Vladimir Bukovsky
Encyclopedia
Vladimir Konstantinovich Bukovsky is a leading member of the dissident movement
of the 1960s and 1970s, writer, neurophysiologist, and political activist.
Bukovsky was one of the first to expose the use of psychiatric imprisonment against political prisoner
s in the Soviet Union
. He spent a total of twelve years in Soviet prison
s, labor camp
s and in psikhushka
s, forced-treatment psychiatric hospital
s used by the government as special prisons.
He is a member of the international advisory council of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation
.
, Bashkir Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic
(now Bashkortostan
), Russian SFSR, USSR, where his family was evacuated
from Moscow
during World War II
.
In 1959 he was expelled from his Moscow school for creating and editing an unauthorized magazine
.
for organizing poetry
meetings in the center of Moscow
(next to the Mayakovsky
monument). The official charge was an attempt to copy anti-Soviet literature, namely The New Class by Milovan Djilas.
In December 1965 he organised a demonstration at Pushkin Square in Moscow in defence of the writers Andrei Sinyavsky
and Yuli Daniel
(see Sinyavsky-Daniel trial
). Three days before the planned demonstration, Bukovsky was arrested. He was kept in various psikhushkas without any charges till July 1966.
In January 1967 he was arrested for organizing a demonstration in defence of Alexander Ginzburg
, Yuri Galanskov
and other dissidents (Article 190-1, 3 years of imprisonment); released in January 1970.
In 1971, Bukovsky managed to smuggle to the West
over 150 pages documenting abuse of psychiatric institutions for political reasons in the Soviet Union. The information galvanized human rights activists worldwide (including inside the country) and was a pretext for his subsequent arrest in the same year. At the trial in January 1972 Bukovsky was accused of slandering the Soviet psychiatry, contacts with foreign journalists and possession and distribution of samizdat
(Article 70-1, 7 years of imprisonment plus 5 years in exile).
In 1974, Bukovsky and the incarcerated psychiatrist Semyon Gluzman
wrote a Manual on Psychiatry for Dissenters, in which they provided potential future victims of political psychiatry with instructions on how to behave during inquest in order to avoid being diagnosed as mentally sick.
In December 1976, in his eleventh year of psychiatric hospitals and prison camps, Bukovsky was exchanged by the Soviet government for the imprisoned Chile
an Communist leader Luis Corvalán
at Zürich
airport and, after a short stay in the Netherlands
, took up refuge in Great Britain
where later moved from London
to Cambridge
for his studies in biology. In his autobiographical book To Build a Castle, Bukovsky describes how he was brought to Switzerland
handcuffed. This biography is available online at several sites.
, England
, focusing on neurophysiology
and writing. He received a Masters Degree in Biology
and has written several books and political essays. In addition to criticizing the Soviet government, he also picked apart what he calls "Western gullibility", a lack of a tough stand of Western liberalism
against Communist abuses.
In 1983, together with Vladimir Maximov and Eduard Kuznetsov
he cofounded and was elected president of international anti-Communist organization Resistance International . In 1985, together with Albert Jolis
, Armondo Valladares, Jeane Kirkpatrick
, Midge Decter
and Yuri Yarim-Agaev founded the American Foundation for Resistance International, later joined by Richard Perle
and Martin Colman became the coordinating center for the dissidents and democracy movements seeking to overturn communism, it organized protests in the communist countries and opposed western financial assistance for the communist governments. It had a primary role in the coordination of the opposition which was instrumental in the demise of communism. It also created of the National Council To Support The Democracy Movements (National Council For Democracy) which, helped establish democratic Rule of Law Governments and assisted with the writing of their constitutions and civil structures.
Boris Yeltsin
's campaign considered Bukovsky as a potential vice-presidential running-mate (other contenders included Galina Starovoitova
and Gennady Burbulis
). In the end, the vice-presidency was offered to Alexander Rutskoi.
In 1992, after the dissolution of the Soviet Union
, President Yeltsin's government invited Bukovsky to serve as an expert to testify at the CPSU trial by Constitutional Court of Russia
, where the communists were suing Yeltsin for banning their party. The respondent's case was that the CPSU itself had been an unconstitutional organization. To prepare for his testimony, Bukovsky requested and was granted access to a large number of documents from Soviet archives (then reorganized into TsKhSD). Using a small handheld scanner and a laptop computer, he managed to secretly scan many documents (some with high security clearance
), including KGB
reports to the Central Committee
, and smuggle the files to the West. The event that many expected would be another Nuremberg Trial and the beginnings of reconciliation with the Communist past, ended up in half-measures: while the CPSU was found unconstitutional, the communists were allowed to form new parties in the future. Bukovsky expressed his deep disappointment with this in his writings and interviews:
It took several years and a team of assistants to compose the scanned pieces together and publish it (see Soviet Archives, collected by Vladimir Bukovsky, prepared for electronic publishing by Julia Zaks and Leonid Chernikhov). The same collection of documents is also massively quoted in Bukovsky's Judgement in Moscow, which was published in 1994, translated to many languages and attracted international attention.
