To Build a Castle: My Life as a Dissenter
by Vladimir Bukovsky
On This Page
Description
A major document in the literature of human rights, this now-legendary memoir, by one of the most prominent of the Soviet-era Russian dissidents, was a world-wide bestseller when first published in 1978.At the age of 20, as punishment for his political protests, Vladimir Bukovsky was falsely declared insane and committed to a psychiatric hospital—standard practice for communism's critics in 1963. But the quack doctors and brutal guards who kept him captive didn't realize: Bukovsky wasn't show more locked up with them. They were locked up with Bukovsky.
In this compelling, beautifully-crafted memoir, Bukovsky details with equal parts burning outrage and bitter humor the cruel theater of life for Soviet prisoners of conscience. But he also recounts how he found his inner truth and strength, and built a fortress around it—the imaginary castle of the title—in which he could remain safe from the daily assaults on his body and mind.
Bukovsky refused to break under the pressure of 12 years' incarceration in a series of psychiatric hospitals, labor camps, and some of the Soviet Union's worst prisons. More than that, though, he turned the tables on his captors and oppressors—the USSR under Brezhnev—with a series of rebellions, pranks, and persistent goading that ultimately led Soviet officials to trade him for a high-ranking Communist prisoner in the West, as a means of getting Vladimir Bukovsky out of the country at last.
In To Build a Castle, Bukovsky offers powerful firsthand testimony to the importance of personal integrity and perseverance under seemingly boundless, endless oppression and abuse. Over nearly forty years, Bukovsky's story has inspired dissidents, prisoners, and those trapped by circumstance: Even in chains, you can be free.
Masterfully translated from the Russian by Michael Scammell.
Praise for TO BUILD A CASTLE
'Sometimes ironic, sometimes detached, sometimes written in cold fury, but always compelling.' —The New Yorker
'This is a landmark book and a human document that remains vital.' —Sir Tom Stoppard, Oscar-winning screenwriter of Shakespeare in Love
'Vladimir Bukovsky has written an extraordinary account of his life in the Soviet Union.... Listen closely.' —New York Times
'A huge story we must not forget. Even inside prison, a revolt of the mind is possible.' —Masha Alyokhina, co-founder of the anti-Putinist punk rock group Pussy Riot, who read To Build a Castle while serving time as a political prisoner
'This book is important.'
—Former US President Ronald Reagan
'If human bravery were a book, it would be To Build a Castle. Bukovsky's memoir serves as testimony to the horrors of totalitarianism, a reference manual of the Soviet gulag during the Brezhnev years, and an unforgettable tribute to the courage of dissidents like Bukovsky. Unfortunately, the book is a reminder we still very much need today, when Western moral equivalence would have us believe that such monsters no longer exist. They do, and 'To Build a Castle' is an essential guide to understanding them, and how to fight them.' —Garry Kasparov, Chairman of the Human Rights Foundation
. show less
Tags
Recommendations
Member Reviews
I denne boka skriver forfatteren om sine år som internert "pasient" på psykiatrisk klinikk - en straff han fikk fordi han hadde skrevet samfunnskritiske artikler mot det russiske regimet. Etter press fra Vesten slapp han gjennom Jernteppet. Livet i Vesten ble imidlertid ikke helt slik han hadde tenkt. Det som har gjort sterkest inntrykk på ham er den likegyldighet folk fra Vesten har til grunnleggende borgerrettigheter som frihet, retten til å velge, ytringsfriheten etc. Samt hangen til å la oss underholde av intetsigende ting ... Sånn sett en meget tankevekkende bok!
Sep 6, 2008Norwegian
Ratings
Members
- Recently Added By
Author Information
29+ Works 223 Members
Some Editions
Awards and Honors
Awards
Series
Belongs to Publisher Series
Work Relationships
Common Knowledge
- Alternate titles
- И возвращается ветер
- Original publication date
- 1978 (UK English) (UK English); 1979 (Russian) (Russian)
- People/Characters
- Vladimir Bukovsky
- First words
- Prologue
They say that if you bring a deep-sea diver too quickly to the surface he may die, or at the very least feel the blood boiling in his veins and everything bursting inside.
1.
It was December 1976, and I really had very little time left to do - some five months or so in Vladimir Prison, before returning to my old camp, No. 35, in Perm Province, for about ten more months. - Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)Something no search could ever discover.
- Original language
- Russian
Classifications
- Genres
- Nonfiction, Biography & Memoir, History
- DDC/MDS
- 364.13 — Social sciences Social problems and social services Criminology Criminal offenses Political and related offenses
- LCC
- DK275 .B84 .A3813 — History of Europe, Asia, Africa and Oceania Russia. Soviet Union. Former Soviet Republics – Poland History of Russia. Soviet Union. Former Soviet Republics History Soviet regime, 1918-1991
- BISAC
Statistics
- Members
- 118
- Popularity
- 274,771
- Reviews
- 2
- Rating
- (4.33)
- Languages
- 6 — English, French, Italian, Norwegian, Russian, Swedish
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 11
- ASINs
- 3
