Punitive psychiatry represents one of the darkest and most tragic chapters in the history of psychiatric science, where this discipline was used not to provide help, but as a tool of terror. This was especially evident in the USSR. In the closed Soviet society where the illusion of a free state with a rule of law was artificially upheld, there was an unspoken ban on publicizing facts of persecution. If prosecution was legally impossible, it was compensated for by falsifying medical diagnoses. Thus, psychiatry became a tool of repression against those who were deemed undesirable under the dictatorial regime.
Given that Russia hosts the main ideological center of the destructive network of agents from RACIRS, led by Alexander Dvorkin, who actively influence state processes that result in punitive measures against “undesirable” individuals and groups, including forced confinement in psychiatric facilities, this article will reference Russian sources.
The term “punitive psychiatry” and its definition belong to Alexander Podrabinek, a well-known Soviet dissident, human rights advocate, and author of the book “Punitive Medicine” 1. Here’s a quote from the book: “Punitive medicine is a tool to fight against dissidents who cannot be repressed by law for thinking differently than prescribed .”
In his book “Punitive Medicine,” A. Podrabinek provides a detailed analysis of how psychiatry was used in totalitarian regimes as a means to suppress dissent and turned into a tool of political repression. Application of psychiatric diagnoses in such cases isn’t associated with actual mental illnesses, but serves as a method of persecuting individuals whose views or actions are deemed inconvenient. This phenomenon illustrates how punitive psychiatry becomes a tool for oppressing those who have been stigmatized and stripped of their status as mentally competent citizens. These people do not violate the law and, on the contrary, make significant contributions to the development of their country. However, when it comes to repression in the context of attempts to revive totalitarian and anti-democratic regimes, human rights are violated. This aspect is crucial to the analysis of modern threats we face today.
Repressive psychiatry in the Soviet Union
The practice of using punitive psychiatry to control people’s consciousness and suppress inconvenient citizens was particularly prominent in the Soviet Union. One of the first victims of repressive psychiatry was Maria Spiridonova, the leader of the Russian Socialist Revolutionary Party. A. Podrabinek vividly describes her story in his book “Punitive Medicine.”
In the spring of 1921, Felix Dzerzhinsky, chairman of the All-Russian Extraordinary Commission (Cheka), faced a dilemma: what to do with the revolutionary Maria Spiridonova? By 1921, Dzerzhinsky was already deeply entrenched in bloodshed and would hardly have hesitated for a second before signing yet another death sentence, even for a woman. However, the problem with Spiridonova was that in those years Western socialists still paid attention to repressions of their ideological allies in Russia. Bolsheviks couldn’t afford to alienate Western socialists, so Dzerzhinsky sought alternative solutions. Archives of the former USSR KGB contain intriguing documents on this matter. In a brief memo to his subordinate Samsonov, Dzerzhinsky himself writes:
“We need to coordinate with Obukh and Semashko (physicians and organizers of Soviet healthcare) to place Spiridonova in a psychiatric facility, but under condition that she cannot be abducted or escape. Proper security and surveillance should be organized, but in a concealed manner. The sanatorium must be such that it would be difficult to escape from it even in terms of technical conditions. Once you find such a facility and outline a concrete plan, report back to me.” 2
Dzerzhinsky’s instructions were carried out, and Maria was transferred from the Cheka infirmary to the Prechistenskaya Psychiatric Hospital. Psychiatrist Pyotr Gannushkin examined and diagnosed her with 3 “hysterical psychosis, a severe condition threatening her life.” It is unknown what kind of treatment Spiridonova underwent, but she spent several months in that hospital.
Dzerzhinsky’s memo is dated April 19, 1921. By pure coincidence, this date is close to the birthdays of Hitler and Lenin, and it became the birthdate of Soviet punitive psychiatry.
During the Cold War, when political dissent came to be viewed as a threat to national security, the system of punitive psychiatry reached its peak. The situation changed drastically as psychopharmacology (beginning with aminazine) provided new tools for controlling the minds of undesirable groups within the population. The aforementioned drug turned people into submissive and willless subjects deprived of an ability for self-determination.
