Vladimir Bukovsky
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Vladimir Konstantinovich Bukovsky (russian: link=no, Влади́мир Константи́нович Буко́вский; 30 December 1942 – 27 October 2019) was a Russian-born British
human rights activist A human rights defender or human rights activist is a person who, individually or with others, acts to promote or protect human rights. They can be journalists, environmentalists, whistleblowers, trade unionists, lawyers, teachers, housing campai ...
and writer. From the late 1950s to the mid-1970s, he was a prominent figure in the
Soviet dissident movement Soviet dissidents were people who disagreed with certain features of Soviet ideology or with its entirety and who were willing to speak out against them. The term ''dissident'' was used in the Soviet Union in the period from the mid-1960s until t ...
, well known at home and abroad. He spent a total of twelve years in the psychiatric prison-hospitals,
labour camps A labor camp (or labour camp, see spelling differences) or work camp is a detention facility where inmates are forced to engage in penal labor as a form of punishment. Labor camps have many common aspects with slavery and with prisons (especi ...
, and
prison A prison, also known as a jail, gaol (dated, standard English, Australian, and historically in Canada), penitentiary (American English and Canadian English), detention center (or detention centre outside the US), correction center, correc ...
s of the Soviet Union. After being expelled from the Soviet Union in late 1976, Bukovsky remained in vocal opposition to the
Soviet system The political system of the Soviet Union took place in a federal single-party soviet socialist republic framework which was characterized by the superior role of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU), the only party permitted by the C ...
and the shortcomings of its successor regimes in Russia. An activist, a writer, Jacket and a neurophysiologist,. he is celebrated for his part in the campaign to expose and halt the
political abuse of psychiatry in the Soviet Union There was systematic political abuse of psychiatry in the Soviet Union, based on the interpretation of political opposition or dissent as a psychiatric problem. It was called "psychopathological mechanisms" of dissent. During the leadership ...
. A member of the international advisory council of the
Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation The Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation (VOC) is a non-profit anti-communist organization in the United States, authorized by a unanimous Act of Congress in 1993 for the purpose of "educating Americans about the ideology, history and legacy ...
, a director of the Gratitude Fund (set up in 1998 to commemorate and support former dissidents), and a member of the International Council of the New York City-based
Human Rights Foundation The Human Rights Foundation (HRF) is a non-profit organization that focuses on promoting and protecting human rights globally, with an emphasis on closed societies. HRF organizes the Oslo Freedom Forum. The Human Rights Foundation was founded i ...
, Bukovsky was a Senior Fellow of the
Cato Institute The Cato Institute is an American libertarian think tank headquartered in Washington, D.C. It was founded in 1977 by Ed Crane, Murray Rothbard, and Charles Koch, chairman of the board and chief executive officer of Koch Industries.Koch Indust ...
in Washington, D.C."Vladimir Bukovsky"
Cato Institute website
In 2001, Vladimir Bukovsky received the
Truman-Reagan Medal of Freedom The Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation (VOC) is a non-profit anti-communist organization in the United States, authorized by a unanimous Act of Congress in 1993 for the purpose of "educating Americans about the ideology, history and legac ...
, awarded annually since 1993 by the
Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation The Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation (VOC) is a non-profit anti-communist organization in the United States, authorized by a unanimous Act of Congress in 1993 for the purpose of "educating Americans about the ideology, history and legacy ...
.


Early life

Vladimir Bukovsky was born to Russian parents in the town of
Belebey Belebey (russian: Белебе́й; ba, Бәләбәй) is a town in the Republic of Bashkortostan, Russia, located on the bank of the Usen River, from Ufa. Population: History Belebey was established in 1715 and granted town status in 1781. ...
in the Bashkir Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (today the Republic of
Bashkortostan The Republic of Bashkortostan or Bashkortostan ( ba, Башҡортостан Республикаһы, Bashqortostan Respublikahy; russian: Республика Башкортостан, Respublika Bashkortostan),; russian: Респу́блик ...
in the Russian Federation), to which his family was evacuated during
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
. After the war he and his parents returned to Moscow where his father Konstantin (1908–1976) was a well-known Soviet journalist. During his last year at school Vladimir was expelled for creating and editing an unauthorised magazine. To meet the requirements to apply for a university place he completed his secondary education at evening classes. Bukovsky was enrolled at
Moscow State University M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University (MSU; russian: Московский государственный университет имени М. В. Ломоносова) is a public research university in Moscow, Russia and the most prestigious ...
for biology but was kicked out at age 19, having criticised the Komsomol, i.e., the Young Communist League.


Soviet-era activism


Rallies


Mayakovsky Square

In September 1960, Bukovsky entered
Moscow University M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University (MSU; russian: Московский государственный университет имени М. В. Ломоносова) is a public research university in Moscow, Russia and the most prestigious ...
to study biology. There he and some friends decided to revive the informal
Mayakovsky Square poetry readings During the 1950s and 1960s, Mayakovsky Square in Moscow played an important role as a gathering place for unofficial poetry readings, and subsequently for expressing cultural and political dissent in the post-Stalin era. Precursor On July 29, 195 ...
which began after a statue to the poet was unveiled in central Moscow in 1958. They made contact with earlier participants of the readings such as
Vladimir Osipov Vladimir Nikolaevich Osipov (russian: Влади́мир Никола́евич О́сипов; 9 August 1938 – 20 October 2020) was a Russian writer who founded the Soviet samizdat journal ''Veche'' (Assembly)''.'' The journal is considered t ...
, the editor of ''Boomerang'' (1960), and
Yuri Galanskov Yuri Timofeyevich Galanskov (russian: Ю́рий Тимофе́евич Галанско́в, 19 June 1939, Moscow - 4 November 1972, Mordovia) was a Russian poet, historian, human rights activist and dissident. For his political activities, suc ...
who issued the ''
Phoenix Phoenix most often refers to: * Phoenix (mythology), a legendary bird from ancient Greek folklore * Phoenix, Arizona, a city in the United States Phoenix may also refer to: Mythology Greek mythological figures * Phoenix (son of Amyntor), a ...
'' (1961), two examples of literary
samizdat Samizdat (russian: самиздат, lit=self-publishing, links=no) was a form of dissident activity across the Eastern Bloc in which individuals reproduced censored and underground makeshift publications, often by hand, and passed the document ...
. It was then that the 19-year-old Bukovsky wrote his critical notes on the Communist Youth League or Komsomol. Later, this text was given the title "Theses on the Collapse of the Komsomol" by the
KGB The KGB (russian: links=no, lit=Committee for State Security, Комитет государственной безопасности (КГБ), a=ru-KGB.ogg, p=kəmʲɪˈtʲet ɡəsʊˈdarstvʲɪn(ː)əj bʲɪzɐˈpasnəsʲtʲɪ, Komitet gosud ...
. Bukovsky portrayed the
USSR The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...
as an "illegal society" facing an acute ideological crisis. The Komsomol was "moribund", he asserted, having lost both moral and spiritual authority, and he called for its democratisation. This text, and his other activities, brought Bukovsky to the attention of the authorities. He was interrogated twice before being thrown out of the university in autumn 1961. Bukovsky was arrested on 1 June 1963. He was later convicted, in absentia, by reason of his "insanity", under Article 70.1 ("
Anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda Anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda (ASA) (russian: антисове́тская агита́ция и пропага́нда (АСА)) was a criminal offence in the Soviet Union. To begin with the term was interchangeably used with counter-revolu ...
") of the
RSFSR The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, Russian SFSR or RSFSR ( rus, Российская Советская Федеративная Социалистическая Республика, Rossíyskaya Sovétskaya Federatívnaya Soci ...
Criminal Code A criminal code (or penal code) is a document that compiles all, or a significant amount of a particular jurisdiction's criminal law. Typically a criminal code will contain offences that are recognised in the jurisdiction, penalties that might ...
. The official charge was the making and possession of photocopies of anti-Soviet literature, namely two copies of the banned work '' The New Class'' by
Milovan Djilas Milovan Djilas (; , ; 12 June 1911 – 30 April 1995) was a Yugoslav communist politician, theorist and author. He was a key figure in the Partisan movement during World War II, as well as in the post-war government. A self-identified democrat ...
. Bukovsky was examined by Soviet psychiatrists, declared to be mentally ill ("
schizophrenia Schizophrenia is a mental disorder characterized by continuous or relapsing episodes of psychosis. Major symptoms include hallucinations (typically hearing voices), delusions, and disorganized thinking. Other symptoms include social withdra ...
"), and sent for treatment at the Special Psychiatric Hospital in Leningrad where he remained for almost two years, until February 1965. It was there he became acquainted with General
Petro Grigorenko Petro Grigorenko or Petro Hryhorovych Hryhorenko ( uk, Петро́ Григо́рович Григоре́нко, russian: Пётр Григо́рьевич Григоре́нко, link=no, – 21 February 1987) was a high-ranking Soviet Army ...
, a fellow inmate.