, following the resignation of the previous Mayor, Gavriil Popov. Bukovsky refused the offer. In early 1996 a group of Moscow academics, journalists and intellectuals suggested that Vladimir Bukovsky should run for President of Russia as an alternative candidate to both incumbent President Boris Yeltsin
and his Communist challenger Gennady Zyuganov
. No formal nomination was initiated. In any case, Bukovsky would not have been allowed to run, as the Russian Constitution stipulates that any presidential candidate must have lived in the country continuously for ten years prior to the election.
In 1997, during the General Meeting in Florence, Bukovsky has been elected General President of the Comitatus pro Libertatibus- Comitati per le Libertà- Freedom Committees, the international movement aimed to defend and empower everywhere the culture of liberties. Re-elected since then, Bukovsky promoted together with Dario Fertilio and Stéphane Courtois, a writer and an historian, the Memento Gulag, or Memorial Day devoted to the victims of communism, to be held each year, on 7 November (anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution). Since then, the Memento Gulag has been celebrated in Rome, Bucharest
, Berlin, La Roche sur Yon and Paris.
In 2002 Boris Nemtsov
, a member of the Russian Duma
(parliament
) and leader of the Union of Right Forces
, and former Deputy Prime Minister of Russia, visited Vladimir Bukovsky in Cambridge to discuss the strategy of the Russian opposition. Bukovsky told Nemtsov that, in his view, it is imperative that Russian liberals adopt an uncompromising stand toward what he sees as the authoritarian government of President Vladimir Putin
. In January 2004, together with Garry Kasparov
, Boris Nemtsov
, Vladimir V. Kara-Murza
and others, Vladimir Bukovsky co-founded the Committee 2008
, an umbrella organization of the Russian democratic opposition, whose purpose is to ensure free and fair presidential elections in 2008.
In 2005 Bukovsky participated in They Chose Freedom
, a four-part documentary on the Soviet dissident movement. In 2005, with the revelations about captives in the Guantánamo Bay detention camp, Abu Ghraib
and the CIA secret prisons, Bukovsky criticized the rationalization of torture. Bukovsky warned about some parallels between the formations of the Soviet Union and the European Union.
Vladimir Bukovsky is a member of the Board of Directors of the Gratitude Fund
, and a member of the International Council of the New York-based Human Rights Foundation
. In the United Kingdom
, he is Vice-President of The Freedom Association
(TFA) and a patron of the United Kingdom Independence Party
(UKIP).
Bukovsky is among the 34 first signatories of the online anti-Putin manifesto "Putin must go
", published on 10 March 2010.
On the 28th May 2007, Bukovsky agreed to become a candidate in the Russian presidential election
.
The group that nominated Bukovsky as a candidate included Yuri Ryzhov, Vladimir V. Kara-Murza
, Alexander Podrabinek, Andrei Piontkovsky, Vladimir Pribylovsky
and others. Activists and writers Valeria Novodvorskaya
, Victor Shenderovich
, Vladimir Sorokin
favored Bukovsky.
In their answer to pro-Kremlin politicians and publicists who expressed doubt in Bukovksy's electoral prospects, his nominators refuted a number of frequently repeated statements.
More than 800 participants nominated Bukovsky for president on December 16, 2007 in Moscow
. Bukovsky secured the required turnout and submitted his registration to the Central Election Commission on December 18, 2007.
The Initiative Group refuted pro-government media's early claims of Bukovsky's failure in the presidential race and Constitution court appeals.
The Election Commission turned down Bukovsky's application on December 22, 2007, claiming that he failed to give information on his activity as a writer when submitting documents to the Election Commission, that he was holding a British residence permit, and that he has not been living on Russian territory over the past ten years. Bukovsky appealed the decision in Supreme Court
on December 28, 2007, then in its cassation board on January 15, 2008.
Soviet dissidents
Soviet dissidents were citizens of the Soviet Union who disagreed with the policies and actions of their government and actively protested against these actions through either violent or non-violent means...
of the 1960s and 1970s, writer, neurophysiologist, and political activist.