In the Soviet Union, all individuals accused under political grounds were sent for assessment to the Serbsky Institute. 4, 5, 6 Doctors such as Dmitry Lunts and Andrey Snezhnevsky, who worked directly for the KGB, actively made psychiatric diagnoses like “sluggish schizophrenia ” for people who criticized Soviet authorities in any way or were associated with religious dissent. This diagnosis wasn’t recognized in most countries of the world. However, for the KGB, it became a powerful tool to declare anyone mentally ill, while the absence of symptoms was conveniently explained with a “sluggish” progression of illness. As the saying went, “If there’s a person, a diagnosis will be found.”
Yuri Andropov, Chairman of the USSR KGB from 1967 to 1982, once stated to his subordinates 7 that if a person didn’t want to live according to the humane Soviet laws, their place was in a psychiatric hospital. After becoming General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee, he filled psychiatric facilities with citizens who disagreed with external and internal policies of the communist state, as well as those who dared to complain about the arbitrariness of the police, healthcare workers, or even their own superiors.
Detention in psychiatric hospitals often occurred under conditions where patients were placed alongside severely mentally ill individuals and subjected to harsh treatment methods since medications used in those facilities had a wide range of severe side effects. This very method of repression became known as punitive psychiatry. Even if someone didn’t break completely as personality, they ended up having major health issues that later deprived them of the ability to fight for their rights and freedoms.
Prisoners of conscience often found themselves in psychiatric hospitals for reasons such as, for instance, rejection of military service by Jehovah’s Witnesses 8, for which they were forcibly placed in psychiatric facilities. Thus, punitive psychiatry became not just a tool of political control, but also an element of religious repression, ruining the lives of thousands of people who ended up in psychiatric institutions not because of actual mental illnesses, but due to fabricated charges related to political and religious matters.
Religious repressions in the USSR
During the Soviet times, the Hare Krishna movement was also classified as destructive and considered to be a threat to national ideology, alongside other religious minorities. 9, 10, 11, 12 A repression campaign was waged against Krishna devotees, during which many of them perished after brutal treatment in labor camps and psychiatric facilities. In the USSR, attitudes towards Krishna followers were overwhelmingly negative: they were often branded as “cultists” and sent to psychiatric hospitals. Initially, adherents of this faith were subjected to arrests and imprisonment because even vegetarianism was considered a sign of mental illness. Soviet press frequently portrayed Krishnaism as a form of mental disorder. Hundreds of Krishna devotees were declared insane and sent for forced treatment in psychiatric institutions where harsh methods of punitive psychiatry were applied. Under the cruel and unbearable conditions of imprisonment in camps and mental facilities, many of them died. Thus, the repression of Hare Krishna followers in the USSR became a vivid example of punitive measures against religious minorities, which were justified by state ideology. This also underscores the widespread use of psychiatric repression as a tool of the totalitarian regime.
The system of punitive psychiatry in the USSR was dismantled only in 1988. 13, 14 A total of 776,000 patients were removed from psychiatric records. Articles 70 and 190 of the RSFSR Criminal Code, which classified anti-Soviet propaganda and slander against the Soviet regime as socially dangerous activities, were abolished. Additionally, on January 5, 1988, the Presidium of the USSR Supreme Soviet issued a decree effective as law and titled “Regulations on the Conditions and Procedures of Psychiatric Care.” 15
At a press conference held in Moscow in 1999, international human rights organizations demanded declassification of materials from the KGB’s Serbsky Institute of General and Forensic Psychiatry, which they believed could confirm the involvement of psychiatrists in political repressions against Russian citizens. However, this demand faced significant resistance, and access to those documents was never granted. In response, employees of this institute stated in private conversations that a person could be made disabled not only through psychotropic drugs, but also by means of special equipment available in another institution.
