Alexander Podrabinek
Alexander Pinkhosovich Podrabinek | |
---|---|
Александр Пинхосович Подрабинек | |
Truman-Reagan Medal of Freedom , 2015 |
Alexander Pinkhosovich Podrabinek (Russian: Алекса́ндр Пи́нхосович Подраби́нек; born 8 August 1953, Elektrostal) is a Soviet dissident, journalist and commentator.[2][3] During the Soviet period he was a human rights activist, being exiled, then imprisoned in a corrective-labour colony, for publication of his book Punitive Medicine in Russian and in English.[4]
In 1987, while still forced to live outside Moscow in internal banishment, Podrabinek became the founder and editor-in-chief of the Express Chronicle weekly newspaper. In the 1990s he set up and ran the
Biography
Alexander Podrabinek was born on 8 August 1953 in
He and his younger brother Kirill were brought up there by their Jewish father Pinkhos after his Russian wife died.[11] At secondary school, aged ten, they joined the Young Pioneers, but later Alexander and Kirill did not apply to join the Komsomol, the only two non-members in their respective classes: the only explanation the school administration could find was that they were either Baptists or open enemies of the regime.[12]
Alexander enrolled in the Department of Pharmacology of a medical institute in 1970 and worked as an assistant in a biology laboratory at Moscow State University of Medicine and Dentistry. From 1971 to 1974 Alexander studied at a college for medical auxiliary staff and received certification as a paramedic. He went on to work in the Moscow ambulance service.[13]
Dissent under Brezhnev and Gorbachev
For political reasons, Podrabinek was denied entrance to medical school,
After reading the notes that dissident poet Vladimir Gershuni's smuggled out of the Oryol Special Psychiatric hospital, Alexander became interested in the political abuse of psychiatry in the USSR.[17][14] Soon he was a contributing editor to the Chronicle of Current Events (1968-1982),[18][19] covering psychiatric issues.
In January 1977, he also travelled to Siberia as a courier for the Social Fund, delivering money to the needy families of political prisoners, held in the camps or forced to live in exile.[20]
Punitive Psychiatry
On 5 January 1977, Podrabinek launched the Working Commission to Investigate the Use of Psychiatry for Political Purposes. The Commission at first had three other members (Vyacheslav Bakhmin, Irina Kaplun and Felix Serebrov), and its consultant psychiatrist was A.A. Voloshanovich.[21] Around the Commission formed a circle of supporters "without whom we could have done nothing," comments Podrabinek. "The volume of work was too great.".[22] They visited psychiatric hospitals, wrote appeals to hospital doctors, and published information on psychiatric abuse in their own information bulletins, and in other samizdat publications like the Chronicle of Current Events.[13][23]
In 1977, Podrabinek published Punitive Medicine [Карательная медицина], the Russian edition of his book on the systematic abuse of psychiatry for political purposes in the USSR.[24][25] In December 1977, the KGB approached Podrabinek's father Pinkhos, and threatened to arrest and imprison both his sons (Kirill was suffering from TB) if the three of them did not agree to emigrate to Israel.[13] (In an essay circulated in samizdat Kirill had criticized the treatment of conscripts in the Soviet army.) They discussed their predicament with other dissidents, notably Tatyana Velikanova, at the apartment of Andrei Sakharov. Sakharov's wife, Yelena Bonner, urged the three to take the opportunity to leave the USSR. Alexander, supported by Velikanova, rejected the proposal and later held a press conference at the home of Andrei Sakharov, publicly asserting his refusal to given in to such blackmail.[26]
On 15 August 1978, Alexander Podrabinek was convicted of "anti-Soviet slander", sentenced to five years' banishment or internal exile, and was first transported to the Irkutsk Region, Siberia.[27][28] (His brother Kirill, meanwhile, was convicted of possessing an offensive weapon and was sent to a camp for ordinary criminals.[29]) After the English edition of Punitive Medicine appeared, Podrabinek was again charged with political offences — he was by then exiled to Yakutia in the Soviet Far East — and at his trial in Ust-Nera on 6 January 1981, he was sentenced to three years in a local corrective-labour camp.[30]
Return from the Far East
In autumn 1986, prompted by Anatoly Marchenko's hunger strike in Chistopol Prison, Podrabinek, veteran dissident Larisa Bogoraz, and lawyer Sophia Kalistratova launched a campaign for the release of the Soviet Union's hundreds of political prisoners.
