Full Description
The book contains the memoirs of Robert van Voren covering the period 1977-2008 and provides unique insights into the dissident movement in the Soviet Union in the 1980s, both inside the country and abroad.
As a result of his close friendship with many of the leading dissidents and his dozens of trips to the USSR as a courier, he had intimate knowledge of the ins and outs of the dissident movement and participated in many of the campaigns to obtain the release of Soviet political prisoners. In the late 1980s he became involved in building a humane and ethical practice of psychiatry in Eastern Europe and the (ex-) USSR, based on respect for the human rights of persons with mental illness.
The book describes the dissident movement and many of the people who formed it, mental health reformers in Eastern Europe and the response of the Western psychiatric community, the battle with the World Psychiatric Association over Soviet, and later, Chinese political abuse of psychiatry, his contacts with former KGB officers and problems with the KGB's successor organization, the FSB. It also vividly describes the emotional effects of serving as a courier for the dissident movement, the fear of arrest, the pain of seeing friends disappear for many years into camps and prisons, sometimes never to return.
Contents
Foreword By Leonidas Donskis
Introduction
Chapter 1: The Soviet Union on my mind
Chapter 2: The Soviet Union in 1980
Chapter 3: The world of couriers
Chapter 4: Campaigning for dissidents
Chapter 5: Demonstrating in Poland
Chapter 6: Playing "musical chairs" with the WPA
Chapter 7: The Soviet Union in 1985
Chapter 8: Sleeping behind my desk
Chapter 9: Intermission, and back to work
Chapter 10: The gorillas of Sakharov
Chapter 11: The mouse and the elephant
Chapter 12: Playing chess in Athens
Chapter 13: The Soviet Union in 1990
Chapter 14: The doors are opened
Chapter 15: Ukraine on the map
Chapter 16: The Romanian marsh
Chapter 17: Change of course in Bratislava
Chapter 18: From black and white to shades of grey
Chapter 19: From humanitarian aid to structural aid
Chapter 20: Romance with the WPA
Chapter 21: New style abuse
Chapter 22: A successful failure
Chapter 23: Renewed struggle with the WPA
Chapter 24: Into prison
Chapter 25: Becoming Lithuanian
Chapter 26: Reforming against the wind
Chapter 27: Looking back
Epilogue
Historical Data
Index of Names