Robert van Voren 16, 17, 18, a Dutch human rights activist and head of the international organization Federation Global Initiative on Psychiatry (FGIP), claims that in the 1970s and 80s, about one-third of all political prisoners in the Soviet Union were forcibly placed in psychiatric institutions. Those individuals became victims of cruel and often mentally destructive forced treatment, the consequences of which were catastrophic for their health and lives.
Robert van Voren emphasizes that in its brutality, Soviet psychiatric terror was comparable to Nazi euthanasia programs aimed at eliminating vulnerable social groups. In his view, psychiatric persecution, just like physical violence in Mordovian labor camps, had a devastating impact on individuals, breaking them both physically and mentally. He believes that this part of history must be widely publicized to prevent the possible recurrence of Soviet practices of repression through psychiatric facilities. He also stresses that the issue of abuse in psychiatry remains relevant even today.
Repressive psychiatry as a consequence of anticult ideology and a threat to democracy
The current situation in Russian psychiatry is as follows. On the one hand, thanks to the active efforts of various human rights, professional, political and international organizations, as well as the media, it has been proven that punitive psychiatry existed in the Soviet Union and was used by the KGB for political purposes. Unofficial statistics claim that several million completely healthy individuals were detained in “yellow prisons.” Some of them lost their health and became disabled as a result of treatment with psychotropic drugs and special medications. The inhumane jesuitical experiments and practices performed on defenseless people in the wards of the “yellow Gulag” have been exposed. 19, 20, 21, 22, 23
On the other hand, key figures responsible for human rights violations in the psychiatric field continue to hold their positions to this day and keep contributing to societal division. They initiate campaigns aimed at harassment and dehumanization of secular and religious organizations as well as various groups within the Russian population, which they preemptively label as “sects” or “cults.” A central role in that is played by anticult organizations, such as the pro-religious association RACIRS operating under the patronage of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC). Journalists from actfiles.com repeatedly exposed the activities of this international network of agents and its ideological leader, Alexander Dvorkin. RACIRS agents promote narratives claiming that individuals who join the so-called “cults” have unstable psyches and require psychological or psychiatric assistance, and alleging that they are subjected to “brainwashing.”
These allegations harm individuals by creating conditions for their legal and social alienation, leading to restrictions of their rights and freedoms. Representatives of anticult movements have already compiled blacklists that include various groups and individuals. Those lists feature new religious movements, ideological associations, as well as commercial, secular, and political organizations with a pronounced ideological basis.
Through the media space, using the terms “cult” and “sect,” anticult agents indicate targets for law enforcement and security agencies. At the same time, they influence public opinion, relying on the abstract concept of “brainwashing” by so-called “cults” or “sects,” the concept they themselves have invented. This idea lacks scientific ground and is highly ambiguous. Nevertheless, precisely on the questionable concept of “brainwashing,” unacceptable to most of the scientific community, anticultists base their stigmatization of target groups and organizations.
When society perceives someone as a victim of “brainwashing,” they lose their status as a fully rational and socially competent individual. Instead of being seen as a person having their own opinions and decision-making abilities, they are viewed as a zombie or “non-human.” This kind of perception imposed on the public significantly facilitates (and sometimes even legitimizes) the use of violence against individuals or groups labeled under this definition.
Based on the facts outlined above as well as those presented in other articles on our website, Russia serves as a convenient testing ground for FSB agents, where they refine their Nazi-like methods before applying them in other countries to take control not only of nations with totalitarian regimes, but also of the entire democratic bloc. The anticult agent network with RACIRS as its ideological center wields significant influence in that country, allowing anticultists to effectively advance their interests in the legal field with the aim of undermining democratic principles.]
