Monologue for Two: Vladimir Bukovsky

Hearing a person with such a long history of resistance to various regimes is by all means an educational doing, however it is important to understand that despite the reliability of Mr. Bukovsky's opinions they are to some extent biased. When talking about Brexit, Vladimir hold a typical opinion of an older Briton, who argue that British membership within the EU is a danger to our parliamentary sovereignty and that under international agreements British Supreme Court is unable to overrun any decisions made in Strasbourg. While all this is key and undoubtfully true, in my opinion it is vital to consider the peacekeeping mission of the EU and it is important to avoid the pitfall of "sustaining Britain for British people" and this about the massive harm that would be brought to the British economy in case of Brexit. Nevertheless hearing Mr. Bukovsky's thoughts on various matters represented in this interview helped me to understand not only his generation better, but also to understand people of his historical period.

***

Vladimir Bukovsky was prominent in the Soviet dissident movement of the 1960s and 1970s and spent a total of twelve years in psychiatric prison-hospitals, labor camps and prisons within the Soviet Union. Since being expelled from the country in late 1976 he has remained in active and vocal opposition to the Soviet system and the shortcomings of its successor regimes in Russia. A writer, neurophysiologist, and activist, he is celebrated for his part in the campaign to expose and halt the political abuse of psychiatry in the Soviet Union.

In September 1960 Bukovsky entered Moscow University to study biology. There he and some friends decided to revive the informal Mayakovsky Square poetry readings which began after a statue to the poet was unveiled in central Moscow in 1958. For this action he was named "insane" and admitted to a mental institution.

Following December 1965, Bukovsky helped prepare a demonstration on Pushkin Square in central Moscow to protest against the trial of the writers Andrei Sinyavsky and Yuli Daniel, yet wasn't attending due to being arrested in advance.

He then was very proactive in the campaign against the abuse of psychiatry which later caused him to end up with a jail sentence. Later in 1976, he however was deported from Soviet Russia, but nevertheless he continued his social activism and is still loud on the issues of modern Russia and Putins regime.