Witness

In 1965, two writers were accused of publishing anti-Soviet material abroad.The arrest of Yuli Daniel and Andrei Sinyavsky was seen as symbolic of the new era in the Soviet Union. The liberal leader Nikita Khrushchev had been ousted in favour of hardliner Leonid Brezhnev, and dissenting political views were being cracked down on.In a moment considered the start of the dissident movement in the Soviet Union, hundreds of protesters demonstrated in Pushkin Square, in Moscow, for the writers to be given an open trial.Vicky Farncombe tells the story using BBC archive and an interview with Yuli Daniel's son, Alexander.Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive. Witness History is for those fascinated by the past. We take you to the events that have shaped our world through the eyes of the people who were there. For nine minutes every day, we take you back in time and all over the world, to examine wars, coups, scientific discoveries, cultural moments and much more. Recent episodes explore everything from t