ABSTRACT
[Grigorenko's account of his incarceration in a special psychiatric hospital provides valuable inside information about this Soviet way of dealing with dissenters, and his resistance to the pressures put upon him underlines his toughness of mind and spirit. His own account is followed by two psychiatric reports, the first finding him perfectly sound in mind, while the second, produced in the Serbsky Psychiatric Institute in Moscow under the supervision of Dr. D. Lunts, who would often arrive at the Institute wearing his KGB colonel's uniform, came to the opposite conclusion in view of the persistence of Grigorenko's 'reformist' ideas. Grigorenko's lawyer, in her exceptionally cogent and well-researched petition to the court, unsparingly points out the irregularities and contradictions of these proceedings - though to no avail. In the end, it was public pressure and protest from the West, and Grigorenko's deteriorating physical condition, that brought about his release.]
