Rubuta ci gaba don wannan sakin layi - Marchenko, asalin mai hakar mai ba da siyasa ba daga talauci, ya juya zuwa rubutu da siyasa sakamakon sakamakon lokuta da yawa na ɗaurin kurkuku farawa a 1958, lokacin da ya fara haɗuwa da sauran masu adawa. Marchenko ya sami shaharar duniya a cikin 1969 ta hanyar littafinsa, "Shaidata", asusun tarihin kansa wanda aka rubuta bayan isowarsa Moscow a 1966 game da hukuncinsa na kwanan nan a sansanonin aiki na Soviet da gidajen yari. Bayan iyakantaccen yaduwa a cikin Tarayyar Soviet a matsayin "samizdat", littafin ya haifar da mamaki a Yammacin duniya bayan ya bayyana cewa tsarin gulag na Soviet ya ci gaba bayan mutuwar Joseph Stalin. A shekara ta 1968, a lokacin da Soviet ta mamaye Czechoslovakia
, Marchenko ya rubuta wata wasika mai budewa da ke hasashen mamayewar. An sake kama shi, an sake shi a farkon shekarun 1970, amma a 1974 an yi masa tambayoyi kuma an yi masa gudun hijira a cikin Irkutsk Oblast. A cikin 1976, Marchenko ya zama ɗaya daga cikin membobin da suka kafa Moscow Helsinki Group, kafin a sake kama shi kuma a daure shi a 1981, inda ya ci gaba da rubutu a duk lokacin da yake kurkuku, yana sanar da makomar fursunonin siyasa na Soviet. Bayan da ya yi kusan shekara 20 a kurkuku da kuma gudun hijira, Nathan Shcharansky ya ce game da shi: "Bayan da aka saki Yuri Feodorovich Orlov, babu shakka shi ne fursuna na farko na Soviet da aka yi wa hukuncin kisa domin imaninsa".