Alexander Shatravka | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1950 |
| Nationality | Soviet Union (1950–1986) United States (1992–) |
| Known for | Soviet dissident and peace activist |
| Notable work | Escape from Paradise |
Alexander "Sasha" Ivanovich Shatravka (Russian: Александр Иванович Шатравка; born 6 October 1950) is a Russian-born former Soviet dissident and peace activist who now lives in the United States, where he became a U.S. citizen.
He is known for his attempt to escape from the Soviet Union as a 24-year-old sailor in 1974 and for spending nine years as a political prisoner in Soviet psychiatric hospitals[1] and Gulag concentration camps, from 1974 to 1979 and from 1982 to 1986. In 1983 he was sentenced to three years in prison for circulating a petition calling for the universal abolition of nuclear weapons, following his release in 1979.[2] He was released in 1986, in time for the changes of glasnost and perestroika.[3][4] He finally made it to the West, and testified before the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe on political abuse of psychiatry in the Soviet Union.[5][6]
He has lived in the United States since 1986 and was naturalized as a U.S. citizen in 1992. His memoir Escape from Paradise was published in Russian in 2010 and in English in 2019.[7]
Bibliography
- Shatravka, Alexander (2019). Escape from Paradise: A Russian Dissident's Journey From The Gulag To The West. Translated by Fitzpatrick, Catherine A. Academica Press. ISBN 978-1680534849.
- Shatravka, Alexander (2010). Pobeg iz Raya. ISBN 9781312792104.
References
- ↑ "Dnepropetrovsk special psychiatric hospital, December 1978 (51.11)". Chronicle of Current Events. 2021-04-28.
- ↑ Documents on Disarmament. .S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency. 1983.
- ↑ Satter, David (2008). Age of Delirium: The Decline and Fall of the Soviet Union. Yale University Press. ISBN 9780300147896.
- ↑ Bloch, Sidney; Reddaway, Peter (2019). Soviet Psychiatric Abuse: The Shadow Over World Psychiatry. Routledge. ISBN 9781000312676.
- ↑ Annual Report of the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe. U.S. Government. 1986.
- ↑ ""Другого выхода не было – только бежать". История побега из СССР через пытки карательной психиатрии". Сибирь.Реалии (Siberia.Realities). Retrieved 31 October 2022.
- ↑ Shatravka, Alexander (2019). Escape from Paradise: A Russian Dissident's Journey From The Gulag To The West. Academica Press. ISBN 978-1680534849.