Alexander Podrabinek

{{Short description|Soviet-Russian human rights activist and journalist}} {{Use dmy dates|date=February 2022}} {{Infobox person | name = Alexander Podrabinek | native_name = Александр Подрабинек | native_name_lang = ru | image = Alexander Podrabinek 2015 (cropped).jpg | alt = | caption = Podrabinek in 2015 | birth_name =  | birth_date = {{birth date and age|1953|8|8|df=y}} | birth_place = Elektrostal, Moscow Region, Soviet Union | death_date = | death_place = | citizenship = {{Flag|Soviet Union}} (1953–1991) → {{Flag|Russian Federation}} (1991–present) | other_names = | occupation = paramedic, human right activist, journalist, writer | alma_mater = I.M. Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University | years_active = | movement = dissident movement in the Soviet Union, Solidarnost | known_for = human rights activism in USSR in the Working Commission to Investigate the Use of Psychiatry for Political Purposes and struggle against political abuse of psychiatry in the Soviet Union; the post-1991 founding of the Independent Psychiatric Association of Russia | awards = ''Znamya'' magazine award 2013, Truman-Reagan Medal of Freedom, 2015 | notable_works = ''Punitive Medicine'' (1979), ''Dissidents'' (2014) | children = sons Mark and Daniil, daughter Anna | spouse = Alla<ref>{{cite journal|author=Подрабинек, Алла|title=По пути к Большой Медведице|journal=Zvezda|date=2010|issue=2|url=http://magazines.russ.ru/zvezda/2010/2/po13.html|trans-title=On the way to Big Dipper|language=ru}}</ref> }}

'''Alexander Pinkhosovich Podrabinek''' ({{langx|ru|Алекса́ндр Пи́нхосович Подраби́нек}}; born 8 August 1953) is a Soviet dissident, journalist and commentator.<ref>{{cite journal|author=Luty, Jason|title=Psychiatry and the dark side: eugenics, Nazi and Soviet psychiatry|journal=Advances in Psychiatric Treatment|date=January 2014|volume=20|issue=1|pages=52–60|doi=10.1192/apt.bp.112.010330|url=http://apt.rcpsych.org/content/20/1/52.short|doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|title=Russian journalist fears high-level death threat|journal=Index on Censorship|date=29 September 2009|url=https://www.indexoncensorship.org/2009/09/russian-journalist-fears-high-level-death-threat/}}</ref> During the Soviet period he was a human rights activist, being exiled, then imprisoned in a corrective-labour colony, for publication of his book ''Punitive Medicine'' in Russian and in English.<ref>Alexander Podrabinek, ''Dissidents: Between prison and liberty'', Moscow:AST, 2014.</ref>

In 1987, while still forced to live outside Moscow in internal banishment, Podrabinek became the founder and editor-in-chief of the ''Express Chronicle'' weekly newspaper. In the 1990s he set up and ran the Prima information agency.<ref name=Newsline>{{cite web|title=Newsline - January 28, 2004. FSB summons activist editor for questioning|url=https://www.rferl.org/a/1143085.html|publisher=Radio Liberty|date=28 January 2004}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=The persecution of Human Rights Monitor. December 1988 to December 1989. A worldwide survey|date=December 1989|publisher=Human Rights Watch|page=330|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=11EPcxc7qCQC&pg=PA330}}</ref> Over the past ten years he has worked, variously, for the ''Novaya gazeta'' newspaper, the ''Yezhednevny Zhurnal'' website<ref>{{cite web|title=Russian journalist fined for 'anti-Soviet' web article|url=https://www.rferl.org/a/Russian_Journalist_Fined_For_AntiSoviet_Web_Article/1941433.html|publisher=Radio Liberty|date=27 January 2010}}</ref> and the Russian Services of Radio France Internationale<ref>{{cite news|author=Davidoff, Victor|title=Soviet Psychiatry Returns|url=http://www.themoscowtimes.com/opinion/article/soviet-psychiatry-returns/487761.html|access-date=9 January 2014|work=The Moscow Times|date=13 October 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|author=Judan, Ben|title=Reporter says criticism of Soviets brought threats|url=http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/2009/oct/01/eu-russia-journalist-threatened-100109/|work=The San Diego Union Tribune|date=1 October 2009}}</ref> and Radio Liberty.<ref name=RL>{{cite web|title=Автор: Александр Подрабинек|url=http://www.svoboda.org/author/21746.html|publisher=Radio Liberty|language=ru}}</ref>

== Biography == Alexander Podrabinek was born on 8 August 1953 in Elektrostal, a large provincial town in the Moscow Region to which his parents moved from Moscow in the early 1950s, to avoid the campaign against rootless cosmopolitans, i.e. Jews.

