Psikhushka (russian: психу́шка; ) is a Russian ironic diminutive for

psychiatric hospital Psychiatric hospitals, also known as mental health hospitals, behavioral health hospitals, are hospitals or wards specializing in the treatment of severe mental disorders, such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, eating disorders, dissociat ...

. In Russia, the word entered everyday vocabulary. This word has been occasionally used in English, since the

Soviet dissident Soviet dissidents were people who disagreed with certain features of Soviet ideology or with its entirety and who were willing to speak out against them. The term ''dissident'' was used in the Soviet Union in the period from the mid-1960s until ...

movement and diaspora community in the West used the term. In the Soviet Union, psychiatric hospitals were often used by the authorities as prisons, in order to isolate

political prisoner A political prisoner is someone imprisoned for their political activity. The political offense is not always the official reason for the prisoner's detention. There is no internationally recognized legal definition of the concept, although nu ...

s from the rest of society, discredit their ideas, and break them physically and mentally. As such, psikhushkas were considered a form of

torture Torture is the deliberate infliction of severe pain or suffering on a person for reasons such as punishment, extracting a confession, interrogation for information, or intimidating third parties. Some definitions are restricted to acts ...

.See:

Sidney Bloch Sidney may refer to: People * Sidney (surname), English surname * Sidney (given name), including a list of people with the given name * Sidney (footballer, born 1972), full name Sidney da Silva Souza, Brazilian football defensive midfielder * ...

and

Peter Reddaway Peter Reddaway (born September 18, 1939) is a British-American political scientist, a Russia expert, known primarily for his study of its human rights and dissident movement. Peter Reddaway graduated from Cambridge University and did graduate s ...

(1984). ''Soviet Psychiatric Abuse: The Shadow over World Psychiatry''. Victor Gollancz, London., The official explanation was that no sane person would be against

socialism Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes th ...

.A statement attributed to

Nikita Khrushchev Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev (– 11 September 1971) was the First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964 and chairman of the country's Council of Ministers from 1958 to 1964. During his rule, Khrushchev s ...

br>
http://doctor-litvinov.ru/psixologiya-i-psixiatriya/vy-kritikuete-vlast-togda-psixiatr-idyot-k-vam.html] Psikhushkas were already in use by the end of the 1940s (see

Alexander Esenin-Volpin Alexander Sergeyevich Esenin-Volpin (also written Ésénine-Volpine and Yessenin-Volpin in his French and English publications; russian: Алекса́ндр Серге́евич Есе́нин-Во́льпин, p=ɐlʲɪˈksandr sʲɪrˈɡʲejɪ ...

), continuing into the

Khrushchev Thaw The Khrushchev Thaw ( rus, хрущёвская о́ттепель, r=khrushchovskaya ottepel, p=xrʊˈɕːɵfskəjə ˈotʲ:ɪpʲɪlʲ or simply ''ottepel'')William Taubman, Khrushchev: The Man and His Era, London: Free Press, 2004 is the period ...

period of the 1960s. On April 29, 1969, the head of the KGB,

Yuri Andropov Yuri Vladimirovich Andropov (– 9 February 1984) was the sixth paramount leader of the Soviet Union and the fourth General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. After Leonid Brezhnev's 18-year rule, Andropov served in the ...

submitted to the Central Committee of

CPSU "Hymn of the Bolshevik Party" , headquarters = 4 Staraya Square, Moscow , general_secretary = Vladimir Lenin (first)Mikhail Gorbachev (last) , founded = , banned = , founder = Vladimir Lenin , newspaper ...

a plan for the creation of a network of specialized "psychiatric hospitals" run by the KGB.Yevgenia Albats and Catherine A. Fitzpatrick. ''The State Within a State: The KGB and Its Hold on Russia - Past, Present, and Future.'' 1994. . The official Soviet psychiatric science came up with the definition of sluggish schizophrenia, a special form of the illness that supposedly affects only the person's social behavior, with no trace on other traits: "most frequently, ideas about a ''struggle for truth and justice'' are formed by personalities with a paranoid structure," according to the Moscow Serbsky Institute professors (a quote Anne Applebaum, ''Gulag: A History'', Doubleday, April, 2003, hardcover, 677 pages, ; trade paperback, Bantam Dell, 11 May 2004, 736 pages,
Introduction online
from

Vladimir Bukovsky Vladimir Konstantinovich Bukovsky (russian: link=no, Влади́мир Константи́нович Буко́вский; 30 December 1942 – 27 October 2019) was a Russian-born British human rights activist and writer. From the late 195 ...

