The Greatest Subversive of Our Times
December 30th is Vladimir Bukovsky’s seventieth birthday. He is the only Russian barred by special law from running for president, a tribute to his immense popularity and force of character. Among the great generation of democratic dissidents–the generation that punctured the monstrous Soviet bubble and produced the celebrated sucking sound that ended the Soviet Empire and gutted the world Communist movement–Bukovsky is arguably the most important.
Otherwise that law wouldn’t be necessary.
Bukovsky has a rare combination of toughness, common sense, and good humor. He never compromised with his oppressors, even though he was subjected to the KGB’s infamous psychological and biochemical torments during his years in prison and the camps. His unrivaled courage and tenacity inspired a generation, and his standing was dramatically demonstrated when the Kremlin traded him for the Chilean Communist leader Luis Corvalan in 1976.
His memoir, To Build a Castle, is one of the masterpieces of the period, and his subsequent works document the crimes of the Soviet state, the complicity of Western leaders who played useful idiots to the evil empire, and the survival of the Soviet vision in the European Union.
He organized an effective international organization, Resistance International, whose members ranged from German Greens to French “new philosophers,” a New York diamond merchant of blessed memory by the name of Bert Jolis, and the celebrated Romanian playwright Eugene Ionesco. Whenever Brezhnev or Chernenko or Gorbachev or Gromyko set foot in the West, Resistance International was there, filling the streets, denouncing the Soviets, warning Western diplomats against going wobbly.
In the final year of the Soviet Empire, Bukovsky organized five of us to write a novel, The Golden Convoy, that predicted the internal fission of the Soviet Union. It was an ambitious project, but he convinced me, Irina Ratushinskaya, her husband Igor, and “Viktor Suvarov” to meet every 2-3 months to consume considerable quantities of vodka and herring and black bread, and outline the next few chapters. The book, which culminates in a military coup in Moscow, was published in Russian a few weeks before the failed military coup. As the regime came tumbling down, The Golden Train was read on Moscow radio, to the great delight of the listeners, and it sold out in record time. Typically, no English-language publisher was willing to print it (too hard on Gorbachev, who is removed from office in the last chapter), nor could Bukovsky find an American or British publisher for his subsequent blockbuster Judgment in Moscow based on hitherto-secret documents from the Politburo archives. We’d equipped him with a laptop and a hand-held scanner, and during the brief period when Soviet archives were open to scholars, he scanned thousands of pages. Eventually the archivists figured out what he was doing, and he headed for the airport.
We’ve been friends for a long time, ever since he came to America to study at Stanford, which he left after the university president bestowed an award on a phony group of Soviet physicians who had been actively involved in Bukovsky’s torture.
No compromise. He couldn’t stay at such a place. But he was destined to leave America in any event, because of the anti-smoking laws. He’d spent too much time in the Gulag, being told what to do and what not to do 24 hours a day, to accept another state telling him he couldn’t smoke. Ever since, he and several highly independent cats have lived in Cambridge, England, where he writes great books and refuses to pay for the dubious privilege of watching and listening to the BBC. He very rarely flies to America any more (they won’t let him smoke on the plane).
He’s a great man and a great friend, and I no doubt owe him the highest honor I ever received: the official declaration that I was “an enemy of the Soviet people.”
So happy birthday, Volodya, and many more. I’m smoking a cigar in your honor.
THANKS TO INSTAPUNDIT FOR THE GENEROUS LINK
THANKS TO ROGER KIMBALL FOR THE GENEROUS TWEET
WELCOME ALL
Michael – Thank you for this tribute to V. Bukovsky. It’s not surprising that he never received the official honors global elites bestowed on men such as Nelson Mandela, Jimmy Carter, Arafat and Kofi Anan.
“Honour, not honours”, per the motto of Sir Richard Francis Burton.
I read his book “To Build A Castle” almost 25 years ago. It was on the dollar table at the bookstore. Bukovsky’s book haunted me continually so I just bought myself another copy for Christmas.
Thank you Michael.
I think Václav Havel is right up there with his The Power of the Powerless, which warns of the end state that Obama wants to transform America into.
link to essay:
http://www.vaclavhavel.cz/showtrans.php?cat=clanky&val=72_aj_clanky.html&typ=HTML
By the way, one of the MANY reasons why the Radical/Islamist-in-Chief is so dangerous is because of his admirers. NOT only does the communist party in the US heart with him, but the most vile dregs on the international stage champion him too!