Bukovsky was one of the first to expose the use of psychiatric imprisonment against political prisoner
Political prisoner
According to the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, a political prisoner is ‘someone who is in prison because they have opposed or criticized the government of their own country’....
s in the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
. He spent a total of twelve years in Soviet prison
Prison
A prison is a place in which people are physically confined and, usually, deprived of a range of personal freedoms. Imprisonment or incarceration is a legal penalty that may be imposed by the state for the commission of a crime...
s, labor camp
Labor camp
A labor camp is a simplified detention facility where inmates are forced to engage in penal labor. Labor camps have many common aspects with slavery and with prisons...
s and in psikhushka
Psikhushka
In the Soviet Union, systematic political abuse of psychiatry took place. Soviet psychiatric hospitals were used by the authorities as prisons in order to isolate hundreds or thousands of political prisoners from the rest of society, discredit their ideas, and break them physically and mentally...
s, forced-treatment psychiatric hospital
Psychiatric hospital
Psychiatric hospitals, also known as mental hospitals, are hospitals specializing in the treatment of serious mental disorders. Psychiatric hospitals vary widely in their size and grading. Some hospitals may specialise only in short-term or outpatient therapy for low-risk patients...
s used by the government as special prisons.
He is a member of the international advisory council of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation
Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation
The Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation is a non-profit educational organization in the United States, established as a result of an Act of Congress in 1993 with the purpose to commemorate "the deaths of over 100,000,000 victims in an unprecedented imperial communist holocaust"...
.
Early life
Vladimir Bukovsky was born in the town of BelebeyBelebey
Belebey is a town in the Republic of Bashkortostan, Russia, located on the bank of the Usen River, from Ufa. Population: .-Demographics:Ethnic composition: Russian people: 46.9%; Tatar people: 23.6%; Chuvash people: 12%; Bashkir people: 11%....
, Bashkir Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic
Bashkir Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic
The Bashkir Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic was an Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic in the former Soviet Union. Currently it is known as Bashkortostan....
(now Bashkortostan
Bashkortostan
The Republic of Bashkortostan , also known as Bashkiria is a federal subject of Russia . It is located between the Volga River and the Ural Mountains. Its capital is the city of Ufa...
), Russian SFSR, USSR, where his family was evacuated
Emergency evacuation
Emergency evacuation is the immediate and rapid movement of people away from the threat or actual occurrence of a hazard. Examples range from the small scale evacuation of a building due to a bomb threat or fire to the large scale evacuation of a district because of a flood, bombardment or...
from Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
during World War II
Eastern Front (World War II)
The Eastern Front of World War II was a theatre of World War II between the European Axis powers and co-belligerent Finland against the Soviet Union, Poland, and some other Allies which encompassed Northern, Southern and Eastern Europe from 22 June 1941 to 9 May 1945...
.
In 1959 he was expelled from his Moscow school for creating and editing an unauthorized magazine
Samizdat
Samizdat was a key form of dissident activity across the Soviet bloc in which individuals reproduced censored publications by hand and passed the documents from reader to reader...
.
Activism and arrests
From June 1963 to February 1965, Bukovsky was convicted (Article 70-1 of the Penal Code of the RSFSR) and sent to a psikhushkaPsikhushka
In the Soviet Union, systematic political abuse of psychiatry took place. Soviet psychiatric hospitals were used by the authorities as prisons in order to isolate hundreds or thousands of political prisoners from the rest of society, discredit their ideas, and break them physically and mentally...
for organizing poetry
Poetry
Poetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning...
meetings in the center of Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
(next to the Mayakovsky
Vladimir Mayakovsky
Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky was a Russian and Soviet poet and playwright, among the foremost representatives of early-20th century Russian Futurism.- Early life :...
monument). The official charge was an attempt to copy anti-Soviet literature, namely The New Class by Milovan Djilas.
In December 1965 he organised a demonstration at Pushkin Square in Moscow in defence of the writers Andrei Sinyavsky
Andrei Sinyavsky
Andrei Donatovich Sinyavsky was a Russian writer, dissident, political prisoner, emigrant, Professor of Sorbonne University, magazine founder and publisher...
and Yuli Daniel
Yuli Daniel
Yuli Markovich Daniel was a Soviet dissident writer, poet, translator and political prisoner.He frequently wrote under the pseudonyms Nikolay Arzhak and Yu. Petrov .-Early life and World War II:...
(see Sinyavsky-Daniel trial
Sinyavsky-Daniel trial
The Sinyavsky-Daniel trial was a trial against Russian writers Andrei Sinyavsky and Yuli Daniel, which took place in the Supreme Court of the RSFSR in Moscow between September 1965 and February 1966...
). Three days before the planned demonstration, Bukovsky was arrested. He was kept in various psikhushkas without any charges till July 1966.
