24 July 2017: Mr. Bukovsky's trial in Cambridge Crown Court has been postponed to 12 February 2018 because of his very poor health.
To Build A Castle Now Available for Kindle
Bukovsky's international bestselling memoir of his time in Soviet prisons, To Build a Castle, is now available for Amazon Kindle for 99 cents. (The first chapter is online here.)
The author has chosen to forego making any money on the e-book. His goal is to make his international bestseller available to the most readers for the lowest price, because of his story's parallels and relevance to events in Russia today.
When To Build a Castle debuted in 1978, Ronald Reagan told his radio audience, "This book is important." Today, Russian activists Garry Kasparov and Pussy Riot are among those declaring the book worth reading in 2017 on its Amazon page.
Download it now, or read the first chapter online.
“Putin believes his mission is to restore the Soviet system as soon as possible. It leads him to repeat the same mistakes.”
"Sometimes ironic, sometimes detached, sometimes written in cold fury, but always compelling." —The New Yorker
"This is a landmark book and a human document that remains vital." —Sir Tom Stoppard, Oscar-winning screenwriter of Shakespeare in Love
"Vladimir Bukovsky has written an extraordinary account of his life in the Soviet Union.... Listen closely." — The New York Times
"A huge story we must not forget. Even inside prison, a revolt of the mind is possible." —Masha Alyokhina, co-founder of the anti-Putinist punk rock group Pussy Riot, who read To Build a Castle while serving time as a political prisoner
"This book is important."
—Former US President Ronald Reagan
"If human bravery were a book, it would be To Build a Castle. Bukovsky's memoir serves as testimony to the horrors of totalitarianism, a reference manual of the Soviet gulag during the Brezhnev years, and an unforgettable tribute to the courage of dissidents like Bukovsky. Unfortunately, the book is a reminder we still very much need today, when Western moral equivalence would have us believe that such monsters no longer exist. They do, and To Build a Castle is an essential guide to understanding them, and how to fight them." —Garry Kasparov, Chairman of the Human Rights Foundation
trial news and commentary
Bukovsky's ongoing trial for child pornography found on his home computer has been delayed until July.
The New York Times: Foes of Russia Say Child Pornography is Planted to Ruin Them
The Weekly Standard: Soviet Dissident Vladimir Bukovsky Set for Trial Monday
Daily Caller: Russia Gets Revenge By Planting Child Porn on Dissidents' Computers
Ricochet: The Trial
Courtroom specifics are kept up to date on the Trial page. Email info@vladimirbukovsky.com to be added to our mailing list for updates as new details arrive. Follow updates on Twitter at @bukovskycenter.
media CONTACTS
Email info@vladimirbukovsky.com for contacts related to the trial.
Photo by Andrew Testa for The New York Times
PRESS Archive
“What can you tell them in a skimpy leaflet, or even via all the radio stations of the Soviet Union? They know, my friend. They keep quiet because they know, not because they don’t know. Can you blame them?”
TRIAL
National Review - Did Britain fall into Putin's trap in prosecuting Bukovsky?
The Weekly Standard - Crown Prosecution Service's case against Bukovsky seems oddly lacking in skepticism.
The American Spectator - Is Bukovsky's case really against the Kremlin?
Current Events
Russian dissidents called mentally ill - 2007. The practice Bukovsky exposed has been revived.
Bukovsky on Brexit - 2016. Translation of an essay written after the UK's EU referendum for the Ukrainian publication Gordon.
Putin's system will collapse - 2014. Conversation with another former dissident and prisoner, Andrei Sannikov, about unrest in the former Soviet Union.
The Marxist-Leninist Roots of the European Union - 2013. Interview in Analysis & Review.
HISTORical
A Chronicle of Current Events
The influential 1968-1982 Moscow samizdat journal of dissent, which has been translated to English and put online.
Complete archive of the Chronicle's Bukovsky entries
Front page of The New York Times, December 18, 1976
The New York Times
Complete archive - More than 200 articles that mention Bukovsky, beginning in 1967.
Selected New York Times articles:
- Soviet Trying 3 in Literary Case
- Soviet Sentences Writer to 3 Years
- 12 in Soviet Tell Reds' Party Kremlin is 'Trampling on Man'
- British Psychiatrists Protest
- Kremlin Psychiatry
- Soviet Dissident Convicted; Gets 7 Years and 5 in Exile
- A U.S. TV Interview Used in Soviet Trial
- Our Society Is Still Sick
- Russians Tell How to Foil Psychiatrists
- Soviet to Free Leading Dissident in Trade for Leading Communist
- Bukovsky Tells of Harsh Soviet Prison Conditions
- Carter and Mondale See Bukovsky, a Soviet Dissident
- Bukovsky Sees Gain in Carter Meeting
- Gen. Svetlichny: 'We Will Let Him Rot in the Insane Asylum!'
- Is 'Glasnost' a Game of Mirrors?
- Emigres' Letter Printed in Soviet, Draws Harsh Reply from Pravda
The Times (London)
First public reports of psychiatric dossiers on six dissidents which Bukovsky smuggled to the West.
The Observer
The New York Review of Books - 1970. "A Letter From Vladimir Bukovsky." Translation of an open letter in which Bukovsky recounts the repercussions in the USSR of the Post's previous article on him.
Chicago Tribune - 1972. "Soviet Union vs. Bukovsky -- The Trial of a Dissident." His trial in Moscow for passing documents from psychiatric prisons to foreign correspondents.
The Economist - 1989. "Better Red than Dead?" Bukovsky's persistent claim that the worldwide disarmament movement of the 80's was funded and orchestrated from the Soviet bloc.
Institute of Modern Russia - 2012. "A Life of Integrity," interview with Bukovsky for his 70th birthday.
Wikipedia - A 16-page, 6,000-word entry with a bibliography of Russian works and 150 footnote references.
Supporters of Vladimir Bukovsky - Links to relevant Russian-language articles.
FILMS
They Chose Freedom - 2005. A four part documentary on the Soviet dissident movement.
Russian/Chechnya - Voices of Dissent - 2006. Bukovsky explains how the Chechen invasion is the continuation of old policies that go back hundreds of years, using staged bombings to justify war.
Parallels, Events, People - 2014. A documentary on the dissident movement and its parallels to the 2011-13 protests in Russia.
The Soviet Story - 2008. A documentary sponsored by the European Parliament's UEN group that looks at collaboration between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union prior to World War II, and contrasts the difference between modern Germany and Russia's view of their own pasts - one shameful, one glorious.
1976. ABC Evening News reports Bukovsky's arrival in Switzerland, on his way to England.
2007. Bukovsky returns to Moscow, says Putin regime targeted Litvinenko and others for legalized murder.