Dissident

Dissidents, people who challenged the political system, faced persecution. Citizens also faced restrictions on leaving the country, including many Soviet Jews who wanted to emigrate.

However, the human-rights commitments gave dissidents a powerful argument: they could judge Soviet and Eastern European governments against promises those governments had publicly accepted. Helsinki Monitoring Groups recorded violations and drew international attention to them. The agreement did not immediately end repression, but it created a basis for challenging it.