In January 1967 he was arrested for organizing a demonstration in defence of Alexander Ginzburg
Alexander Ginzburg
Alexander Ilyich Ginzburg , was a Russian journalist, poet, human rights activist and dissident.During the Soviet period, Ginzburg edited the samizdat poetry almanac Sintaksis. Between 1961 and 1969 he was sentenced three times to labor camps...
, Yuri Galanskov
Yuri Galanskov
Yuri Timofeyevich Galanskov was a Russian poet, historian, human rights activist and dissident. For his political activities, such as founding and editing samizdat almanac Phoenix, he was incarcerated in prisons, camps and forced treatment psychiatric hospitals ...
and other dissidents (Article 190-1, 3 years of imprisonment); released in January 1970.
In 1971, Bukovsky managed to smuggle to the West
Western world
The Western world, also known as the West and the Occident , is a term referring to the countries of Western Europe , the countries of the Americas, as well all countries of Northern and Central Europe, Australia and New Zealand...
over 150 pages documenting abuse of psychiatric institutions for political reasons in the Soviet Union. The information galvanized human rights activists worldwide (including inside the country) and was a pretext for his subsequent arrest in the same year. At the trial in January 1972 Bukovsky was accused of slandering the Soviet psychiatry, contacts with foreign journalists and possession and distribution of samizdat
Samizdat
Samizdat was a key form of dissident activity across the Soviet bloc in which individuals reproduced censored publications by hand and passed the documents from reader to reader...
(Article 70-1, 7 years of imprisonment plus 5 years in exile).
In 1974, Bukovsky and the incarcerated psychiatrist Semyon Gluzman
Semyon Gluzman
Semyon Fishelevich Gluzman is a Ukrainian psychiatrist, human rights activist, the president and founder of the Ukrainian Psychiatric Association, founder of the American-Ukrainian Bureau for Human Rights, director of the International Medical Rehabilitation Center for the Victims of War and...
wrote a Manual on Psychiatry for Dissenters, in which they provided potential future victims of political psychiatry with instructions on how to behave during inquest in order to avoid being diagnosed as mentally sick.
Deportation
The fate of Bukovsky and other political prisoners in the Soviet Union, repeatedly brought to attention by Western human rights groups and diplomats, was a cause of embarrassment and irritation for the Soviet authorities.In December 1976, in his eleventh year of psychiatric hospitals and prison camps, Bukovsky was exchanged by the Soviet government for the imprisoned Chile
Chile
Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...
an Communist leader Luis Corvalán
Luis Corvalán
Luis Alberto Corvalán Lepe was a Chilean politician. He served as the general secretary of the Communist Party of Chile ....
at Zürich
Zürich
Zurich is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is located in central Switzerland at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich...
airport and, after a short stay in the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
, took up refuge in Great Britain
Great Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
where later moved from London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
to Cambridge
Cambridge
The city of Cambridge is a university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It lies in East Anglia about north of London. Cambridge is at the heart of the high-technology centre known as Silicon Fen – a play on Silicon Valley and the fens surrounding the...
for his studies in biology. In his autobiographical book To Build a Castle, Bukovsky describes how he was brought to Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
handcuffed. This biography is available online at several sites.
In the United Kingdom
Since 1976 Bukovsky has lived in CambridgeCambridge
The city of Cambridge is a university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It lies in East Anglia about north of London. Cambridge is at the heart of the high-technology centre known as Silicon Fen – a play on Silicon Valley and the fens surrounding the...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, focusing on neurophysiology
Neurophysiology
Neurophysiology is a part of physiology. Neurophysiology is the study of nervous system function...
and writing. He received a Masters Degree in Biology
Biology
Biology is a natural science concerned with the study of life and living organisms, including their structure, function, growth, origin, evolution, distribution, and taxonomy. Biology is a vast subject containing many subdivisions, topics, and disciplines...
and has written several books and political essays. In addition to criticizing the Soviet government, he also picked apart what he calls "Western gullibility", a lack of a tough stand of Western liberalism
Liberalism
Liberalism is the belief in the importance of liberty and equal rights. Liberals espouse a wide array of views depending on their understanding of these principles, but generally, liberals support ideas such as constitutionalism, liberal democracy, free and fair elections, human rights,...
against Communist abuses.
In 1983, together with Vladimir Maximov and Eduard Kuznetsov
Eduard Kuznetsov
Eduard Kuznetsov is a Soviet dissident, human rights activist, and writer.In 1961, Kuznetsov was arrested for the first time and served seven years in Soviet prisons for making overtly political speeches in poetry readings at Mayakovsky Square in the centre of Moscow and for publishing samizdat...
he cofounded and was elected president of international anti-Communist organization Resistance International . In 1985, together with Albert Jolis
Albert Jolis
Albert Jolis Diamond miner and foundation executive. Served in the Army OSS with William Casey under Bill Donavon during World War II.Close friend of George Orwell....
