VLADIMIR BUKOVSKY AND THE LINKS BETWEEN THE POLITBURO AND EU
COMMISSION, THE USSR AND EUSSR
Former Soviet Dissident Warns For EU Dictatorship
An interview with Vladimir Bukovsky about the impending EUSSR
From the desk of Paul Belien on Mon, 2006-02-27 21:13
Vladimir Bukovksy, the 63-year old former Soviet dissident, fears that the
European Union is on its way to becoming another Soviet Union. In a speech he
delivered in Brussels last week Mr Bukovsky called the EU a “monster” that must
be destroyed, the sooner the better, before it develops into a full fledged
totalitarian state.
Mr Bukovsky paid a visit to the European Parliament on Thursday at the
invitation of Fidesz, the Hungarian Civic Forum. Fidesz, a member of the
European Christian Democrat group, had invited the former Soviet dissident over
from England, where he lives, on the occasion of this year’s 50th anniversary of
the 1956 Hungarian Uprising. After his morning meeting with the Hungarians, Mr
Bukovsky gave an afternoon speech in a Polish restaurant in the Trier straat,
opposite the European Parliament, where he spoke at the invitation of the United
Kingdom Independence Party, of which he is a patron.
In his speech Mr Bukovsky referred to confidential documents from secret Soviet
files which he was allowed to read in 1992. These documents confirm the
existence of a “conspiracy” to turn the European Union into a socialist
organization. I attended the meeting and taped the speech. A transcript, as well
as the audio fragment (approx. 15 minutes) can be found below. I also had a
brief interview with Mr Bukovsky (4 minutes), a transcript and audio fragment of
which can also be found below. The interview about the European Union had to be
cut short because Mr Bukovsky had other engagements, but it brought back some
memories to me, as I had interviewed Vladimir Bukovsky twenty years ago, in
1986, when the Soviet Union, the first monster that he so valiantly fought, was
still alive and thriving.
Mr Bukovsky was one of the heroes of the 20th century. As a young man he exposed
the use of psychiatric imprisonment against political prisoners in the former
USSR (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, 1917-1991) and spent a total of
twelve years (1964-1976), from his 22nd to his 34th year, in Soviet jails,
labour camps and psychiatric institutions. In 1976 the Soviets expelled him to
the West. In 1992 he was invited by the Russian government to serve as an expert
testifying at the trial conducted to determine whether the Soviet Communist
Party had been a criminal institution. To prepare for his testimony Mr Bukovsky
was granted access to a large number of documents from Soviet secret archives.
He is one of the few people ever to have seen these documents because they are
still classified. Using a small handheld scanner and a laptop computer, however,
he managed to copy many documents (some with high security clearance), including
KGB reports to the Soviet government.
An interview with Vladimir Bukovsky
Paul Belien: You were a very famous Soviet dissident and now you are drawing a
parallel between the European Union and the Soviet Union. Can you explain this?
Vladimir Bukovsky: I am referrring to structures, to certain ideologies being
instilled, to the plans, the direction, the inevitable expansion, the
obliteration of nations, which was the purpose of the Soviet Union. Most people
do not understand this. They do not know it, but we do because we were raised in
the Soviet Union where we had to study the Soviet ideology in school and at
university. The ultimate purpose of the Soviet Union was to create a new
historic entity, the Soviet people, all around the globe. The same is true in
the EU today. They are trying to create a new people. They call this people
“Europeans”, whatever that means.
According to Communist doctrine as well as to many forms of Socialist thinking,
the state, the national state, is supposed to wither away. In Russia, however,
the opposite happened. Instead of withering away the Soviet state became a very
powerful state, but the nationalities were obliterated. But when the time of the
Soviet collapse came these suppressed feelings of national identity came
bouncing back and they nearly destroyed the country. It was so frightening.
PB: Do you think the same thing can happen when the European Union collapses?
VB: Absolutely, you can press a spring only that much, and the human psyche is
very resilient you know. You can press it, you can press it, but don’t forget it
is still accumulating a power to rebound. It is like a spring and it always goes
to overshoot.
PB: But all these countries that joined the European Union did so voluntarily.
VB: No, they did not. Look at Denmark which voted against the Maastricht treaty
twice. Look at Ireland [which voted against the Nice treaty]. Look at many other
countries, they are under enormous pressure. It is almost blackmail. Switzerland
was forced to vote five times in a referendum. All five times they have rejected
it, but who knows what will happen the sixth time, the seventh time. It is
always the same thing. It is a trick for idiots. The people have to vote in
referendums until the people vote the way that is wanted. Then they have to stop
voting. Why stop? Let us continue voting. The European Union is what Americans
would call a shotgun marriage.
PB: What do you think young people should do about the European Union? What
should they insist on, to democratize the institution or just abolish it?