He and his younger brother Kirill were brought up there by their Jewish father Pinkhos after his Russian wife died.<ref>Alexander Podrabinek, ''Dissidents: between Prison and Liberty'', 2014, p. 13 (in Russian).</ref> At secondary school, aged ten, they joined the Young Pioneers, but later Alexander and Kirill did not apply to join the Komsomol, the only two non-members in their respective classes: the only explanation the school administration could find was that they were either Baptists or open enemies of the regime.<ref>Alexander Podrabinek, ''Dissidents: between Prison and Liberty'', 2014, pp. 20-22 (in Russian).</ref>

Alexander enrolled in the Department of Pharmacology of a medical institute in 1970 and worked as an assistant in a biology laboratory at Moscow State University of Medicine and Dentistry. From 1971 to 1974 Alexander studied at a college for medical auxiliary staff and received certification as a paramedic. He went on to work in the Moscow ambulance service.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book|title=Soviet Dissidents: Their Struggle for Human Rights|last=Rubenstein|first=Joshua|date=1981|publisher=Wildwood House|isbn=978-0-7045-3062-1|location=London|pages=230–232}}</ref>

==Dissent under Brezhnev and Gorbachev==  [[File:Подрабинек Александр Усть-Нера 1980.jpg|thumb|Podrabinek in Ust-Nera, 1980]] For political reasons, Podrabinek was denied entrance to medical school,<ref name=":3" /> and, at the age of 20, began working for the ambulance service instead. At an early age, Podrabinek became acquainted with dissident circles in Moscow and began to take part in their activities.<ref>{{cite journal|author=Peunova, Marina|title=From dissidents to collaborators: the resurgence and demise of the Russian critical intelligentsia since 1985|journal=Studies in East European Thought|date=September 2008|volume=60|issue=3|pages=231–250|doi=10.1007/s11212-008-9057-8|s2cid=144115933|url=http://doc.rero.ch/record/315192/files/11212_2008_Article_9057.pdf}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|author=Shipler, David|title=Dateline USSR: on the human rights track|journal=Foreign Policy|date=Summer 1989|issue=75|pages=164–181|doi=10.2307/1148870|jstor=1148870}}</ref> (His medical father, himself the son of an "Enemy of the People" shot in 1937, did not discourage him.)

After reading the notes that dissident poet Vladimir Gershuni's smuggled out of the Oryol Special Psychiatric hospital, Alexander became interested in the political abuse of psychiatry in the USSR.<ref>{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20160917033801/https://chronicleofcurrentevents.net/2015/12/16/19-2-notes-by-vladimir-gershuni-from-the-oryol-special-psychiatric-hospital/ "Notes from Oryol Special Psychiatric Hospital by Vladimir Gershuni", ''A Chronicle of Current Events'', 19:2, 30 April 1971]}}.</ref><ref name=":3">{{cite journal|vauthors=Kosserev I, Crawshaw R |title=Medicine and the Gulag|journal=BMJ|date=24 December 1994|volume=309|issue=6970|pages=1726–1730|doi=10.1136/bmj.309.6970.1726|pmid=7820004|pmc=2542687}}</ref> Soon he was a contributing editor to the ''Chronicle of Current Events'' (1968-1982),<ref>[https://chronicle-of-current-events.com ''A Chronicle of Current Events'', 1968-1982].</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=Antologiya samizdata: nepodtsenzurnaya literatura v SSSR, 1950-e-1980-e|date=2005|publisher=Mezhdunar. in-t gumanitarno-polit. issledovanij|others=V. Igrunov, Mark Barbakadze, E.S. Shvarts (eds.)|isbn=978-5-89793-035-7|location=Moskva|page=160}}</ref> covering psychiatric issues.