, Armondo Valladares, Jeane Kirkpatrick
Jeane Kirkpatrick
Jeane Jordan Kirkpatrick was an American ambassador and an ardent anticommunist. After serving as Ronald Reagan's foreign policy adviser in his 1980 campaign and later in his Cabinet, the longtime Democrat-turned-Republican was nominated as the U.S...
, Midge Decter
Midge Decter
-Biography:Midge Rosenthal Decter was born on July 25, 1927 in Saint Paul, Minnesota. She attended the University of Minnesota, the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, and New York University....
and Yuri Yarim-Agaev founded the American Foundation for Resistance International, later joined by Richard Perle
Richard Perle
Richard Norman Perle is an American political advisor, consultant, and lobbyist who began his career in government, a senior staff member to Senator Henry “Scoop” Jackson on the Senate Armed Services Committee in the 1970’s...
and Martin Colman became the coordinating center for the dissidents and democracy movements seeking to overturn communism, it organized protests in the communist countries and opposed western financial assistance for the communist governments. It had a primary role in the coordination of the opposition which was instrumental in the demise of communism. It also created of the National Council To Support The Democracy Movements (National Council For Democracy) which, helped establish democratic Rule of Law Governments and assisted with the writing of their constitutions and civil structures.
Judgment in Moscow
In April 1991 Vladimir Bukovsky visited Moscow for the first time since his forced deportation. In the run-up to the 1991 presidential electionRussian presidential election, 1991
Presidential elections were held in the Russian Federation on 12 June 1991. It was the first presidential election in the country's history. Boris Yeltsin was elected President of the Russian SFSR. His running-mate, Alexander Rutskoi, became Vice-President....
Boris Yeltsin
Boris Yeltsin
Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin was the first President of the Russian Federation, serving from 1991 to 1999.Originally a supporter of Mikhail Gorbachev, Yeltsin emerged under the perestroika reforms as one of Gorbachev's most powerful political opponents. On 29 May 1990 he was elected the chairman of...
's campaign considered Bukovsky as a potential vice-presidential running-mate (other contenders included Galina Starovoitova
Galina Starovoitova
Galina Vasilyevna Starovoitova was a Russian politician and ethnographer known for her work to protect ethnic minorities and promote democratic reforms in Russia.- Early life and academic career :...
and Gennady Burbulis
Gennady Burbulis
Gennady Eduardovich Burbulis isa Russian politician. A close associate of Boris Yeltsin, he held several high positions in the first Russian government, including Secretary of State, and was one of the drafters and signers of the Belavezha Accords on behalf of Russia...
). In the end, the vice-presidency was offered to Alexander Rutskoi.
In 1992, after the dissolution of the Soviet Union
Dissolution of the Soviet Union
The dissolution of the Soviet Union was the disintegration of the federal political structures and central government of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , resulting in the independence of all fifteen republics of the Soviet Union between March 11, 1990 and December 25, 1991...
, President Yeltsin's government invited Bukovsky to serve as an expert to testify at the CPSU trial by Constitutional Court of Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
, where the communists were suing Yeltsin for banning their party. The respondent's case was that the CPSU itself had been an unconstitutional organization. To prepare for his testimony, Bukovsky requested and was granted access to a large number of documents from Soviet archives (then reorganized into TsKhSD). Using a small handheld scanner and a laptop computer, he managed to secretly scan many documents (some with high security clearance
Security clearance
A security clearance is a status granted to individuals allowing them access to classified information, i.e., state secrets, or to restricted areas after completion of a thorough background check. The term "security clearance" is also sometimes used in private organizations that have a formal...
), including KGB
KGB
The KGB was the commonly used acronym for the . It was the national security agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 until 1991, and was the premier internal security, intelligence, and secret police organization during that time.The State Security Agency of the Republic of Belarus currently uses the...
reports to the Central Committee
Central Committee
Central Committee was the common designation of a standing administrative body of communist parties, analogous to a board of directors, whether ruling or non-ruling in the twentieth century and of the surviving, mostly Trotskyist, states in the early twenty first. In such party organizations the...
, and smuggle the files to the West. The event that many expected would be another Nuremberg Trial and the beginnings of reconciliation with the Communist past, ended up in half-measures: while the CPSU was found unconstitutional, the communists were allowed to form new parties in the future. Bukovsky expressed his deep disappointment with this in his writings and interviews:
It took several years and a team of assistants to compose the scanned pieces together and publish it (see Soviet Archives, collected by Vladimir Bukovsky, prepared for electronic publishing by Julia Zaks and Leonid Chernikhov). The same collection of documents is also massively quoted in Bukovsky's Judgement in Moscow, which was published in 1994, translated to many languages and attracted international attention.
