View source for Vladimir Bukovsky

{{Short description|Russian-British human rights activist (1942–2019)}}
{{family name hatnote|Konstantinovich|Bukovsky|lang=Eastern Slavic}}
{{good article}}
{{EngvarB|date=February 2018}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2019}}
{{Infobox person
| name         = Vladimir Bukovsky
| native_name  = Владимир Буковский
| image        = Boekovski1987.jpg
| alt          =
| caption      = Bukovsky at the [[Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov|Sakharov]] Congress in [[Amsterdam]], 21 May 1987
| birth_date   = {{birth date|df=y|1942|12|30}}
| birth_place  = [[Belebey]], [[Bashkir Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic|Bashkir ASSR]], Soviet Union
| death_date   = {{death date and age|df=y|2019|10|27|1942|12|30}}
| death_place  = [[Cambridge]], England
| nationality  =
| citizenship  = {{plainlist|
* [[Soviet Union]] (until 1992)
* Russia (1992–2014)
* United Kingdom (from 1976)
}}
| other_names  =
| alma_mater   = [[University of Cambridge]], [[Stanford University]]
| occupation   = Human right activist, writer, [[neurophysiologist]]
| years_active =
| movement     = [[Dissident movement in the Soviet Union]], [[Solidarnost]] (Russia)
| known_for    = Human rights activism with participation in the [[Mayakovsky Square poetry readings]], the [[Campaign Against Psychiatric Abuse]] and [[struggle against political abuse of psychiatry in the Soviet Union]], [[Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation]], [[The Freedom Association]]
| awards       = The Thomas S. Szasz Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Cause of Civil Liberties,<ref>{{cite journal|author=Cooper, David|title=The Thomas S. Szasz Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Cause of Civil Liberties|journal=Mental Health and Substance Use|date=February 2009|volume=2|issue=1|pages=1–3|doi=10.1080/17523280802630251}}</ref> [[Truman-Reagan Medal of Freedom]]
| website       = {{URL|vladimirbukovsky.com}}
}}

'''Vladimir Konstantinovich Bukovsky''' ({{langx|ru|link=no|Владимир Константинович Буковский}}; 30 December 1942 – 27 October 2019) was a Soviet and Russian [[Human rights activists|human rights activist]] and writer. From the late 1950s to the mid-1970s, he was a prominent figure in the [[Soviet dissidents|Soviet dissident movement]], well known at home and abroad. He spent a total of twelve years in the [[Political abuse of psychiatry in the Soviet Union|psychiatric prison-hospitals]], [[Gulag|labour camps]], and [[prison]]s of the Soviet Union during [[History of the Soviet Union (1964–1982)|Brezhnev's rule]].<ref>{{cite journal|date=July 2009|title=Vladimir Bukovskii and Soviet Communism|journal=[[The Slavonic and East European Review]]|volume=87|issue=3|pages=452–487|jstor=40650408|last=Boobbyer|first=Philip|doi=10.1353/see.2009.0092 |s2cid=147788063 }}</ref>

After being expelled from the Soviet Union in late 1976, Bukovsky remained in [[Soviet dissidents|vocal opposition]] to the [[Politics of the Soviet Union|Soviet system]] and the shortcomings of its [[Politics of Russia|successor regimes in Russia]]. An activist, a writer,<ref name=":1">{{cite book|title=To Build a Castle: My Life as a Dissenter|last=Bukovsky|first=Vladimir|publisher=Andre Deutsch: London|year=1978|isbn=978-0-233-97023-3}} Jacket</ref> and a [[neurophysiologist]],<ref>[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term=%22Bukovsk%C3%BD%20V%22%5BAuthor%5D Bukovsky's works on neurophysiology] Eight articles published 1981–1988.</ref><ref name=Hilton>{{cite book|last=Hilton|first=Ronald|title=World affairs report. Volumes 16–17|year=1986|publisher=California Institute of International Studies|page=26|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HTskAQAAIAAJ&q=Vladimir+Bukovsky+neurophysiologist}}.</ref> he is celebrated for his part in the campaign to expose and halt the [[political abuse of psychiatry in the Soviet Union]].<ref>{{cite news|author=Davidoff, Victor|title=Soviet Psychiatry Returns|url=http://www.themoscowtimes.com/opinion/article/soviet-psychiatry-returns/487761.html|access-date=22 April 2014|work=[[The Moscow Times]]|date=13 October 2013}}</ref>

A member of the international advisory council of the [[Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation]],<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.victimsofcommunism.org/about/internationaladvisors.php |title= International Advisory Council |publisher= [[Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation]] |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110610171747/http://www.victimsofcommunism.org/about/internationaladvisors.php |archive-date= 10 June 2011 |access-date= 20 May 2011 |url-status= dead }}</ref> a director of the Gratitude Fund (set up in 1998 to commemorate and support former dissidents),<ref group="c">{{Cite web|url=http://www.thegratitudefund.org/|title=The Gratitude Fund, Assistance to Former Soviet Political Prisoners|website=thegratitudefund.org|access-date=11 June 2019}}</ref> and a member of the International Council of the New York City-based [[Human Rights Foundation]], Bukovsky was a Senior Fellow of the [[Cato Institute]] in Washington, D.C.<ref name=":3">[http://www.cato.org/people/vladimir-bukovsky "Vladimir Bukovsky"], Cato Institute website</ref>

In 2001, Vladimir Bukovsky received the [[Truman-Reagan Medal of Freedom]], awarded annually since 1993 by the [[Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://victimsofcommunism.org/initiative/truman-reagan/|title=Truman-Reagan Medal of Freedom|website=Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation|access-date=26 April 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160424185119/http://victimsofcommunism.org/initiative/truman-reagan|archive-date=24 April 2016|url-status=dead}}</ref>

== Early life ==
Vladimir Bukovsky was born to Russian parents in the town of [[Belebey]] in the [[Bashkir Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic]] (today the Republic of [[Bashkortostan]] in the Russian Federation), to which his family was [[emergency evacuation|evacuated]] during [[Eastern Front (World War II)|World War II]]. After the war he and his parents returned to Moscow where his father Konstantin (1908–1976) was a well-known Soviet journalist.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://feb-web.ru/feb/kle/kle-abc/ke9/ke9-1582.htm|title=Буковский // Краткая литературная энциклопедия. Т. 9. — 1978 (текст)|website=feb-web.ru}}</ref> During his last year at school Vladimir was expelled for [[samizdat|creating and editing an unauthorised magazine]]. To meet the requirements to apply for a university place he completed his secondary education at evening classes.<ref>{{cite book|url=http://antisoviet.imwerden.net/bukovsky_v_to_build.pdf|title=To Build a Castle: My Life as a Dissenter|date=1978|publisher=Andrei Deutsch (UK edn)|isbn=978-0-233-97023-3|location=London|pages=122–132|access-date=5 October 2015|archive-date=1 May 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130501033705/http://antisoviet.imwerden.net/bukovsky_v_to_build.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref> Bukovsky was enrolled at biology department of [[Moscow State University]], but he was expelled at age 19 for criticizing Soviet state organizations, such as [[Komsomol]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/05/vladimir-bukovsky-legendary-dissident-conversation/|title='Not Suitable for Recruiting': A Talk with Vladimir Bukovsky, Part I|date=13 May 2019|website=National Review|access-date=23 September 2019}}</ref>

==Soviet era==
===Rallies===
====Mayakovsky Square====
In September 1960, Bukovsky entered [[Moscow University]] to study biology. There he and some friends decided to revive the informal [[Mayakovsky Square poetry readings]] which began after a statue to the poet was unveiled in central Moscow in 1958.<ref>[http://www.memo.ru/history/majak/ Vladimir Bukovsky, "A Soviet Hyde-Park Corner" in ''My predchuvstvie, predtecha&nbsp;...: Ploshchad Mayakovskogo, 1958–1965''], Zvenya: Moscow, 1996 (Collection title in English: ''We were the premonition, the forerunners&nbsp;...'')</ref> They made contact with earlier participants of the readings such as [[Vladimir Osipov]],<ref>Sentenced to 7 years in labour camp for samizdat activities, released in 1968. [https://chronicle6883.wordpress.com/2013/09/22/4-6-news-in-brief/ See CCE 4.7 (31 October 1968), "News in brief" (item 9).]</ref> the editor of ''Boomerang'' (1960), and [[Yuri Galanskov]] who issued the ''[[Phoenix (literary magazine)|Phoenix]]'' (1961), two examples of literary [[samizdat]].<ref name=rubenstein-dissidents>{{cite book|author=Rubenstein, Joshua|title=Soviet dissidents: their struggle for human rights|year=1980|publisher=Beacon|location=Boston|isbn=978-0-8070-3212-1|url=https://archive.org/details/sovietdissidents00beac}}</ref>{{rp|17–19}}

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]]. Bukovsky portrayed the [[USSR]] 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.<ref>[http://www.memo.ru/history/majak/ Vladimir Bukovsky, "Tezisy {o razvale Komsomole}" in ''My predchuvstvie, predtecha&nbsp;...: Ploshchad Mayakovskogo, 1958–1965''] Zvenya: Moscow, 1996. See also 1997 book of same name {{ISBN|5-7870-0002-1}}</ref> 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.<ref name=Boobbyer>{{cite journal|author=Boobbyer, Richard|title=Vladimir Bukovskii and Soviet Communism|journal=[[The Slavonic and East European Review]]|date=July 2009|volume=87|issue=3|pages=452–487|doi=10.1353/see.2009.0092 |jstor=40650408|s2cid=147788063 }}</ref>

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]]") of the [[RSFSR]] [[Criminal Code]]. The official charge was the making and possession of photocopies of anti-Soviet literature, namely two copies of the banned work ''[[The New Class: An Analysis of the Communist System|The New Class]]'' by [[Milovan Djilas]].<ref name="Boobbyer" /> Bukovsky was examined by Soviet psychiatrists, declared to be mentally ill ("[[sluggish schizophrenia|schizophrenia]]"), and sent for treatment at the Special Psychiatric Hospital in Leningrad where he remained for almost two years, until February 1965.<ref name="Boobbyer" /><ref name="Memorial">[https://lists.memo.ru/d5/f367.htm#n124 Victims of political terror in the USSR.]{{In lang|ru}} Database of the Memorial Society.</ref> It was there he became acquainted with General [[Petro Grigorenko]], a fellow inmate.<ref>{{Cite book| publisher = Wildwood House| isbn = 978-0-7045-3062-1| last = Rubenstein| first = Joshua| title = Soviet Dissidents: Their Struggle for Human Rights| location = London| date = 1981 | page=135}}</ref>

