Benjamin Nathans is an American historian specializing in the history of Russia and the Soviet Union, as well as human rights. He is an associate professor of history at the University of Pennsylvania. He has written extensively on Soviet dissent, Stalinist trials and purges, and the intellectual and political history of Eastern Europe. His book "Beyond the Zone: Human Rights and the Refuseniks' Struggle to Leave the Soviet Union" examines the experience of the "refuseniks" and the impact of the human rights movement in the Soviet Union.