Anatolii Koriagin

Anatolii Koriagin, 70’s. © Sakharovskii Tsentr.

Khar’kov, 1938

Anatolii Ivanovich Koriagin is a psychiatrist and human rights campaigner who fought against the abuse of psychiatry for political purposes in the USSR. He graduated in medicine at the Krasnoiarsk Institute in 1963 and worked in several hospitals before taking a position in his hometown, Khar’kov (cf. Moskovskaia Khel’sinskaia Gruppa 1981a; Karasik 2005). In 1970 he began a doctorate in Medical Science at the Institute of Scientific Research in Neurology and Psychiatry in Khar’kov, completing with a thesis on the treatment of schizophrenia (cf. Moskovskaia Khel’sinskaia Gruppa 1981a).
From 1979 onwards he collaborated with the Working Commission to Investigate the Use of Psychiatry for Political Purposes (cf. Rabochaia komissiia po rassledovaniiu ispol’zovaniia psikhiatrii v politicheskikh tseliakh), instituted by the Helsinki Group of Moscow, one of the first non-governmental organisations for the defence of human rights in the USSR (cf. ibid.).
In his role as consultant Koriagin examined numerous dissidents who had recently been released from psychiatric wards or who risked been forcefully hospitalised (cf. Nightingale-Stover 1985). He concluded that none of the subjects he examined presented a medical condition that required hospitalisation or psychiatric treatment (cf, ibid.). The results of Koriagin’s study were published in April 1981 in “The Lancet”. Koriagin wrote: “In my capacity as consultant psychiatrist to the Working Commission to Investigate the Use of Psychiatry for Political Purposes, I examined a number of people who had undergone compulsory treatment in ordinary and special (i.e., prison) psychiatric hospitals on several occasions. These people were in the care of psychiatric services, although when I examined them, they showed no signs of psychiatric illness, psychic defects, or psychopathy. Furthermore, a study of their life histories leads to the conclusion that they had not previously shown any signs of mental disorder, therefore, these people must be considered psychologically healthy. (…) All the people I examined had joined the ranks of the mentally ill because they did or said things which in our country are considered “anti-Soviet”. Some had tried to leave the U.S.S.R. by crossing the frontier or asking for asylum at foreign embassies; some circulated leaflets with appeals or poems; others stated that they disagreed with the existing order in the country and described how their economic, religious, and other civil rights had been flouted by the administration at their place of work and by Party and government institutions” (Koryagin 1981).
The Working Commission was not destined to last. The international attention its activities attracted resulted in a swift clampdown.  Within a year (February 1980 – February 1981), all of its members were arrested and this brief but important exposé of human rights abuse in the USSR came to an end (cf. Clementi 2007: 246; Alekseeva 2016: 76). Koriagin’s involvement had already brought consequences: in the summer of 1979, G. Nikitin – consultant at the hospital in Khar’kov – and N.  Zederei – administrator of the methodical-organisational section (orgometodotdel) – physically assaulted Koriagin because “he did not support the communists or Soviet power” (Khronika tekushchikh sobytii 1981a), which marked him as a dissident (dissident), renegade (otshchepenets) and traitor (predatel’) (cf. ibid). In December of the same year, Koriagin was stopped and searched at Khar’kov station without explanation (cf. ibid.), and in September 1980, the Ukrainian political police – the UKGB (Ukrainskii komitet gosudarstvennoi bezopasnosti) – searched his apartment, seizing personal letters, manuscripts of scientific articles, notes on patients and his typewriter (cf. Moskovskaia Khel’sinskaia Gruppa 1981b). In February 1981 at an assembly held in Khar’kov, Nikitin publicly denounced Koriagin’s work and involvement in the Commission of the Helsinki Group of Moscow, defining his activities as “anti-Soviet, hostile to the government and unworthy of a citizen and doctor” (Khronika tekushchikh sobytii 1981a).  Koriagin’s arrest followed a few days later (on the 13^th February), hardly a surprise as all his colleagues on the Commission had already been arrested and condemned (cf. ibid.). Soon afterwards a declaration written by Koriagin in anticipation of such an event was released: “In the eventuality of my arrest and investigations against me for alleged infringement of any article of the penal code, I ask that the following declaration be made public: I have not committed any criminal act punishable by law” (ibid.).
