Vladimir Boukovsky

Vladimir Konstantinovitch Boukovsky or Boukovski (Russian: ВладимирКонстантиновичБуковский), born the December 30th 1942, is old a dissenting Soviet, which spent 12 years of its life imprisoned (camp, prison, psychiatric hospital). It is besides the first to denounce the use of the psychiatric imprisonment against the political prisoners in Soviet Union. In 1976, it is exchanged against the Communist leader Chile in Luis Corvalán. It settles with the the United Kingdom and finishes its career with the Université of Cambridge.

Youth

Vladimir Boukovski was born in 1942 in Belebey, city of the autonomous Soviet socialist Republic of Bachkirie (currently Bachkortostan), where its family is evacuated (whereas she lived in Moscow) during the Second world war. In 1959, it is expelled of the school of Moscow to have created and have published an unauthorized magazine.

Activism and arrests

From June 1963 in February 1964, Boukovski is sent in a psychiatric hospital to have organized meetings of poetry in the center of Moscow (close to the statue of Vladimir Maïakovski) (in accordance with article 70-1 of the penal code). In January 1967, it again is arrested and imprisoned to have organized a demonstration for the defense of Alexandre Ginzbourg, Iouri Galanskov and other dissidents (article 190-1, 3 years of imprisonment). It is slackened in 1970. In 1971, it manages to forward to West 150 pages on the ill treatments in the psychiatric hospitals to the USSR. This information unchains the defenders of the human rights in the world and inside the country, which is then a pretext for a new arrest in January 1972. Officially, the reason is contacts with foreign journalists, possession and distribution of Samizdat (article 70-1, 7 years of imprisonment plus 5 years of exile). With his/her companion of cell of the prison of Vladimir, the psychiatrist Semvon Glouzman, it Co-writing a Manual of psychiatry for the dissidents , in order to help the other dissidents to fight against the ill treatments inflicted by the Soviet authorities in the psychiatric hospitals.

Deportation

The destiny of Boukovski and other political prisoners in the USSR, frequently carried for submission to defense associations of the human rights and Western diplomats, is a cause of embarrassment and irritation for the Soviet authorities. In December 1976, whereas he is imprisoned, Boukovski is exchanged against the former Chilean communist leader, Luis Corvalán.

In the United Kingdom

Since 1976, Boukovski lives with Cambridge, in England, where it concentrates on the writing and the Neurophysiologie. It obtained a mastère in biology and wrote several political books and tests. In addition to criticizing the Soviet mode, it attacked so that it called “Western credulity”, a lack of firm position of liberalism against the communist abuses. In 1983, with Vladimir Maximov and Edouard Kouznetsov, it founds the international organization International anticommunist Resistance , of which he becomes the president.

Judgment in Moscow

In April 1991, Vladimir Boukovski goes on a journey to Moscow for the first time since his deportation. At the time of the presidential election of 1991, Boris Eltsine regards Boukovski as a potential vice-president (among in particular Galina Starovoitova and Gennady Bourboulis). Finally, the vice-presidency is offered to Alexandre Routskoï. In 1992, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the government of Boris Eltsine invites Boukovski to be used as expert at the Constitutional court of the Federation of Russia at the time of a lawsuit having to determine if the Communist party of the Soviet Union were an criminal organization. To prepare its testimony, Boukovski had access to a very great number of documents resulting from the Soviet files. It scanné certain confidential classified documents and gathered them in a book two years later under the title of Jugement in Moscow .

After 1992

In 1992, deputies of the Council of the city of Moscow proposes in Boukovski to present themselves to the municipal elections, following the resignation of the former mayor Gavriil Popov. But Boukovski refuses this offer. At the beginning of 1996, it is a group of academicians, journalists and intellectuals who suggests to him presenting themselves to the presidential election, as an alternative to the outgoing president, Boris Eltsine, and with his communist challenger, Guennadi Ziouganov. This proposal did not have a continuation.

In January 2004, it joins Garry Kasparov, Boris Nemtsov, Vladimir Kara-Mourza and other political personalities of opposition, to found the Comité 2008, a Russian democratic organization, of which the goal is to guarantee a presidential election free and right in 2008. In 2005, following the various revelations relating to Guantanamo, Abou Ghraib and the secret prisons of the CIA, Boukovski criticizes the rationalization of torture.

The same year, it evokes a common point between the European Union and the the USSR: totalitarianism. It develops its thesis in a test with the evocative title: European Union, a USSR news?

Candidature for the Russian presidential election of March 2008

May 28th, 2007, of many personalities, joined together in a “Group of initiatives”, proposed in Boukovski to present itself to the presidential election of 2008, offers that it accepted. Its candidature remains however dubious because of its long absence of Russia and its dual nationality Russo-British (provision added with the federal law in 2006, of which the validity is currently discussed at the Constitutional court).

Boukovski deposited at the beginning of July 2007 the required documents with the renewal of its Russian passport, thus enabling him to return to Russia.

Random links: