◆ SpookStack

Approved For Release 2 MERT et ROP96-00788R001300020001-6 ST-CS5S~-01~169-72 July 1972 in the maltreatment of detainees are not listed but can be found in the references listed. An attempt was made to list only the top professional personnel. PART C - Soviet Response to Events in the USSR 1. (U) The Soviet government, quite naturally, has denied the charges made in the USSR and abroad that mentally stable persons were being detained in psychiatric hospitals because of dissident activities. The Soviet authorities had said little about the accusations until an article written by S.P. Pisarev was obtained by Western sources from the Soviet underground (30). Pisarev, 69, member of the Soviet Communist party since 1918 and minor party official, in 1970 directed a letter to the Soviet Academy of Medical Sciences protesting the Soviet police practice of sending political prisoners to "psychiatric institutions" such as the infamous Serbsky Institute in Moscow. 2. (U) Disputing the type of charge mentioned by Pisarev, Soviet authorities contended persons remanded by a legal psychiatric commission to special mental institutions were those "who committed socially dangerous acts while not responsible for their actions or became ill during a pretrial investigation, during actual court proceedings or after the passing of sentence." According to the Soviet government, such cases are reviewed every six months and committed persons are released if sufficient improvement is found in their mental health (31). 3. (U) A.V. Snezhnevskiy (32), USSR Academy of Medical Sciences academician and director of the USSR Academy of Medical Sciences Psychiatric Institute says: "Yes, I, too, have read these absurd reports that in the USSR healthy people are put into psychiatric hospitals, Like all my’ colleagues, I cannot express my feelings of profound indignation at this wild fan~ tasy. Soviet psychiatrists - a detachment of Soviet medical workers consisting of many thousands - do not, of course, need to be defended from insulting attacks of this sort. In our country and abroad fame and deserved authority are enjoyed by such psychiatrists as A.D. Zurabasvili, V.M. Morozov... ." ete. (Snezhnevskiy mentions eight other psychiatrists). Snezhnevskiy continues his argument by listing the members of a US mission that toured Soviet psychiatric facilities. The mission says in its conclusion . .. . "It appears that the Soviets are leading." 8 CONFIDENTIAL ease : - .