====The glasnost rally, 5 December 1965====
In December 1965, Bukovsky helped prepare a demonstration on [[Pushkin Square]] in central Moscow to protest against the [[Sinyavsky–Daniel trial|trial]] of the writers [[Andrei Sinyavsky]] and [[Yuli Daniel]]. He circulated the "Civic Appeal" by mathematician and poet [[Alexander Esenin-Volpin]], which called on the authorities to obey the Soviet laws requiring [[glasnost]] in the judicial process, e.g. the admission of the public and the media to any trial.<ref name="Boobbyer" /> 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]]s,<ref name=Boobbyer/> 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.<ref>Vladimir Bukovsky, ''To Build a Castle'' (1978), pp 220–224.</ref> They were protesting against the recent arrests of [[Alexander Ginzburg]], [[Yuri Galanskov]], Alexei Dobrovolsky and Vera Lashkova (finally prosecuted in January 1968 in the [[Trial of the Four]]<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://chronicle6883.wordpress.com/2013/09/21/1-1-the-trial-of-galanskov-ginzburg-dobrovolsky-and-lashkova/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151211151109/https://chronicle6883.wordpress.com/2013/09/21/1-1-the-trial-of-galanskov-ginzburg-dobrovolsky-and-lashkova/ |url-status=dead |title="The Trial of Galanskov and Ginzburg", CCE 1.1 (30 April 1968|archive-date=11 December 2015}}</ref><ref name="litvinov-trial">{{cite book|last=Litvinov|first=Pavel|title=The Trial of The Four: A collection of Materials on the case of Galanskov, Ginzburg, Dobrovolsky, & Lashkova 1967–1968|year=1971|publisher=The Viking Press|location=New York|isbn=978-0-670-73017-9|url=https://archive.org/details/trialoffour00litv}}</ref>) 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.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://bukovsky-archives.net/|title=Vladimir Bukovsky, Soviet Archive, Section 3.1 "1960–1969", 4 September 1967, P 1393 |website=bukovsky-archives.net}}</ref>

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.<ref name=horvath-legacy>{{Cite book| publisher = RoutledgeCurzon| isbn = 978-0-203-41285-5| volume = 17| last = Horvath| first = Robert| title = The Legacy of Soviet Dissent: Dissidents, Democratisation and Radical Nationalism in Russia| location = London; New York| series = BASEES/Routledge Series on Russian and East European Studies| year = 2005}}</ref>{{rp|74–75}} Bukovsky's final words in court circulated widely in a samizdat collection of such addresses<ref>CCE 12.10 (28 February 1970) "Samizdat update, item 11" and CCE 17.13 (31 December 1970), "Samizdat update, item 8".</ref> and as part of a collection of materials about the demonstration and subsequent trials compiled by [[Pavel Litvinov]].<ref name=litvinov-demonstration>{{cite book|last=Litvinov|first=Pavel|title=The demonstration in Pushkin Square. The trial records with commentary and an open letter|year=1969|publisher=Harvill|location=London|asin=B0026Q02KE}}</ref>{{rp|87–95}}<ref name=abuse>{{cite book|title=Abuse of psychiatry for political repression in the Soviet Union|year=1973|publisher=Arno|location=New York|isbn=978-0-405-00698-2}}</ref>{{rp|37–43}}

Fellow protestors Vadim Delaunay and Yevgeny Kushev admitted regret for their actions but not their guilt; they received suspended sentences and were released.<ref name="Boobbyer" /><ref>Vladimir Bukovsky, ''To Build a Castle'', p. 239.</ref> 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]] Region to serve his sentence. He was released in January 1970.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Young Heroes in World History|last=Berson|first=Robin Kadison|date=1999|publisher=Greenwood Press|isbn=978-0-313-30257-2|location=Westport, Conn|page=44}}</ref>

====The campaign against the abuse of psychiatry====
{{main|Campaign Against Psychiatric Abuse|Struggle against political abuse of psychiatry in the Soviet Union|Chronicle of Current Events}}

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]], 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.<ref group="c">{{Cite web|url=https://chronicle-of-current-events.com/2013/09/25/8-7-the-fate-of-dissenters-who-have-been-declared-mentally-ill/|title=The fate of dissenters declared mentally ill, July 1969 (8.7)|date=25 September 2013|website=A Chronicle of Current Events|access-date=11 June 2019}}</ref>

During a clandestine interview filmed by CBS News correspondent [[Bill Cole (television journalist and producer)|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.<ref name="soviet history lessons">{{Cite web|url=https://www.soviethistorylessons.com/rose-marie-debecker-on-bill-cole|title=Rose-marie Debecker On Bill Cole &#124; Soviet History Lessons|website=SovietHistoryLessons}}</ref><ref name="chronicle">{{Cite web|url=https://chronicle-of-current-events.com/2014/05/09/15-10-news-in-brief/|title = News in Brief, August 1970 (15.10)|date = 9 May 2014}}</ref>
{{blockquote|text=This was a major operation. About twenty of us, Russians and correspondents, went off to the woods outside Moscow, together with wives and children, for a picnic. The KGB kept in the background and watched us from a distance—their main worry was not to miss the moment of our departure. Therefore it was fairly easy for Bill and me to arrange it so that the agents couldn't see him filming the interview. In fact, that was no problem—but smuggling it
out was. Bill did two more interviews—with Andrei Amalrik and Pyotr Yakir—and I gave him a taped statement by Ginzburg that had been smuggled out of the Mordovian camps. This considerable package took three months to reach America.<ref name=":1" />

}}

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."<ref name="soviet history lessons" /><ref name="chronicle" />
In 1971, Bukovsky managed to smuggle to the West over 150 pages further documenting the political [[Political abuse of psychiatry in the Soviet Union|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.<ref name=rubenstein-dissidents />{{rp|138–141}}<ref name=reddaway-times>{{cite news|last=Reddaway|first=Peter|title=Plea to West on Soviet 'mad-house' jails|newspaper=[[The Times]]|date=12 March 1971|page=8}}</ref><ref name="bloch-abuse" />{{rp|29–30}}

{{quote box
| title=
| quote= In recent years in our country a number of court orders have been made involving the placing in psychiatric hospitals ("of special type" and otherwise) of people who in the opinion of their relatives and close friends are mentally healthy. These people are: [[Pyotr Grigorenko|Grigorenko]], [[Eliyahu Rips|Rips]], [[Natalya Gorbanevskaya|Gorbanevskaya]], [[Valeriya Novodvorskaya|Novodvorskaya]],<ref group=c>{{Cite web|url=https://chronicle-of-current-events.com/2013/10/10/11-7-arrests-among-moscow-students/|title=Arrests among Moscow students, December 1969 (11.7)|date=10 October 2013}}</ref> Ivan Yakhimovich,<ref group=c>{{Cite web|url=https://chronicle-of-current-events.com/2013/10/05/9-3-two-trials-about-compulsory-medical-treatment/|title=Two trials about compulsory medical treatment, July–August 1969 (9.3)|date=5 October 2013}}</ref> [[Vladimir Gershuni]],<ref group=c>{{Cite web|url=https://chronicle-of-current-events.com/2015/12/16/19-2-notes-by-vladimir-gershuni-from-the-oryol-special-psychiatric-hospital/|title=Notes from Oryol SPH, Vladimir Gershuni: March 1971 (19.2)|date=16 December 2015}}</ref> [[Victor Fainberg]],<ref group=c>{{Cite web|url=https://chronicle6883.files.wordpress.com/2013/09/nos-19-20-april-and-july-1971eng.pdf|title=CCE 19.3 (30 April 1971), "The hunger-strike of Victor Fainberg and Vladimir Borisov in Leningrad Special Psychiatric Hospital".}}</ref> Victor Kuznetsov,<ref group=c>{{Cite web|url=https://chronicle-of-current-events.com/2013/09/25/7-3-the-arrest-of-victor-kuznetsov/|title=The arrest of Victor Kuznetsov, 20 March 1969 (7.3)|date=25 September 2013}}</ref> Olga Ioffe,<ref group=c>{{Cite web|url=https://chronicle-of-current-events.com/2014/05/11/15-2-the-trial-of-olga-ioffe/|title=The Trial of Olga Joffe, 20 August 1970 (15.2)|date=11 May 2014}}</ref> Vladimir E. Borisov <ref group=c>{{Cite web|url=https://chronicle-of-current-events.com/2013/10/06/11-10-the-trial-of-vladimir-borisov-leningrad/|title=The trial of Vladimir Borisov (Leningrad), 19 November 1969 (11.10)|date=6 October 2013}}</ref> and others – people well known for their initiative in defence of civil rights in the USSR.

This phenomenon arouses justified anxiety, especially in view of the widely publicized placing of the biologist [[Zhores Medvedev]] in a psychiatric hospital by extrajudicial means.{{hidden begin}}

The diagnoses of the psychiatrists who have served as expert witnesses in court, and on whose diagnoses the court orders are based, provoke many doubts as regards their content. However, only specialists in psychiatry can express authoritative opinions about the degree of legitimacy of these diagnoses.

Taking advantage of the fact that I have managed to obtain exact copies of the diagnostic reports made by the forensic-psychiatric groups who examined Grigorenko, Fainberg, Gorbanevskaya, Borisov and Yakhimovich, and also extracts from the diagnosis on V. Kuznetsov, I am sending you these documents, and also various letters and other material which reveal the character of these people. I will be very grateful to you if you can study this material and express your opinion on it.

I realise that at a distance and without the essential clinical information it is very difficult to determine the mental condition of a person and either to diagnose an illness or assert the absence of any illness. Therefore I ask you to express your opinion on only this point: do the above-mentioned diagnoses contain enough scientifically-based evidence not only to indicate the mental illnesses described in the diagnoses, but also to indicate the necessity of isolating these people completely from society?

I will be very happy if you can interest your colleagues in this matter and if you consider it possible to place it on the agenda for discussion at the next International Congress of Psychiatrists.

For a healthy person there is no fate more terrible than indefinite internment in a mental hospital. I believe that you will not remain indifferent to this problem and will devote a portion of your time to it – just as physicists find time to combat the use of the achievements of their science in ways harmful to mankind.

