Resistencia Internacional

Resistencia Internacional fue una organización anticomunista internacional que existió entre 1983 y 1988. Anticipó y encarnó la llamada Doctrina Reagan ^{[ 1 ]} que tomó forma definitiva en 1985. Resistencia Internacional se estableció en Francia en mayo de 1983 por iniciativa del disidente soviético Vladimir Bukovsky y Armando Valladares , un representante del movimiento disidente cubano .

«Hoy quedan pocos vestigios de las actividades de Resistencia Internacional», escribe Galina Akkerman en unas memorias donde describe su trabajo para el escritor Vladimir Maximov en la «pequeña oficina de la organización en los Campos Elíseos» de París. «Internet aún era desconocido y, para reconstruir la historia de esta organización, debo recurrir a los pocos recuerdos que conservo». ^{[ 2 ]}

Vladimir Bukovsky fue elegido presidente y la organización fue dirigida por antiguos disidentes soviéticos. La organización diaria quedó entonces en manos del director ejecutivo Vladimir Maximov , escritor y editor de la revista trimestral Kontinent . ^{[ 3 ]} Galina Akkerman describe cómo Eduard Kuznetsov asumió posteriormente parte del cargo de Maximov y recuerda la participación de Armand Maloumian , un prisionero del Gulag de Stalin tras la guerra. ^{[ 4 ]}

Entre los miembros del comité asesor de la Internacional se encontraban Cornelia Gerstenmaier, Lord Nicholas Bethell , Winston Churchill Jr., Mstislav Rostropovich y Simon Wiesenthal . En 1986 se les unieron Saul Bellow , Bruno Bettleheim , Robert Conquest y otros.

El objetivo de la organización era coordinar las actividades de los movimientos anticomunistas en el bloque socialista y en el Tercer Mundo, y cuestionar la legitimidad de los gobiernos comunistas en todas partes. En una entrevista de 1991, Bukovsky comentó: «No hicimos mucho, pero lo poco que hicimos funcionó y tuvo un efecto considerable». ^{[ 5 ]}

In particular Resistance International directed its efforts towards Afghanistan, where tens of thousands of Soviet troops had been based since the invasion of December 1979. The International organised Radio Free Kabul, providing 25 portable transmitters that served not only as a means of transmitting radio propaganda in local languages, but also as a means of communication between the mujahideen forces. Resistance International helped Soviet deserters and prisoners of war leave the country.^[6] To spread information among Soviet forces serving in Afghanistan the organisation issued a newspaper that bore an external resemblance to Krasnaya Zvezda, the daily published by the Soviet Ministry of Defence.

Resistance International was also said to have carried out propaganda work among the Cuban troops deployed in Angola.

With the aid of the Solidarity movement in Poland, it sent propaganda videos to the USSR concealed in Polish trucks.^[a]

Between 1985 and 1987 Resistance International organised major events in Western Europe, two in Paris and one in Vienna, to draw attention to the lack of free speech and human rights in the Soviet Union.

The first event was timed to coincide with Mikhail Gorbachev's first visit to Paris in October 1985. As an alternative to the official events of the Soviet leader's visit a large gathering was held at the Grand Palais.^[2]

The second event, an exhibition entitled a "Helsinki Mirror" and a press conference, took place in Vienna from 4 to 6 November 1986 as the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE) which produced the 1975 Helsinki Accords was transformed into the permanent Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).^[2]

The third and last major public event of Resistance International was the Paris Forum, "Literature without borders", held in November 1987 and organised jointly by the French PEN Club français, Resistance International and the Russian and French editions of the Kontinent quarterly. "Freedom of speech in the USSR and Eastern Europe", noted Galina Akkerman, "was something more people could agree on than aid for the Contras or the Afghan mujahideen," and forty famous writers attended, including Joseph Brodsky, Czeslaw Milosz and Georgy Vladimov. This would prove, in Akkerman's words, to be the "swan song" of Resistance International. It closed down the following year.^[2]

Resistance International initially had funding from the US Congress (from which it received 6 million dollars in 1983) and from private American foundations. In 1984, an American branch of the group was formed, financially supported by a number of wealthy, anti-communist conservatives.^[7] The organisation was put on a more serious footing with the establishment of the American Foundation for Resistance International which had a roster of famous names and influential right-wing politicians on its advisory committee (among them Saul Bellow, William F. Buckley Jr, and, later, Richard Perle), while Jeane Kirkpatrick served with Bukovsky and Albert Jolis on its board. For the next three years this body raised funds for Resistance International and expanded the scope of its activities.

• Vladimir Bukovsky
• Eduard Kuznetsov
• Albert Jolis