Post-1992
In 1992 a group of liberal deputies of the Moscow City Council proposed Bukovsky's candidacy for elections of the new Mayor of MoscowMoscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
, following the resignation of the previous Mayor, Gavriil Popov. Bukovsky refused the offer. In early 1996 a group of Moscow academics, journalists and intellectuals suggested that Vladimir Bukovsky should run for President of Russia as an alternative candidate to both incumbent President Boris Yeltsin
Boris Yeltsin
Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin was the first President of the Russian Federation, serving from 1991 to 1999.Originally a supporter of Mikhail Gorbachev, Yeltsin emerged under the perestroika reforms as one of Gorbachev's most powerful political opponents. On 29 May 1990 he was elected the chairman of...
and his Communist challenger Gennady Zyuganov
Gennady Zyuganov
Gennady Andreyevich Zyuganov is a Russian politician, First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation , Chairman of the Union of Communist Parties - Communist Party of the Soviet Union , deputy of the State Duma , and a member of Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe...
. No formal nomination was initiated. In any case, Bukovsky would not have been allowed to run, as the Russian Constitution stipulates that any presidential candidate must have lived in the country continuously for ten years prior to the election.
In 1997, during the General Meeting in Florence, Bukovsky has been elected General President of the Comitatus pro Libertatibus- Comitati per le Libertà- Freedom Committees, the international movement aimed to defend and empower everywhere the culture of liberties. Re-elected since then, Bukovsky promoted together with Dario Fertilio and Stéphane Courtois, a writer and an historian, the Memento Gulag, or Memorial Day devoted to the victims of communism, to be held each year, on 7 November (anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution). Since then, the Memento Gulag has been celebrated in Rome, Bucharest
Bucharest
Bucharest is the capital municipality, cultural, industrial, and financial centre of Romania. It is the largest city in Romania, located in the southeast of the country, at , and lies on the banks of the Dâmbovița River....
, Berlin, La Roche sur Yon and Paris.
In 2002 Boris Nemtsov
Boris Nemtsov
Boris Efimovich Nemtsov is a Russian politician who was Deputy Prime Minister of Russia from 1997 to 1998. He was a co-founder of the Russian political party Union of Right Forces and is an outspoken critic of Vladimir Putin.-Early life:...
, a member of the Russian Duma
Duma
A Duma is any of various representative assemblies in modern Russia and Russian history. The State Duma in the Russian Empire and Russian Federation corresponds to the lower house of the parliament. Simply it is a form of Russian governmental institution, that was formed during the reign of the...
(parliament
Parliament
A parliament is a legislature, especially in those countries whose system of government is based on the Westminster system modeled after that of the United Kingdom. The name is derived from the French , the action of parler : a parlement is a discussion. The term came to mean a meeting at which...
) and leader of the Union of Right Forces
Union of Right Forces
The Union of Right Forces, or SPS , was a Russian democratic opposition party associated with free market reforms, privatization, and the legacy of the 'Young Reformers' of the 1990s: Anatoly Chubais, Boris Nemtsov, and Yegor Gaidar. Nikita Belykh was the last party's leader...
, and former Deputy Prime Minister of Russia, visited Vladimir Bukovsky in Cambridge to discuss the strategy of the Russian opposition. Bukovsky told Nemtsov that, in his view, it is imperative that Russian liberals adopt an uncompromising stand toward what he sees as the authoritarian government of President Vladimir Putin
Vladimir Putin
Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin served as the second President of the Russian Federation and is the current Prime Minister of Russia, as well as chairman of United Russia and Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Union of Russia and Belarus. He became acting President on 31 December 1999, when...
. In January 2004, together with Garry Kasparov
Garry Kasparov
Garry Kimovich Kasparov is a Russian chess grandmaster, a former World Chess Champion, writer, political activist, and one of the greatest chess players of all time....
, Boris Nemtsov
Boris Nemtsov
Boris Efimovich Nemtsov is a Russian politician who was Deputy Prime Minister of Russia from 1997 to 1998. He was a co-founder of the Russian political party Union of Right Forces and is an outspoken critic of Vladimir Putin.-Early life:...
, Vladimir V. Kara-Murza
Vladimir V. Kara-Murza
Vladimir V. Kara-Murza is a Russian journalist, historian and politician. He studied in Great Britain at the John Lyon School in Harrow, London, and graduated with an B.A. and M.A. in History from Cambridge University...
and others, Vladimir Bukovsky co-founded the Committee 2008
Committee 2008
Committee 2008 is an umbrella organization of the Russian democratic opposition, formed in January 2004 in response to what they saw as the growing authoritarianism of President Vladimir Putin...
