Hoover Institution (Stanford, CA) – The Hoover Institution Press has released Unyielding Resolve: Captive Nations and the Path to Freedom, a freedom fighter’s memoir highlighting the role of nationalism in the Cold War resistance to the Soviet regime’s domination over non-Russian peoples of the USSR, and detailing efforts to pass a US law designating Captive Nations Week.
Authored by educator and activist Dr. Lev E. Dobriansky and edited by two former high-ranking diplomats and foreign policy experts, including his daughter, Ambassador Paula J. Dobriansky, Unyielding Resolve offers a first-person perspective of the hard-fought battle against Russian imperialist behavior in the twentieth century.
The author shares his account of Moscow’s undue assertion of power over non-Russian peoples in the Soviet era and beyond, arguing that even in the Soviet era, Russian statecraft was heavily shaped by traditional imperialist ideology.
Unyielding Resolve’s thesis draws from the author’s personal experience and current events into the twenty-first century, positing that Moscow’s self-image as the supreme Eurasian power continued to fuel its domestic and foreign affairs.
Unyielding Resolve also documents, for the first time, the history of Captive Nations and the passage of PL 86-90, the US law designating Captive Nations Week and the issuance of a presidential proclamation every July. This resolution played a major role in shaping US policies toward victims of Russian domination and continues today as an acknowledgment of people and nations living under oppressive regimes.
On the three-year anniversary of the Russian Federation’s second unprovoked invasion of Ukraine and against the backdrop of its continued aggression, the contributors and editors of Unyielding Resolve appeal to policymakers and civil society to consider the intentions of Moscow’s statecraft and to promote, in the words of the editor, “captive nations’ pursuit of national sovereignty and liberal democracy.”
Featured in Unyielding Resolve are contents found in and related to the Lev E. Dobriansky papers, a collection housed at the Hoover Institution Library & Archives, which contains the book’s original and unedited manuscript. Other primary source materials include correspondence (involving Jimmy Carter, Jacqueline Cochran, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Gerald Ford, and Harry S. Truman, among others), messages, pamphlets, programs, proclamations, reports, resolutions, sound recordings, photographs, and clippings. This collection and Unyielding Resolve may be of interest to all studying diverse perspectives on American foreign policy, Communism, nationalism, the Soviet Union, the Cold War, Ukraine, the National Captive Nations Committee, China, and Mao Zedong.
Advance Praise for Unyielding Resolve
“Dobriansky’s analysis and his concept of the captive nations of Russia is striking in its predictive value in understanding Russia and the threats to peace and to the West today.”
—Toomas Hendrik Ilves, former president of Estonia (2006–16)
“Dobriansky dedicated his life to advocating freedom and the right of national self-determination for nations held captive by Russian imperialism. . . . His legacy is immeasurable.”
—Kateryna Yushchenko, First Lady of Ukraine (2005–10) and director, National Captive Nations Committee (1982–84)
“This book recounts, in fascinating detail, how Dobriansky developed his theory of Russian imperialism while engaging in vigorous public policy advocacy.”
—Lee Edwards, cofounder, Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation
“As a Uyghur woman witnessing the ongoing persecution of my people in China, Lev Dobriansky’s Unyielding Resolve resonates deeply with me. . . . This book is not just a recounting of history, it’s a call to action for all who stand against tyranny.”
—Muetter IIiqud, China Programs, Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, and Uyghur activist
About the Author, Contributors, and Editors
Dr. Lev E. Dobriansky (1918–2008), an economics professor at Georgetown University for thirty-five years and Truman-Reagan Medal awardee, penned the Captive Nations Week and Shevchenko Monument resolutions and cofounded the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation.
Ambassador Paula J. Dobriansky, a former under secretary of state for global affairs, is vice chair of the Atlantic Council's Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security.
Pratik Chougule is a visiting fellow at the Fund for American Studies. He served under George W. Bush in the Office of the Under Secretary for Arms Control and International Security.
David B. Rivkin Jr. (1956–2024) served in several legal and policy positions in the Reagan and George H. W. Bush administrations, focusing on defense, foreign policy, and Soviet affairs.
The Lev E. Dobriansky papers at the Hoover Institution Library & Archives are accessible to the public for research in the reading room. Plan your visit.
Click here to order Unyielding Resolve: Captive Nations and the Path to Freedom.
Register here to attend a book launch and panel discussion event in Washington, DC, hosted by the Fund for American Studies on February 27, 2025.
For coverage opportunities regarding the Library & Archives, contact Lauren Covetta, 650-723-2050, lcovetta@stanford.edu.
For coverage opportunities regarding Hoover Institution Fellows, contact Jeffrey Marschner, 202-760-3187, jmarsch@stanford.edu.