So tell me who your friends/admirers are, and I will tell you who you are – http://adinakutnicki.com/2012/11/04/obamas-openly-communist-supporterssurrogates-here-there-everywhere-addendum-to-world-leaders-endorsing-the-radical-in-chief-most-vile-dregs-commentary-by-adina-kutnicki/
Simple as that.Clear as a bell too.
Yes, we know them all by their deeds. The sons of Satan are all the same… Haters of the good things and people.
This essay makes me miss cigarettes. Good for Bukovsky for remainirg true in the small things as well as the large.
This essay makes me miss cigarettes.
Me, too. And the darling grandmother who used to share her Pall Malls with me while we watched late movies together. With her demure, double knot chignon and ubiquitous shawl, she created a delightfully incongruous picture enjoyed by anyone who watched her puffing away in obvious contentment.
A great essay and wonderful tribute to your friend, Dr. Ledeen. You are blessed in your friendships—but then, so is he! What a shame the novels aren’t available here. Thankfully the memoir is—my first book purchase against next year’s budget. What a fine omen indeed.
If by ‘here’ you mean the USA they are available.
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=Vladimir%20Bukovsky
Happy birthday, Gospodin Bukovsky.
Happy 70th Birthday,Vladimir Bukovsky. Principles matter. How intriguing that Mr. Bukovsky is living in Cambridge,England- where the Apostles and Magnificent 5 once roamed -the real subversives for Western nations. What is his uptake on today’s Russia and Putin? Former SSRs? The untimely deaths of witnesses- one in the Magnitsky case and the other in the Katyn/Polish airplane crash?. Insightful books/articles will always benefit those finding themselves in dire circumstances as the enemy of the state- the subversive when the opposite is true.
Well, it is like cities like Antioch, or Ephesus, that were bastions of paganism, then having a three – six hundred year run as bastions of the Christian faith tradition.
A friend is the grandson of the #2 man in the Soviet Embassy, when Yakovlev was the Soviet Ambassador to Canada, and one of his guests was a young member of the Politburo from Stavropol, and that member had, and presumably still has, a curious birthmark on his forehead.
Thank you, Michael Ledeen. As always your writing unsettles things I thought I knew and enlightens.
Bukovsky and you, amazing. Unsung stories from the right side of the struggle. Thanks for the peek into that world. Shame on our country for not being free enough for the likes of him…. Shame on our country for simply not being free enough, eh?
jaynie, the main shame is the then-president of Stanford, who gave that award to (if i remember correctly) Physicians for Social Responsibility or something like that. However I’m pleased that Stanford is much better nowadays, surprisingly open to military vets, etc.
I recall reading that in Vixi, the autobiography of Richard Pipes.
I am thankful for you, and him, Michael, and not just when both of you were in Washington, at the same time.
I raise a cigar in salutation as well.
I’m not about to start smoking, but if I did, this would be the reason.
Great article Mr.Ledeen!
Now that decades have passed since your group embarked on writing the book, is there a chance to have it translated and publised in English? It sounds like one of those must read books.
thanks radish, what a happy thought. so far as i know, it went through two russian editions and one italian edition…
Get a domain / website in a country where the author has the electronic rights and put the book on the Internet. Perfectly legal way to get the book out.
Another method is if you have the electronic rights is sell it via Amazon as an eBook. Sarah Hoyt has done this. To do it yourself cost I think is around $100, and you get 70% of the royalties. The growth in eBooks is amazing.
https://kdp.amazon.com/self-publishing/help
The old school of publishers being the gatekeeper to publishing is dying fast.
I strongly second RR, Mr. Ledeen. Kindle Ebooks pay 70% of the gross to the author. a Kindle book at $#9.99 would provide a great return to Bukovsky. it is a matter of typing it into a word processor, converting the fikle to Kindle format, and then Amazon takes over. A pal of mine with no name recognition has published 2 mysteries in the past 14 months, and has grossed $8,000 in royalties.
agree. it’s the Big Thing Now.
I was reading up on him on Wiki and apparently Random House had bought the rights to publish one of his books in English but “tried to force [him] to rewrite the whole book from the liberal left political perspective.” Bukovsky replied that “due to certain peculiarities of my biography I am allergic to political censorship.” The contract was then cancelled by RH. Also, conveniently, there is no mention of his stint at Stanford or his reason for departure. Wiki takes him directly from being exchanged for Corvalan to Cambridge.