Thanking you in advance,

V. Bukovsky
{{hidden end}}
— Bukovsky's 1971 letter addressed to Western Psychiatrists<ref name=British-psychiatry /><ref name=bloch-political>{{cite book|author1=Bloch, Sidney |author2=Reddaway, Peter |title=Russia's Political Hospitals|year=1977|publisher=Gollancz|location=London|isbn=978-0-575-02318-5}}</ref>{{rp|80–81}}
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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]]'' (London) and later in the ''[[British Journal of Psychiatry]]''<ref name=reddaway-times /><ref name=British-psychiatry>{{cite journal|author=Richter, Derek|title=Political Dissenters in Mental Hospitals|journal=The British Journal of Psychiatry|date= 1 August 1971|volume=119|issue=549|pages=225–226|doi=10.1192/bjp.119.549.225|s2cid=145461136|doi-access=free}}</ref><ref name=bloch-political/>{{rp|79; 82}} Bukovsky was arrested on 29 March and held in custody for nine months before being put on trial in January 1972.<ref name="Boobbyer" />

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.<ref>''The Times'', 16 September 1971, p. 17.</ref> At a meeting in November 1971, the [[World Federation for Mental Health]] called on its members to investigate the charges and defend the right to free opinion where it was threatened.<ref name=bloch-political />{{rp|85}} These responses were carefully documented by the dissident human rights periodical ''[[Chronicle of Current Events]]'', 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.<ref group="c">{{Cite web|url=https://chronicle-of-current-events.com/2015/12/08/22-3-materials-concerning-the-forthcoming-international-congress-of-psychiatrists/|title=Materials concerning the forthcoming International Congress of Psychiatrists, 16 September 1971 (22.3)|date=8 December 2015|website=A Chronicle of Current Events|access-date=11 June 2019}}</ref>

Responding to public pressure,<ref>The first edition of Bloch and Reddaway's book on ''Russia's political hospitals'' was published in 1977, during the run-up to the Congress.</ref> the [[World Psychiatric Association]] finally condemned Soviet practices at its Sixth World Congress in 1977 and set up a review committee to monitor misuse.<ref name=bloch-abuse>{{cite book|author1=Bloch, Sidney |author2=Reddaway, Peter |title=Soviet Psychiatric Abuse. The Shadow Over World Psychiatry|year=1984|publisher=Gollancz|location=London|isbn=978-0-575-03253-8}}</ref>{{rp|111}} In 1983, the Soviet representatives withdrew from the World Psychiatric Association rather than face expulsion.<ref name="bloch-abuse"/>{{rp|42–44}} Bukovsky later characterised this reaction as "the most important victory for the dissident form of glasnost".<ref name=bukovsky-moskovsky>{{cite book|last=Bukovskii|first=Vladimir|title=Moskovskii Protsess [Moscow trial]|year=1996|publisher=MIK|location=Moscow|language=ru}}</ref>{{rp|144}}

===Final arrest (1971) and imprisonment===
Following the release of the documents, Bukovsky was denounced in ''[[Pravda]]'' as a "malicious hooligan, engaged in anti-Soviet activities" and arrested on 29 March 1971.<ref group="c">{{Cite web|url=https://chronicle-of-current-events.com/2015/12/08/19-1-the-arrest-of-vladimir-bukovsky/|title=The Arrest of Bukovsky, 29 March 1971 (19.1)|date=8 December 2015|website=A Chronicle of Current Events|access-date=11 June 2019}}</ref> 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.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=British Human Rights Organizations and Soviet Dissent, 1965–1985|last=Hurst|first=Mark|date=2016|isbn=978-1-4725-2516-1|page=32|publisher=Bloomsbury }}</ref>

During the trial in January 1972 Bukovsky was accused of slandering Soviet psychiatry, contacts with foreign journalists, and the possession and distribution of [[samizdat]]. On this occasion he again used his final words to the court to reach a much wider audience when the text circulated in samizdat.<ref group="c">{{Cite web|url=https://chronicle-of-current-events.com/2015/12/09/23-1-the-case-of-vladimir-bukovsky/|title=The Case of Vladimir Bukovsky, January 1972 (23.1)|date=9 December 2015|website=A Chronicle of Current Events|access-date=11 June 2019}}</ref> He was sentenced to two years in prison, five in a labour camp, and five more in internal exile.<ref name="abuse" />{{rp|31–32}}<ref group="c">For reactions in the West and the Soviet Union to the sentence see [https://chronicle6883.wordpress.com/2015/12/06/24-1-the-case-of-vladimir-bukovsky/ CCE 24.1 (5 March 1972), "The case of Vladimir Bukovsky".] For a [[KGB]] profile of Bukovsky, dated 18 May 1972, see: {{cite book|last=Morozov|first=Boris|title=Documents on Soviet Jewish Emigration|year=1999|publisher=Frank Cass|location=London|isbn=978-0-7146-4911-5|pages=152–154}}</ref>

While in prison Bukovsky and his fellow inmate, the psychiatrist [[Semyon Gluzman]], wrote a brief 20-page ''Manual on Psychiatry for Dissidents'', which was widely published abroad, in Russian (1975) and in many other languages, including <ref>{{cite journal|last1=Bukovsky|first1=Vladimir|last2=Gluzman|first2=Semyon|name-list-style=amp |script-title=ru:Пособие по психиатрии для инакомыслящих|journal=Хроника защиты прав в СССР [A Chronicle of Human Rights in the USSR]|issue=13|pages=36–61|date=January–February 1975a|url=http://antology.igrunov.ru/authors/bukovsky/psychiatr.html|trans-title=A manual on psychiatry for dissidents|language=ru}} published in: {{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OFEeAQAAIAAJ|title=Советская психиатрия: Заблуждения и умысел|publisher=Издательство "Сфера"|year=2002|isbn=978-966-7841-36-2|location=Киев|pages=197–218|author1=Коротенко, Ада |author2=Аликина, Наталия }}</ref> English,<ref>{{cite journal|author1=Bukovsky, Vladimir |author2=Gluzman, Semyon |title=A manual on psychiatry for dissidents|journal=Survey: A Journal of East and West Studies|date=Winter–Spring 1975b|volume=21|issue=1|pages=180–199}}
* {{cite book|author1=Bukovsky, Vladimir |author2=Gluzman, Semyon |title=A manual of psychiatry for political dissidents|date=1975c|publisher=[[Amnesty International]]|location=London|oclc=872337790}}
* {{cite journal|author1=Bukovsky, Vladimir |author2=Gluzman, Semyon |title=A dissident's guide to psychiatry|journal=A Chronicle of Human Rights in the USSR|date=1975d|issue=13|pages=31–57}}</ref> French,<ref>{{cite journal|author1=Boukovsky, Vladimir |author2=Glouzmann, Semion |title=Guide de psychiatrie pour les dissidents soviétiques: dédié à Lonia Pliouchtch, victime de la terreur psychiatrique|trans-title=Guide on psychiatry for Soviet dissidents: dedicated to Lyonya Plyushch, a victim of psychiatric terror|journal=[[Esprit (magazine)|Esprit]]|date=September 1975|volume=449|issue=9|pages=307–332|jstor=24263203|language=fr|url=http://www.esprit.presse.fr/archive/review/article.php?code=30025}}</ref> Italian,<ref>{{cite book|author1=Bukovskij, Vladimir |author2=Gluzman, Semen |author3=Leva, Marco |title=Guida psichiatrica per dissidenti. Con esempi pratici e una lettera dal Gulag|trans-title=Psychiatric guide for dissidents. With practical examples and a letter from the Gulag|date=1979|publisher=L'erba voglio|location=Milan|asin=B00E3B4JK4|language=it}}</ref> German,<ref>{{cite journal|author1=Bukowski, Wladimir |author2=Gluzman, Semen |title=Psychiatrie-handbuch für dissidenten|trans-title=A manual on psychiatry for dissidents|journal=Samisdat. Stimmen aus dem "anderen Rußland"|year=1976|issue=8|pages=29–48|language=de}}</ref> and Danish.<ref>{{cite book|author1=Bukovskiĭ, Vladimir |author2=Gluzman, Semyon |title=Håndbog i psykiatri for afvigere|trans-title=A manual on psychiatry for dissidents|date=1975e|publisher=Samarbetsdynamik AB|location=Göteborg|isbn=978-9185396009|oclc=7551381|language=da}}</ref> It instructed potential victims of political psychiatry how to behave during interrogation to avoid being diagnosed as mentally ill.<ref name="Helmchen">{{cite book|author1=Helmchen, Hanfried |author2=Sartorius, Norman |title=Ethics in Psychiatry: European Contributions|year=2010|publisher=Springer|isbn=978-90-481-8720-1|page=495|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=70h31egRm40C&pg=PA495}}</ref>

===Deportation from the USSR (1976)===
[[File:DemoBoekovski1975.jpg|thumb|Protest demonstration of January 1975 in [[Amsterdam]] for Vladimir Bukovsky's release from prison]]

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]] formed in 1961.<ref name=":0" />{{Rp|175}}

In December 1976, Bukovsky was deported from the USSR and exchanged at [[Zürich]] airport by the Soviet government for the imprisoned general secretary of the [[Communist Party of Chile]], [[Luis Corvalán]].<ref name="Laird">{{cite book|author1=Laird, Robbin |author2=Hoffmann, Erik |title=Soviet foreign policy in a changing world|year=1986|publisher=Transaction Publishers|isbn=978-0-202-24166-1|page=79|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1TDa1YNhSjgC&pg=PA79}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|author=Ulianova, Olga|author-link=Olga Ulianova |title=Corvalán for Bukovsky: a real exchange of prisoners during an imaginary war. The Chilean dictatorship, the Soviet Union, and US mediation, 1973–1976|journal=[[Cold War History (journal)|Cold War History]]|volume=14 |issue=3 |pages=315–336 |year=2013|doi=10.1080/14682745.2013.793310|s2cid=154704693 |issn=1743-7962}}</ref> In his 1978 autobiography Bukovsky describes how he was brought to [[Switzerland]] in handcuffs.<ref name=":1" />{{Rp|432}} The widely publicised exchange increased public awareness in the West about [[Soviet dissidents]].<ref name=":0" />{{Rp|175}} A fellow dissident, [[Vadim Delaunay]] wrote an epigram on the occasion about the exchange of "hooligan" Bukovsky:<ref>{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20160530110119/http://freedom.grigoryants.com/book/chapter-2/part-2-7/ Glasnost' and Freedom]}}, Memoirs by [[Sergei Grigoryants]].</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.trud.ru/article/15-09-2006/107942_obmenjali_xuligana_na_luisa_korvalana.html |title=ОБМЕНЯЛИ ХУЛИГАНА НА ЛУИСА КОРВАЛАНА |language=ru |trans-title=They exchanged a hooligan for Luis Corvalan |date=15 September 2006|website=www.trud.ru}}</ref>

<poem>
They exchanged a "hooligan" 
For the [[Luis Corvalan]]. 
[[Augusto Pinochet|What it would be kind of bitch]]<ref>"[[Mat (profanity)#Blyád'|Blyad]]" rather than "Bitch" in Russian original.</ref>
One could try to [[Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev|Brezhnev]] switch?"
</poem>