The Glasnost rally, 5 December 1965

In December 1965, Bukovsky helped prepare a demonstration on
Pushkin Square Pushkinskaya Square or Pushkin Square () is a pedestrian open space in the Tverskoy District in central Moscow. Historically, it was known as ''Strastnaya Square'' before being renamed for Alexander Pushkin in 1937. It is located at the juncti ...
in central Moscow to protest against the
trial In law, a trial is a coming together of Party (law), parties to a :wikt:dispute, dispute, to present information (in the form of evidence (law), evidence) in a tribunal, a formal setting with the authority to Adjudication, adjudicate claims or d ...
of the writers
Andrei Sinyavsky Andrei Donatovich Sinyavsky (russian: Андре́й Дона́тович Синя́вский; 8 October 1925 – 25 February 1997) was a Russian writer and Soviet dissident known as a defendant in the Sinyavsky–Daniel trial in 1965. Sinyavsk ...
and
Yuli Daniel Yuli Markovich Daniel ( rus, Ю́лий Ма́ркович Даниэ́ль, p=ˈjʉlʲɪj ˈmarkəvʲɪtɕ dənʲɪˈelʲ, a=Yuliy Markovich Daniel'.ru.vorb.oga; 15 November 1925 — 30 December 1988) was a Russian writer and Soviet dissident ...
. He circulated the "Civic Appeal" by mathematician and poet
Alexander Esenin-Volpin Alexander Sergeyevich Esenin-Volpin (also written Ésénine-Volpine and Yessenin-Volpin in his French and English publications; russian: Алекса́ндр Серге́евич Есе́нин-Во́льпин, p=ɐlʲɪˈksandr sʲɪrˈɡʲejɪ ...
, which called on the authorities to obey the Soviet laws requiring
glasnost ''Glasnost'' (; russian: link=no, гласность, ) has several general and specific meanings – a policy of maximum openness in the activities of state institutions and freedom of information, the inadmissibility of hushing up problems, ...
in the judicial process, e.g. the admission of the public and the media to any trial. The demonstration on 5 December 1965 (Constitution Day) became known as the Glasnost Meeting or rally, and marked the beginning of the openly active Soviet civil rights movement. Bukovsky himself was unable to attend. Three days earlier he was arrested, charged with distributing the appeal, and kept in various
psikhushka Psikhushka (russian: психу́шка; ) is a Russian ironic diminutive for psychiatric hospital. In Russia, the word entered everyday vocabulary. This word has been occasionally used in English, since the Soviet dissident movement and diaspora ...
s, among them Hospital No 13 at Lublino, Stolbovaya and the Serbsky Institute, until July 1966.


The Right to Demonstrate, 1967

On 22 January 1967, Bukovsky, Vadim Delaunay, Yevgeny Kushev and Victor Khaustov held another demonstration on Pushkin Square. They were protesting against the recent arrests of
Alexander Ginzburg Alexander "Alik" Ilyich Ginzburg ( rus, Алекса́ндр Ильи́ч Ги́нзбург, p=ɐlʲɪkˈsandr ɨˈlʲjidʑ ˈɡʲinzbʊrk, a=Alyeksandr Il'yich Ginzburg.ru.vorb.oga; 21 November 1936 – 19 July 2002), was a Russian journalist ...
,
Yuri Galanskov Yuri Timofeyevich Galanskov (russian: Ю́рий Тимофе́евич Галанско́в, 19 June 1939, Moscow - 4 November 1972, Mordovia) was a Russian poet, historian, human rights activist and dissident. For his political activities, suc ...
, Alexei Dobrovolsky and Vera Lashkova (finally prosecuted in January 1968 in the
Trial of the Four The Trial of the Four, also Galanskov–Ginzburg trial, was the 1968 trial of Yuri Galanskov, Alexander Ginzburg, Alexey Dobrovolsky and Vera Lahkova for their involvement in samizdat publications. The trial took place in Moscow City Court on Janu ...
) and asserting their own right to protest: on 16 September 1966 a new law, Article 190.3, had been introduced which classified any public gatherings or demonstrations as a crime. On 1 September 1967, at his own trial, Bukovsky used his final words to attack the regime's failure to respect the law or follow legal procedures. He invoked Article 125 of the (still current) 1936 Soviet Constitution to defend the right to organise demonstrations and other public protests. He further suggested that the prosecution had repeatedly failed to observe the revised 1961 Code of Criminal Procedure in its conduct of the case. Bukovsky's final words in court circulated widely in a samizdat collection of such addresses and as part of a collection of materials about the demonstration and subsequent trials compiled by
Pavel Litvinov Pavel Mikhailovich Litvinov (russian: Па́вел Миха́йлович Литви́нов; born 6 July 1940) is a Russian-born U.S. physicist, writer, teacher, human rights activist and former Soviet-era dissident. Biography The grandson of ...
. Fellow protestors Vadim Delaunay and Yevgeny Kushev admitted regret for their actions but not their guilt; they received suspended sentences and were released. Bukovsky was defiant and, like fellow demonstrator Victor Khaustov (convicted in February 1967), was given three years in an "ordinary regime" corrective-labour camp. Bukovsky was sent to Bor in the
Voronezh Voronezh ( rus, links=no, Воро́неж, p=vɐˈronʲɪʂ}) is a city and the administrative centre of Voronezh Oblast in southwestern Russia straddling the Voronezh River, located from where it flows into the Don River. The city sits on the ...
Region to serve his sentence. He was released in January 1970.