In January 1977, he also travelled to Siberia as a courier for the Relief (Solzhenitsyn) Fund, delivering money to the needy families of political prisoners, held in the camps or forced to live in exile.<ref>Alexander Podrabinek, ''Dissidents'', 2014, pp. 86-93.</ref>

===Punitive Psychiatry===

On 5 January 1977, Podrabinek launched the Working Commission to Investigate the Use of Psychiatry for Political Purposes. The Commission at first had three other members (Vyacheslav Bakhmin, Irina Kaplun and Felix Serebrov), and its consultant psychiatrist was A.A. Voloshanovich.<ref>{{cite journal|author=Miku, Natalya |author2=Molkin Alexey |name-list-style=amp |title=Консультант правозащитной ассоциации "Рабочей комиссии по расследованию использования психиатрии в политических целях"—врач-психиатр А.А. Волошанович|journal=Современные научные исследования и инновации [Modern Scientific Studies and Innovations]|url=http://web.snauka.ru/issues/2015/03/48751|trans-title=The consultant of the human rights association "The Working Commission on Investigation of Use of Psychiatry in Political Goals", psychiatrist A.A. Voloshanovich|date=2015|issue=3|language=ru}}</ref> Around the Commission formed a circle of supporters "without whom we could have done nothing," comments Podrabinek. "The volume of work was too great.".<ref>Alexander Podrabinek, ''Dissidents'', 2014, p. 226.</ref> They visited psychiatric hospitals, wrote appeals to hospital doctors, and published information on psychiatric abuse in their own information bulletins, and in other samizdat publications like the Chronicle of Current Events.<ref name=":2" /><ref name="van Voren 2009">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tyDIKu8XsgcC&pg=PA45|title=On dissidents and madness: from the Soviet Union of Leonid Brezhnev to the "Soviet Union" of Vladimir Putin|publisher=Rodopi|year=2009|isbn=978-90-420-2585-1|location=Amsterdam—New York|page=45|author=Voren, Robert van}}</ref>

In 1977, Podrabinek published ''Punitive Medicine'' [Карательная медицина], the Russian edition of his book on the systematic abuse of psychiatry for political purposes in the USSR.<ref>{{cite magazine|author=Langone, John|title=Medicine: a profession under stress|magazine=Time|date=10 April 1989|url=http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,957396,00.html}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine|author=Langone, John|title=A profession under stress|magazine=Time|date=24 June 2001|url=http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1101890410-151553,00.html}}</ref> In December 1977, the KGB approached Podrabinek's father Pinkhos, and threatened to arrest and imprison both his sons (Kirill was suffering from TB) if the three of them did not agree to emigrate to Israel.<ref name=":2" /> (In an essay circulated in samizdat Kirill had criticized the treatment of conscripts in the Soviet army.) They discussed their predicament with other dissidents, notably Tatyana Velikanova, at the apartment of Andrei Sakharov. Sakharov's wife, Yelena Bonner, urged the three to take the opportunity to leave the USSR. Alexander, supported by Velikanova, rejected the proposal and later held a press conference at the home of Andrei Sakharov, publicly asserting his refusal to given in to such blackmail.<ref>Alexander Podrabinek, ''Dissidents'', 2014, p. 160 onwards.</ref>

On 15 August 1978, Alexander Podrabinek was convicted of "anti-Soviet slander", sentenced to five years' banishment or internal exile, and was first transported to the Irkutsk Region, Siberia.<ref>{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20171207074813/https://chronicleofcurrentevents.net/no-50-november-1978/ "The Trial of Alexander Podrabinek", ''A Chronicle of Current Events'', 50:7, November 1978]}}.</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Rohrer, Daniel|title=Freedom of speech and human rights: an international perspective|date=1979|publisher=Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company|isbn=978-0840319876|page=100|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OHK7AAAAIAAJ}}</ref> (His brother Kirill, meanwhile, was convicted of possessing an offensive weapon and was sent to a camp for ordinary criminals.<ref>[https://vestiizsssr.com/2016/11/19/sudba-bratyev-podrabinekov-1979-1-8/ "The fate of the brothers Podrabinek", Vesti iz SSSR, 1979, 1-8, 15 January 1979] (in Russian).</ref>) After the English edition of ''Punitive Medicine'' appeared, Podrabinek was again charged with political offences — he was by then exiled to Yakutia in the Soviet Far East — and at his trial in Ust-Nera on 6 January 1981, he was sentenced to three years in a local corrective-labour camp.<ref>[https://vestiizsssr.com/2016/12/07/sud-nad-aleksandrom-podrabinekom1981-1-2/ "The trial of Alexander Podrabinek", ''Vesti iz SSSR'', 15 January 1981] (in Russian).</ref>