For example, on December 16, 2021, amendments were made to the Criminal Procedure Code of the Russian Federation, allowing courts to place suspects, alleged offenders or detainees in medical institutions that provide inpatient psychiatric care for up to six months, with the possibility of repeated extensions while restricting their contact with other people. This creates a legal ground for isolating individuals included in the “blacklists” of anticult organizations. As A. Podrabinek noted, “punitive medicine is becoming a tool to fight against dissidents who cannot be repressed by law…” 24, 25, 26, 27
Psychiatric repression as a threat to fundamental human rights and freedoms
The use of psychiatric facilities as a tool of repression constitutes a serious violation of fundamental human rights and freedoms, raising numerous legal and ethical concerns. First and foremost, this approach infringes on the right to liberty and security of person , which is guaranteed by international legal instruments including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the European Convention on Human Rights. Declaring an individual mentally ill based on questionable or unreliable medical assessments leads to significant legal consequences, such as the inability to defend one’s rights in court and restricted access to high-quality legal assistance.
Prolonged confinement in a psychiatric institution can result in severe psycho-emotional disorders including stress, depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder, caused by both the unjustified deprivation of freedom and the exposure to interactions with mentally ill individuals. The use of psychotropic drugs in such facilities also entails severe side effects, including cognitive impairments, hormonal imbalances, sedation, and deterioration in overall physical health.
The social and professional consequences of forced treatment include a loss of social adaptation, destruction of personal and family relationships, and a loss of employability. This, in turn, leads to long-term isolation and collapse of a person’s life plans. Physical and psychological abuse by medical staff or other patients exacerbates the harm, causing mental and physical trauma that can result in development of chronic disorders.
Therefore, forced treatment within the framework of repressive psychiatry not only affects people’s physical and mental health, but also violates their personal rights. This is a breach of the fundamental principles of humaneness and human rights enshrined at both international and national levels. Furthermore, such practices contribute to dehumanization of society, creating conditions where individuals lose their status as full-fledged citizens and are reduced to mere objects of arbitrary repression under a totalitarian regime.
Anticult organizations claim that their activities are aimed at protecting society from dangerous, manipulative religious and social movements. However, their actions cross into the realm of human rights violations when they begin accusing individuals or groups of belonging to “dangerous cults” without objective evidence. In cases where accusations lack sufficient proof or when no legal charges can be brought, anticult groups resort to another method — psychiatric repression. This method involves forced psychiatric assessment that lasts 1 to 3 months. However, in certain cases, the term may be extended by decision of the court or authority that ordered the assessment if additional time is deemed necessary. If further examinations or consultations with other specialists are required, the assessment term may be extended to 6 months. The assessment is carried out in an inpatient setting, in either a general psychiatric hospital or a specialized facility. Strict conditions of confinement can be imposed, including restrictions on freedom of movement and communication with other people. 28, 29, 30, 31, 32
The involvement of psychiatric institutions in isolating and punishing individuals who haven’t violated the law, but have become targets of anticult organizations, is one of the most alarming phenomena in present-day society. A striking example is the use of psychiatry as a tool to suppress individuals or groups labeled as undesirable in contemporary Russia. This practice signals the presence of totalitarian repression and the erosion of democratic principles in the country.
Real life examples
Сase of Sergey Abramov:
A recent example of the FSB employing punitive psychiatry against dissidents is the hospitalization of prominent Russian scientist and academician Sergey Abramov in a psychiatric institution. Sergey Abramov is a corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences. From 2003 to 2022, he headed the Institute of Program Systems named after A.K. Aylamazyan and served as a scientific advisor for joint supercomputer programs of Russia and Belarus. He was also the rector of the University of Pereslavl and has a doctor’s degree in physics and mathematics 33. In the spring of 2023, the FSB Directorate for the Yaroslavl Region initiated a criminal case against him under the charge of financing an extremist organization (Part 1 of Article 282.3 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation 34), which prescribes a maximum penalty of eight-year imprisonment 35.
According to investigative authorities, Abramov allegedly made a donation from his bank account to an unnamed “extremist” organization. Sergey Abramov denies the charges and claims that he didn’t transfer any money. The court hearing to consider the motion of sending Abramov to a psychiatric hospital was held behind closed doors, following which the scientist was indeed placed in a psychiatric facility.