The Campaign against the Abuse of Psychiatry

In the 1960s and 1970s, the Soviet authorities began the widespread use of psychiatric treatment as a form of punishment and deterrence for the independent-minded. This involved unlimited detention in a
psikhushka Psikhushka (russian: психу́шка; ) is a Russian ironic diminutive for psychiatric hospital. In Russia, the word entered everyday vocabulary. This word has been occasionally used in English, since the Soviet dissident movement and diaspora ...
, as such places were popularly known, which might be conventional psychiatric hospitals or psychiatric prison-hospitals set up (e.g. the Leningrad Special Psychiatric Hospital) as part of an existing penal institution. Healthy individuals were held among mentally ill and often dangerous patients; they were forced to take various psychotropic drugs; they might also be incarcerated in prison-type institutions under overall control of the KGB. During a clandestine interview filmed by CBS News correspondent Bill Cole in a forest near Moscow, Bukovsky described how the Soviet government was committing political dissidents to mental institutions and subjecting them to drug treatments. That interview along with interviews with Andrei Amalrik and Pyotr Yakir were smuggled out of the country by Canadian diplomats and aired in 1970 in the CBS News special report "Voices from the Soviet Underground." In 1971, Bukovsky managed to smuggle to the West over 150 pages further documenting the political abuse of psychiatric institutions in the Soviet Union. In a letter addressed to "Western psychiatrists" and written in a deliberately restrained tone, Bukovsky asked them to consider if the evidence justified the isolation of several dissidents, and urged them to discuss the matter at the next International Congress of Psychiatrists. The documents were released to the press in March 1971 by a small French group called the International Committee for the Defence of Human Rights. Bukovsky's letter appeared on 12 March in ''
The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...
'' (London) and later in the ''
British Journal of Psychiatry The ''British Journal of Psychiatry'' is a peer-reviewed medical journal covering all branches of psychiatry with a particular emphasis on the clinical aspects of each topic. The journal is owned by the Royal College of Psychiatrists and publis ...
'' Bukovsky was arrested on 29 March and held in custody for nine months before being put on trial in January 1972. The information Bukovsky had gathered and sent to the West galvanised human rights activists worldwide and those within the Soviet Union. It also struck a chord among psychiatrists. In September that year 44 European psychiatrists wrote to ''The Times'' (London) expressing grave doubts about the diagnoses of the six people concerned. At a meeting in November 1971, the
World Federation for Mental Health The World Federation for Mental Health (WFMH) is an international, multi-professional non-governmental organization (NGO), including citizen volunteers and former patients. It was founded in 1948 in the same era as the United Nations (UN) and the W ...
called on its members to investigate the charges and defend the right to free opinion where it was threatened. These responses were carefully documented by the dissident human rights periodical ''
Chronicle of Current Events ''A Chronicle of Current Events'' (russian: Хро́ника теку́щих собы́тий, ''Khronika tekushchikh sobytiy'') was one of the longest-running ''samizdat'' periodicals of the post-Stalin USSR. This unofficial newsletter reported v ...
'', which also recorded the many statements made by Bukovsky's friends and fellow rights activists in his defence. As the person at the centre of this unprecedented international row, Bukovsky waited in almost total isolation, without access to a lawyer, to be tried and sent to the camps or a special psychiatric hospital. Responding to public pressure, the
World Psychiatric Association The World Psychiatric Association is an international umbrella organisation of psychiatric societies. Objectives and goals Originally created to produce world psychiatric congresses, it has evolved to hold regional meetings, to promote profess ...
finally condemned Soviet practices at its Sixth World Congress in 1977 and set up a review committee to monitor misuse. In 1983, the Soviet representatives withdrew from the World Psychiatric Association rather than face expulsion. Bukovsky later characterised this reaction as "the most important victory for the dissident form of glasnost".


Final arrest (1971) and imprisonment

Following the release of the documents, Bukovsky was denounced in ''
Pravda ''Pravda'' ( rus, Правда, p=ˈpravdə, a=Ru-правда.ogg, "Truth") is a Russian broadsheet newspaper, and was the official newspaper of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, when it was one of the most influential papers in the co ...
'' as a "malicious hooligan, engaged in anti-Soviet activities" and arrested on 29 March 1971. At first held in Lefortovo Prison, in August, Bukovsky spent approximately three months in the Serbsky Institute, which this time pronounced him mentally sound and able to stand trial. During the trial in January 1972 Bukovsky was accused of slandering Soviet psychiatry, contacts with foreign journalists, and the possession and distribution of
samizdat Samizdat (russian: самиздат, lit=self-publishing, links=no) was a form of dissident activity across the Eastern Bloc in which individuals reproduced censored and underground makeshift publications, often by hand, and passed the document ...
. On this occasion he again used his final words to the court to reach a much wider audience when the text circulated in samizdat. He was sentenced to two years in prison, five in a labour camp, and five more in internal exile.For reactions in the West and the Soviet Union to the sentence se
CCE 24.1 (5 March 1972), "The case of Vladimir Bukovsky".
For a
KGB The KGB (russian: links=no, lit=Committee for State Security, Комитет государственной безопасности (КГБ), a=ru-KGB.ogg, p=kəmʲɪˈtʲet ɡəsʊˈdarstvʲɪn(ː)əj bʲɪzɐˈpasnəsʲtʲɪ, Komitet gosud ...
profile of Bukovsky, dated 18 May 1972, see:
While in prison Bukovsky and his fellow inmate, the psychiatrist
Semyon Gluzman Semen (Semyon) Fishelevich Gluzman ( uk, Семе́н Фі́шельович Глу́зман, russian: Семён Фи́шелевич Глу́зман; born 10 September 1946, Kyiv Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous ...
, wrote a brief 20-page ''Manual on Psychiatry for Dissidents'', which was widely published abroad, in Russian (1975) and in many other languages, including English, French, Italian, German, and Danish. It instructed potential victims of political psychiatry how to behave during interrogation to avoid being diagnosed as mentally ill.


Deportation from the USSR (1976)

The fate of Bukovsky and other political prisoners in the Soviet Union had been repeatedly brought to world attention by Western diplomats and human rights groups such as the relatively new
Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says it has more than ten million members and sup ...
formed in 1961. In December 1976, Bukovsky was deported from the USSR and exchanged at
Zürich Zürich () is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zürich. It is located in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zürich. As of January 2020, the municipality has 43 ...
airport by the Soviet government for the imprisoned general secretary of the
Communist Party of Chile The Communist Party of Chile ( es, Partido Comunista de Chile, ) is a communist party in Chile. It was founded in 1912 as the Socialist Workers' Party () and adopted its current name in 1922. The party established a youth wing, the Communist Youth ...
,
Luis Corvalán Luis Nicolás Corvalán Lepe (14 September 1916, in Puerto Montt – 21 July 2010) was a Chilean politician. He served as the general secretary of the Communist Party of Chile (PCCh). Corvalán joined the Communist Party of Chile at the age of f ...
. In his 1978 autobiography Bukovsky describes how he was brought to
Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...
in handcuffs. The widely publicised exchange increased public awareness in the West about
Soviet dissidents Soviet dissidents were people who disagreed with certain features of Soviet ideology or with its entirety and who were willing to speak out against them. The term ''dissident'' was used in the Soviet Union in the period from the mid-1960s until t ...
. A fellow dissident, Vadim Delaunay wrote an epigram on the occasion: They exchanged a hooligan For one Luis Corvalan. Now we need to find a bitch To exchange her for Ilyich In March 1977, US President
Jimmy Carter James Earl Carter Jr. (born October 1, 1924) is an American politician who served as the 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he previously served as th ...
met with Bukovsky at the
White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in 1800. ...
. In the USSR the meeting was seen by dissidents and rights activists as a sign of the newly elected president's willingness to stress human rights in his foreign policy; the event provoked harsh criticism by Soviet leaders. Bukovsky moved to Great Britain where he settled in
Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...
and resumed his studies in biology, disrupted fifteen years earlier (see above) by his expulsion from Moscow University.