===Return from the Far East===

In autumn 1986, prompted by Anatoly Marchenko's hunger strike in Chistopol Prison, Podrabinek, veteran dissident Larisa Bogoraz, and lawyer Sophia Kalistratova launched a campaign for the release of the Soviet Union's hundreds of political prisoners.

They sent letters requesting a wide amnesty to the presidium of the USSR Supreme Soviet and to Mikhail Gorbachev, the new leader of the Soviet Communist Party. There was no response.

Then they began sending their two letters to prominent members of the artistic and technical intelligentsia: to writers, poets and artists; and to scientists and scholars. The result was disheartening. With notable exceptions, e.g. the world-famous animé artist Yury Norstein, very few would put their name to such a document.<ref>[http://magazines.russ.ru/znamia/2015/4/60p-pr.html Alexander Podrabinek, "Our campaign for an amnesty", ''Znamya'', April (No. 4), 2015] (in Russian). Retrieved 25 March 2018.</ref>

In 1987, Podrabinek founded the weekly samizdat newspaper ''Express Chronicle'', which appeared in Russian and English between 1987 and 2000. As the first uncensored media outlet in the USSR, with the ''Glasnost'' journal of Sergei Grigoryants, the ''Chronicle'' drew the interest of Western journalists in Moscow . The ''Chronicle'' circulated in a hundred major Soviet cities.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|url=http://www.nybooks.com/articles/1988/12/08/soviet-psychiatry-a-message-from-moscow/|title=Soviet Psychiatry: A Message from Moscow|last1=Meier|first1=Andrew|last2=Reddaway|first2=Peter B.|date=8 December 1988|journal=The New York Review of Books|access-date=23 May 2016|last3=Podrabinek|first3=Alexander|volume=35 |issue=19 }}</ref><ref>[http://magazines.russ.ru/znamia/2015/4/60p-pr.html Alexander Podrabinek, "Our campaign for an amnesty", ''Znamya'', April (No. 4), 2015] (in Russian).</ref>

In March 1989, Alexander participated in the founding of the Independent Psychiatric Association of Russia.<ref>{{cite journal|author=Savenko, Yuri |title=20-летие НПА России|trans-title=20th anniversary of the IPA of Russia|journal=Nezavisimiy Psikhiatricheskiy Zhurnal [The Independent Psychiatric Journal]|year=2009|issue=1|pages=5–18|url=http://www.npar.ru/journal/2009/1/01-20.htm|issn=1028-8554|language=ru}}</ref>

==Career as a journalist== Podrabinek started working as a journalist during the Gorbachev years. From 1987 to 2000 he was editor-in-chief of the weekly human right magazine ''Express Chronicle'' («Экспресс Хроника»).<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://internationalreportingproject.org/stories/view/old-habits|title=Old Habits|last=Hodge|first=Nathan|date=2009-06-02|website=International Reporting Project|publisher=Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), Johns Hopkins University|access-date=2016-05-23|archive-date=18 June 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160618205927/http://internationalreportingproject.org/stories/view/old-habits|url-status=dead}}</ref> In 2000, he became editor-in-chief of the Prima information agency, which specialized in human right issues.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.rferl.org/a/1143085.html|title=Newsline – January 28, 2004: "FSB Summons Activist Editor For Questioning"|date=2004-01-28|newspaper=RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty|language=en|access-date=2016-05-23}}</ref>