's archives). Some of them had high rank in the MVD, such as the infamous Daniil Luntz, who was characterized by

Viktor Nekipelov Viktor Aleksandrovich Nekipelov (russian: Ви́ктор Алекса́ндрович Некипе́лов, 29 September 1928 – 1 July 1989) was a Soviet Russian poet, writer, Soviet dissident, and a member of the Moscow Helsinki Group. He spe ...

as "no better than the criminal doctors who performed inhuman experiments on the prisoners in

Nazi concentration camps From 1933 to 1945, Nazi Germany operated more than a thousand concentration camps, (officially) or (more commonly). The Nazi concentration camps are distinguished from other types of Nazi camps such as forced-labor camps, as well as con ...

". The sane individuals who were diagnosed as

mentally ill A mental disorder, also referred to as a mental illness or psychiatric disorder, is a behavioral or mental pattern that causes significant distress or impairment of personal functioning. Such features may be persistent, relapsing and remitt ...

were sent either to a regular

s or, those deemed particularly dangerous, to special ones, run directly by the MVD. The treatment included various forms of restraint, electric shocks, a range of drugs (such as

narcotic The term narcotic (, from ancient Greek ναρκῶ ''narkō'', "to make numb") originally referred medically to any psychoactive compound with numbing or paralyzing properties. In the United States, it has since become associated with opiates ...

tranquilizer A tranquilizer is a drug that is designed for the treatment of anxiety, fear, tension, agitation, and disturbances of the mind, specifically to reduce states of anxiety and tension. Etymology Tranquilizer, as a term, was first used by F.F. Yonk ...

s, and

insulin Insulin (, from Latin ''insula'', 'island') is a peptide hormone produced by beta cells of the pancreatic islets encoded in humans by the ''INS'' gene. It is considered to be the main anabolic hormone of the body. It regulates the metabolism ...

) that cause long lasting side effects, and sometimes involved beatings. Nekipelov describes inhumane uses of medical procedures such as

lumbar puncture Lumbar puncture (LP), also known as a spinal tap, is a medical procedure in which a needle is inserted into the spinal canal, most commonly to collect cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) for diagnostic testing. The main reason for a lumbar puncture is ...

s. Notable political prisoners of psikhushkas include poet

Joseph Brodsky Iosif Aleksandrovich Brodsky (; russian: link=no, Иосиф Александрович Бродский ; 24 May 1940 – 28 January 1996) was a Russian and American poet and essayist. Born in Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg), USSR in 1940, ...

, dissidents Leonid Plyushch,

, Natalya Gorbanevskaya,

Pyotr Grigorenko Petro Grigorenko or Petro Hryhorovych Hryhorenko ( uk, Петро́ Григо́рович Григоре́нко, russian: Пётр Григо́рьевич Григоре́нко, link=no, – 21 February 1987) was a high-ranking Soviet Army ...

Zhores Medvedev Zhores Aleksandrovich Medvedev (russian: Жоре́с Алекса́ндрович Медве́дев; 14 November 1925 – 15 November 2018) was a Russian agronomist, biologist, historian and dissident. His twin brother is the historian Roy Medv ...

Valeriya Novodvorskaya Valeriya (russian: Валерия) is a stage name of Alla Yurievna Perfilova (russian: Алла Юрьевна Перфилова, born April 17, 1968 in Atkarsk), a Russian singer and fashion model. Valeriya, who is a recipient of the titles Pe ...

Natan Sharansky Natan Sharansky ( he, נתן שרנסקי; russian: Ната́н Щара́нский; uk, Натан Щаранський, born Anatoly Borisovich Shcharansky on 20 January 1948); uk, Анатолій Борисович Щаранський, ...

Andrei Sinyavsky Andrei Donatovich Sinyavsky (russian: Андре́й Дона́тович Синя́вский; 8 October 1925 – 25 February 1997) was a Russian writer and Soviet dissident known as a defendant in the Sinyavsky–Daniel trial in 1965. Sinyav ...

, and Anatoly Koryagin, politician

Konstantin Päts Konstantin Päts (; – 18 January 1956) was an Estonian statesman and the country's president in 1938–1940. Päts was one of the most influential politicians of the independent democratic Republic of Estonia, and during the two decades prior ...

, and whistle blower

Larisa Arap Larisa Arap (russian: Лари́са Ива́новна Ара́п; born in 1958) is a Russian opposition activist who became a victim of involuntary commitment in the psychiatric facilities of Murmansk and Apatity, soon after publishing her a ...

References

Bibliography

* * * * {{cite book , last = Fireside , first = Harvey , title = Soviet Psychoprisons , year = 1979 , isbn = 9780393012668 , url = https://archive.org/details/sovietpsychopris00fire , url-access = registration Political abuse of psychiatry in the Soviet Union Political repression in the Soviet Union Persecution of dissidents in the Soviet Union Psychiatric hospitals in Russia Imprisonment and detention Torture in Russia Soviet phraseology Pejorative terms