REPRESSIVE PSYCHIATRY AS PUNITIVE AND CORRECTIVE REMEDY IN THE FIGHT AGAINST ACTIVE MEMBERS OF THE BRANCH OF THE EASTERN CHRISTIAN BAPTIST
(SECOND HALF OF THE 20TH CENTURY)
Authors: Vysoven Oksana 
Published: July 2020

The purpose of the study is to unbiased analysis of sources and literature on the use of psychiatry in punitive and repressive purposes in the Ukrainian SSR. The article uses the following methods of research: comparative-historical, typologies, classifications, problem-chronological, etc. The first works in which the facts of the struggle of the totalitarian system with the active members of the brotherhood of the ECB began to be publicized by means of repressive psychiatry were the self-published bulletins that were periodical and published in the 70's and 80's. Soviet researchers did not mention in their works the facts of torture of believers by means of repressive medicine. Modern scholars, especially specialists in the field of psychiatry, partially re-thought and reinterpreted the crimes of repressive medicine over dissent and active members of the brotherhood of the ECB. At the same time, there is no comprehensive scientific-historical research about punitive psychiatry as a form of struggle against political opponents, and in particular with active members of the ECB in the second half of the twentieth century. There is no time for this, so we will try to fill this gap somewhat.The study found that the systematic use of psychiatry for the imprisonment of dissidents in a psychiatric hospital began in the late 1950's in connection with mass rehabilitation of political prisoners who, after returning from places of detention, openly opposed all kinds of abuse of power, lack of freedom of conscience and religion; it is proved that the Soviet regime under the psychiatric repressions was summed up the theoretical and legal basis, that led to the list of restrictions on so-called mentally ill: in professional capacity and in general, in capacity, in correspondence and many others, even if they were not brought to criminal responsibility; it was shown that in the 70-80s of the XX century. punitive and repressive machine of the totalitarian system, in the name of the leaders of the security forces and their analysts with maniacal zeal, developed anti-human torture for dissenters, the main role in their humiliation now relied on psychiatrists and their Jesuit methods based on the so-called «innovative» teaching of the Moscow school of psychiatrists A. Snezhevsky about «slowed down schizophrenia», this diagnosis was recognized only in the USSR and its satellites. Under the diagnosis of «delayed schizophrenia» could fall anyone who somehow expressed dissatisfaction with the actions of the ruling regime. It was found out that in the late 70's of the twentieth century threats with a psychiatric hospital to active believers have become systemic, especially the secret services have been pressured on the members of the Council of the Relatives of the ECB Prison, who were engaged in printing and publishing crimes of totalitarian power against humanity and freedom of conscience and religion; it is proved that in the early 1970's reports of unjustified hospitalization of political and religious dissidents in psychiatric hospitals reached the West and the United States. In order to prevent an international scandal, the leadership of a totalitarian state, together with intelligence agencies, decided to set up a group of advocacy specialists who also developed a plan of major measures to expose anti-Soviet slander campaign on so-called «political abuses» in psychiatry; in spite of the measures taken by the leadership and special services of the totalitarian regime, regarding the debunking of the so-called «myths about punitive medicine in the USSR,» the international community has gathered a lot of facts and interviewed persons over which there were inhumane torture in medical institutions throughout the communist state, which proved to be evidence the fact that the USSR in the 70's and 80's of the twentieth century the main method of combating dissent was the repressive psychiatry.