In 2004, Alexander Podrabinek became involved in the distribution of ''Blowing up Russia: Terror from within'', the exposé written by Alexander Litvinenko and Yuri Felshtinsky. Unable to find a publisher in Russia, the authors printed an early draft in Latvia, intending to distribute it in Moscow. On 29 December 2003, however, units of the Russian Interior Ministry and the FSB seized 4,376 copies of the book purchased by Podrabinek's Prima information agency. The books had passed customs and were being driven by truck from Latvia to Moscow to be sold there.<ref>[http://prima-news.ru/eng/news/news/2004/1/14/27149.html] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070629042424/http://prima-news.ru/eng/news/news/2004/1/14/27149.html|date=June 29, 2007}}</ref> Podrabinek was summoned by the FSB for questioning on 28 January 2004, but he refused to answer their questions.<ref name=Newsline/><ref>[http://2004.novayagazeta.ru/nomer/2004/06n/n06n-s11.shtml Гостайну не выдал] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070929124610/http://2004.novayagazeta.ru/nomer/2004/06n/n06n-s11.shtml |date=2007-09-29 }} by Orhan Cemal, ''Novaya Gazeta'', 29 January 2004.</ref><ref>{{cite journal|author=Uzzell, Lawrence|title=Kremlin threatens human rights activist|journal=North Caucasus Analysis|date=4 February 2004|volume=5|issue=5|url=http://www.jamestown.org/programs/chinabrief/single/?tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=26261&tx_ttnews%5BbackPid%5D=195&no_cache=1}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Правозащитника Александра Подрабинека вызвали на допрос в ФСБ|url=http://lenta.ru/russia/2004/01/27/prima/|publisher=Lenta.ru|date=27 January 2004}}</ref><ref>[http://grani.ru/Society/Law/m.58315.html ФСБ: В книге "ФСБ взрывает Россию" разглашена гостайна] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080915223604/http://grani.ru/Society/Law/m.58315.html |date=15 September 2008 }}, Grani.ru, 28 January 2004.</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=ФСБ и милиция арестовали тираж книги "ФСБ взрывает Россию"|url=http://lenta.ru/russia/2003/12/29/books/|publisher=Lenta.ru|date=30 December 2003}}</ref><ref>[http://grani.ru/Politics/Russia/m.55562.html ФСБ задержала тираж книги "ФСБ взрывает Россию"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070817094743/http://grani.ru/Politics/Russia/m.55562.html |date=17 August 2007 }}, Grani.ru, 29 December 2003.</ref>

In certain articles for ''Novaya gazeta'', and comments on Radio Liberty, Podrabinek expressed concern that the use of psychiatry for political repression was reviving in Russia,<ref>{{cite web|author=Podrabinek, Alexander |script-title=ru:Российские коммунисты мечтают о советской психиатрии|trans-title=Russian communists dream of Soviet psychiatry|url=http://ru.rfi.fr/rossiya/20150815-rossiiskie-kommunisty-mechtayut-o-sovetskoi-psikhiatrii|publisher=Radio France Internationale|language=ru|date=15 August 2015}}</ref><ref> {{cite news|author=Podrabinek, Alexander |newspaper=Радио Свобода |script-title=ru:Тоска по советской психиатрии|trans-title=Nostalgia for Soviet psychiatry|url=http://www.svoboda.org/content/transcript/27205707.html|publisher=Radio Liberty|language=ru|date=29 August 2015}}</ref> in the enforced hospitalization of Larisa Arap, for instance.<ref name="p">{{cite news|author=Podrabinek, Alexander |script-title=ru:Хотелось бы иметь права|url=http://www.novayagazeta.ru/inquests/34626.html|trans-title=One would like to have rights|work=Novaya Gazeta|issue=58|date=2 August 2007|language=ru}}</ref>

In 2009, Podrabinek was targeted by the nationalist youth movement Nashi after writing on the Yezhednevny Zhurnal website about a Moscow eating place opposite the "Soviet" Hotel which had renamed itself the "Anti-Soviet" Restaurant and put up a sign using its popular nickname. Local officials said the title was offensive to "Soviet veterans and should be removed."<ref>{{cite news|author=Robinson, Matt|title=Russian journalist in hiding after Soviet critique|url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-russia-journalist-threats-idUSTRE58S1G020090929|newspaper=Reuters|date=29 September 2009}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|author=Odynova, Alexandra|title=Kremlin advisers warn Nashi youth|url=http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/384868.html|work=The Moscow Times|date=6 October 2009}}</ref><ref>[http://www.sptimesrussia.com/index.php?story_id=29992&action_id=2 Pamfilova Won't Apologize to Nashi], The St. Petersburg Times (October 9, 2009)</ref> (In early 2014 new legislation enabled the Communications Oversight Agency (or Rozkomnadzor) to block the Yezhednevny Zhurnal and Kasparov.ru websites.)

