Word: vladimir
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Gaunt and hollow-cheeked, he wore a gray-flecked crew cut that was clearly the work of a prison barber, and his be wilderment was plain. "You see," explained exiled Soviet Dissident Vladimir Bukovsky, "sometimes I still don 't know whether I'm free or still in prison. I've talked about nothing else but my life in prison since I arrived here. " The first political prisoner ever traded by the Soviets, Bukovsky, 33, had just been swapped for Chilean Communist Luis Corvalán (TIME, Dec. 27). A native of a small town in eastern Russia...
Chain-smoking American cigarettes and sipping Swiss mineral water, Bukovsky recounted the astonishing tale of his release from jail and his deportation. On a Friday two weeks ago, he had been told by prison authorities in Vladimir to get his things together and prepare to change cells. He was then put in a small KGB (secret police) van and whisked to another jail in Moscow. A ranking official of the KGB personally accompanied the handcuffed prisoner to Zurich on a chartered Aeroflot jet. Once the plane was no longer flying over Soviet territory the official unlocked the cuffs...
Bukovsky is committed to calling the world's attention to the plight of the political prisoners in Soviet jails, concentration camps and prison psychiatric hospitals. His last cell at Vladimir, a fortress-like penitentiary, was shared by four men. It was excruciatingly small: Soviet prison regulations allow for only 27 sq. ft. of space per prisoner. There was so little room that Bukovsky spent most of his days sitting cross-legged on his bunk, reading. After the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. signed the Helsinki agreement last year, Bukovsky recalled bitterly, even journals from other Communist countries were taken from...
Rotten Fish. Vladimir Prison's 1,300 inmates are allowed into tiny courtyards, about the size of the cells, for one hour of fresh air each day. Bukovsky belonged to the "black" category of political prisoners, so named because of their somber prison garb. Contact with other prisoners was prohibited. "We had lots of ways to communicate, though," said Bukovsky. One way was through a few sympathetic guards who passed on the cheering news of the protest campaign being carried on for Bukovsky in the West. The prison grapevine quickly carried the news of Bukovsky's dramatic month...
...seemed more surprised by the unprecedented swap of political prisoners than Corvalán and Bukovsky. Until Thursday of last week. Bukovsky had been immured in the infamous Vladimir Prison in central Russia. Moved on Friday to a Moscow jail, the Russian began to suspect that something was afoot. But not until he was placed aboard a specially chartered Aeroflot jet bound for Zurích did he know that he had been freed. Bukovsky's mother Nina, his sister Olga and his nephew Mikhail were also flown to Switzerland to join him in exile. Simultaneously, Corval...