The Bukovsky Papers

Valeriya Novodvorskaya is nineteen years old. Two years ago she finished school with distinction and entered the French department of the Moscow Institute of Foreign Languages. She has written three books of poems, none published.

On December 5, 1969 Valeriya bought a ticket to the opera Oktyabr (October), produced in the Kremlin Convention Palace. Before the performance began she started to distribute leaflets: The girl made no attempt to hide. She passed out leaflets until the secret police led her away. At the Serbskiy Institute for Forensic Psychiatry, the “doctors” found her insane: “schizophrenia with a paranoid development of character.” The only symptom cited was the strong emotion she showed when forced to answer the psychiatrists’ questions.

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Valeriya Novodvorskaya is nineteen years old. Two years ago she finished school with distinction and entered the French department of the Moscow Institute of Foreign Languages. She has written three books of poems, none published.

On December 5, 1969 Valeriya bought a ticket to the opera Oktyabr (October), produced in the Kremlin Convention Palace. Before the performance began she started to distribute leaflets: The girl made no attempt to hide. She passed out leaflets until the secret police led her away. At the Serbskiy Institute for Forensic Psychiatry, the “doctors” found her insane: “schizophrenia with a paranoid development of character.” The only symptom cited was the strong emotion she showed when forced to answer the psychiatrists’ questions.