In March 1977, US President [[Jimmy Carter]] met with Bukovsky at the [[White House]]. 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.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Crisis of Détente in Europe: From Helsinki to Gorbachev 1975–1985|last=Nuti|first=Leopoldo|date=2008|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-134-04498-6|series=Cold War History|page=35;17–18}}</ref>

Bukovsky moved to Great Britain where he settled in [[Cambridge]] and resumed his studies in biology, disrupted fifteen years earlier (see above) by his expulsion from Moscow University.<ref name="van Voren 2009">{{cite book|author=Voren, Robert van|title=On Dissidents and Madness: From the Soviet Union of Leonid Brezhnev to the "Soviet Union" of Vladimir Putin|year=2009|publisher=Rodopi|location=Amsterdam & New York|isbn=978-90-420-2585-1|page=7 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tyDIKu8XsgcC&pg=PA7}}</ref>{{rp|7}}

====Life in the West====
Bukovsky gained a master's degree in [[Biology]] at [[Cambridge University]]. He also wrote and published ''To Build a Castle: My Life as a Dissenter'' (1978).<ref>The English title is derived from one of Bukovsky's distractions, invented to while away long hours behind bars. He would imagine constructing a fortress from the ground up, ''To Build a Castle'', Andre Deutsch: London, 1978, pp. 22–23.</ref> (The title in Russian, ''And the Wind Returns&nbsp;...'', is a Biblical allusion.)<ref>"What does a man gaine from all his labour and his toil here under the sun?&nbsp;... The wind blows south, the wind blows north, round and round it goes and returns full circle", ''Ecclesiastes'', 1:3–6.</ref> The book was translated into English, French and German.<ref>''...&nbsp;et le vent reprend ses tours: Ma vie de dissident'', Editions du Rocher, 1978, 406 pages ({{ISBN|978-2-221-00128-8}})</ref> 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.<ref>В.Буковский (1978) "И возвращается ветер&nbsp;..."  [http://www.vehi.net/samizdat/bukovsky.html Vehi.net]</ref><ref>B.Буковский (1978) "И возвращается ветер&nbsp;..." [http://www.sakharov-center.ru/asfcd/auth/auth_pages.xtmpl?Key=17441&page=3 Sakharov-venter.ru] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071015172233/http://www.sakharov-center.ru/asfcd/auth/auth_pages.xtmpl?Key=17441&page=3 |date=15 October 2007 }}</ref><ref>В. Буковский (1978) "И возвращается ветер&nbsp;..." [http://www.tyurem.net/books/bukovsky/001.htm Tyurem.net]</ref>

After he settled in the West, Bukovsky wrote 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]], Bukovsky campaigned with some success for an official UK and US boycott of the summer 1980 Olympics in Moscow.<ref>Vladimir Bukovsky, "How Russia breaks the rules of the Games", letter to ''The Daily Telegraph'', 2 October 1979; "Do athletes want the KGB to win the Olympics?" ''News of the World'', 20 January 1980</ref> During the same years he voiced concern about the activities and policies of the Western peace movements.<ref>{{cite journal|script-title=ru:"The Soviet Union and the Peace Movement"|journal=[[Commentary (magazine)|Commentary]]|date=5 January 1982|url=https://www.commentarymagazine.com/article/the-peace-movement-the-soviet-union/}}</ref>

[[File:SacharovCongres1987.jpg|thumb|left|Bukovsky at 5th Sakharov Conference, May 1987, Netherlands: (l. to r.) Prime Minister Lubbers, Vladimir Bukovsky, Professor Bezemer, Professor Robert Conquest]]
In 1983, together with Cuban dissident [[Armando Valladares]], Bukovsky co-founded and was later elected president of [[Resistance International]].<ref name="Boobbyer"/><ref name=":2">{{Cite book|title=Historical Dictionary of Russian and Soviet Foreign Policy|last=Saul|first=Norman E.|date=2015|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|isbn=978-0-8108-6806-9|series=Historical dictionaries of diplomacy and foreign relations|location=Lanham, Maryland|pages=63}}</ref> The anti-Communist organisation was run from a small office in Paris by Soviet dissidents and emigres, notably Vladimir Maximov and [[Eduard Kuznetsov (dissident)|Eduard Kuznetsov]].<ref name="Boobbyer"/> In 1985 it expanded into the American Foundation for Resistance International.<ref name=":2" /> Among the prominent members of the board were [[Albert Jolis]] and [[Jeane Kirkpatrick]] while [[Midge Decter]], Yuri Yarim-Agaev, [[Richard Perle]], [[Saul Bellow]], [[Robert Conquest]] and Martin Colman were on the body's advisory committee.<ref>{{Cite journal|year=1988|title=In The U.S.S.R|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=h_TyAAAAMAAJ|journal=Resistance Bulletin|volume=1|issue=5–9}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{Cite book|title=A Clutch of Reds and Diamonds: A Twentieth Century Odyssey|last=Jolis|first=Albert|date=1996|publisher=East European Monographs; Distributed by Columbia University Press|isbn=978-0-88033-364-1|series=East European monographs|location=Boulder: New York|pages=363–380}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|year=1983|title=Resistance International|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DqNWAAAAYAAJ|journal=Survey|volume=27–28|page=311}}</ref>

In March 1987, Bukovsky and nine other émigré authors ([[Ernst Neizvestny]], [[Yury Lyubimov]], [[Vasily Aksyonov]] and [[Leonid Plyushch]] 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]]'s reforms.<ref>{{cite news|title=Is Glasnost a Game of Mirrors?|journal=[[The New York Times]]|date=22 March 1987|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1987/03/22/opinion/is-glasnost-a-game-of-mirrors.html}}. Unexpectedly this op-ed was translated into Russian and quickly published in Moscow as well (''Moskovskie novosti'', 29 March 1987).</ref>

===Return to the Soviet Union (1991)===
In April 1991, Vladimir Bukovsky visited Moscow for the first time since his deportation fifteen years before.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/16/AR2007101601312_pf.html|title=Soviet-Era Dissident Returns to Moscow|last=Bukharbaeva|first=Bagila|date=16 October 2007|newspaper=The Washington Post|access-date=27 April 2016}}</ref>

In the run-up to the [[1991 Russian presidential election|1991 presidential election]], [[Boris Yeltsin]]'s campaign team [[Boris Yeltsin presidential campaign, 1991#Running mate selection|included Bukovsky on their list of potential vice-presidential running-mates]].<ref name=":2" /> In the end, army officer [[Alexander Rutskoy]], a veteran of the 1979–1989 war in Afghanistan and [[Hero of the Soviet Union]] was selected. On 5 December 1991, both of Bukovsky's Soviet-era convictions were annulled by a decree of the RSFSR Supreme Court.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.bukovsky-archives.net/pdfs/perestr/perestr-e.html|title=perestroika, Soviet Archives|website=www.bukovsky-archives.net}}</ref> 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.<ref>[http://www.bukovsky2008.org/load/11-1-0-16 The official Presidential website, Bukovsky biography (in Russian)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190502065424/http://www.bukovsky2008.org/load/11-1-0-16 |date=2 May 2019 }}.</ref>

==Post-Soviet period==
British and European psychiatrists assessing the documents on psychiatric abuse released by Bukovsky characterised him in 1971: "The information we have about [Vladimir Bukovsky] suggests 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]] in October that year but criticised the new [[Constitution of Russia]] approved two months later, as being designed to ensure a continuation of Yeltsin's power.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.commentarymagazine.com/articles/boris-yeltsins-hollow-victory/|title=Boris Yeltsin's Hollow Victory|last=Bukovsky|first=Vladimir|date=1 June 1993|work=Commentary|access-date=27 April 2016}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1993/12/11/dissidents-discontent/6c5948d5-2f25-4b7a-9475-eebf1614a857/|title=Dissident's Discontent|last=Horne|first=A. D.|date=11 December 1993|newspaper=The Washington Post|access-date=27 April 2016}}</ref> According to Bukovsky, Yeltsin became a hostage of the security agencies from 1994 onwards, and a restoration of KGB rule was inevitable.<ref name="Boobbyer" />

=== ''Judgment in Moscow'' ===
{{see also|Decommunization of Russia}}
In 1992, after the [[dissolution of the Soviet Union]], President Yeltsin's government invited Bukovsky to serve as an expert witness at the trial before the [[Constitutional Court]] where Russia's communists were suing Yeltsin for banning their Party and taking its property. The respondent's case was that the [[CPSU]] itself had been an unconstitutional organisation.<ref name="Boobbyer"/> 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]]).<ref name="Boobbyer"/> 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]]), including [[KGB]] reports to the [[Central Committee]]. The copies were then smuggled to the West.<ref>Many of these scanned documents are today available online as ''[http://www.bukovsky-archive.com/ The Bukovsky Archives]'' and are provided with English lists of titles and contents, and over one hundred translations.</ref>

Bukovsky hoped that an international tribunal in Moscow might play a similar role to the first [[Nuremberg Trial]] (1945–1946) in post-Nazi Germany and help the country begin to overcome the legacy of Communism.<ref>Bukovsky, Vladimir (1996). [https://bukovsky-archive.com/2-night-of-the-looters/ "The Night of the Looters"], excerpt from ''Judgment in Moscow''.</ref>

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.<ref>See [http://www.bukovsky-archives.net/ Soviet Archives], compiled by Vladimir Bukovsky, and published online by Julia Zaks and Leonid Chernikhov</ref> 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.<ref name=":3" />

The book was soon translated into several languages<ref>See German version, ''Abrechnung mit Moskau. Das sowjetische Unrechtsregime und die Schuld des Westens'', Bergisch Gladbach, 1996.</ref> but did not appear in English for over twenty years. [[Random House]] 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.).<ref name=":4">{{cite journal|author=Berlinski, Claire|title=A hidden history of evil. Why doesn't anyone care about the unread Soviet archives?|journal=[[City Journal (New York)|City Journal]]|date=Spring 2010|url=http://www.city-journal.org/2010/20_2_soviet-archives.html|access-date=7 February 2012|archive-date=4 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304024539/http://www.city-journal.org/2010/20_2_soviet-archives.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> Meanwhile, the book was published in French as ''Jugement à Moscou'' (1995),<ref>{{Cite book|title=Jugement à Moscou: un dissident dans les archives du Kremlin|last2=Martinez|first2=Louis|date=1995|publisher=R. Laffont|isbn=978-2-221-07460-2|location=Paris|last1=Bukovskiĭ|first1=Vladimir Konstantinovich}}</ref> in Russian (1996) and in certain other Slavic languages: for a time the Polish edition became a best-seller.<ref name=":4"/><ref>''Proces moskiewski'' ({{ISBN|83-7227-190-9}}), Warsaw 1999.</ref> 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.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.vladimirbukovsky.com/|title=Vladimir Bukovsky 1942–2019|website=Vladimir Bukovsky 1942–2019}}</ref>

