The first genuinely historical studies of the dissident movement in Ukraine and the USSR appeared abroad. The main and, perhaps, most objective study is Lyudmila Alexeyeva’s foundational work, “The History of Dissent in the USSR: The Modern Period.” In it, the history of national, religious, and human rights movements is systematically presented. Lyudmila Alexeyeva is a historian and an active participant in the human rights movement. In 1977, she emigrated to the USA, where she wrote this book. The book was first published in the USA in 1984.
The history of the Ukrainian national movement holds one of the leading places in this study. It is no coincidence that it is the first chapter in this book, a chapter larger in volume than the others, second only to the chapter dedicated to the all-Union democratic movement. The author sympathizes with the Ukrainian national movement and points to its significance in the struggle against the Soviet totalitarian regime.
Lyudmila Alexeyeva's work seems particularly interesting to us because, on the one hand, it is the view of a dissident—a view from within the dissident movement, and on the other hand, it is an objective view from the outside on the history of Ukraine, on the Ukrainian dissident movement, and in general, an objective view of a professional historian on the history of the dissident movement as a whole.
You can find the full text of the book on the website of the International “Memorial” Society http://www.memo.ru/history/diss/books/ALEXEEWA/index.htm