Vladimir Pereverzin presented his new book, “Hostage. The Story of a Yukos Manager” at the Sakharovsky Centre in Moscow on Wednesday, August 28, 2013.

An impressive number of guests filled the hall at the book launch hosted by the author. Prominent attendees included the human rights defenders Lyudmila Alexeyeva and Lev Ponomarev, the mother of the imprisoned former Yukos security chief Alexei Pichugin, Alla Pichugina, and Mikhail Khodorkovsky’s defence lawyer, Vadim Klyuvgant. FormerYukos employees Alexey Kurtsin and Vladimir Malakhovsky, and journalists Yuri Rost, Alexander Arkhangelsky and Vera Chelishcheva were also present.

The first five thousand copies of the book went on sale just a few weeks ago and have reached bestseller status, with the publishing house Howard Roark promising the printing of several thousand more copies to meet demand.

Olga Romanova, a journalist and human rights activist co-hosted the presentation alongside Pereverzin. She said:

“That is the best book about prison I have ever read. No – book about freedom.

I don’t know what the day your dreams come true will look like, but I think it looks a bit like this one… It is difficult, of course, to compare this book with the most famous works of the twentieth century about imprisonment, but it has the potential to join this list. This book is amazing.”

Pereverzin commented:

“It would have been better if I was convicted for a murder – one doesn’t get a big prison term for a murder and I would probably have been treated better for that conviction. But I was a political prisoner… it turned out that everyone in the Power Vertical wanted to show off. Starting from the investigation, a judge, and ending with the last guard in the prison. Everyone wanted to have a go. The Power Vertical has really penetrated all this rotten system from the very top to the very bottom.”

Sergey Turko, a representative of the book’s publisher, Howard Roark stated:

“This book deserves to be read by everyone. It is not only for everyone to understand once more how unjust the system is, but also because this is a highly artistic text that is worthy of all awards.”

Lyudmila Alexeyeva, the human rights defender said:

“I think that this book should be included in the school reading programme. Because we need our children to know that there are people who are ready to pay with years of imprisonment and humiliation for not wanting to commit injustice. For instance, those young people who attended the sanctioned ‘May 6 protests’ found themselves in prison with the prospect of a long conviction term. But they behave with dignity and they behave like true citizens, so do their parents, girlfriends and friends too. Despite these wild trials in the country, there are a lot of people who do not sell their conscience.”

According to Vadim Klyuvgant, Mikhail Khodorkovsky read Pereverzin’s book when it was still a manuscript. He explained:

“Mikhail Borisovich doesn’t cease to marvel at the quality of the people who did not flinch, even at the cost of such trials, hardships and privations, who did not exchange their name and the name of the company they worked for.

Vladimir, of course, is the best of the best of these people, because he, apart from being imprisoned, still had to have courage to stand up on the witness stand and not waver there.

It was there, in the Khamovnichesky Court, where they have met Mikhail Borisovich for the first time.

Therefore, Vladimir and other ‘Yukos people’ – their  courageous actions are one of the main things that enabled Mikhail Khodorkovsky to hold on for almost 10 years. He is always interested in the fates of these people and sincerely cares for them. And these relationships, which were born and strengthened through these years of grossly inhumane conditions, it seems to me, can never disappear anywhere.”