The present research focuses on the different perception of the trial against Julija Nikolaevna Voznesenkaja occurred 1976, comparing the original trial transcript and the Soviet press narrative with the poetess personal memories and foreign press. Julija Nikolaevna Voznesenskaja is considered one the main figure of Saint Petersburg's underground culture of the late seventies. Dissident and involved in anti-Soviet activity, the poetess was imprisoned in 1976 and later banished from Soviet Union. Her arrest in 1976 was one of a numerous attempts to silence the voice of the alternative culture, struggling to reach for an audience, and, ultimately, to gain some sort of freedom of speech. Julija Voznesenskaja's case drew the attention of Italian magazines such as "Effe, rivista femminista" and "Il Settimanale", openly questioning the fairness of the Soviet Union's law system and perceiving the sentence as a form of blind revenge. The trial has also been discussed in the magazine "Chronika Tekujuščich Sobitij", in Julija's memories sent to Konstantin Kuzminskij and in the movie devoted to the poetess "Yulya's Diary". Studying the aforesaid sources and drawing a parallel with Soviet propaganda on the matter, the present study aims to prove how much facts and memories change according to the source, serving a specific propagandistic purpose.
Bibliography:
Konstantin Kuzminskij, Grigorij Kovalev, Antologija Golubaja laguna v 5 tomach, Oriental Research Partners. Newtonville, Mass., 2006-2008, Tom 5 B
"Effe rivista femminista", July 1980
"Il settimanale", 9.3.1977
"Protokol cudebnogo zacedanija Leningradckogo Gorsuda ot 30.12.1976 po slušaniju dela Voznesenskoj-Okulovoj Ju. N.", in: Iofe Center's Archive, F-B2 Op.1
Pierre Nora, Come si manipola la memoria: Lo storico, il potere, il passato, Editrice la scuola, Brescia, 2013
"Sud na Voznesenskoj" in: "Chronika Tekuščich Sobytij" vypusk 43, g. 1977
"Yulya's Diary", Directed, written and produced by William Cran. Cast: Michael Egan, Sol Frieder, Victoria Fyodorova, Michael Grander, Sam Gray, Tony Kahn, Nicholas Kepros, Konstantin K. Kuzminsky, Rebecca Schull, Roger Serbagi, Joe Silver, Alexander Sirotin, George Touliatos, Lev Vajnshtejn. Producer Stephanie Tepper. Cinematography by Werner Bundschuh. Editing by Eric Neudel. Casting by Shirley Rich.
