One of the best known of the Soviet dissidents, Vladimir Bukovsky spent years battling Soviet authorities -- in and out of psychiatric facilities and the infamous Gulag for a total of 12 years of incarceration -- before political pressure from supporters finally helped to secure his release in exchange for a Chilean Communist in 1976. 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.

Since his exile in the West, Bukovsky has obtained degrees from both Stanford University and Cambridge University. As a writer and political activist, he continues to inform the world about the abuses perpetrated under the Soviet system.

At one time granted temporary access to archives of the Soviet Communist Party, he gathered numerous documents for publication. These were later made inaccessible once again, but they are now available to scholars and analysts thanks to his efforts.

Bukovsky has also been a severe critic of "the free world" for its failure to absorb the lessons that might have been learned from observing 70 years of Communism in the U.S.S.R.

He is the author of a number of books, including A manual on Psychiatry for Dissenters, (with Dr. Semyon Gluzman), (1974); To Build a Castle, My life as a Dissenter (1978); and To Choose Freedom (1987). He has also written many articles