, an umbrella organization of the Russian democratic opposition, whose purpose is to ensure free and fair presidential elections in 2008.
In 2005 Bukovsky participated in They Chose Freedom
They Chose Freedom
They Chose Freedom is a four-part TV documentary on the history of political dissent in the USSR from the 1950s to the 1990s. It was produced in 2005 by Vladimir V...
, a four-part documentary on the Soviet dissident movement. In 2005, with the revelations about captives in the Guantánamo Bay detention camp, Abu Ghraib
Abu Ghraib
The city of Abu Ghraib in the Baghdad Governorate of Iraq is located just west of Baghdad's city center, or northwest of Baghdad International Airport. It has a population of 189,000. The old road to Jordan passes through Abu Ghraib...
and the CIA secret prisons, Bukovsky criticized the rationalization of torture. Bukovsky warned about some parallels between the formations of the Soviet Union and the European Union.
Vladimir Bukovsky is a member of the Board of Directors of the Gratitude Fund
Gratitude Fund
The Gratitude Fund describes itself as "a non-profit organization which was created to provide assistance to the forgotten heroes and veterans of the active struggle for freedom and human rights in the former USSR such as ex-political prisoners, who were imprisoned for many years, and to the...
, and a member of the International Council of the New York-based Human Rights Foundation
Human Rights Foundation
The Human Rights Foundation is a non-profit organization whose stated mission "is to ensure that freedom is both preserved and promoted" in the Americas. The Human Rights Foundation was founded in 2005 by Thor Halvorssen...
. In the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, he is Vice-President of The Freedom Association
The Freedom Association
The Freedom Association is a pressure group in the United Kingdom that describes itself as non-partisan, centre-right and libertarian, which has links to the Conservative Party. TFA was founded in 1975 as the National Association for Freedom and gained public prominence through its anti-trade...
(TFA) and a patron of the United Kingdom Independence Party
United Kingdom Independence Party
The United Kingdom Independence Party is a eurosceptic and right-wing populist political party in the United Kingdom. Whilst its primary goal is the UK's withdrawal from the European Union, the party has expanded beyond its single-issue image to develop a more comprehensive party platform.UKIP...
(UKIP).
Bukovsky is among the 34 first signatories of the online anti-Putin manifesto "Putin must go
Putin must go
"Putin must go" is a website and a public campaign of the same name organised for the collection of signatures under an open letter demanding the resignation of the Prime Minister of Russia Vladimir Putin...
", published on 10 March 2010.
Candidate for Russian Presidential Election, 2008
Russian presidential election, 2008
The Russian Presidential election of 2008, held on March 2, 2008 resulted in the election of Dmitry Medvedev as the third President of Russia. Medvedev, whose candidacy was supported by incumbent president Vladimir Putin and five political parties , received 71% of the vote, and defeated...
.
The group that nominated Bukovsky as a candidate included Yuri Ryzhov, Vladimir V. Kara-Murza
Vladimir V. Kara-Murza
Vladimir V. Kara-Murza is a Russian journalist, historian and politician. He studied in Great Britain at the John Lyon School in Harrow, London, and graduated with an B.A. and M.A. in History from Cambridge University...
, Alexander Podrabinek, Andrei Piontkovsky, Vladimir Pribylovsky
Vladimir Pribylovsky
Vladimir Valerianovich Pribylovsky is a Russian historian, journalist and human rights advocate opposed to current Russian authorities.-Biography:...
and others. Activists and writers Valeria Novodvorskaya
Valeria Novodvorskaya
Valeriya Ilyinichna Novodvorskaya is a liberal Russian politician, Soviet dissident, the founder and the chairwoman of the "Democratic Union" party, and a member of the editorial board of The New Times...
, Victor Shenderovich
Victor Shenderovich
Victor Anatolievich Shenderovich is a popular Russian satirist, writer and scriptwriter. In 1980, Shenderovich graduated from the Moscow State Art and Cultural University, specialising in "direction of volunteer theatrical groups"...
, Vladimir Sorokin
Vladimir Sorokin
Vladimir Georgievich Sorokin is a contemporary postmodern Russian writer and dramatist, one of the most popular in modern Russian literature.-Biography:...
favored Bukovsky.
In their answer to pro-Kremlin politicians and publicists who expressed doubt in Bukovksy's electoral prospects, his nominators refuted a number of frequently repeated statements.
More than 800 participants nominated Bukovsky for president on December 16, 2007 in Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
. Bukovsky secured the required turnout and submitted his registration to the Central Election Commission on December 18, 2007.
The Initiative Group refuted pro-government media's early claims of Bukovsky's failure in the presidential race and Constitution court appeals.