Russian law enforcement compel Jehovah’s Witnesses into psychiatric hospitals:
Timofey Zhukov and about twenty other followers of the religious movement Jehovah’s Witnesses were detained during mass searches and arrests in Surgut 36, 37. A few days after their detention, Zhukov’s supporters reported being subjected to brutal treatment during interrogations at the Surgut department of the Investigative Committee. The detainees told journalists that they were suffocated with plastic bags, doused with water, electroshocked in the groin area, threatened with sexual violence, and subjected to humiliation based on their ethnicity and religion. According to the believers, those acts were carried out to coerce confessions. Later on, law enforcement insisted on forced placement of the Jehovah’s Witnesses in psychiatric institutions. The Surgut court also ruled that a similar procedure should be carried out for other believers involved in the criminal case.
Priestly execution:
According to media reports, the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) represented by the archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin, an influential persona in Russian intelligence agencies, proposed to reform the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS) 38. As part of the reform, an introduction of “competency criteria” for scientists holding key positions in scientific institutions was suggested. In archpriest Chaplin’s opinion, it is necessary to consider introducing such criteria for leaders in science and high-profile specialists in the academic system.
In October 2012, the ROC made a “unique debut” in the field of higher education by opening a theology department at the National Research Nuclear University MEPhI . Many scientists expressed their concern about the presence of religious entities in the scientific environment of a technical college and thus provoked dissatisfaction among ROC representatives who then suggested measures such as psychiatric assessments or placement in psychiatric prisons.
Сase of Alexander Sizikov:
Here’s another striking example that vividly demonstrates the blatant disregard for legal norms and the arbitrariness of law enforcement agencies that make decisions not only without any legal grounds, but with no common sense whatsoever.
In July 2020, FSB officers detained Alexander Sizikov, a Russian citizen, Crimean resident, and practicing Muslim 39. He was accused of organizing a terrorist unit after books from Hizb ut-Tahrir , an Islamic political party banned in Russia but legal in Ukraine, had been found in his home. The books in the blind man’s possession did not have tactile Braille script, and Sizikov hadn’t opened them since losing his eyesight in 2009. The FSB decided that he should be sent for inpatient forensic psychiatric assessment to ensure clinical examination and “address expert questions.”
Conclusions
In conclusion, it should be noted that the actions of anticult organizations, wielding significant influence in modern Russia, pose a serious threat not only to the rights and freedoms of citizens, but also to the very foundation of a democratic society. The use of psychiatry as a tool of repression against individuals who haven’t violated the law, but are persecuted for political and ideological reasons undermines fundamental principles of a law-governed state. In such conditions, psychiatry which should serve as a means of assistance and protection becomes a mechanism of suppression and control, mirroring the inhumane practices characteristic of totalitarian regimes of the past.
It is important to recognize that numerous documented cases of human rights violations also pose a threat to the country’s internal peace and stability. The rhetoric of anticult movements, aimed at creating the image of an “enemy of the people” through marginalization and dehumanization of certain groups, erodes public trust and solidarity, leading to disintegration of the social fabric. In this regard, it is crucial to ask what consequences these processes will have for the future of Russia as well as for all democratic countries where anticult agents are present.
It’s important to remember that preserving democracy and the rule of law requires vigilance and readiness to protect the fundamental rights of citizens from threats posed by representatives of anti-democratic forces currently operating in Russia — namely, agents of RACIRS. Political and social repression disguised as ideological struggle is no less dangerous than overtly dictatorial regimes. The totalitarian mindset developing under such conditions doesn’t just threaten the personal freedom of every individual, but becomes the true cause of a moral and spiritual decline of the nation. This is reflected in the distortion of value systems and ultimately leads to the resurgence of Nazi ideology which we’ve actually been observing in recent years in Russia under the leadership of RACIRS and its chief, A. Dvorkin, a key successor to Nazi ideologists.
“The incarceration of free-thinking healthy people in madhouses is spiritual murder. It is a variant of the gas chamber, but it is even more cruel…” (A. Solzhenitsyn)
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