They sent letters requesting a wide amnesty to the presidium of the
Then they began sending their two letters to prominent members of the artistic and technical intelligentsia: to writers, poets and artists; and to scientists and scholars. The result was disheartening. With notable exceptions, e.g. the world-famous animé artist
In 1987, Podrabinek founded the weekly samizdat newspaper Express Chronicle, which appeared in Russian and English between 1987 and 2000. As the first uncensored media outlet in the USSR, with the Glasnost journal of Sergei Grigoryants, the Chronicle drew the interest of Western journalists in Moscow . The Chronicle circulated in a hundred major Soviet cities.[32][33]
In March 1989, Alexander participated in the founding of the Independent Psychiatric Association of Russia.[34]
Career as a journalist
Podrabinek started working as a journalist during the Gorbachev years. From 1987 to 2000 he was editor-in-chief of the weekly human right magazine Express Chronicle («Экспресс Хроника»).
In 2004, Alexander Podrabinek became involved in the distribution of
In certain articles for Novaya gazeta, and comments on Radio Liberty, Podrabinek expressed concern that the use of psychiatry for political repression was reviving in Russia,[44][45] in the enforced hospitalization of Larisa Arap, for instance.[46]
In 2009, Podrabinek was targeted by the nationalist youth movement
Since 2014, Podrabinek has been host of the "Déjà vu" programme on
Activism
Podrabinek has been interviewed, talking about his past as a Soviet dissident, in two documentaries:
Podrabinek remains active and vocal as an opposition figure today.
In March 2006 Podrabinek was briefly arrested in Minsk for involvement in peaceful protests against the re-election of the Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko for the third term.[52]
In 2008 he supported the campaign to gain the admission of
In March 2010 Alexander Podrabinek signed the online anti-Putin manifesto of the Russian opposition "
On 25 September 2013, he held a protest in support of imprisoned
On 4 May 2016, Podrabinek published An Open Letter to the Prosecutor of Crimea.[55]
In October 2017 Podrabinek drafted and launched a petition, calling on Russia's citizens not to support the hypocrisy of the Russian authorities who, on the one hand, unveiled the massive
Works
Books
- Nekipelov, Viktor & Podrabinek Alexander (1977). Из жёлтого безмолвия: Сборник воспоминаний и статей политзаключенных психиатрических больниц [From yellow silence: the collection of memoirs and articles by political prisoners of psychiatric hospitals] (in Russian). Moscow.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - Podrabinek, Alexander (1980). Punitive medicine. ISBN 978-0-89720-022-6. Russian text: Podrabinek, Alexander [Александр Подрабинек] (1979). Карательная медицина [Punitive medicine] (PDF) (in Russian). New York: Издательство "Хроника" [Khronika Press]. Archived from the originalon 22 June 2016. Retrieved 11 September 2015.
- Подрабинек, Александр (2014). Диссиденты [Dissidents] (in Russian). Moscow: АСТ. ISBN 978-5-17-082401-4.
Articles
(in English, French and Russian)
- Podrabinek, Alexandre; Mathon, Tania (June 1981). "Déclaration finale" [Final declaration]. JSTOR 24268683.
- Podrabinek, Alexander (1990). "Does the Soviet press have a future?". S2CID 146918831.
- Podrabinek, Alexandre (2009). "Liberté russe et tolérance européenne" [Russian liberty and European tolerance]. Revue Russe (in French). 33 (1): 17–23. .
- Александр Подрабинек (2014). Клеточников [Kletochnikov]. Zvezda (in Russian) (2). Retrieved 21 March 2014.
Further reading
- "Russ open new dissident trial". Spokane Daily Chronicle. 15 August 1978.
- Anderson, Jack. "Another dissident tells of medical torture". Lakeland Ledger. No. 21 July 1978.