The Election Commission turned down Bukovsky's application on December 22, 2007, claiming that he failed to give information on his activity as a writer when submitting documents to the Election Commission, that he was holding a British residence permit, and that he has not been living on Russian territory over the past ten years. Bukovsky appealed the decision in Supreme Court
Supreme Court of the Russian Federation
The Supreme Court of the Russian Federation is the court of last resort in Russian administrative law, civil law and criminal law cases. It also supervises the work of lower courts. Its predecessor is the Supreme Court of the Soviet Union....
on December 28, 2007, then in its cassation board on January 15, 2008.
Publications
- Soviet Archives, collected by Vladimir Bukovsky, prepared for electronic publishing by Julia Zaks and Leonid Chernikhov.
- List of publications of Vladimir Bukovsky at The Gratitude Fund.
- EUSSR: The Soviet Roots of European Integration, 2004. ISBN 0-9540231-1-0
- Vladimir Bukovsky. To Build a Castle, Samizdat", 1978 (И возвращается ветер, Vehi.net
- Soul of Man Under Socialism, 1979. ISBN 0-89633-029-X
- Soviet Hypocrisy and Western Gullibility, 1987. ISBN 0-89633-113-X
- Judgement in Moscow (Московский процесс) based on his 1992 visit to Russia and the "Soviet Archives".
- To Choose Freedom Hoover Institution, Stanford University, 1987. ISBN 0-8179-8442-9
- Vladimir Boukovsky. L’Union européenne, une nouvelle URSS ? Editeur: Le Rocher, Publication: 1/9/2005, ISBN 2-268-05546-9, 180 pages.
- Vladimir Boukovsky (Auteur), Pavel Stroilov (Auteur), Pierre Lorrain (Traduction). L'Union européenne, une nouvelle URSS ?, 2005. A review at Librairie Catholique.
External links
- Official Presidential campaign site
- Unofficial Presidential campaign site
- Bio at The Gratitude Fund
- Faces of Resistance in the USSR: V. Bukovsky. The Andrei SakharovAndrei SakharovAndrei Dmitrievich Sakharov was a Soviet nuclear physicist, dissident and human rights activist. He earned renown as the designer of the Soviet Union's Third Idea, a codename for Soviet development of thermonuclear weapons. Sakharov was an advocate of civil liberties and civil reforms in the...
Archives and Human Rights Center at Brandeis UniversityBrandeis UniversityBrandeis University is an American private research university with a liberal arts focus. It is located in the southwestern corner of Waltham, Massachusetts, nine miles west of Boston. The University has an enrollment of approximately 3,200 undergraduate and 2,100 graduate students. In 2011, it... - Dissidents, 1970-1979 contain materials concerning activities, arrests and exchange of Bukovsky
- An Open Letter to President G.W. Bush by Vladimir Bukovsky and Elena Bonner (2003-03-27)
- The West Lost The War: Vladimir Bukovsky (2001)
- A Conversation With Vladimir Bukovsky - by Jamie GlazovJamie GlazovJamie Glazov is the managing editor of Frontpage Magazine, the online publication founded by David Horowitz. He specializes in Soviet Studies, and U.S...
, FrontPageMagazine.com May 30, 2003 - Conservatives Debate: Is the Threat of Islamic Terrorism More Dangerous to America than Communism Was? By Vladimir Bukovsky, Daniel PipesDaniel PipesDaniel Pipes is an American historian, writer, and political commentator. He is the founder and director of the Middle East Forum and its Campus Watch project, and editor of its Middle East Quarterly journal...
, Paul Hollander, and Michael LedeenMichael LedeenMichael Arthur Ledeen is an American specialist on foreign policy. His research areas have included state sponsors of terrorism, Iran, the Middle East, Europe , U.S.-China relations, intelligence, and Africa and is a leading neoconservative...
Bio and writings Press-conference in Warsaw 1998 - Voices of Dissent An expose film of alleged human rights abuse presented by Vladimir Bukovsky (2006)
- HRO.org Press Conference, Warsaw, 1998
- Wladimir Bukowski, "Europa auf dem Weg in die Diktatur? Teil I." A transcript of Vladimir Bukovsky's Salzburg speech, 2000-10-26. Part 1.
- Wladimir Bukowski, "Europa auf dem Weg in die Diktatur? Teil II." A transcript of Vladimir Bukovsky's Salzburg speech, 2000-10-26. Part 2.
- "Former Soviet Dissident Warns For EU Dictatorship." A transcript of Vladimir Bukovsky's Brussels speech, 2006-02-23, and a brief interview.
- Video Interview with Vladimir Bukovsky Video Interview made on February 18, 2010.