ABSTRACT
Soviet publicist Fedor Burlatsky announced early in 1988 that "in the Soviet Union, greater attention is being focused on democratization, that is, on the expansion of civil and political rights and liberties and on their guarantees." Linking one's political opponents with all manner of corruption and peculation is, of course, a convenient way to discredit them. In fact, many radical reformists seem to be calling for strong arm tactics both to clean up the cesspool of corruption and to neutralize the opposition. Intellectuals and legal specialists in favor of the elimination of capital punishment insist that as a first step, the death penalty for "economic crimes" should be halted immediately. The political abuse of psychiatry has long been of international concern. Izvestiia has admitted that "complainers" have been incarcerated in psychiatric hospitals, and Komsomolskaia pravda complained that doctors have administered medicine "that can make a healthy man sick."