VB: I think that the European Union, like the Soviet Union, cannot be
democratized. Gorbachev tried to democratize it and it blew up. This kind of
structures cannot be democratized.
PB: But we have a European Parliament which is chosen by the people.
VB: The European Parliament is elected on the basis of proportional
representation, which is not true representation. And what does it vote on? The
percentage of fat in yoghurt, that kind of thing. It is ridiculous. It is given
the task of the Supreme Soviet. The average MP can speak for six minutes per
year in the Chamber. That is not a real parliament.
In 1992 I had unprecedented access to Politburo and Central Committee secret
documents which have been classified, and still are even now, for 30 years.
These documents show very clearly that the whole idea of turning the European
common market into a federal state was agreed between the left-wing parties of
Europe and Moscow as a joint project which [Soviet leader Mikhail] Gorbachev in
1988-89 called our “common European home.”
The idea was very simple. It first came up in 1985-86, when the Italian
Communists visited Gorbachev, followed by the German Social-Democrats. They all
complained that the changes in the world, particularly after [British Prime
Minister Margaret] Thatcher introduced privatisation and economic
liberalisation, were threatening to wipe out the achievement (as they called it)
of generations of Socialists and Social-Democrats – threatening to reverse it
completely. Therefore the only way to withstand this onslaught of wild
capitalism (as they called it) was to try to introduce the same socialist goals
in all countries at once. Prior to that, the left-wing parties and the Soviet
Union had opposed European integration very much because they perceived it as a
means to block their socialist goals. From 1985 onwards they completely changed
their view. The Soviets came to a conclusion and to an agreement with the
left-wing parties that if they worked together they could hijack the whole
European project and turn it upside down. Instead of an open market they would
turn it into a federal state.
According to the [secret Soviet] documents, 1985-86 is the turning point. I have
published most of these documents. You might even find them on the internet. But
the conversations they had are really eye opening. For the first time you
understand that there is a conspiracy – quite understandable for them, as they
were trying to save their political hides. In the East the Soviets needed a
change of relations with Europe because they were entering a protracted and very
deep structural crisis; in the West the left-wing parties were afraid of being
wiped out and losing their influence and prestige. So it was a conspiracy, quite
openly made by them, agreed upon, and worked out.
In January of 1989, for example, a delegation of the Trilateral Commission came
to see Gorbachev. It included [former Japanese Prime Minister Yasuhiro]
Nakasone, [former French President Valéry] Giscard d’Estaing, [American banker
David] Rockefeller and [former US Secretary of State Henry] Kissinger. They had
a very nice conversation where they tried to explain to Gorbachev that Soviet
Russia had to integrate into the financial institutions of the world, such as
Gatt, the IMF and the World Bank.
In the middle of it Giscard d’Estaing suddenly takes the floor and says: “Mr
President, I cannot tell you exactly when it will happen – probably within 15
years – but Europe is going to be a federal state and you have to prepare
yourself for that. You have to work out with us, and the European leaders, how
you would react to that, how would you allow the other East European countries
to interact with it or how to become a part of it, you have to be prepared.”
This was January 1989, at a time when the [1992] Maastricht treaty had not even
been drafted. How the hell did Giscard d’Estaing know what was going to happen
in 15 years time? And surprise, surprise, how did he become the author of the
European constitution [in 2002-03]? A very good question. It does smell of
conspiracy, doesn’t it?
Luckily for us the Soviet part of this conspiracy collapsed earlier and it did
not reach the point where Moscow could influence the course of events. But the
original idea was to have what they called a convergency, whereby the Soviet
Union would mellow somewhat and become more social-democratic, while Western
Europe would become social-democratic and socialist. Then there will be
convergency. The structures have to fit each other. This is why the structures
of the European Union were initially built with the purpose of fitting into the
Soviet structure. This is why they are so similar in functioning and in
structure.
It is no accident that the European Parliament, for example, reminds me of the
Supreme Soviet. It looks like the Supreme Soviet because it was designed like
it. Similary, when you look at the European Commission it looks like the
Politburo. I mean it does so exactly, except for the fact that the Commission
now has 25 members and the Politburo usually had 13 or 15 members**. Apart from
that they are exactly the same, unaccountable to anyone, not directly elected by
anyone at all. When you look into all this bizarre activity of the European
Union with its 80,000 pages of regulations it looks like Gosplan. We used to
have an organisation which was planning everything in the economy, to the last
nut and bolt, five years in advance. Exactly the same thing is happening in the
EU. When you look at the type of EU corruption, it is exactly the Soviet type of
corruption, going from top to bottom rather than going from bottom to top.