Life in the West

Bukovsky gained a master's degree in
Biology Biology is the scientific study of life. It is a natural science with a broad scope but has several unifying themes that tie it together as a single, coherent field. For instance, all organisms are made up of cells that process hereditary i ...
at
Cambridge University , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...
. He also wrote and published ''To Build a Castle: My Life as a Dissenter'' (1978). (The title in Russian, ''And the Wind Returns ...'', is a Biblical allusion.) The book was translated into English, French and German. It was published in Russian the following year by Chalidze publishers in New York. Today the Russian original is available online via a number of websites. Since he has lived in the West, Bukovsky has written many essays and polemical articles. These not only criticised the Soviet regime and, later, that of Vladimir Putin, but also exposed "Western gullibility" in the face of Soviet abuses and, in some cases, what he believed to be Western complicity in such crimes. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, following the Soviet invasion of
Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...
, Bukovsky campaigned successfully for an official UK and US boycott of the summer 1980 Olympics in Moscow. During the same years he voiced concern about the activities and policies of the Western peace movements. In 1983, together with Cuban dissident
Armando Valladares Armando Valladares Perez (born May 30, 1937) is a Cuban-American poet, diplomat and former political prisoner for his involvement in the Cuban dissident movement. In 1960, he was arrested by the Cuban government for conflicting reasons; the C ...
, Bukovsky co-founded and was later elected president of
Resistance International Resistance International was an international anti-communist organisation that existed between 1983 and 1988. It anticipated and embodied the so-called Reagan Doctrine which took final shape in 1985. Resistance International was set up in France in ...
. The anti-Communist organisation was run from a small office in Paris by Soviet dissidents and emigres, notably Vladimir Maximov and Eduard Kuznetsov. In 1985 it expanded into the American Foundation for Resistance International. Among the prominent members of the board were
Albert Jolis Albert Jolis (1912–2000) was an American diamond dealer, head of the international firm Diamond Distributors, Inc, and a fund-raising anti-communist, serving in the 1980s as board chairman of Resistance International. World War II and its after ...
and
Jeane Kirkpatrick Jeane Duane Kirkpatrick (née Jordan; November 19, 1926December 7, 2006) was an American diplomat and political scientist who played a major role in the foreign policy of the Ronald Reagan administration. An ardent anticommunist, she was a lo ...
while
Midge Decter Midge Decter (née Rosenthal; July 25, 1927 – May 9, 2022) was an American journalist and author.Richard Perle Richard Norman Perle (born September 16, 1941) is an American political advisor who served as the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Global Strategic Affairs under President Ronald Reagan. He began his political career as a senior staff member to S ...
,
Saul Bellow Saul Bellow (born Solomon Bellows; 10 July 1915 – 5 April 2005) was a Canadian-born American writer. For his literary work, Bellow was awarded the Pulitzer Prize, the Nobel Prize for Literature, and the National Medal of Arts. He is the only wr ...
,
Robert Conquest George Robert Acworth Conquest (15 July 1917 – 3 August 2015) was a British historian and poet. A long-time research fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution, Conquest was most notable for his work on the Soviet Union. His books ...
and Martin Colman were on the body's advisory committee. The Foundation aimed to be a co-ordinating centre for dissident and democratic movements seeking to overturn communism in Eastern Europe and elsewhere. It organised protests in the communist countries and in the West, and opposed western financial assistance to communist governments. The Foundation also created the National Council to Support Democratic Movements (National Council for Democracy) with the goal of aiding the emergence of democratic rule-of-law governments, and providing assistance with the writing of constitutions and the formation of civil institutions. In March 1987, Bukovsky and nine other émigré authors (
Ernst Neizvestny Ernst Iosifovich Neizvestny (russian: Эрнст Ио́сифович Неизве́стный; 9 April 1925 – 9 August 2016) was a Russian sculptor, painter, graphic artist, and art philosopher. He emigrated to the U.S. in 1976 and lived and ...
,
Yury Lyubimov Yuri Petrovich Lyubimov (russian: Ю́рий Петро́вич Люби́мов; 5 October 2014) was a Soviet and Russian stage actor and director associated with the internationally renowned Taganka Theatre, which he founded in 1964. He was one ...
,
Vasily Aksyonov Vasily Pavlovich Aksyonov ( rus, Васи́лий Па́влович Аксёнов, p=vɐˈsʲilʲɪj ˈpavləvʲɪtɕ ɐˈksʲɵnəf; August 20, 1932 – July 6, 2009) was a Soviet and Russian novelist. He became known in the West as the autho ...
and
Leonid Plyushch Leonid Ivanovych Plyushch ( uk, Леоні́д Іва́нович Плющ, ; 26 April 1938, Naryn, Kirghiz SSR – 4 June 2015, Bessèges, France) was a Ukrainian mathematician and Soviet dissident. Although he was employed to work on Soviet ...
among them) caused a furore in the West and then in the Soviet Union itself when they raised doubts about the substance and sincerity of
Mikhail Gorbachev Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev (2 March 1931 – 30 August 2022) was a Soviet politician who served as the 8th and final leader of the Soviet Union from 1985 to dissolution of the Soviet Union, the country's dissolution in 1991. He served a ...
's reforms.


Return to the Soviet Union (1991)

In April 1991, Vladimir Bukovsky visited Moscow for the first time since his deportation fifteen years before. In the run-up to the 1991 presidential election,
Boris Yeltsin Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin ( rus, Борис Николаевич Ельцин, p=bɐˈrʲis nʲɪkɐˈla(j)ɪvʲɪtɕ ˈjelʲtsɨn, a=Ru-Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin.ogg; 1 February 1931 – 23 April 2007) was a Soviet and Russian politician wh ...
's campaign team included Bukovsky on their list of potential vice-presidential running-mates. In the end, army officer
Alexander Rutskoy Alexander Vladimirovich Rutskoy (russian: Александр Владимирович Руцкой; born 16 September 1947) is a Russian politician and a former Soviet military officer, Major General of Aviation (1991). He served as the only vic ...
, a veteran of the 1979–1989 war in Afghanistan and
Hero of the Soviet Union The title Hero of the Soviet Union (russian: Герой Советского Союза, translit=Geroy Sovietskogo Soyuza) was the highest distinction in the Soviet Union, awarded together with the Order of Lenin personally or collectively for ...
was selected. On 5 December 1991, both of Bukovsky's Soviet-era convictions were annulled by a decree of the RSFSR Supreme Court. The following year President Yeltsin formally restored Bukovsky's Russian citizenship: he had never been deprived of his Soviet citizenship, despite deportation from the country.


Post-Soviet Union activities

British and European psychiatrists assessing the documents on psychiatric abuse released by Bukovsky characterised him in 1971: "The information we have about ladimir Bukovskysuggests that he is the sort of person who might be embarrassing to authorities in any country because he seems unwilling to compromise for convenience and personal comfort, and believes in saying what he thinks in situations which he clearly knows could endanger him. But such people often have much to contribute, and deserve considerable respect." Soon after the collapse of the Soviet Union Vladimir Bukovsky was again out of favour with the Russian authorities. He supported Yeltsin against the Supreme Soviet in the
1993 Russian constitutional crisis The 1993 Russian constitutional crisis, also known as the 1993 October Coup, Black October, the Shooting of the White House or Ukaz 1400, was a political stand-off and a constitutional crisis between the Russian president Boris Yeltsin and t ...
in October that year but criticised the new
Constitution of Russia The Constitution of the Russian Federation () was adopted by national referendum on 12 December 1993. Russia's constitution came into force on 25 December 1993, at the moment of its official publication, and abolished the Soviet system of gov ...
approved two months later, as being designed to ensure a continuation of Yeltsin's power. According to Bukovsky, Yeltsin became a hostage of the security agencies from 1994 onwards, and a restoration of KGB rule was inevitable.


