Wolpin and the Dissident Movement: Literalism as a Tool of Resistance

Alexander Yesenin-Volpin, a distinguished logician and mathematician, revolutionized the Soviet dissident movement by introducing the concept of civil obedience. Instead of open revolution, he proposed a struggle based on ruthless semantic consistency and a literal reading of applicable laws. His approach, known as legalism, forced the authorities to confront their own legal declarations, leading to the system's self-negation. This article explores the history of the Openness Meeting and the role of samizdat as a decentralized information infrastructure. It also analyzes how Wolpin's historical methods correspond to contemporary compliance systems and whistleblowing mechanisms. This is a fascinating study of the performative power of legal texts and the limits of authoritarian arbitrariness, demonstrating that precise manipulation of the system can be more damaging than ideological dispute.