Yuri Orlov and Lyudmila Alexeyeva as case studies to analyze how dissidents harnessed the language and framework of human rights. Drawing on the Radio Liberty broadcast archives, I demonstrate how dissidents used clandestine American-backed radio to amplify their causes and expose state abuses to both domestic and international audiences. Radio served not only as a platform for circumventing Soviet censorship but also as a site where dissident identity was constructed. I situate the Moscow Helsinki Group within the broader historiography of Cold War dissent and non-governmental organization activism, while also offering an original intervention that foregrounds radio’s role in Cold War human rights diplomacy. Ultimately, this project traces how the symbolic promises of Helsinki were activated by citizens who refused to let those words remain empty.