To Build a Castle

It's fascinating now, in 2004, to read the views of former Soviet dissident Vladimir Bukovsky on the current world situation, and the war on terror. Imprisoned for 12 years in Soviet labour camps and psychiatric institutions, Bukovsky defected to Britain in 1976, when he was exchanged, in Moscow, for a Chilean communist. His trials included being ruled as "insane" by Soviet psychiatrists and subjected to compulsory treatment for the possession of anti-Soviet literature, and for organizing human rights demonstrations.

Throughout the Reagan-Thatcher years, and for many years of the later stages of the Cold War, Bukovsky provided a much-needed running commentary - from the perspective of one with lived and firsthand experience of Soviet tyranny - on the inadequacies and fumblings of Western governments in their dealings with "this regime of utter scum", as he called the Soviet Union in his autobiographical memoir To Build A Castle (1977). And, since the end of the Cold War, he has continued to castigate the "free world" for its failure to absorb the lessons that might have been learned from observing 70 years of Communism in the USSR.

Bukovsky considers that Saddam and North Korea, the Western Left and the rogue regime of Putin in Russia "are all just remnants of the war with Communism which we never won conclusively but stopped it one day too soon. Metaphorically speaking, this was as stupid and reckless as leaving minefields and gangs of marauders scattered in the hills after a war. I am afraid we will be destined now in the new century to stumble into those old minefields until and unless we set ourselves a task to systematically clear those remnants of the past century's war." ( A Conversation with Vladimir Bukovsky, FrontPage Magazine, May 30, 2003).

His view of the conflict in Chechnya is also worthy of close attention. To Jamie Glazov's question: "Don't the Russians have their own problem with militant Islam?" Bukovsky answered:

"No, they don't. Contrary to Russian propaganda, (and contrary to the Western public perception generated by it), Chechens are not militant islamists. They are just a small nation fighting off blatant aggression. Most of other regions, where Muslims used to live in the former Soviet Union, are not part of Russia anymore. Two more Muslim areas, Tartarstan and Bashkorstan, are remarkably peaceful even now, in spite of the Chechen conflict. And, both being enclaves in the Russian territory, they are unlikely to be as potentially dangerous as any borderland might have been. So, we can only consider the North Caucasus, where Russians themselves have caused all the trouble, and where those troubles could be terminated any time with a modicum of good will."

Bukovsky sees the European Union as a dangerous attempt by the Left to build another socialist Tower of Babel, calling it "EUSSR", a "Menshevik" version of the Soviet Union - not Al Qaeda, but the EU is the real threat to the world's peace and security, he believes. He also sees Brussels as a threat to NATO, an organization he thinks should be abolished and then rebuilt, mainly with members of the "new" Europe, together with Israel and a few of the "old" European nations. The inclusion of Israel in NATO would split the EU even further - and this could only be a good thing, Bukovsky believes.

Though his support for the United States is unflagging, he is none the less scathing about the slowness of the US to wake up to the threat of international terrorism, a threat of which Europe had been keenly aware ever since the 1970s:

"As far as the international terrorism is concerned, Americans remind me someone I know in Israel who used to be a dove, almost a pacifist and Palestinian apologist until his car's front window was smashed by the Palestinian stone-throwers. Then, he immediately became an arch-hawk, ready to kill every Palestinian in sight. Europe lives with terrorism for at least half a century, and somehow managed to cope with it feeling no need to declare a Global War. When I was just kicked out of the USSR in the mid-70s, every country in Europe had its local terrorist organization, and the Palestinian terrorism on the top of it all. Italy had "Red Brigades", Germany had Baader-Meinhof group, Spain had ETA, Britain had IRA, France had "Action Directe", etc. Mind you, those groups were far more dangerous than Al Qaeda because most of them were trained, supplied and supported by the Soviet Union. And they were far more active, too. Not a month would pass by without one terrorist action or another in Europe. In Italy, for example, they have managed to kidnap, torture and execute former Prime Minister. But somehow Americans did not perceive it as a world drama, nor did they call for a Global War until ... the front window of their car was smashed. So, what do you expect from the Europeans? Enthusiasm? Hurrraaay! At last, at last our American cousins have noticed international terrorism!"


All worthy of reflection.