On 30 March 2011, Bukovsky requested the arrest of [[Mikhail Gorbachev]] by the British authorities after submitting to [[Westminster Magistrates' Court]] materials on [[crimes against humanity]] that the former Soviet leader had allegedly committed in the late 1980s and early 1990s by ordering military suppression of demonstrations in [[January Events|Lithuania]], [[April 9 tragedy|Tbilisi]], [[Black January|Baku]] and [[1990 Dushanbe riots|Tajikistan]].<ref>{{cite web|author=Подрабинек, Александр|script-title=ru:Буковский против Горбачева. Не юбилейные показания|trans-title=Bukovsky vs Gorbachev. Non-jubilee testimonies|url=http://ru.rfi.fr/rossiya/20110330-bukovskii-protiv-gorbacheva-ne-yubileinye-pokazaniya|publisher=[[Radio France Internationale]]|language=ru|date=30 March 2011}}</ref>

===Potential 1996 presidential candidacy===
{{See also|1996 Russian presidential election}}
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 main challenger [[Gennady Zyuganov]] of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation. However, no formal nomination process was initiated.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.newsru.com/russia/28may2007/bukovsky.html|script-title=ru:Советский диссидент Владимир Буковский согласен баллотироваться на пост президента России|date=28 May 2007|website=newsru.com|language=ru|access-date=27 April 2016}}</ref>

===''Memento Gulag''===
In 2001, Bukovsky was elected President of the ''[[Comitatus pro Libertatibus]] – Comitati per le Libertà – Freedom Committees'' in Florence, an Italian [[Libertarianism|libertarian]] organisation which promoted an annual ''Memento Gulag'', or Memorial Day devoted to the Victims of Communism, on 7 November (the anniversary of the [[October Revolution|Bolshevik Revolution]]).<ref name="Boobbyer" /> The ''Memento Gulag'' has since been held in Rome, [[Bucharest]], Berlin, [[La Roche sur Yon]] and Paris.

===Contacts with Boris Nemtsov and the Russian opposition===
In 2002, [[Boris Nemtsov]], former Deputy Prime Minister of Russia who was then an elected member of the State [[Duma]] and leader of the [[Union of Rightist Forces]], 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]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.sps.ru/?id=42440 |script-title=ru:Не забывая о наших корнях... Владимир Буковский – легенда российского демократического движения |last=Кара-Мурза |first=Владимир |date=28 May 2002 |publisher="Правое дело" N 21(39) |language=ru |access-date=27 April 2016 |url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030917154545/http://www.sps.ru/?id=42440 |archive-date=17 September 2003 }}</ref>

In January 2004, with [[Garry Kasparov]], [[Boris Nemtsov]], [[Vladimir V. Kara-Murza]] and others, Bukovsky was a co-founder of [[Committee 2008]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://komitet2008.ru/ |title=Комитет "2008 СВОБОДНЫЙ ВЫБОР" |language=ru |trans-title=Declaration of the "2008 – A Free Choice" Committee |date=29 January 2004 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040129143422/http://komitet2008.ru/ |archive-date=29 January 2004 }}</ref> 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.<ref>{{Cite book |url=http://public.eblib.com/choice/publicfullrecord.aspx?p=1596610 |title=Politics Russia |last=Danks |first=Catherine |date=2014 |publisher=Taylor and Francis |isbn=978-1-317-86741-8 |location=Hoboken |page=434f |access-date=27 April 2016}}</ref>

In 2005, Bukovsky was among the prominent dissidents of the 1960s and 1970s ([[Gorbanevskaya]], [[Sergei Kovalyov]], [[Eduard Kuznetsov (dissident)|Eduard Kuznetsov]], [[Alexander Podrabinek]], [[Yelena Bonner]]) who took part in a documentary series by [[Vladimir Kara-Murza Jr.]] ''[[They Chose Freedom]]''.<ref name="KARA">[http://www.newsru.com/russia/01dec2005/film.html They Chose Freedom], a documentary series made by the 23-year-old journalist [[Vladimir Kara-Murza]] (in Russian)</ref> In 2013 Bukovsky was featured in a documentary series by [[Natella Boltyanskaya]] ''[[Parallels, Events, People]]''.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.golos-ameriki.ru/media/video/parallels-29-episode-/2646133.html|title=Episode 29 – To Build a Castle (Part One)|date=16 February 2015|publisher=[[Voice of America]]|author=Natella Boltyanskaya|author-link=Natella Boltyanskaya|access-date=1 November 2015|archive-date=7 January 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160107040344/http://www.golos-ameriki.ru/media/video/parallels-29-episode-/2646133.html|url-status=dead}}{{cite web|url=http://www.golos-ameriki.ru/media/video/parallels-30-episode-/2664598.html|title=Episode 30 – To Build a Castle (Part Two)|date=2 March 2015|publisher=[[Voice of America]]|author=Natella Boltyanskaya|author-link=Natella Boltyanskaya}}</ref>

In 2009, Bukovsky joined the council of the new [[Solidarnost]] coalition which brought together a wide range of extra-parliamentary opposition forces.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.rusolidarnost.ru/history|title=История|website=rusolidarnost.ru|access-date=27 April 2016}}</ref>

===Criticism of torture in Abu Ghraib prison===
As revelations mounted about the sanctioned torture of captives in the [[Guantánamo Bay detention camp]], [[Abu Ghraib prison|Abu Ghraib]] and the [[CIA secret prisons]], 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]]'', Bukovsky recounted his experience under torture in [[Lefortovo prison]] in 1971.<ref name= Post >{{cite news|author=Bukovsky, Vladimir|title=Torture's Long Shadow|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/17/AR2005121700018.html|newspaper=[[The Washington Post]]|date=18 December 2005}}</ref> 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:

{{blockquote|Investigation is a subtle process, requiring patience and fine analytical ability, as well as a skill in cultivating one's sources. When torture is condoned, these rare talented people leave the service, having been outstripped by less gifted colleagues with their quick-fix methods, and the service itself degenerates into a playground for sadists.<ref name= Post />}}

US President Barack Obama repudiated the [[Torture Memos]] on 20 January 2009, two days after taking office.

===Russian agents in 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".<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.academia.edu/14833840|title=Bukovsky and Stroilov, ''EUSSR: the Soviet roots of European integration'', Sovereignty publications: UK, 2006.}}{{Dead link|date=August 2025 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>  Two years later, in an interview with ''The Brussels Journal'',<ref>[http://www.brusselsjournal.com/ ''The Brussels Journal: The Voice of Conservatism in Europe'', February 2006.], a periodical of the Society for the Advancement of Freedom in Europe or SAFE</ref> 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".<ref name="brusselsjournal.com">{{cite journal|author=Belien, Paul|title=Former Soviet Dissident Warns For EU Dictatorship. An interview with Vladimir Bukovsky|journal=[[The Brussels Journal]]|date=27 February 2006|url=http://www.brusselsjournal.com/node/865}}</ref> As an expression of his Eurosceptic position Bukovsky was vice-president of [[The Freedom Association]] (TFA) in the United Kingdom.<ref>[http://www.tfa.net/about-us/council-and-supporters/# "Council & Supporters"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130407205549/http://www.tfa.net/about-us/council-and-supporters/ |date=7 April 2013 }}, The Freedom Association website</ref>

Ten years earlier, Bukovsky sketched some of the ways in which cooperation was secured.<ref>See also [https://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/charlesmoore/7377111/Was-Foot-a-national-treasure-or-the-KGBs-useful-idiot.html Charles Moore, "A national treasure or the KGB's useful idiot?", Daily Telegraph, 5 March 2010.]</ref> 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 (Soviet Union)|GRU]] classified as "agents of influence" and "confidential contacts":<ref>Chapter 3, "Back to the Future: 3.12 The Party's most powerful weapon", ''Judgment in Moscow: A Dissident in the Soviet Archives'', forthcoming (2015). See ''Jugement a Moscou'', 1995, pp 233–234.</ref>

{{blockquote|The majority of these "agents of influence", moreover, were not in a literal sense KGB agents. Some distributed Soviet disinformation for idealistic reasons; others were paying off an old "debt" to the KGB or, on the contrary, expected some new reward or service; others simply did not know what they were doing.&nbsp;... The examples are endlessly varied.}}

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:<ref>As per previous note, Chapter 3, "Back to the Future", ''Judgment in Moscow'' (forthcoming). See ''Jugement a Moscou'', 1995, pp. 233–234.</ref>

{{blockquote|The majority of Sovietologists and Slavists, experts on Russia and the Soviet Union, were dependent on the regime for permission to visit the USSR from time to time. A specialist could not secure his place and reputation in the current academic world without that contact: anyone might accuse him of having lost touch and no longer retaining his expertise. The chance to travel to the USSR, however, was closely monitored in those years by the KGB.}}

