The Threat of Communism: Then and Now

Soviet-era Dissident Vladimir Bukovsky speaks at an opposition meeting in Moscow, 17 December 2007. Bukovsky is a potential united oppostion candidate for president in Russia’s March 2008 presidential elections. AFP PHOTO / ALEXEY SAZONOV (Photo credit should read Alexey SAZONOV/AFP/Getty Images)

 

One of the most famous enemies of Soviet communism is Vladimir Bukovsky. He was tortured by Soviet authorities. He spent many years in Soviet prisons. He was even declared “insane” and sent to a psychiatric prison. When Bukovsky was exiled to the West, people paid lip service to his courage; but few heeded his warnings about Gorbachev’s Perestroika.

Bukovsky reminded everyone that all Soviet leaders were liars. Gorbachev, he said, was no exception—and was certainly no democrat. Like Lenin, Stalin, Khrushchev, and Brezhnev, Gorbachev was a liar and a hangman. But hardly anyone listened. Everyone wanted to believe the Cold War was over.

But how could we have won the Cold War? This was the inconvenient question Bukovsky asked. Random House senior editor Jason Epstein rejected Bukovsky’s question altogether. And so, Bukovsky’s book on the equivocal “fall of communism” was not published in English—until now.

Some Provocative Thoughts from Bukovsky

(Screenshot 112 Ukraine TV)

 

Vladimir Bukovsky has been giving some pretty interesting Russian-language interviews lately.

Earlier this month, he spoke with Kiev-based112 Ukraine TV. Below is an excerpt from the English translation by Alissa Ordabai that should get some attention.

Dmitry Gordon: You recently said, “If two ballistic missiles were launched at Lubyanka, the level of terrorism worldwide would drop by 80 percent.”  What did you mean by that?

Vladimir Bukovsky: The thing is that a huge part of the world’s so-called terrorism is being organized by Lubyanka (the popular name for the headquarters of the FSB on Lubyanka Square in Moscow – translator). They control Islamic terrorism, ever since the war in Afghanistan when they were supporting the most extremist parts of the Afghan resistance, people like Gulbuddin.  You wouldn’t remember these names.  

Vladimir Bukovsky: EU = USSR

Can you also guess which nation runs Europe now… for the third time?

 

Former Soviet dissident Vladimir Bukovsky spent a total of 12 years in Soviet psychiatric prisons and labor camps. Upon his first release from the camps, he asked a journalist to set up some cameras to record his testimony about what was really going on within the Soviet penal system.

Bukovsky knew he would be arrested again for spilling the beans. But he wanted the world to know the truth about the human rights’ abuses going on within the Soviet Union; he was afraid he might not have the mental faculties to tell his story, considering the drugs he was being injected with in the camps.

…

Now, Vladimir Bukovsky is warning about the ominous rise of the European Union (EU), which he refers to as the “pale version of the Soviet Union.”