You might want to take a look at this recent column by Barbara Kay, in the National Post.
For it sheds light on the subject.
http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2013/01/01/barbara-kay-rise-of-the-independent-publishers/
An example of non-traditional publishing is this https://itunes.apple.com/ca/book/the-volunteer/id415646709?mt=11
Plus, the writer is on Twitter, and he has interesting stuff.
… gutted the world communist movement.
Mustn’t forget the guts of the human body reside inside, unseen, and work “unknown and secretly in the night”. The materials ingested, imbibed, become part of the body itself. The guts crucial to continual rebuilding – Changing – the body.
So miraculous and flexible is the human body it can and does build resistance to poisons not immediately lethal when taken in gradually. Poisons that become necessary to the body but ultimately destroy that body. The individual and the community of the body politic.
The Communist Movement – don’t forget its descriptor as International – is alive and well. In the socalled United Nations. In the European Union with its designers’ Hope to Change into the United States of Europe with a central – commissariate – rule from Brussels/Strasbourg over ALL citizens in the member nations.
Lured with a common currency and common laws and generous “welfare” cradle to grave to abrogate those of erstwhile sovereign nations/citizens. Union agreed to by politicians of the various nations who freely ceded national sovereignty to the “Union”, even over vociferous objections from citizens.
Disguised world-wide, internationally? as smiling, loving grandma providing sweets and goodies to the naive and hopeful little ones. Paid for by members of the “Community” who provide the wherewithal, once upon a time known as serfs if not worse, for the goodies dispensed to the favourite children and their pets.
No longer called International Communism but New Age Democracy, Socialism and Compassionate Liberalism. Their “Head Start” in the past half century with their best and brightest members feeding their drugs in sugar coating to two generations of students young, middle-aged and even old.
Followed with 24/7/365 “entertainment” to emphasise the lessons for “the good life” in following the precepts taught.
The guts of International Communism reside in all the civic institutions in the West and especially in establishment print and TV Media and universities. The proponents insinuated into policy echelons while the eventual targets alumbered in affluence, drugs, sex and rock and roll.
Communists are not and have never been fools. They could see their days were numbered with the successes of the Western ways of government that provided the greatest good to the greatest numbers. Contrasted to their own prison states walled with armed guards to keep people in their paradise. They took necessary and effective action to assure their movement lives on. We can see them everywhere if we only looked with open and clear eyes and not be dissuaded by their sneering “conspiracy theory” dismissals.
Ask chess players about endgames. AND patience.
As an old student of Cold War and Soviet military history, what you say here is my opinion exactly; namely that the heart of Marxism/Leninism has been transferred into the West where it now prospers. But I will take this one step farther and suggest that once the heart transplant had been accomplished so successfully, the terminally corrupt and damaged USSR was cast off as no longer needed to support the “cause”.
This most horrible parasite of Marxism/Leninism is now fully active in a new (formerly) healthy Western body which it has already begun to corrupt. But once it has destroyed Western Europe and then the United States, where does it go from there? I think we have already seen that image – namely Orwell’s 1984.
“Some Bolshevik plot” is exactly what it is.
If you know how to interpret BHO he will tell you exactly what is going on. Sort of like a serial killer leaving clues.
“cast off after the heart transplant”
Wow, wow, wow- best summation ever.
Lets us remember that the new US ‘heart’ lifted China as a replacement, and is now co-operating with Russia to retool the USSR’s Islamic proxies.
“We will bury you without firing a shot.”
And they are.
Great analysis.
I could add a little piece of information: one of the last (massive) works of the important marxist-leninist Antonio Negri (who had been previously accused of being the leader of the Red Brigades in Italy), “Empire”, has been published in America before being published in its original language in Italy.
And the “archives” of the “autonomous marxism” (the brand of leninist organization led by Negri) are at the U. of Austin in Texas.
Nobody ever talks about this person, whose books delineate a precise strategy to defeat the West (strategy that is successfully implemented as we speak…)
Thanks to you and your friends, Michael, for your valiant efforts.
“The Commuless Moscow Weapons Company” aka:USSR (c me 1986); the song remains the same.
…That Gorbachev would be running around selling his books for “American dollars only” (c me 1989) and delivered to every member of congress in 1989.
