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

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