Anatoly Koryagin - Detention, Recognition and Later Life

Detention, Recognition and Later Life

While held in the Chistopol prison, Koryagin often went on hunger strike, and as a result he was forcibly fed and also drugged with antipsychotic medications. During his imprisonment he managed to smuggle a letter to the West documenting his ordeal. The General Assembly of the World Psychiatric Association passed a resolution making Dr. Anatoly Koryagin an honorary individual member of the World Psychiatric Association for “demonstrating in the struggle against the perversion of psychiatry for nonmedical purposes, professional conscience, courage and devotion to duty, all in exceptional measure.” The American Psychiatric Association elected him an honorary member while he was still imprisoned, and the Royal College of Psychiatry, which elected him a Fellow, addressed a letter to Yuri Andropov requesting his release. In 1983 the American Association for the Advancement of Science bestowed him with the Scientific Freedom and Responsibility Award.

Koryagin was eventually released on February 19, 1987. Although he had been offered asylum in Switzerland, he initially refused because one of his sons had just been arrested, but finally emigrated to Switzerland with his entire family later that year after his son's release. During the Glasnost period, he remained a vocal critic of the Soviet psychiatric system, and a harsh critic of torture.

In 1988, Koryagin sent the letter of appreciation for having been honoured with Fellowship in the Royal College of Psychiatrists to its President, Dr. Birley.

In 1990, Psychiatric Bulletin of the Royal College of Psychiatrists published the article Compulsion in psychiatry: blessing or curse? by Anatoly Koryagin. It contains eight arguments by which the existence of a system of political abuse of psychiatry in the U.S.S.R. cаn easily be demonstrated and analysis of the abuse of psychiatry.

In 1995 Koryagin returned to Russia. Now he lives in Pereyaslavl-Zalessky.