''Judgment in Moscow'' (1995–2019)

In 1992, after the
dissolution of the Soviet Union The dissolution of the Soviet Union, also negatively connoted as rus, Разва́л Сове́тского Сою́за, r=Razvál Sovétskogo Soyúza, ''Ruining of the Soviet Union''. was the process of internal disintegration within the Sov ...
, President Yeltsin's government invited Bukovsky to serve as an expert witness at the trial before the
Constitutional Court A constitutional court is a high court that deals primarily with constitutional law. Its main authority is to rule on whether laws that are challenged are in fact unconstitutional, i.e. whether they conflict with constitutionally established ...
where Russia's communists were suing Yeltsin for banning their Party and taking its property. The respondent's case was that the
CPSU "Hymn of the Bolshevik Party" , headquarters = 4 Staraya Square, Moscow , general_secretary = Vladimir Lenin (first)Mikhail Gorbachev (last) , founded = , banned = , founder = Vladimir Lenin , newspaper ...
itself had been an unconstitutional organisation. To prepare his testimony, Bukovsky requested and was granted access to a large number of documents from the CPSU Central Committee archives (then reorganised into the Central Depository for Contemporary Documentation or
TsKhSD The Russian State Archive of Contemporary History (RGANI) (russian: Российский государственный архив новейшей истории (РГАНИ)) is a large Russian state archive managed by Rosarkhiv, which preserve ...
). With the help of a small hand-held scanner and a laptop computer, he managed secretly to make photocopies of many of the documents (some with high
security clearance A security clearance is a status granted to individuals allowing them access to classified information (state or organizational secrets) or to restricted areas, after completion of a thorough background check. The term "security clearance" is ...
), including
KGB The KGB (russian: links=no, lit=Committee for State Security, Комитет государственной безопасности (КГБ), a=ru-KGB.ogg, p=kəmʲɪˈtʲet ɡəsʊˈdarstvʲɪn(ː)əj bʲɪzɐˈpasnəsʲtʲɪ, Komitet gosud ...
reports to the
Central Committee Central committee is the common designation of a standing administrative body of Communist party, communist parties, analogous to a board of directors, of both ruling and nonruling parties of former and existing socialist states. In such party org ...
. The copies were then smuggled to the West. Bukovsky hoped that an international tribunal in Moscow might play a similar role to the first
Nuremberg Trial The Nuremberg trials were held by the Allies against representatives of the defeated Nazi Germany, for plotting and carrying out invasions of other countries, and other crimes, in World War II. Between 1939 and 1945, Nazi Germany invaded m ...
(1945–1946) in post-Nazi Germany and help the country begin to overcome the legacy of Communism. It took several years and a team of assistants to piece together the scanned fragments (many only half a page in width) of the hundreds of documents photocopied by Bukovsky and then, in 1999, to make them available online. Many of the same documents were extensively quoted and cited in Bukovsky's ''Judgment in Moscow'' (1995), where he described and analysed what he had uncovered about recent Soviet history and about the relations of the USSR and the CPSU with the West. The book was soon translated into several languages but did not appear in English for over twenty years.
Random House Random House is an American book publisher and the largest general-interest paperback publisher in the world. The company has several independently managed subsidiaries around the world. It is part of Penguin Random House, which is owned by Germ ...
bought the rights to the manuscript, but the publisher, in Bukovsky's words, tried to make the author "rewrite the whole book from the liberal left political perspective." Bukovsky resisted, explaining to the Random House editor that he was "allergic to political censorship" because of "certain peculiarities of my biography". (The contract was subsequently cancelled.). Meanwhile, the book was published in French as ''Jugement à Moscou'' (1995), in Russian (1996) and in certain other Slavic languages: for a time the Polish edition became a best-seller. In 2016, it was published in Italian, by Spirali, with the title ''Gli archivi segreti di Mosca''. An English language translation did not appear in book form until May 2019, five months before the author died.


Potential 1992 mayoral candidacy

In 1992, a group of liberal deputies of the Moscow City Council proposed Bukovsky's candidacy for elections of the new Mayor of Moscow, following the resignation of the previous Mayor, Gavriil Popov. Bukovsky refused the offer, stating that to fulfil the mayor's duties he would need a large team of intellectuals committed to radical reform, and there was a lack of such people in the country. Deputy mayor
Yury Luzhkov Yury Mikhailovich Luzhkov ( rus, Ю́рий Миха́йлович Лужко́в, p=ˈjʉrʲɪj mʲɪˈxajləvʲɪtɕ lʊˈʂkof; 21 September 1936 – 10 December 2019) was a Russian politician who served as mayor of Moscow from 1992 to 2010 ...
took over, and ran the city from 1992 to 2010.


Potential 1996 presidential candidacy

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 Nikolayevich Yeltsin ( rus, Борис Николаевич Ельцин, p=bɐˈrʲis nʲɪkɐˈla(j)ɪvʲɪtɕ ˈjelʲtsɨn, a=Ru-Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin.ogg; 1 February 1931 – 23 April 2007) was a Soviet and Russian politician wh ...
and his main challenger
Gennady Zyuganov Gennady Andreyevich Zyuganov (russian: Генна́дий Андре́евич Зюга́нов; born 26 June 1944) is a Russian politician, who has been the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation and served as M ...
of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation. However, no formal nomination process was initiated.


''Memento Gulag''

In 2001, Bukovsky was elected President of the '' Comitatus pro Libertatibus – Comitati per le Libertà – Freedom Committees'' in Florence, an Italian
libertarian Libertarianism (from french: libertaire, "libertarian"; from la, libertas, "freedom") is a political philosophy that upholds liberty as a core value. Libertarians seek to maximize autonomy and political freedom, and minimize the state's e ...
organisation which promoted an annual ''Memento Gulag'', or Memorial Day devoted to the Victims of Communism, on 7 November (the anniversary of the
Bolshevik Revolution The October Revolution,. officially known as the Great October Socialist Revolution. in the Soviet Union, also known as the Bolshevik Revolution, was a revolution in Russia led by the Bolsheviks, Bolshevik Party of Vladimir Lenin that was ...
). The ''Memento Gulag'' has since been held in Rome,
Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ro, București ) is the capital and largest city of Romania, as well as its cultural, industrial, and financial centre. It is located in the southeast of the country, on the banks of the Dâmbovița River, less than north of ...
, Berlin,
La Roche sur Yon La Roche-sur-Yon () is a commune in the Vendée department in the Pays de la Loire region in western France. It is the capital of the department. The demonym for its inhabitants is ''Yonnais''. History The town expanded significantly after Na ...
and Paris.