If you go through all the structures and features of this emerging European
monster you will notice that it more and more resembles the Soviet Union. Of
course, it is a milder version of the Soviet Union. Please, do not misunderstand
me. I am not saying that it has a Gulag. It has no KGB – not yet – but I am very
carefully watching such structures as Europol for example. That really worries
me a lot because this organisation will probably have powers bigger than those
of the KGB. They will have diplomatic immunity. Can you imagine a KGB with
diplomatic immunity? They will have to police us on 32 kinds of crimes – two of
which are particularly worrying, one is called racism, another is called
xenophobia. No criminal court on earth defines anything like this as a crime
[this is not entirely true, as Belgium already does so – pb]. So it is a new
crime, and we have already been warned. Someone from the British government told
us that those who object to uncontrolled immigration from the Third World will
be regarded as racist and those who oppose further European integration will be
regarded as xenophobes. I think Patricia Hewitt said this publicly.
Hence, we have now been warned. Meanwhile they are introducing more and more
ideology. The Soviet Union used to be a state run by ideology. Today’s ideology
of the European Union is social-democratic, statist, and a big part of it is
also political correctness. I watch very carefully how political correctness
spreads and becomes an oppressive ideology, not to mention the fact that they
forbid smoking almost everywhere now. Look at this persecution of people like
the Swedish pastor who was persecuted for several months because he said that
the Bible does not approve homosexuality. France passed the same law of hate
speech concerning gays. Britain is passing hate speech laws concerning race
relations and now religious speech, and so on and so forth. What you observe,
taken into perspective, is a systematic introduction of ideology which could
later be enforced with oppressive measures. Apparently that is the whole purpose
of Europol. Otherwise why do we need it? To me Europol looks very suspicious. I
watch very carefully who is persecuted for what and what is happening, because
that is one field in which I am an expert. I know how Gulags spring up.
It looks like we are living in a period of rapid, systematic and very consistent
dismantlement of democracy. Look at this Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill.
It makes ministers into legislators who can introduce new laws without bothering
to tell Parliament or anyone. My immediate reaction is why do we need it?
Britain survived two world wars, the war with Napoleon, the Spanish Armada, not
to mention the Cold War, when we were told at any moment we might have a nuclear
world war, without any need for introducing this kind legislation, without the
need for suspending our civil liberaties and introducing emergency powers. Why
do we need it right now? This can make a dictatorship out of your country in no
time.
Today’s situation is really grim. Major political parties have been completely
taken in by the new EU project. None of them really opposes it. They have become
very corrupt. Who is going to defend our freedoms? It looks like we are heading
towards some kind of collapse, some kind of crisis. The most likely outcome is
that there will be an economic collapse in Europe, which in due time is bound to
happen with this growth of expenses and taxes. The inability to create a
competitive environment, the overregulation of the economy, the
bureaucratisation, it is going to lead to economic collapse. Particularly the
introduction of the euro was a crazy idea. Currency is not supposed to be
political.
I have no doubt about it. There will be a collapse of the European Union pretty
much like the Soviet Union collapsed. But do not forget that when these things
collapse they leave such devastation that it takes a generation to recover. Just
think what will happen if it comes to an economic crisis. The recrimination
between nations will be huge. It might come to blows. Look to the huge number of
immigrants from Third World countries now living in Europe. This was promoted by
the European Union. What will happen with them if there is an economic collapse?
We will probably have, like in the Soviet Union at the end, so much ethnic
strife that the mind boggles. In no other country were there such ethnic
tensions as in the Soviet Union, except probably in Yugoslavia. So that is
exactly what will happen here, too. We have to be prepared for that. This huge
edifice of bureaucracy is going to collapse on our heads.
This is why, and I am very frank about it, the sooner we finish with the EU the
better. The sooner it collapses the less damage it will have done to us and to
other countries. But we have to be quick because the Eurocrats are moving very
fast. It will be difficult to defeat them. Today it is still simple. If one
million people march on Brussels today these guys will run away to the Bahamas.
If tomorrow half of the British population refuses to pay its taxes, nothing
will happen and no-one will go to jail. Today you can still do that. But I do
not know what the situation will be tomorrow with a fully fledged Europol
staffed by former Stasi or Securitate officers. Anything may happen.
We are losing time. We have to defeat them. We have to sit and think, work out a
strategy in the shortest possible way to achieve maximum effect. Otherwise it
will be too late. So what should I say? My conclusion is not optimistic. So far,
despite the fact that we do have some anti-EU forces in almost every country, it
is not enough. We are losing and we are wasting time.
** An amazing
Coincidence: On 1 Mar 2006, Valery Giscard d'Estaing was interviewed on the
Today Programme. Naturally he was still batting for the constitution and the
Federal European State. But he said one thing in particular: "The Commission has
too many Commissioners. At present it has 25; but it should have 15." Why? To
make it match the Politburo more accurately?