- The Podrabinek trial. Punitive Medicine or fabrications known to be false...? (PDF). Moscow: Amnesty International. 1978.
Interviews
- Строганова, Анна (10 June 2014). "Александр Подрабинек о своей книге "Диссиденты": "Все были готовы к тому, что их посадят"" [Alexander Podrabinek about his book Dissidents: "All were ready to be imprisoned"] (in Russian). Radio France Internationale.
- Подрабинек, Александр (11 February 2015). ""Надежду обрекли на смерть", — Александр Подрабинек о суде над летчицей Савченко" ["Nadezhda is doomed to death," — Alexander Podrabinek about the trial of woman-pilot Savchenko] (in Russian). Radio France Internationale.
- Подрабинек, Александр (17 February 2016). "Путин и судьи" [Putin and judges] (in Russian). Radio France Internationale.
- Александр Подрабинек в программе Александра Гранта "Контакт" (Alexander Podrabinek in Alexander Grant's program "Contact", in Russian, 56 min, 16 July 2015) on YouTube
- Встреча с А. Подрабинеком у Бориса Паланта (Meeting with A. Podrabinek in Boris Palant, in Russian, 99 min, 15 June 2015) on YouTube
- Александр Подрабинек // "В Нью-Йорке с Виктором Топаллером" (Alexander Podrabinek // "In New York with Viktor Topaller", in Russian, 53 min, 28 July 2015) on YouTube
See also
- Working Commission to Investigate the Use of Psychiatry for Political Purposes (1977-1981)
- Political abuse of psychiatry in the Soviet Union
- Serbsky Institute
References
- ^ Подрабинек, Алла (2010). "По пути к Большой Медведице" [On the way to Big Dipper]. Zvezda (in Russian) (2).
- .
- ^ "Russian journalist fears high-level death threat". Index on Censorship. 29 September 2009.
- ^ Alexander Podrabinek, Dissidents: Between prison and liberty, Moscow:AST, 2014.
- ^ Radio Liberty. 28 January 2004.
- ^ The persecution of Human Rights Monitor. December 1988 to December 1989. A worldwide survey. Human Rights Watch. December 1989. p. 330.
- Radio Liberty. 27 January 2010.
- ^ Davidoff, Victor (13 October 2013). "Soviet Psychiatry Returns". The Moscow Times. Retrieved 9 January 2014.
- The San Diego Union Tribune.
- ^ Radio Liberty.
- ^ Alexander Podrabinek, Dissidents: between Prison and Liberty, 2014, p. 13 (in Russian).
- ^ Alexander Podrabinek, Dissidents: between Prison and Liberty, 2014, pp. 20-22 (in Russian).
- ^ ISBN 978-0-7045-3062-1.
- ^ PMID 7820004.
- S2CID 144115933.
- JSTOR 1148870.
- ^ "Notes from Oryol Special Psychiatric Hospital by Vladimir Gershuni", A Chronicle of Current Events, 19:2, 30 April 1971.
- ^ A Chronicle of Current Events, 1968-1982.
- ISBN 978-5-89793-035-7.)
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: others (link - ^ Alexander Podrabinek, Dissidents, 2014, pp. 86-93.
- ^ Miku, Natalya & Molkin Alexey (2015). "Консультант правозащитной ассоциации "Рабочей комиссии по расследованию использования психиатрии в политических целях"—врач-психиатр А.А. Волошанович" [The consultant of the human rights association "The Working Commission on Investigation of Use of Psychiatry in Political Goals", psychiatrist A.A. Voloshanovich]. Современные научные исследования и инновации [Modern Scientific Studies and Innovations] (in Russian) (3).
- ^ Alexander Podrabinek, Dissidents, 2014, p. 226.
- ISBN 978-90-420-2585-1.
- ^ Langone, John (10 April 1989). "Medicine: a profession under stress". Time.
- ^ Langone, John (24 June 2001). "A profession under stress". Time.
- ^ Alexander Podrabinek, Dissidents, 2014, p. 160 onwards.
- ^ "The Trial of Alexander Podrabinek", A Chronicle of Current Events, 50:7, November 1978.
- ISBN 978-0840319876.
