Navigating Autocracy: The Political Evolution of Ivan Khoroshev, 1904-1991

Politics has taken an autocratic turn– not least in the persons of Erdogan, Trump, Modi and Putin, and others challenging the norms of democracy and civil society, trying to establish themselves, as individuals, to be the arbiters of power in their respective countries. In this context, the experience of earlier generations in navigating autocracy has become suddenly meaningful. This paper surveys the anti-autocratic theory and practice of Ivan Khoroshev – a remarkable representative of an earlier anti-autocratic generation. His life encompassed tsarism, world war, opposition to Stalinism, forced labour in the Gulag, and participation in the samizdat underground. His political thought is examined, from anti-Tsarism to anti-Stalinism, based on translations from Russian to English of archival and samizdat material written by Khoroshev under various pseudonyms – including an autobiography written sometime before 1950 and a remarkable 1986 book Vorkuta – which includes a harrowing eyewitness account of the notorious massacre of political prisoners in Vorkuta in the winter of 1936-37, which Khoroshev miraculously survived. It builds upon research published in “Truth Behind Bars:” Reflections on the Fate of the Russian Revolution (2021) and “The Lost Voice of Iulii Martov” (2022).