ABSTRACT: The Soviet people's need for freedom and democracy which gave them the strength to resist the "Gang of Eight", is creating a revolution in all the capital cities in the East and West. The people who recognize and understand this must form a united front now. And if they truly believe, they must support political action, such as the Radical Party's calling on the Soviet Union to abolish the death penalty, just a few hours after the coup had failed.

(The Party New, n.3, August 1991)

Vladimir Bukowsky, a recent arrival in the West, issues the following warning to politicians and public alike: "Your great ideas of freedom and democracy - not your missiles - are the strongest weapon against the Soviet empire and Communist dictatorship".

The new "Soviet" union, whatever kind of institutions it might adopt, today finds itself in a similar position. "Real democracy" now rules in the West, but this is not often, and certainly not always, true democracy. We have to be aware of this, and draw the necessary conclusions.

Moscow and the captials of the "independent" republics that have survived the defeated empire can, and therefore must, inspire not only the "Soviet" union but also the entire world, to act courageously, with unwavering and unrelenting determination, so that the ideals of democracy, freedom and tolerance might be realized, and law and order created. The UN also has to be restructured according to these needs, and this must be done now, not tomorrow - especially if tomorrow never comes!

For this reason, only a few hours after the "Gang of Eight" was defeated (with the Radical Party having immediately demanded that it should not be legitimized in any way, as opposed to the initial caution shown by President Bush and the sustained faint-heartedness displayed in Europe), we proposed that the former Soviet Union abolish the death penalty, and that all death sentences be suspended in the meantime. Prominent members of all parties, from New York to Moscow, Kiev to Brussels, Baku to Rome, were right behind us.

In the US, there is a strong conservative force within the government that is attempting to "reinstate" the death penalty. Kids convicted when they were minors are still executed when they come of age. Every year, Amnesty International documents the continued application of the death penalty in supposedly "democratic" countries that constantly violate human rights.

Russia's recently won democracy can, and must, be a new source of hope for the creation of a democratic world order. It must be organized, given strength and realized now.

The Radical Party, the only real democratic force in the West, has repeated the phrase: "Moscow must be destroyed", - Communist Moscow, that is - Mosca delenda est .

It is now a democratic Moscow, and the other democratic capitals of the republics, that can offer precious help to radicals and democrats throughout the world. The roles have been reversed. The events of history seem to have more imagination than anyone. But we have to know how to utilize the chances it provides. Intransigent radicals and democrats all over the world must accept that the errors President Gorbachev admits to having made in the last two years have been perpetrated throughout the world for decades; and, furthermore, that Gorbachev committed the errors within the context which was also partly responsible for them.

The need for freedom and democracy which is now asserting itself in Moscow is also creating a revolution in Rome, Paris, Brussels, Washington - all over the world, in fact. However, the people who recognize and want this must organize themselves now to achieve individual freedom together.

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Kiev, Sunday 25 August, 1991

On the afternoon of Sunday, 25 August 1991, the day after the Ukraine declared its independence, more than eighty of Kiev's citizens attended the conference held by the Radical Party.

After the speech made by Nikolaij Kramov, a Radical Party worker, Sasha Kalinin, a deputy of the Mossoviet and a member of the Radical Party, read a report on the three days of the coup in Moscow and the acts of nonviolence and civil disobedience that he and all the Moscow radicals carried out.

After this, Vladimir Moskova, member of the Supreme Soviet of the Republic of the Ukraine, and President of the United Social Democratic Party, made a speech in which he declared that he hoped there would be more and more radicals in the Ukraine, and also recognized that the Radical Party was the only one capable of helping the Ukrainian parties change their strictly regionalistic, or at least regional, attitude towards problems in the next decade. At the end of his speech, he invited everyone present to join the Radical Party, and promptly did so himself.

Many people took part in the debate that followed, after which seven people joined the Radical Party, while fifty people, including two deputies, signed the petition against the death penalty in the Soviet Union.