Thank G-d the slaves to the “Commuless Moscow Weapons Company” had people/heros willing to stand up like Rosa Parks did…(maybe I should have said sit down)
Nice tribute. I read “To Build a Castle” when I was in grad school in the late 1980s, at the recommendation of a superb Russo-Ukrainian emigre professor who smoked a pipe. Another professor friend of mine, a Cambridge don and contemporary of Bukovsky, gave up all his club memberships in the UK because of the smoking bans. All great men, all smokers. They should not have been made to stand out in the cold to have a smoke. A sorry sign of the times.
Would that we had an American politician with one-thousandth of his courage.
John Boehner, anyone?
I will have a cigar on New Years Eve to support Mr Vladimir Bukovsky.
Thanks Michael…
I was shocked to find that To Build a Castle is only available as a used book. Its first and only printing in the US was in 1979.
I really do not understand why more authors of such books aren’t putting them up on a website in pdf or e-reader format, perhaps even for free. If something is out of print, there is nothing to be lost from doing so, and it may even spur interest in other things the author has written.
I’m not familiar with how publishing works, so maybe this is not possible.
Bravo Bukovsky! A true hero!
Publish them electronically online, as Adobe or eBook files. Then publicize here, AT, and other conservative sites. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised.
Happy birthday, Mr. Bukovsky.
Michael, you have never been an enemy to any nation. Your great struggle always is against “the evil regimes”, NOT the nations. So it is a great honor to you and to us that you was called in “the enemy of an evil empire.”
Thanks for this post. When I think of totalitarian regimes, too often I focus on the suppression of speech and corruption of the rule of law, and, moving away from such dainty matters, of people torn limb from limb for opposition to the government. All too many of my friends and relatives have escaped from eastern Europe for me to forget these matters. Your post on Vladimir Bukovsky reminds me that even in the most repressive regimes we can find people with the integrity and courage to confront such evil. Ultimately they have prevailed, and that gives me hope as the government of the US creeps along in the direction of socialism. Excellent work, Mr. Bukovsky!
Thank you, Mr. Bukovsky. Men like you, Solzhenitsyn, and Sharansky are the right examples for all who would throw off tyranny. I feel we’ll need those examples in the coming years. The U.S.A. will collapse someday, as all governments do, so we have to make sure freedom and justice survive in the next America.
“Sir: We congratulate the American people upon your re-election by
a large majority.” – Karl Marx letter to Abe Lincoln, November 1864
I have to wonder if old Abe was “The Greatest Subversive” of socialist persuasion in those times but it went unknown.
Some say that the Constitution was forever changed under Lincoln, that his war against the South forever strengthened the federal government and weakened the “powers granted to the several States,and to the people” guarantees of the 14th Amendment,which in turn emboldened the President, the Supreme Court and Congress,as time passed, in further centralizing federal control,more and more,to the near-socialism we struggle under today. I think maybe they’re right on that.
Certainly Marx would have been admiring of any leader who resorted to deadly force to put down a rebellion.
I bow to no one in my hatred of slavery,but surely another way,short of a civil war that killed MILLIONS, and wrecked the South, could have been found to end it, if a President were determined to find one.
Aaah! Somebody I think I could enjoy having a probing conversation with.
Go clean your sheets, you’ve got spittle all over the inside of the hood.
Some people can say what you’ve said, but they cannot name a single power the federal government had after the war it did not have before it.
Actually, the Civil War, The War Between The States, aka The War of Northern Agression, is estimated to have killed something south of a million soldiers, civilians, slaves. It killed more Americans than any other single conflict before or after.
Lincoln suffered desperately (almost mythically, except not a myth) as a child and then literally walked out of the wilderness to become President. His father, Tom, had at some point been engaged in the business of returning slaves to their owners, but then completely turned around his heart and mind and hated the institution to his bones. No one knows why. He was not, as they say, an affable man.
The West was opening and the South wanted the budding western states to be slave states so that the “peculiar institution” as Lincoln called it would be under no threat. Lincoln understood the promise of the Constitution, its meaning and its fulfillment. He saw our way to that fulfillment.
I was living in the bad old USSR during the “free Corvalan” campaign and
its conclusion when Bukovsky with a mouthful of steel teeth (courtesy
GULAG) headed out.
I wish I could show the bravery of the 1970′s dissidents to every
western conservative who after O’s reelection is ready to secede, emigrate,
or otherwise retreat because “it’s all over”.
I found a copy of To Build a Castle, used, for only $20, and grabbed it. the other copies on the alibris.com site were $160 and up.
KINDLE, KINDLE, KINDLE ALL THE WAY!!!