Contacts with Boris Nemtsov and the Russian Opposition

In 2002,
Boris Nemtsov Boris Yefimovich Nemtsov ( rus, Бори́с Ефи́мович Немцо́в, p=bɐˈrʲis jɪˈfʲiməvʲɪtɕ nʲɪmˈtsof; 9 October 195927 February 2015) was a Russian physicist and liberal politician. He was involved in the introduction ...
, former Deputy Prime Minister of Russia who was then an elected member of the State
Duma A duma (russian: дума) is a Russian assembly with advisory or legislative functions. The term ''boyar duma'' is used to refer to advisory councils in Russia from the 10th to 17th centuries. Starting in the 18th century, city dumas were for ...
and leader of the
Union of Rightist Forces The Union of Right Forces (SPS; russian: Союз правых сил; СПС; ''Soyuz pravykh sil'', ''SPS''), is a Russian liberal-conservative political public organization and former party, initially founded as an electoral bloc in 1999 and ass ...
, paid a visit to Bukovsky in Cambridge. He wanted to discuss the strategy of the Russian opposition. It was imperative, Bukovsky told Nemtsov, that Russian liberals adopt an uncompromising stand toward what he saw as the authoritarian government of President
Vladimir Putin Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin; (born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who holds the office of president of Russia. Putin has served continuously as president or prime minister since 1999: as prime min ...
. On one of journalist
Anna Politkovskaya Anna Stepanovna Politkovskaya (;, ; uk, Ганна Степанівна Політковська , 30 August 1958 – 7 October 2006) was a Russian journalist and human rights activist, who reported on political events in Russia, in partic ...
's frequent visits to Britain she interviewed Vladimir Bukovsky and Boris Berezovsky to provide a "comparative analysis of different waves of political emigration". With Bukovsky, "The Patriarch" as he was called in the published version of her article, she discussed the position of those who had gained political asylum in Britain ( Ahmed Zakayev,
Alexander Litvinenko Alexander Valterovich "Sasha" Litvinenko (30 August 1962 ( at WebCite) or 4 December 1962 – 23 November 2006) was a British-naturalised Russian defector and former officer of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) who specialised ...
), and the attitudes of the UK government of Tony Blair and of the European Parliament to the situation in Chechnya. During their talk Bukovsky expressed disapproval of the way in which
Slobodan Milosevic Slobodan ( sr-Cyrl, Слободан) is a Serbo-Croatian masculine given name which means "free" (''sloboda'' / meaning "freedom, liberty") used among other South Slavs as well. It was coined by Serbian liberal politician Vladimir Jovanović w ...
was brought before the Hague tribunal. In January 2004, with
Garry Kasparov Garry Kimovich Kasparov (born 13 April 1963) is a Russian chess grandmaster, former World Chess Champion, writer, political activist and commentator. His peak rating of 2851, achieved in 1999, was the highest recorded until being surpassed by ...
,
Boris Nemtsov Boris Yefimovich Nemtsov ( rus, Бори́с Ефи́мович Немцо́в, p=bɐˈrʲis jɪˈfʲiməvʲɪtɕ nʲɪmˈtsof; 9 October 195927 February 2015) was a Russian physicist and liberal politician. He was involved in the introduction ...
,
Vladimir V. Kara-Murza Vladimir Vladimirovich Kara-Murza (russian: Владимир Владимирович Кара-Мурза; born 7 September 1981) is a Russian political activist, journalist, author, and filmmaker. A protégé of Boris Nemtsov, he serves as vi ...
and others, Bukovsky was a co-founder of
Committee 2008 "Committee 2008: A Free Choice" (russian: Комитет 2008: Свободный выбор; ''Komitet 2008: Svobodnyy vybor'') was an umbrella organization of the Russian democratic opposition, launched on 29 January 2004 and broke up in the spri ...
. This umbrella organisation of the Russian democratic opposition was formed to ensure free and fair elections in 2008 when a successor to Vladimir Putin was elected. In 2005, Bukovsky was among the prominent dissidents of the 1960s and 1970s ( Gorbanevskaya,
Sergei Kovalyov Sergei Adamovich Kovalyov (also spelled Sergey Kovalev; russian: link=no, Сергей Адамович Ковалёв; 2 March 1930 – 9 August 2021) was a Russian human rights activist and politician. During the Soviet period he was a diss ...
, Eduard Kuznetsov,
Alexander Podrabinek Alexander Pinkhosovich Podrabinek (russian: Алекса́ндр Пи́нхосович Подраби́нек; born 8 August 1953, Elektrostal) is a Soviet dissident, journalist and commentator. During the Soviet period he was a human rights ac ...
,
Yelena Bonner Yelena Georgiyevna Bonner (russian: link=no, Елена Георгиевна Боннэр; 15 February 1923 – 18 June 2011) ...
) who took part in a documentary series by Vladimir Kara-Murza Jr. ''
They Chose Freedom ''They Chose Freedom'' (russian: Они выбирали свободу, Oni vybirali svobodu) 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. Kara- ...
''.They Chose Freedom
a documentary series made by the 23-year-old journalist
Vladimir Kara-Murza Vladimir Vladimirovich Kara-Murza (russian: Владимир Владимирович Кара-Мурза; born 7 September 1981) is a Russian political activist, journalist, author, and filmmaker. A protégé of Boris Nemtsov, he serves as vi ...
(in Russian)
In 2013 Bukovsky was featured in a documentary series by Natella Boltyanskaya '' Parallels, Events, People''. In 2009, Bukovsky joined the council of the new
Solidarnost United Democratic Movement "Solidarnost" (russian: Объединённое демократическое движение «Солидарность»; ОДД «Солидарность»; ''Obyedinonnoye demokraticheskoye dvizheniye «Solidarno ...
coalition which brought together a wide range of extra-parliamentary opposition forces.


Criticism of torture in Abu Ghraib prison (Iraq)

As revelations mounted about the sanctioned torture of captives in the
Guantánamo Bay detention camp The Guantanamo Bay detention camp ( es, Centro de detención de la bahía de Guantánamo) is a United States military prison located within Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, also referred to as Guantánamo, GTMO, and Gitmo (), on the coast of Guant ...
, Abu Ghraib and the
CIA secret prisons The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian intelligence agency, foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gat ...
, Bukovsky entered the discussion with an uncompromising attack on the official if covert rationalisation of torture. In an 18 December 2005 op-ed in ''
The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
'', Bukovsky recounted his experience under torture in Lefortovo prison in 1971. Once commenced, he warned, the inertia of torture was difficult to control, corrupting those who carried it out. "Torture", he wrote, "has historically been an instrument of oppression—not an instrument of investigation or of intelligence gathering." Bukovsky explained: US President Barack Obama repudiated the
Torture Memos A set of legal memoranda known as the "Torture Memos" (officially the Memorandum Regarding Military Interrogation of Alien Unlawful Combatants Held Outside The United States) were drafted by John Yoo as Deputy Assistant Attorney General of the ...
on 20 January 2009, two days after taking office.


Criticism of the European Union

In ''EUSSR'', a booklet written with Pavel Stroilov and published in 2004, Bukovsky exposed what he saw as the "Soviet roots of European Integration". Two years later, in an interview with ''The Brussels Journal'', Bukovsky said he had read confidential documents from secret Soviet files in 1992 which confirmed the existence of a "conspiracy" to turn the European Union into a socialist organisation. The European Union was a "monster", he argued, and it must be destroyed, the sooner the better, "before it develops into a full-fledged totalitarian state". As an expression of his Eurosceptic position Bukovsky was vice-president of
The Freedom Association The Freedom Association (TFA) is a pressure group in the United Kingdom that describes itself as "a non-partisan, classically liberal campaign group, which has links to the Conservative Party and UK Independence Party (UKIP). TFA was founded in ...
(TFA) in the United Kingdom. Ten years earlier, Bukovsky sketched some of the ways in which cooperation was secured. Beyond those who were recruited as Soviet agents and consciously worked for the USSR, as he explained in ''Judgment in Moscow'' (1995), there were men and women whom the KGB and
GRU The Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, rus, Гла́вное управле́ние Генера́льного шта́ба Вооружённых сил Росси́йской Федера́ци ...
classified as "agents of influence" and "confidential contacts": This applied equally, Bukovsky cautioned, to post-Stalin generations of specialists on the USSR and Eastern Europe. They had been subjected to similar pressures and inducements in the 1970s and 1980s:


2008 presidential candidacy

In May 2007, Bukovsky announced his plans to run as candidate for president in the May 2008 Russian presidential election. On 16 December 2007, Bukovsky was officially nominated to run against Dmitry Medvedev and other candidates.The group that nominated Bukovsky as a candidate included Yuri Ryzhov,
Vladimir V. Kara-Murza Vladimir Vladimirovich Kara-Murza (russian: Владимир Владимирович Кара-Мурза; born 7 September 1981) is a Russian political activist, journalist, author, and filmmaker. A protégé of Boris Nemtsov, he serves as vi ...
,
Alexander Podrabinek Alexander Pinkhosovich Podrabinek (russian: Алекса́ндр Пи́нхосович Подраби́нек; born 8 August 1953, Elektrostal) is a Soviet dissident, journalist and commentator. During the Soviet period he was a human rights ac ...
,
Andrei Piontkovsky Andrey Andreyevich Piontkovsky (russian: Андре́й Андре́евич Пионтко́вский, born June 30, 1940, Moscow) is a Russian scientist and political writer and analyst, a member of International PEN Club. He is a former mem ...
,
Vladimir Pribylovsky Vladimir Valerianovich Pribylovsky (russian: Влади́мир Валериа́нович Прибыло́вский, 6 March 195613 January 2016) was a Soviet and Russian political scientist, historian, journalist, human rights activist, and a ...
and others. Activists, authors and commentators such as
Viktor Shenderovich Viktor Anatolyevich Shenderovich (russian: Ви́ктор Анато́льевич Шендеро́вич; born August 15, 1958) is a Russian satirist, writer, scriptwriter and radio host. Biography Shenderovich was born in Moscow into a family of ...
,
Valeriya Novodvorskaya Valeriya (russian: Валерия) is a stage name of Alla Yurievna Perfilova (russian: Алла Юрьевна Перфилова, born April 17, 1968 in Atkarsk), a Russian singer and fashion model. Valeriya, who is a recipient of the titles Pe ...
and Lev Rubinstein also favoured Bukovsky. Responding to pro-Kremlin politicians and commentators who expressed doubt about Bukovsky's electoral prospects, his nominators rejected a number of frequently repeated allegations. In Moscow more than 800 citizens of the Russian Federation nominated Bukovsky for president on 16 December 2007. Bukovsky secured the required number of signatures to register and submitted his application to the Central Election Commission on time, 18 December 2007.Soviet dissident Vladimir Bukovsky has been nominated a candidate for president
,
Echo of Moscow Echo of Moscow (russian: links=no, Эхо Москвы, translit=Ekho Moskvy) was a 24/7 commercial Russian radio station based in Moscow. It broadcast in many Russian cities, some of the former Soviet republics (through partnerships with local r ...
, 16 December 2007
Bukovsky submitted his documents on time to the Central Electoral Commission
,
Newsru NEWSru.com was a Russian online news site, based in Moscow, which had a government-critical orientation. History NEWSru.com was originally launched in 2000 at the address ntv.ru. When the government took over the NTV network in 2000, with the n ...
, 18 December 2007
CEC accepted documents from Vladimir Bukovsky
, BBC Russian Service, 18 December 2007
Bukovsky's candidacy received the support of
Grigory Yavlinsky Grigory Alekseyevich Yavlinsky ( Russian: Григо́рий Алексе́евич Явли́нский; born 10 April 1952) is a Russian economist and politician. He authored the 500 Days Program, a plan for the transition of the Soviet regim ...
, who announced on 14 December 2007 at the
Yabloko The Russian United Democratic Party Yabloko (RUDP Yabloko) (russian: Росси́йская объединённая демократи́ческая па́ртия «Я́блоко», Rossíyskaya obyedinyónnaya demokratícheskaya pártiya "Y ...
party conference that he would forgo a campaign of his own and would instead support Bukovsky. The Action Group in support of Bukovsky's candidacy denied claims by pro-government media that Bukovsky had failed in his campaign to become RF President and in appeals before the RF Constitutional Court.Soviet dissident Bukovsky pulls out of presidential race
RIA Novosti RIA Novosti (russian: РИА Новости), sometimes referred to as RIAN () or RIA (russian: РИА, label=none) is a Russian state-owned domestic news agency. On 9 December 2013 by a decree of Vladimir Putin it was liquidated and its asse ...
, 19 December 2007
On 22 December 2007, the Central Electoral Commission turned down Bukovsky's application, on the grounds that (1) he had failed to give information about his activities as a writer when submitting his documents, (2) he was holding a British residence permit, and (3) he had not been living in Russia during the past ten years. Bukovsky appealed against the decision at the RF
Supreme Court A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts in most legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, apex court, and high (or final) court of appeal. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...
on 28 December 2007 and, subsequently, before its cassation board on 15 January 2008. On 30 March 2011, Bukovsky requested the arrest of
Mikhail Gorbachev Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev (2 March 1931 – 30 August 2022) was a Soviet politician who served as the 8th and final leader of the Soviet Union from 1985 to dissolution of the Soviet Union, the country's dissolution in 1991. He served a ...
by the British authorities after submitting to
Westminster Magistrates' Court Westminster Magistrates' Court is a magistrates' court at 181 Marylebone Road, London. The Chief Magistrate of England and Wales, who is the Senior District Judge of England and Wales, sits at the court, and all extradition and terrorism-rela ...
materials on
crimes against humanity Crimes against humanity are widespread or systemic acts committed by or on behalf of a ''de facto'' authority, usually a state, that grossly violate human rights. Unlike war crimes, crimes against humanity do not have to take place within the ...
that the former Soviet leader had allegedly committed in the late 1980s and early 1990s.


Crimea, Ukraine, Litvinenko Inquiry (2012–2015)

Bukovsky was among the first 34 signatories of "
Putin must go "Putin Must Go" () is a Russian website and public campaign organised for the collection of signatures to an open letter demanding the resignation of President of Russia, President (formerly Prime Minister of Russia, Prime Minister) Vladimir Put ...
", an online anti-Putin manifesto published on 10 March 2010. In May 2012,
Vladimir Putin Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin; (born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who holds the office of president of Russia. Putin has served continuously as president or prime minister since 1999: as prime min ...
began his third term as president of the Russian Federation after serving four years as the country's prime minister. The following year, Bukovsky published a collection of interviews in Russia which described Putin and his team as ''The heirs of
Lavrentiy Beria Lavrentiy Pavlovich Beria (; rus, Лавре́нтий Па́влович Бе́рия, Lavréntiy Pávlovich Bériya, p=ˈbʲerʲiə; ka, ლავრენტი ბერია, tr, ;  – 23 December 1953) was a Georgian Bolshevik ...
'', Stalin's last and most notorious secret police chief. In March 2014 Russia annexed
Crimea Crimea, crh, Къырым, Qırım, grc, Κιμμερία / Ταυρική, translit=Kimmería / Taurikḗ ( ) is a peninsula in Ukraine, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, that has been occupied by Russia since 2014. It has a pop ...
after
Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...
had lost control of its government buildings, airports and military bases in Crimea to unmarked soldiers and local pro-Russian militias. The West responded with sanctions targeted at Putin's immediate entourage, and Bukovsky expressed the hope that this would prove the end of his regime. In October 2014, the Russian authorities declined to issue Bukovsky with a new foreign-travel passport. The
Russian Foreign Ministry The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation (MFA Russia; russian: Министерство иностранных дел Российской Федерации, МИД РФ) is the central government institution charged with lea ...
stated that it could not confirm Bukovsky's
citizenship Citizenship is a "relationship between an individual and a state to which the individual owes allegiance and in turn is entitled to its protection". Each state determines the conditions under which it will recognize persons as its citizens, and ...
. The response was met with surprise from the Presidential Human Rights Council and the Human Rights ombudsman of the Russian Federation. On 17 March 2015, at the long-delayed inquiry into
Alexander Litvinenko Alexander Valterovich "Sasha" Litvinenko (30 August 1962 ( at WebCite) or 4 December 1962 – 23 November 2006) was a British-naturalised Russian defector and former officer of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) who specialised ...
's fatal poisoning Bukovsky gave his views as to why the former FSB man had been murdered. Interviewed on BBC TV eight years before, Bukovsky expressed no doubt that the Russian authorities were responsible for the London death of Litvinenko on 23 November 2006.


"Prohibited images" prosecution

In 2015, the UK
Crown Prosecution Service The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) is the principal public agency for conducting criminal prosecutions in England and Wales. It is headed by the Director of Public Prosecutions. The main responsibilities of the CPS are to provide legal adv ...
announced prosecution of Bukovsky for "prohibited images" of children allegedly found on his computer. Bukovsky's statements about the accusations were inconsistent. According to the prosecutor William Carter, Bukovsky told detectives that he himself had downloaded the images over the course of 15 years. On another occasion, Bukovsky described the accusations as absurd and said that the tip about the images – which he initially said were planted on his computer by a backdoor program – was passed through Europol from Russian security services. Bukovsky also noted that while the original announcement by the CPS accused him of "possession and making", the prosecution materials passed to the court only charged "possession". In early May 2015, it was reported that Bukovsky had undergone a nine-hour heart operation in a private German clinic, during which he was given two artificial valves. Subsequently, Bukovsky was kept in a medically-induced coma for three days to improve his chances of recovery. After partial recovery from his lengthy heart surgery, Vladimir Bukovsky responded to charges brought against him by the UK Crown Prosecution Service earlier in the year. Issuing a High Court writ for
libel Defamation is the act of communicating to a third party false statements about a person, place or thing that results in damage to its reputation. It can be spoken (slander) or written (libel). It constitutes a tort or a crime. The legal defini ...
, Vladimir Bukovsky said that the CPS had defamed him, and claimed damages of £100,000. Bukovsky was later ruled to be too ill to stand trial.