===2008 presidential candidacy===
In May 2007, Bukovsky announced his plans to run as candidate for president in the May [[2008 Russian presidential election]].<ref name=":5">{{Cite book|title=The Crisis of Russian Democracy: The Dual State, Factionalism and the Medvedev Succession|last=Sakwa|first=Richard|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2010|isbn=978-1139494915|location=Cambridge|pages=279–280}}</ref> On 16 December 2007, Bukovsky was officially nominated to run against Dmitry Medvedev and other candidates.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7062570.stm|title=Uphill struggle for Russian dissident|date=25 October 2007|publisher=BBC|access-date=26 April 2016}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.dw.com/ru/%25D0%25B2%25D0%25BB%25D0%25B0%25D0%25B4%25D0%25B8%25D0%25BC%25D0%25B8%25D1%2580-%25D0%25B1%25D1%2583%25D0%25BA%25D0%25BE%25D0%25B2%25D1%2581%25D0%25BA%25D0%25B8%25D0%25B9-%25D0%25B2%25D1%258B%25D0%25B4%25D0%25B2%25D0%25B8%25D0%25BD%25D1%2583%25D1%2582-%25D0%25BA%25D0%25B0%25D0%25BD%25D0%25B4%25D0%25B8%25D0%25B4%25D0%25B0%25D1%2582%25D0%25BE%25D0%25BC-%25D0%25B2-%25D0%25BF%25D1%2580%25D0%25B5%25D0%25B7%25D0%25B8%25D0%25B4%25D0%25B5%25D0%25BD%25D1%2582%25D1%258B-%25D1%2580%25D0%25BE%25D1%2581%25D1%2581%25D0%25B8%25D0%25B8/a-3008018|script-title=ru:Владимир Буковский выдвинут кандидатом в президенты России|date=17 December 2007|website=DW.COM|publisher=Deutsche Welle|language=ru|trans-title=Vladimir Bukovsky put forward as candidate for president of Russia|access-date=26 April 2016}}</ref>[[File:Russian-supreme-court-on-bukovsky.pdf|thumb|Bukovsky's appeal against exclusion from the presidential race, decision of the [[Russian Supreme Court]], 28 December 2007<ref name="auto">{{Cite web|url=http://sudact.ru/vsrf/doc/aGMVEofctDV5/|title=Решение от 28 декабря 2007 г. / Верховный Суд Российской Федерации / Дело № ГКПИ07-1720|date=28 December 2007|website=sudact.ru|trans-title=Decision of 28 December 2007, Supreme Court of the Russian Federation|access-date=27 April 2016}}</ref>]]The group that nominated Bukovsky as a candidate included [[Yuri Ryzhov (physicist)|Yuri Ryzhov]], [[Vladimir V. Kara-Murza]], [[Alexander Podrabinek]], [[Andrei Piontkovsky]], [[Vladimir Pribylovsky]] and others.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://grani.ru/Politics/Russia/m.122602.html|script-title=ru:Грани.Ру: Заявление инициативной группы по выдвижению Владимира Буковского в президенты Российской Федерации|date=28 May 2007|website=grani.ru|language=ru|trans-title=Statement of the Initiative Group to nominate Vladimir Bukovsky for the post of President of the Russian Federation|access-date=26 April 2016|archive-date=13 May 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160513164528/http://grani.ru/Politics/Russia/m.122602.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> Activists, authors and commentators such as [[Victor Shenderovich|Viktor Shenderovich]], [[Valeriya Novodvorskaya]] and Lev Rubinstein also favoured Bukovsky.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/beyond-opposition-beyond-a-chance/194173.html|title=Beyond Opposition, Beyond a Chance|date=21 September 2007|website=The Moscow Times|access-date=26 April 2016|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160426234150/http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/beyond-opposition-beyond-a-chance/194173.html|archive-date=26 April 2016}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://grani.ru/opinion/novodvorskaya/m.123750.html|script-title=ru:Грани.Ру: Больше кандидатов, плохих и одинаковых|last=Novodvorskaya|first=Valeriya|date=21 June 2007|website=grani.ru|language=ru|trans-title=More candidates, bad and identical ones|access-date=26 April 2016}}</ref>

Responding to pro-Kremlin politicians and commentators who expressed doubt about Bukovsky's electoral prospects, his nominators rejected a number of frequently repeated allegations.<ref>[http://bukovsky2008.ucoz.ru/news/2007-07-12-26 On judicial aspects of Bukovsky's nomination] {{in lang|ru}}, Action Group for Vladimir Bukovsky's Nomination, 12 July 2007</ref> 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 of Russia|Central Election Commission]] on time, 18 December 2007.<ref name="echo20071216">[http://www.echo.msk.ru/news/413021.html Soviet dissident Vladimir Bukovsky has been nominated a candidate for president] {{in lang|ru}}, [[Echo of Moscow]], 16 December 2007</ref><ref name="uspel">[http://www.newsru.com/russia/18dec2007/buk.html Bukovsky submitted his documents on time to the Central Electoral Commission] {{in lang|ru}}, [[Newsru]], 18 December 2007</ref><ref name="BBCr18:12:2007">[http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/russian/russia/newsid_7150000/7150634.stm CEC accepted documents from Vladimir Bukovsky] {{in lang|ru}}, [[BBC Russian Service]], 18 December 2007</ref>

Bukovsky's candidacy received the support of [[Grigory Yavlinsky]], who announced on 14 December 2007 at the [[Yabloko]] party conference that he would forgo a campaign of his own and would instead support Bukovsky.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/12/14/europe/EU-POL-Russia-Presidential-Election.php |title=Liberal Yavlinsky, perennial Russian candidate, not running for president |newspaper=International Herald Tribune |date=29 March 2009 |access-date=19 February 2011}}</ref>

On 22 December 2007, the Central Electoral Commission turned down Bukovsky's application, on the grounds that he had failed to give information about his activities as a writer when submitting his documents, that he was holding a British residence permit, and that he had not been living in Russia during the past ten years.<ref name=":5" /> Bukovsky appealed against the decision at the RF [[Supreme Court of the Russian Federation|Supreme Court]] on 28 December 2007 and, subsequently, before its cassation board on 15 January 2008.<ref>[http://bukovsky2008.ucoz.ru/news/2008-01-15-54 Supreme Court completely rejected Bukovsky's registration] {{in lang|ru}}, "Bukovsky for President!" Action group, 15 January 2008</ref><ref name="auto"/>

===Conflict with Putin's regime===
Bukovsky was among the first 34 signatories of "[[Putin must go]]", an online anti-Putin manifesto published on 10 March 2010.<ref>{{cite news|author=Kasparov, Garry|script-title=ru:В интернет ОМОН не пришлешь|trans-title=You can not send in the riot police onto the Internet|url=http://www.novayagazeta.ru/society/4451.html|work=[[Novaya Gazeta]]|issue=27|date=17 March 2010|language=ru}}</ref> In May 2012, [[Vladimir Putin]] 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]]'', Stalin's last and most notorious secret police chief.<ref>{{Cite book|script-title=ru:Наследники Лаврентия Берия: Путин и его команда|last=Буковский|first=Владимир Константинович|date=2013|publisher=Алгоритм |isbn=978-5-4438-0337-1|language=ru}}</ref>

In March 2014 Russia [[Annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation|annexed Crimea]] after [[Ukraine]] had lost control of its government buildings, airports and military bases in [[Crimea]] to [[Little green men (Russo-Ukrainian War)|unmarked soldiers]] and local pro-Russian militias.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-ukraine-crisis-timeline/timeline-political-crisis-in-ukraine-and-russias-occupation-of-crimea-idUSBREA270PO20140308 |title=Timeline: Political crisis in Ukraine and Russia's occupation of Crimea|work=[[Reuters]]|date=8 March 2014|access-date=12 February 2019}}</ref> The West [[International sanctions during the Ukrainian crisis|responded with sanctions]] targeted at [[List of people sanctioned during the Ukrainian crisis#By Canada, the United States, the European Union and Australia|Putin's immediate entourage]], and Bukovsky expressed the hope that this would prove the end of his regime.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://charter97.org/en/news/2014/4/14/94438/|title=Vladimir Bukovsky: Putin's system will collapse|website=charter97.org}}</ref>

In October 2014, the [[Government of Russia|Russian authorities]] declined to issue Bukovsky with a new [[Russian passport|foreign-travel passport]].<ref>{{cite web|author=Schreck, Carl|title=Ex-Soviet dissident says Russia won't renew his passport|url=http://www.rferl.org/content/article/26668589.html|publisher=[[Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty]]|date=31 October 2014}}</ref> The [[Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Russia)|Russian Foreign Ministry]] stated that it could not confirm Bukovsky's [[Citizenship of Russia|citizenship]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.rus.rusemb.org.uk/news/4836|title=Комментарий Посольства в связи с заменой истекшего загранпаспорта В.К.Буковского|website=Посольство России в Великобритании|access-date=22 May 2016}}</ref> The response was met with surprise from the [[Presidential Council for Civil Society and Human Rights|Presidential Human Rights Council]]<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://tvrain.ru/teleshow/here_and_now/tochno_byl_glava_spch_videl_pasport_bukovskogo_kotoryj_ne_mozhet_najti_posolstvo_v_londone_-377658/|script-title=ru:"Точно был". Глава СПЧ видел паспорт Буковского, который не может найти посольство в Лондоне|date=5 November 2014|website=tvrain.ru|publisher=[[TV Rain]]|language=ru|trans-title="He certainly had one." The head of the Presidential Human Rights Council has seen Bukovsky's passport which the embassy in London is unable to find|access-date=22 May 2016}}</ref> and the [[Ombudsman|Human Rights ombudsman]] of the Russian Federation.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://newsru.com/russia/06nov2014/bukovsk.html|script-title=ru:Отказ в выдаче нового загранпаспорта Буковскому "вызовет недоумение", предупреждают правозащитники|date=6 November 2014|website=newsru.com|language=ru|trans-title=Refusal of issuing Bukovsky with a new travel passport "will be met with bewilderment", warn human rights defenders|access-date=22 May 2016}}</ref>

On 17 March 2015, at the [[Alexander Litvinenko#Inquest in London|long-delayed inquiry]] into [[Alexander Litvinenko]]'s fatal poisoning Bukovsky gave his views as to why [[Poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko|Litvinenko had been assassinated]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.litvinenkoinquiry.org/hearings|archive-url=http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20160613090328/https://www.litvinenkoinquiry.org/hearings|url-status=dead|archive-date=13 June 2016|title=Hearings|publisher=Government of the United Kingdom|access-date=11 June 2019}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/sunday_am/6166405.stm |title=Litvinenko affair |date=10 December 2006 |publisher=Sunday-AM programme |via=news.bbc.co.uk}}</ref>

