Description
Book SynopsisThis riveting memoir tells of the fate of a Soviet dissident, Alexander Shatravka, who tried to escape from the Soviet Union in the 1974, only to be caught and returned to twelve years of imprisonment in Soviet psychiatric hospitals and labor camps. Released in 1986, just in time for the momentous changes of glasnost and perestroika, Shatravka eventually made his way to the West. Saturated with tales and memoirs from the other side of the Iron Curtain, Shatravka’s memoir of his escape, which he wrote for underground circulation, languished in obscurity and archives – until now. In a stunning translation from the original Russian by Shatravka’s ex-wife Catherine Fitzpatrick, his story of dashed hopes and ultimate fulfillment is as fresh as ever.
With the ranks of the once-vibrant Soviet dissident movement depleted by death and old age, we find each account valuable in a world where Soviet crimes against humanity never had their Nuremberg, and where the perpetrators were never brought to justice. With the return of the abuse of psychiatry under Russian President Vladimir Putin’s regime, Shatravka’s tale is a timely warning about threats to freedoms so dear and yet so fragile.
Shatravka’s account also contributes a rare and invaluable look at Soviet provincial life, often overlooked in a field of literature dominated by urban elite dissidents, and captures the hopes and dreams of scores of ordinary people caught in the net of oppression.
Trade Review“Alexander Shatravka went through almost the whole gamut of brutality to which dissidents were subjected in the Soviet era. This included the insidious fate of being locked up without cause in an inhumanly run mental hospital. Now, at last, his vividly written book about all this is coming out in English, thanks to the talented translator Cathy Fitzpatrick. I recommend it without reservation.” – Peter Reddaway, Professor Emeritus of Political Science, George Washington University
“Few saw the reality of the Soviet Union as Sasha Shatravka saw it in his harrowing journey from the Soviet-Finnish border to the hell of Soviet mental hospitals. But even fewer have described what they saw in such powerful detail. This book is a fundamental contribution to history and a guide to what socialism really means.” – David Satter, frequent contributor to the
Wall Street Journal and author of
The Less You Know, the Better You Sleep: Russia's Road to Terror and Dictatorship under Yeltsin and Putin
