Obituary - Vladimir Bukovsky: Dissident who exposed the Soviet use of psychiatry against political prisoners
It was Yuri
Andropov – the KGB boss and future head of the politburo – who drew up
a secret plan to use psychiatric facilities to “treat” dissidents. It was based
on Nikita Khrushchev’s belief that anti-Soviet consciousness was
a mental disease. Political opponents including Bukovsky were detained without
trial. There was no appeal. They were injected with psychotropic drugs.
It was Bukovsky who
brought this abhorrent practice to the attention of the west. The campaign to
end it became a demand from human rights groups during the cold war. The
Soviet Union eventually dropped this state policy. Bukovsky unmasked the role
played by doctors and Soviet medicine, and delegitimised those at the top who
gave them orders.
Bukovsky later
transferred his antagonism to other Soviet and Russian leaders, in particular
to Putin, of whom he said, “I think he’s evil.” He was pessimistic about
Russia’s future. The KGB was still in charge of a country which, he predicted,
was destined to implode. But he took pride in the post-communist liberation of
eastern Europe. Of Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary he told me: “There we
achieved something.”... read more:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/oct/28/vladimir-bukovsky-obituary