=== Child pornography case ===
On October 28, 2014, Bukovsky was accused in the UK of the possession of [[child pornography]].<ref name="Independent trial abandoned">{{Cite web |last=Lusher |first=Adam |date=12 February 2018 |title=Vladimir Bukovsky: Dissident claiming he was framed by Putin's Russia sees child pornography trial abandoned |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/vladimir-bukovsky-child-porn-images-soviet-dissident-russia-gulags-putin-ussr-garry-kasparov-litvinenko-a8197081.html |publisher=Independent}}</ref><ref name="Guardian abuse images">{{Cite web |last=Harding |first=Luke |date=12 December 2016 |title=Soviet dissident had thousands of child abuse images, UK court told |url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/dec/12/soviet-dissident-vladimir-bukovsky-downloaded-thousands-of-child-abuse-images-uk-court-told |access-date=27 December 2024 |work=The Guardian}}</ref> In April 2015, Bukovsky was charged with multiple counts of the production and possession of child pornography.<ref name="CPS prosecution">{{Cite web |title=Vladimir Bukovsky to be prosecuted over indecent images of children |url=http://www.cps.gov.uk/news/latest_news/vladimir_bukovsky_to_be_prosecuted_over_indecent_images_of_children/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161118121119/http://www.cps.gov.uk/news/latest_news/vladimir_bukovsky_to_be_prosecuted_over_indecent_images_of_children/ |archive-date=18 November 2016 |access-date=22 May 2016 |publisher=Government of the United Kingdom}}</ref><ref name="Guardian libel">{{cite news |last=Harding |first=Luke |date=24 Aug 2015 |title=Soviet dissident sues Crown Prosecution Service, alleging libel |url=https://www.theguardian.com/law/2015/aug/24/soviet-dissident-sues-crown-prosecution-service-alleging-libel |newspaper=[[The Guardian]] |location=London}}</ref> Bukovsky pleaded not guilty to the charges.<ref name=":6" /> A prosecutor made several allegations to the court: that Bukovsky admitted to possessing child abuse materials which he downloaded over the course of 15 years,<ref name="Guardian abuse images" /><ref name="Independent trial abandoned" /><ref name="BBC abuse research" /> and that he described the activity as a "hobby" and "research".<ref name="BBC abuse research" /> [[Forensic science|Forensic]] examination of Bukovsky's [[hard drive]]s revealed thousands of child abuse images and videos<ref name="BBC not remote"/> – some [[COPINE scale#Sexual Offences Definitive Guideline|category A]]<ref name="BBC not remote"/><ref name="Telegraph obituary">{{cite web |date=28 October 2019 |title=Vladimir Bukovsky, dissident who fought Soviet tyranny before and after his expulsion from the USSR in 1976 – obituary |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2019/10/28/vladimir-bukovsky-dissident-fought-soviet-tyranny-expulsion/ |publisher=The Telegraph}}</ref> – featuring mostly boys<ref name="Guardian abuse images"/> and children of toddler age, a court was told.<ref name="BBC abuse research">{{Cite web |date=12 December 2016 |title=Vladimir Bukovsky child abuse images 'were research', trial hears |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-38291431 |publisher=BBC News}}</ref>

Bukovsky denied "making any indecent or prohibited photographs, pseudo-photographs or videos of children".<ref name="Guardian Bukovsky charged">{{cite news |last=Bowcott |first=Owen |date=27 Apr 2015 |title=Russian dissident Vladimir Bukovsky to be charged over child abuse images |url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/apr/27/russian-dissident-vladimir-bukovsky-to-be-charged-over-child-abuse-images |newspaper=[[The Guardian]] |location=London}}</ref> Bukovsky protested the charges with a [[hunger strike]] and sued the [[Crown Prosecution Service]] for libel.<ref name="Guardian libel" /><ref name="Guardian hunger strike">{{cite news |last=Harding |first=Luke |date=29 Apr 2016 |title=Vladimir Bukovsky: 'I'm on hunger strike for the British public' |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/apr/29/vladimir-bukovsky-russian-dissident-hunger-strike-litvinenko-uk-judicial-system |newspaper=[[The Guardian]] |location=London}}</ref><ref name="Telegraph obituary"/> The Court of Appeals dismissed the libel claim.<ref name="Law Gazette libel claim">{{cite web |last=Fouzder |first=Monidipa |date=18 October 2017 |title=Appeal court throws out libel claim over CPS press release |url=https://www.lawgazette.co.uk/law/appeal-court-throws-out-libel-claim-over-cps-press-release/5063252.article |publisher=The Law Society Gazette}}</ref> Due to several health complications and medical operations, his trials were delayed multiple times and were eventually halted indefinitely.<ref name="rosbalt.ru">{{Cite web |script-title=ru:Диссидент Буковский перенес операцию на сердце |url=http://www.rosbalt.ru/main/2015/05/07/1396104.html |access-date=11 June 2019 |website=Росбалт |language=ru}}</ref><ref name="BBC trial halted">{{cite web |date=14 December 2016 |title=Vladimir Bukovsky child abuse images trial is halted |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-38318209 |publisher=BBC News}}</ref><ref name="BBC retrial ordered">{{cite web |date=30 June 2017 |title=Vladimir Bukovsky child abuse images retrial ordered |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-40462291 |publisher=BBC News}}</ref><ref name="BBC too ill trial">{{cite web |date=12 February 2018 |title=Vladimir Bukovsky: Russian dissident too ill to stand trial |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-43035024 |publisher=BBC News}}</ref>

Bukovsky said he was a victim of a smear campaign by Russian state security services whose hackers have planted the images on his computer.<ref name=":6">[https://www.rferl.org/a/soviet-era-dissident-vladimir-bukovsky-dies-aged-77/30240022.html Soviet-Era Dissident Vladimir Bukovsky Dies Aged 76], by [[RFE/RL]], October 28, 2019</ref> The initial examination of his computer by police expert did not find any evidence of the hacking.<ref name="BBC not remote">{{cite web |date=13 December 2016 |title=Vladimir Bukovsky indecent images not put on PC 'remotely' |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-38299820 |publisher=BBC News}}</ref> The prosecution requested for more time "to review an independent forensic report on what had been found on Mr. Bukovsky's computers and how an unidentified third party had probably put it there",<ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/09/world/europe/vladimir-putin-russia-fake-news-hacking-cybersecurity.html Foes of Russia Say Child Pornography Is Planted to Ruin Them], [[The New York Times]], by Andrew Higgins, Dec. 9, 2016</ref> but the case was halted. According to a book by investigative journalist [[Bill Gertz]], Bukovsky was targeted "in a Russian disinformation operation shortly before he was to testify before the [[Alexander Litvinenko#Inquest in London|Owen commission]] in March 2015. A Russian hacker broke into his laptop computer and planted child pornography photographs on the device. A Russian intelligence agent then tipped off the European Union law enforcement agency, [[Europol]], to the photos... It was a classic Russian disinformation and influence operation".<ref>''IWar: War and Peace in the Information Age'' by [[Bill Gertz]], [[Threshold Editions]], 2017, 384 pages, {{ISBN|9781501154980}}, pages 159-160</ref>

==Death==
[[File:Bukovsky, Vladimir 2019.jpg|thumb|Grave of Vladimir Bukovsky in [[Highgate Cemetery]]]]
Bukovsky died of a heart attack on 27 October 2019 at the age of 76 in [[Cambridge]], Cambridgeshire.<ref name="BBC">{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-50206084|title=Vladimir Bukovsky: Soviet-era dissident dies in UK|publisher=BBC News |access-date=28 October 2019|date=28 October 2019}}</ref> He is buried on the eastern side of [[Highgate Cemetery]].

== Bibliography ==
{{Main|Vladimir Bukovsky bibliography}}
; In translation
* 1978: {{cite book|url=http://antisoviet.imwerden.net/bukovsky_v_to_build.pdf|title=To Build a Castle: My Life as a Dissenter|date=1978|publisher=André Deutsch (UK edn)|isbn=978-0-233-97023-3|location=London|access-date=5 October 2015|archive-date=1 May 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130501033705/http://antisoviet.imwerden.net/bukovsky_v_to_build.pdf|url-status=dead}} 352 pp.
** {{in lang|ru}} 1979: {{Cite book|publisher=Khronika izd-vo|title=I vozvrashchaetsi͡a veter—|location=New York|date=1979}} 386 pp.
** 1979: {{Cite book|publisher=Viking Press|isbn=978-0-670-71640-1|title=To Build a Castle: My Life as a Dissenter|location=New York|date=1979|url=https://archive.org/details/tobuildcastle00vlad}}
** {{in lang|ru}} 2007: {{Cite book|publisher=Novoe izd-vo|isbn=978-5-98379-090-2|title=I vozvrashchaetsi͡a veter—|location=Moskva|series=Svobodnyĭ chelovek|date=2007}}
* 1987: {{Cite book|publisher=Hoover Institution Press|isbn=978-0-8179-8442-7|title=To Choose Freedom|location=Stanford, Calif|series=Hoover Press publication|date=1987}}
* 1995: {{cite book|title=Jugement a Moscou: un dissident dans les archives du Kremlin|date=1995|publisher=Robert Laffont|isbn=978-2-221-07460-2|location=Paris|language=fr}} 616 pp.
** {{Cite book|title=Moskovskiĭ prot͡sess|date=1996|publisher="Russkaia mysl{{'"}}; Izd-vo "MIK"|isbn=978-5-87902-071-7|location=Parizh; Moskva|language=ru}}
** {{in lang|de}} (1996) ''Abrechnung mit Moskau. Das sowjetische Unrechtsregime und die Schuld des Westens'', Bergisch Gladbach
** {{cite book|title=Moskiewski proces|date=1999|isbn=978-83-7227-190-7|location=Warsaw|language=pl}}
** [https://www.vladimirbukovsky.com/judgment-in-moscow ''Judgment in Moscow: Soviet Crimes and Western Complicity''] (May 2019)
* 1999: [http://www.bukovsky-archives.net/ ''Soviet Archives'']: Online archive compiled by Vladimir Bukovsky, prepared for publication by the late Julia Zaks (1938–2014) and Leonid Chernikhov
* 2016: [https://bukovsky-archive.com/ ''The Bukovsky Archives''] upgraded version of 1999 archive.
* 2019: [https://www.vladimirbukovsky.com/judgment-in-moscow ''Judgment in Moscow: Soviet crimes and Western complicity'']

; In Russian
* 1979: {{cite book|title=И возвращается ветер|publisher=Изд. "Хроника" (Khronika Press)|year=1979|location=New York|trans-title= To Build a Castle}} 382 pp. The first publication in Russian of Bukovsky's memoirs was given a Biblical title (see Ecclesiastes, v. 6).
* 1989: {{cite journal|title=И возвращается ветер|journal=Teatr: Literaturno-Chudožestvennyj Žurnal|publisher=Teatr periodical|year=1989|issn=0131-6885|location=М.|trans-title= To Build a Castle}} The first publication of Bukovsky's memoirs in the USSR.
* 1996: {{cite book|title=Московский процесс|publisher=МИК: Рус. мысль|year=1996|isbn=978-5-87902-071-7|location=М.; Париж|pages=525|trans-title=Judgment in Moscow}}
* 2001: {{cite book|title=Золотой эшелон|publisher=Гудьял-Пресс|year=2001|isbn=978-5-8026-0082-5|series=Собрание|location=М.|pages=256|trans-title=The golden echelon|author1=Буковский В. |author2=Геращенко И. |author3=Ледин М. |author4=Ратушинская И. |author5= Суворов В. }}
* 2007: {{cite book|title=И возвращается ветер|publisher=Новое изд-во|year=2007|isbn=978-5-98379-090-2|series=Свободный человек|location=М.|pages=348|trans-title= To Build a Castle}} (First serialised in ''Teatr'' periodical, see above, 1989).
* 2008: {{cite book|title=Письма русского путешественника|publisher=Нестор-История [Nestor-History]|year=2008|location=Moscow & St Petersburg|trans-title=Letters of a Russian traveller}}
* 2013: {{cite book|title=Наследники Лаврентия Берия. Путин и его команда|date=2013|publisher=Алгоритм|isbn=978-5-4438-0337-1|location=M.|trans-title=The heirs of Lavrenty Beria: Putin and his team}}
* 2014: {{cite book|title=Тайная империя Путина. Будет ли "дворцовый переворот"?|date=2014|publisher=Алгоритм|isbn=978-5-4438-0880-2|location=M.|trans-title=Putin's secret empire. Will there be a "palace coup"?|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/tainaiaimperiiap0000buko}}
* 2015: {{cite book|title=На краю. Тяжелый выбор России|date=2015|publisher=Алгоритм|isbn=978-5-906798-82-4|location=M.|trans-title=On the edge. Russia faces a hard choice}}