Death

Bukovsky died of a heart attack on 27 October 2019 at the age of 76 in
Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...
, Cambridgeshire, after a period of ill-health. He is buried on the eastern side of
Highgate Cemetery Highgate Cemetery is a place of burial in north London, England. There are approximately 170,000 people buried in around 53,000 graves across the West and East Cemeteries. Highgate Cemetery is notable both for some of the people buried there as ...
.


Bibliography

; In translation * 1978: 352 pp. ** 1979: 386 pp. ** 1979: ** 2007: * 1987: * 1995: 616 pp. ** ** (1996) ''Abrechnung mit Moskau. Das sowjetische Unrechtsregime und die Schuld des Westens'', Bergisch Gladbach ** *
''Judgment in Moscow: Soviet Crimes and Western Complicity''
(May 2019) * 1999
''Soviet Archives''
Online archive compiled by Vladimir Bukovsky, prepared for publication by the late Julia Zaks (1938–2014) and Leonid Chernikhov * 2016
''The Bukovsky Archives''
upgraded version of 1999 archive. * 2019
''Judgment in Moscow: Soviet crimes and Western complicity''
; In Russian * 1979: 382 pp. The first publication in Russian of Bukovsky's memoirs was given a Biblical title (see Ecclesiastes, v. 6). * 1989: The first publication of Bukovsky's memoirs in the USSR. * 1996: * 2001: * 2007: (First serialised in ''Teatr'' periodical, see above, 1989). * 2008: * 2013: * 2014: * 2015:


Documentaries

* ''Bukovsky'' (1977) – documentary by Alan Clarke. * ''
They Chose Freedom ''They Chose Freedom'' (russian: Они выбирали свободу, Oni vybirali svobodu) 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. Kara- ...
'' (2005) (4 parts) – documentary by Vladimir Kara-Murza Jr. * ''Russia/Chechnya: Voices of Dissent'' (2005) ''–'' with Bukovsky,
Yelena Bonner Yelena Georgiyevna Bonner (russian: link=no, Елена Георгиевна Боннэр; 15 February 1923 – 18 June 2011) ...
,
Natalya Gorbanevskaya Natalya Yevgenyevna Gorbanevskaya ( rus, Ната́лья Евге́ньевна Горбане́вская, p=nɐˈtalʲjə jɪvˈɡʲenʲjɪvnə ɡərbɐˈnʲefskəjə, a=Natal'ya Yevgen'yevna Gorbanyevskaya.ru.vorb.oga; 26 May 1936 – 29 Nove ...
,
Anna Politkovskaya Anna Stepanovna Politkovskaya (;, ; uk, Ганна Степанівна Політковська , 30 August 1958 – 7 October 2006) was a Russian journalist and human rights activist, who reported on political events in Russia, in partic ...
,
Akhmed Zakayev Akhmed Halidovich Zakayev ( ce, Заки Хьалид кlант Ахьмад, Zaki Halid-khant Ahmad; russian: Ахмед Халидович Закаев, Akhmed Khalidovich Zakayev; born 26 April 1959) is a former Deputy Prime Minister and Pri ...
and others. * ''
The Soviet Story ''The Soviet Story'' is a 2008 documentary film about Soviet Communism and Soviet–German relations before 1941 and after, written and directed by Edvīns Šnore, and sponsored by the far-right Union for Europe of the Nations group in the Euro ...
'' (2008) – documentary by
Edvīns Šnore Edvīns Šnore (born 21 March 1974, in Saulkrasti) is a Latvian film director and politician. He was elected to a four-year term in the Latvian Saeima in 2014 and 2018. Šnore's family comes from Kuldīga. He went to high school in Riga. Duri ...
* '' Parallels, Events, People'' (2014) (36 parts) – documentary series by Natella Boltyanskaya


References


''A Chronicle of Current Events'' (1968–1982)


Other


Further reading


In the Soviet Union

* * * *


After his expulsion to the West

* * * * * * * *


Two years on

* * * *


To Build a Castle (1978)

*


Judgement in Moscow (1995)

*


In the 21st century

* *


External links


In English

* : May 1989, "The Democratic Revolution in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union" (forum).
Vladimir Bukovsky
News archives, links, photos, video, public domain writings, official statements, contact info, maintained by US group Bukovsky Center
Russia/Chechnya: Voices of Dissent (2005)
– features Vladimir Bukovsky,
Yelena Bonner Yelena Georgiyevna Bonner (russian: link=no, Елена Георгиевна Боннэр; 15 February 1923 – 18 June 2011) ...
,
Natalya Gorbanevskaya Natalya Yevgenyevna Gorbanevskaya ( rus, Ната́лья Евге́ньевна Горбане́вская, p=nɐˈtalʲjə jɪvˈɡʲenʲjɪvnə ɡərbɐˈnʲefskəjə, a=Natal'ya Yevgen'yevna Gorbanyevskaya.ru.vorb.oga; 26 May 1936 – 29 Nove ...
,
Anna Politkovskaya Anna Stepanovna Politkovskaya (;, ; uk, Ганна Степанівна Політковська , 30 August 1958 – 7 October 2006) was a Russian journalist and human rights activist, who reported on political events in Russia, in partic ...
,
Akhmed Zakayev Akhmed Halidovich Zakayev ( ce, Заки Хьалид кlант Ахьмад, Zaki Halid-khant Ahmad; russian: Ахмед Халидович Закаев, Akhmed Khalidovich Zakayev; born 26 April 1959) is a former Deputy Prime Minister and Pri ...
and others. * Uploaded on 7 January 2012.
The Bukovsky Archives: Communism on Trial
Contains over seven hundred classified Soviet documents (1937–1994), an abridged translation of ''Judgement in Moscow'', an
many of the author's key articles since 1976 ("Books, Articles & Letters")

"The suppression of dissent, 1970–1979"
in the Bukovsky Archives (above) includes documents concerning Bukovsky: his activities as a Soviet dissident; his periods of imprisonment in the USSR; his exchange in 1976 for
Luis Corvalan Luis is a given name. It is the Spanish form of the originally Germanic name or . Other Iberian Romance languages have comparable forms: (with an accent mark on the i) in Portuguese and Galician, in Aragonese and Catalan, while is archaic ...
; and his ongoing campaign in the West against the Soviet regime.
"Vladimir Bukovsky: Obituary"
''The Guardian'', 28 October 2019.


In Russian

* An Alphabet of Dissent: Bukovsky (2011) * Bukovsky on Voice of America (2014) * Episode 29: "To Build a Castle", part 1. * Episode 30: "To Build a Castle", part 2.
Official 2008 Presidential campaign site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bukovsky, Vladimir 1942 births 2019 deaths 20th-century Russian male writers 20th-century Russian writers 21st-century Russian politicians 21st-century Russian writers Alumni of King's College, Cambridge Amnesty International prisoners of conscience held by the Soviet Union Burials at Highgate Cemetery Campaign Against Psychiatric Abuse Cato Institute people Inmates of Lefortovo Prison Inmates of Vladimir Central Prison Members of the Freedom Association Neurophysiologists People from Belebey Psychiatric survivor activists Russian anti-communists Russian dissidents Russian emigrants to the United Kingdom Russian memoirists Russian non-fiction writers Russian political activists Russian political writers Russian prisoners and detainees Solidarnost politicians Soviet dissidents Soviet emigrants to the United Kingdom Soviet expellees Soviet human rights activists Soviet male writers Soviet non-fiction writers Soviet prisoners and detainees Soviet psychiatric abuse whistleblowers Stanford University alumni Male non-fiction writers