Koriagin condemned the abuse of government power that he was sure would be exercised against him (cf. ibid.). He declared that his case would be heard, not by medical experts or fellow psychiatrists, but by representatives of the KGB or the state prosecutor who were not competent in the matters involved. He stated his intention to refuse to participate in any trial, alleging that the outcome would be decided in advance (cf. ibid.).
The trial was held in Khar’kov and lasted three days (3^rd – 5^th June 1981). Koriagin was accused of producing and circulating material in which “Soviet power and the CPSU were denigrated” (Moskovskaia Khel’sinskaia Gruppa 1981b) and whose content was “malicious and libellous” (ibid.), such as the article Patsienty ponevole (Unwilling patients) in the tamizdat magazine “Posev” (February 1981).  He was said to have written letters, notes and documents which were critical of Soviet power, the socialist system and the CPSU as well as possessing foreign magazines, books, letters and reproductions of books with anti-Soviet content (cf. ibid.). A further accusation concerned the illegal possession of firearms; Koriagin was accused of providing a pistol to his brother-in-law to protect his sister (cf. ibid.). During the first day of the trial, Koriagin refused to answer any personal questions and restated his position: “I do not consider myself guilty and I refuse to speak, because this is not a trial but a punishment for my participation in the Working Commission… I question whether the accusation is just and respond to two matters: my imprisonment and the investigation – and make a concluding speech …” (Khronika tekushchikh sobytii 1981b).
In his defence Koriagin denounced the physical and psychological torture he had been subjected to and the brutality of the prison authorities (cf. ibid.), pointed to the lack of concrete evidence for his propagating and producing anti-Soviet material and re-emphasised the illegality and injustice of the investigation into his activities and charges against him which he said had been created ad hoc to punish him for collaborating with the Working Commission: “(…) I will never accept the current situation in our country, where people who are mentally well are sent to psychiatric hospitals because they show a desire to think independently. I know that I have long years ahead of physical isolation, humiliation and derision.  I am aware of what awaits me, but I hope my actions give others the possibility to live freely” (ibid.).
Koriagin was sentenced to fourteen years (seven in a labour camp and five in internal exile for spreading propaganda and engaging in anti-Soviet activities, plus two for the illegal possession of a firearm), although he actually spent only six years in prison, from 1981 to 1987. He was first sent to the Perm’ labour camp for political prisoners, where he was sentenced to an extra three years for participating in a revolt against the local administration, and then to the Chistopol’ prison where he went on hunger strike several times (cf. Moskovskaia Khel’sinskaia Gruppa 1981a). Finally, in 1986, he was sent to Khar’kov (cf. ibid.).
In the days following his trial, with the backing of the international community of psychiatrists, “The Lancet” published a translation of Patsienty ponevole titled Unwilling patients to demonstrate support for Koriagin and highlight the circumstances of his imprisonment. This publication engendered a flood of protests in the West, with numerous petitions and appeals for the Soviet psychiatrist’s liberation (cf. Low-Beer 1981; Nightingale-Stover 1985; Bulletin of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1985).
During the years he spent in prison, Koriagin continued to fight for the rights of political prisoners and was a leading figure in several protests inside the labour camp which cost him long periods in solitary confinement and made him a target for the guards (cf. Perm-36).
In 1983, Koriagin was awarded the AAAS Award for Scientific Freedom and Responsibility in absentia, for his contribution to the fight against the use of medicine for repressive purposes (cf. Nightingale-Stover 1985). A few months after his release from prison, Koriagin emigrated to Switzerland with his mother, wife and three children; his Soviet citizenship was revoked (cf. Moskovskaia Khel’sinskaia Gruppa 1981a). In 1987 he was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize (cf. Smith-Oleszczuk 1996: 241). In 1995, Koriagin returned to Russia with his family and since then has lived in Pereslavl’-Zalesskii (cf. Moskovskaia Khel’sinskaia Gruppa 1981a).

Teresa Lombardi
[30^th June 2021]

Translation by Tammy Corkish

This article was produced as a result of the seminar “Civil Rights Movement in the USSR”, held by Ilaria Sicari (Course of Russian Literature, Master’s Degree in Euro-American Languages and Literatures, University of Florence, a.y. 2019-2020).

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