== Documentaries ==
* ''Bukovsky'' (1977) – documentary by [[Alan Clarke]].
* ''[[They Chose Freedom]]'' (2005) (4 parts) – documentary by [[Vladimir Kara-Murza Jr.]]
* ''Russia/Chechnya: Voices of Dissent'' (2005) ''–'' with Bukovsky, [[Yelena Bonner]], [[Natalya Gorbanevskaya]], [[Anna Politkovskaya]], [[Akhmed Zakayev]] and others.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://film.britishcouncil.org/russiachechnya-voices-of-dissent|title=Russia/Chechnya: Voices of Dissent|website=film.britishcouncil.org|access-date=28 April 2016}}</ref>
* ''[[The Soviet Story]]'' (2008) – documentary by [[Edvīns Šnore]]
* ''[[Parallels, Events, People]]'' (2014) (36 parts) – documentary series by [[Natella Boltyanskaya]]

==References==
=== ''A Chronicle of Current Events'' (1968–1982) ===
{{reflist|group=c|3}}

=== Other ===
{{reflist}}

==Further reading==
===In the Soviet Union===
* {{cite news|author=Leddington, Roger|title=Interrogation of Russian revealing|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1310&dat=19710411&id=EQpWAAAAIBAJ&pg=5265,2216331&hl=com|work=[[Eugene Register-Guard]]|date=11 April 1971|page=9A}}
* {{cite journal|author=Jenner, F. A.|title=Bukovsky|journal=[[Nature (journal)|Nature]]|date=11 August 1972|volume=238|issue=5363|pages=361|doi=10.1038/238361c0|bibcode=1972Natur.238..361J|doi-access=free}}
* {{cite journal|author=Kovaly, Pavel|title=''Der unbequeme Zeuge'' by Wladimir Bukowskij|trans-title=''The Inconvenient Witness'' by Vladimir Bukowsky|journal=Studies in Soviet Thought|date=September–December 1973|volume=13|issue=3/4|pages=339–342|jstor=20098579|doi=10.1007/BF01043882}}
* {{cite journal|author1=Bernstein, Robert |author2=Bessie, Simon |author3=Carlisle, Henry |author4=Hersey, John |author5=Jovanovich, William |title=Soviet inhumanity|journal=[[The New York Review of Books]]|date=27 June 1974|volume=21 |issue=11 |url=http://www.nybooks.com/articles/1974/06/27/soviet-inhumanity-2/|display-authors=etal}}

===After his expulsion to the West===
* {{cite news|title=Bukovsky vows fight for rights|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2002&dat=19761220&id=--4uAAAAIBAJ&pg=2856,4269601|work=[[Beaver County Times]]|date=20 December 1976|page=B12}}
* {{cite news|title=Helsinki Pact didn't help: Bukovsky|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1356&dat=19761220&id=g8swAAAAIBAJ&pg=4190,4902323|work=[[Ocala Star-Banner]]|date=20 December 1976|page=2A}}
* {{cite news|author=Neuerbourg, Hanns|title=Bukovsky says prisoners got worse treatment after Helsinki Accords|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1913&dat=19761220&id=_H8pAAAAIBAJ&pg=4822,3010662&hl=com|work=[[Lewiston Evening Journal]]|date=20 December 1976|page=28}}
* {{cite journal|author=Rich, Vera|title=The Bukovskii perspective|journal=[[Nature (journal)|Nature]]|date=13 January 1977|volume=265|issue=5590|pages=94|doi=10.1038/265094a0|bibcode=1977Natur.265...94R|doi-access=free}}
* {{cite news|author=Gerstenzang, James|title=Carter to meet with dissident Vladimir Bukovsky|work=[[Lewiston Evening Journal]]|date=1 March 1977|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1913&dat=19770301&id=-I9GAAAAIBAJ&pg=1498,95895&hl=com|page=17}}
* {{cite news|title=Carter meets Bukovsky, vows pursuit of freedom|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1314&dat=19770302&id=yztOAAAAIBAJ&pg=6815,545365|work=[[The Spokesman-Review]]|date=2 March 1977|page=3}}
* {{cite news|author=Thorne, Ludmilla|title=Rescuing Vladimir Bukovsky. Soviet dissident saved by mother|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1346&dat=19770306&id=F4ksAAAAIBAJ&pg=6609,1384993&hl=com|work=[[Lakeland Ledger]]|date=6 March 1977|page=7D}}
* {{cite book|author1=Nivat, Georges |author2=Kravetz, Marc |title=URSS: gli scrittori del dissenso: Bukowsky, Calamov, Daniel, Guinzburg, Pliusc, Solgeniztin|trans-title=USSR: writers of dissent: Bukovsky, Shalamov, Daniel, Ginzburg, Plyushch, Solzhenitsyn|date=1977|publisher=La Biennale di Venezia|location=Venezia|oclc=797904993|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=10drMwEACAAJ|language=it}}

===Two years on===
* {{cite news|title=A dissident enjoys his freedom, admires democracy|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1946&dat=19781114&id=JZYuAAAAIBAJ&pg=1026,5553056|work=[[The Gazette (Montreal)|The Gazette]]|date=14 November 1978|page=39}}
* {{cite news|title=Vladimir Bukovsky; 2 years later|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2209&dat=19781113&id=wRxSAAAAIBAJ&pg=7134,2777819|work=[[The Daily Telegraph]]|date=13 November 1978|page=40}}
* {{cite news|title=Vladimir Bukovsky now has a new life before him|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1876&dat=19781113&id=IYYsAAAAIBAJ&pg=7054,2999537|work=[[Spartanburg Herald-Journal|Herald-Journal]]|date=13 November 1978|page=A3}}
* {{cite news|author=Peipert, James|title=Vladimir Bukovsky; 2 years later|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2209&dat=19781113&id=wRxSAAAAIBAJ&pg=7134,2777819&hl=com|work=[[Nashua Telegraph]]|date=13 November 1978|page=40}}

===To Build a Castle (1978)===
* {{cite journal|author=Serebryakova, Elena|script-title=ru:Мир глазами диссидента (по книге В. Буковского "И возвращается ветер…")|journal=Управленческое консультирование|year=2012|issue=4|pages=132–138|url=https://szags.ru/media/uploads/%D1%83%D0%BA_12_4.pdf#page=132|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160301171655/https://szags.ru/media/uploads/%D1%83%D0%BA_12_4.pdf#page=132|archive-date=1 March 2016|url-status=dead|trans-title=The world through the eyes of a dissident: Bukovsky's «The wind returns…» (English title: To Build a Castle)|language=ru}}

===Judgement in Moscow (1995)===
* {{cite journal|author=Shlapentokh, Vladimir|title=Was the Soviet Union run by the KGB? Was the West duped by the Kremlin? (A critical review of Vladimir Bukovsky's ''Jugement à Moscou'')|journal=[[Russian History]]|date=Winter 1998|volume=25|issue=1|pages=453–461|doi=10.1163/187633198X00211}}

===In the 21st century===
* {{cite journal|author=Boobbyer, Philip|title=Vladimir Bukovskii and Soviet Communism|journal=[[The Slavonic and East European Review]]|date=July 2009|volume=87|issue=3|pages=452–487|doi=10.1353/see.2009.0092 |jstor=40650408|s2cid=147788063 }}
* {{cite news|author=Zubov, Mikhail [Михаил Зубов]|script-title=ru:Как Владимир Буковский победил карательную психиатрию. Людмила Алексеева: "Вряд ли эта легендарная фигура занимается детским порно"|trans-title=How Vladimir Bukovsky defeated punitive psychiatry. Ludmilla Alexeyeva, "This legendary figure is hardly likely to be engaged in child pornography"|url=http://www.mk.ru/social/2015/04/28/kak-vladimir-bukovskiy-pobedil-karatelnuyu-psikhiatriyu.html|work=[[Moskovskij Komsomolets]]|date=28 April 2015|language=ru}}

==External links==

===In English===
{{Commons category}}
* {{C-SPAN|8069}}: May 1989, "The Democratic Revolution in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union" (forum).
* [http://vladimirbukovsky.com/ Vladimir Bukovsky] News archives, links, photos, video, public domain writings, official statements, contact info, maintained by US group Bukovsky Center
* [http://film.britishcouncil.org/russiachechnya-voices-of-dissent Russia/Chechnya: Voices of Dissent (2005)] – features Vladimir Bukovsky, [[Yelena Bonner]], [[Natalya Gorbanevskaya]], [[Anna Politkovskaya]], [[Akhmed Zakayev]] and others.
* {{YouTube|1QaTBeLtrAI|A lecture by Bukovsky at the Cato Institute, 69 min}} Uploaded on 7 January 2012.
* [https://bukovsky-archive.com The Bukovsky Archives: Communism on Trial]. Contains over seven hundred classified Soviet documents (1937–1994), an abridged translation of ''Judgement in Moscow'', and [https://bukovsky-archive.com/articles-letters/ many of the author's key articles since 1976 ("Books, Articles & Letters")].
* [https://bukovsky-archive.com/the-suppression-of-dissent-3-2-the-1970s/ "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]]; and his ongoing campaign in the West against the Soviet regime.
* [https://chronicle-of-current-events.com/tag/bukovsky-v-k/] Tagged references to Bukovsky in the ''Chronicle of Current Events'' (1968–1982). Also see entry in that website's [https://chronicle-of-current-events.com/name-index/ Name Index].

===In Russian===
* An Alphabet of Dissent: Bukovsky (2011) {{cite news|title=Алфавит инакомыслия. Буковский|newspaper=Радио Свобода |url=http://www.svoboda.org/content/transcript/24406600.html|date=29 November 2011|publisher=[[Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty]] |last1=Толстой |first1=Иван |last2=Гаврилов |first2=Андрей }}
* Bukovsky on Voice of America (2014) {{YouTube|NGBGuPfbfU8|Владимир Буковский на "Голосе Америки" 19 February 2014, 40 min}}

{{Fall of Communism}}
{{Soviet dissidents}}
{{Authority control}}

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