My Life as a Dissenter

Vladimir Bukovsky

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2009 OFF in Oslo
Vladimir Bukovsky was an author, activist, and former Soviet dissident. Bukovsky discussed how and why the type of political oppression that landed him in jail in the Soviet Union is still alive and well in countries across the world. 

About the Speaker

Vladimir Bukovsky

Vladimir

Bukovsky

Writer and Soviet dissident

Vladimir Bukovsky was an author, activist, and former Soviet dissident. He spent a total of 12 years in Soviet prisons, labor camps, and forced-treatment psychiatric hospitals. Bukovsky was arrested and confined to a psychiatric hospital for possession of photocopies of anti-Soviet literature. After he successfully smuggled documents to the West detailing the Soviet authorities’ use of psychiatric institutions as a weapon against political prisoners, Bukovsky was again arrested and convicted of “slander of Soviet psychiatry.” While in prison, he co-authored “A Manual on Psychiatry for Dissidents” to help other dissidents resist forced psychiatric treatment. The Soviet government exchanged Bukovsky for the imprisoned Chilean communist leader Luis Corvalán; he later found refuge in the United Kingdom. He was a member of the international advisory council of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation. Bukovsky was an outspoken critic of Vladimir Putin and an original signatory to the online anti-Putin protest “Putin Must Go.” He died on Oct. 27, 2019.

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