MINISTRY OF HEALTH OF THE USSR
Secret
Copy no. 1 March 16, 1971
No.704c
Moscow

CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF THE SOVIET UNION

Not for publication

I am sending for your familiarization the text of a telegram from Academician Sakharov that was received in the Ministry of Health of the USSR.

Enclosure: The aforementioned text.

MINISTRY OF HEALTH OF THE USSR

B. Petrovskii

COPY

MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATION OF THE USSR

TELEGRAM

MOSCOW 3502 71 15 1151

NOTIFICATION BY TELEGRAM
MOSCOW I-51 RAKHMANOV LANE 3
MINISTRY OF HEALTH OF THE USSR

TO THE MINISTER, ACADEMICIAN B.V. PETROVSKII

DEAR BORIS VASIL'EVICH:

FAINBERG AND BORISOV, POLITICAL PRISONERS IN THE LENINGRAD PSYCHIATRIC PRISON, HAVE ANNOUNCED A HUNGER STRIKE AGAINST COMPULSORY THERAPEUTIC TREATMENT WITH MEDICATIONS INJURIOUS TO MENTAL ACTIVITY. I AM ENDORSING THEIR DEMANDS. I ASK YOU URGENTLY TO INTERVENE TO PRESERVE THE HEALTH [AND] DIGNITY OF PRISONERS IN THE PSYCHIATRIC PRISON. PROMOTE THE REMOVAL OF EVEN THE POSSIBILITY OF VIOLATIONS OF HUMAN RIGHTS AND MEDICAL ETHICS IN THE RUNNING OF PSYCHIATRIC INSTITUTIONS AND THE CORRECTION OF OVERLOOKED VIOLATIONS- ACADEMICIAN SAKHAROV-

True copy: [signed] Krutova [?] MINISTRY OF HEALTH OF THE USSR

March 25, 1971

No. 828 c Moscow

TO THE HEAD OF THE DEPARTMENT OF SCIENCE AND EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS

CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF THE SOVIET UNION

Comrade S.P. Trapeznikov

In connection with the telegram to me from Academician Sakharov, in which he requests the adoption of measures against the alleged "compulsory therapeutic treatment with medications injurious to mental activity" of "political prisoners" Fainberg and Borisov in the "Leningrad Psychiatric Prison," the chief specialist for neuropsychiatry of the Ministry of Health of the USSR, candidate of medical science Z.N. Serebriakova, and the Deputy Director of the Scientific Department of the Institute for Psychiatry of the Academy of Medical Sciences of the USSR, Prof. R.A. Nadzharov, were sent to Leningrad.

An investigation has established that the patients F.I. Fainberg and V. E. Borisov were sent for compulsory therapeutic treatment to the special psychiatric hospital of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR by court order in compliance with existing legislation after they were found by forensic-psychiatric experts to be suffering from mental illness and mentally incompetent.

In the patient V.I. Fainberg, are noted personality changes and persistent quasi-psychopathic disorders (paranoid development of the social reforming type), carried over from a schizophrenic condition in his youth, for which he has repeatedly been hospitalized in psychiatric clinics in Kharkov, Moscow, and Leningrad.

In the patient V.E. Borisov, are also noted persistent, quasi- psychopathic personality changes (infantilism, paranoia) against a background of residual, organic neurological symptoms. He has repeatedly undergone compulsory therapeutic treatment in the special psychiatric hospital in Leningrad in connection with anti- social behavior.

An earlier transfer of the patient for treatment at a standard psychiatric hospital led to negative results.

The patient was returned to the special psychiatric hospital after an attempt to kidnap him by persons unknown who attacked the [hospital] personnel.

[ … ]

Taking into account the origin of the situationally conditioned psychogenic reaction of the patients with refusal to eat and the limited possibilities for medical treatment, a change in the conditions of their custody in the given hospital was declared advisable, having in mind more active psychotherapeutic and readapting measures, but also the exclusion of undesirable influences from the outside that would lead to the reinforcement of their paranoid precepts.

[ … ]

MINISTER OF HEALTH OF THE USSR
[signed] B. PETROVSKII CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF THE SOVIET UNION

To No. 12065

In a telegram addressed to the Minister of Health of the USSR, Comrade Petrovskii, Academician Sakharov reports that "political prisoners Fainberg and Borisov of the Leningrad Psychiatric Prison have announced a hunger strike against compulsory treatment with medications injurious to mental activity" and asks that measures be taken to correct overlooked violations.

The facts indicated in the telegram were investigated by the Ministry of Health of the USSR. It has been determined that the patients V.I. Fainberg and V.E. Borisov were sent for compulsory therapeutic treatment to the special psychiatric hospital of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR [MIA SSSR] in compliance with existing legislation after forensic-psychiatric experts declared them incompetent by reason of mental illness.

[ … ]

Both patients have had their symptoms treated in a way that has no effect on mental activity.

[ … ]

During the investigation, it was noticed that the internal regime of the special psychiatric hospitals of the MIA SSSR do not meet modern requirements for the rehabilitative treatment of the mentally ill in inpatient hospitals.

The MIA USSR has now outlined a series of measures to improve medical service for the mentally ill in said hospitals.

Comrade Sakharov has been informed of the results.

[signed] V. Baltiiskii
Deputy Director of the Department of Science and Educational Institutions of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union

June 10, 1971

320-A/7

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