- ^ "The fate of the brothers Podrabinek", Vesti iz SSSR, 1979, 1-8, 15 January 1979 (in Russian).
- ^ "The trial of Alexander Podrabinek", Vesti iz SSSR, 15 January 1981 (in Russian).
- ^ Alexander Podrabinek, "Our campaign for an amnesty", Znamya, April (No. 4), 2015 (in Russian). Retrieved 25 March 2018.
- ^ a b Meier, Andrew; Reddaway, Peter B.; Podrabinek, Alexander (8 December 1988). "Soviet Psychiatry: A Message from Moscow". The New York Review of Books. 35 (19). Retrieved 23 May 2016.
- ^ Alexander Podrabinek, "Our campaign for an amnesty", Znamya, April (No. 4), 2015 (in Russian).
- ISSN 1028-8554.
- ^ Hodge, Nathan (2 June 2009). "Old Habits". International Reporting Project. Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), Johns Hopkins University. Retrieved 23 May 2016.
- RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty. 28 January 2004. Retrieved 23 May 2016.
- ^ [1] Archived June 29, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Гостайну не выдал Archived 2007-09-29 at the Wayback Machine by Orhan Cemal, Novaya Gazeta, 29 January 2004.
- ^ Uzzell, Lawrence (4 February 2004). "Kremlin threatens human rights activist". North Caucasus Analysis. 5 (5).
- ^ "Правозащитника Александра Подрабинека вызвали на допрос в ФСБ". Lenta.ru. 27 January 2004.
- ^ ФСБ: В книге "ФСБ взрывает Россию" разглашена гостайна, Grani.ru, 28 January 2004.
- ^ "ФСБ и милиция арестовали тираж книги "ФСБ взрывает Россию"". Lenta.ru. 30 December 2003.
- ^ ФСБ задержала тираж книги "ФСБ взрывает Россию", Grani.ru, 29 December 2003.
- ^ Podrabinek, Alexander (15 August 2015). Российские коммунисты мечтают о советской психиатрии [Russian communists dream of Soviet psychiatry] (in Russian). Radio France Internationale.
- ^
Podrabinek, Alexander (29 August 2015). Тоска по советской психиатрии [Nostalgia for Soviet psychiatry]. Радио Свобода (in Russian). Radio Liberty.
- ^ Podrabinek, Alexander (2 August 2007). Хотелось бы иметь права [One would like to have rights]. Novaya Gazeta (in Russian). No. 58.
- ^ Robinson, Matt (29 September 2009). "Russian journalist in hiding after Soviet critique". Reuters.
- ^ Odynova, Alexandra (6 October 2009). "Kremlin advisers warn Nashi youth". The Moscow Times.
- ^ Pamfilova Won't Apologize to Nashi, The St. Petersburg Times (October 9, 2009)
- ^ Podrabinek, Alexander. "Articles". Institute of Modern Russia.
- ^ Сулькин, Олег (11 July 2015). "Александр Подрабинек: "Системе надо противостоять"" [Alexander Podrabinek: "One needs to resist the system"] (in Russian). Voice of America.
- ^ "Russian authorities support Lukashenko". humanrightshouse.org. Human Rights House Russia. 2 April 2006. Retrieved 23 May 2016.
- ^ "Prague Declaration on European Conscience and Communism, June 3rd, 2008, Prague, Senate of the Parliament of the Czech Republic. Declaration text". 3 June 2008. Archived from the original on 4 August 2012. Retrieved 7 September 2015.
- San Diego Union-Tribune. 29 September 2013.
- ^ Podrabinek, Alexander (14 May 2016). "Открытое письмо прокурору Крыма" [An Open Letter to the Prosecutor of Crimea] (in Russian). Eжeдневный Журнал.
- ^ "Do not support their hypocrisy!", 30 October 2017. Original, Kasparov.ru.
External Sources
- A Chronicle of Current Events (Moscow), 1968-1982.
- «Вести из СССР» (Vesti iz SSSR, Munich), 1978-1987.
External links
- Alexander Podrabinek's channel on YouTube
- Alexander Podrabinek on Facebook