Since 2014, Podrabinek has been host of the "Déjà vu" programme on Radio Liberty<ref name=RL/> and his articles have been published by the Institute of Modern Russia.<ref>{{cite web|author=Podrabinek, Alexander|title=Articles|url=http://imrussia.org/en/authors/alexander-podrabinek|publisher=Institute of Modern Russia}}</ref>

==Activism== Podrabinek has been interviewed, talking about his past as a Soviet dissident, in two documentaries: ''They Chose Freedom'' (2005) and ''Parallels, Events, People'' (2013). His contributions, past and present, were acknowledged in 2015 by the award of the Truman-Reagan Medal of Freedom.<ref>{{cite web|author=Сулькин, Олег|title=Александр Подрабинек: "Системе надо противостоять"|trans-title=Alexander Podrabinek: "One needs to resist the system"|url=http://www.golos-ameriki.ru/content/oleg-sulkin-new-york-podrabinek-award/2818736.html|publisher=Voice of America|language=ru|date=11 July 2015}}</ref>

Podrabinek remains active and vocal as an opposition figure today.

In March 2006 Podrabinek was briefly arrested in Minsk for involvement in peaceful protests against the re-election of the Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko for the third term.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://humanrightshouse.org/Articles/7255.html|title=Russian authorities support Lukashenko|date=2006-04-02|website=humanrightshouse.org|publisher=Human Rights House Russia|access-date=2016-05-23|archive-date=1 June 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160601080406/http://humanrightshouse.org/Articles/7255.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>

In 2008 he supported the campaign to gain the admission of Vladimir Bukovsky to the presidential elections. On 3 June 2008, he became a founding signatory of the Prague Declaration on European Conscience and Communism.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.praguedeclaration.eu/ |title= Prague Declaration on European Conscience and Communism, June 3rd, 2008, Prague, Senate of the Parliament of the Czech Republic. Declaration text|date=3 June 2008|access-date=7 September 2015|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20120804092241/http://www.praguedeclaration.eu/| archive-date=4 August 2012| url-status= live}}</ref>

In March 2010 Alexander Podrabinek signed the online anti-Putin manifesto of the Russian opposition "Putin must go".{{citation needed|date=October 2015}}

On 25 September 2013, he held a protest in support of imprisoned Nadezhda Tolokonnikova of Pussy Riot band.<ref>{{cite news|title=Husband: Pussy Riot band member hospitalized|url=http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/2013/sep/29/husband-pussy-riot-band-member-hospitalized/|work=San Diego Union-Tribune|date=29 September 2013}}</ref>

On 4 May 2016, Podrabinek published ''An Open Letter to the Prosecutor of Crimea''.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://ej.ru/?a=note&id=29671|title=Открытое письмо прокурору Крыма|date=14 May 2016|publisher=Eжeдневный Журнал|language=ru|trans-title=An Open Letter to the Prosecutor of Crimea|author=Podrabinek, Alexander}}</ref>

In October 2017 Podrabinek drafted and launched a petition, calling on Russia's citizens not to support the hypocrisy of the Russian authorities who, on the one hand, unveiled the massive Wall of Sorrow a monument in Moscow to the victims of political repression, and, on the other, were responsible for the re-appearance of prisoners of conscience and political prisoners in post-Soviet Russia. The petition was signed by many former Soviet dissidents from Russia, Ukraine, Estonia, Armenia, Georgia, the USA and France.<ref>[https://dmitrievaffair.com/2017/10/31/do-not-support-their-hypocrisy/ "Do not support their hypocrisy!"], 30 October 2017. [http://www.kasparov.ru/material.php?id=59F649807BA7B Original, Kasparov.ru].</ref>

==Works==

=== Books === * {{cite book|author1=Nekipelov, Viktor |author2=Podrabinek Alexander |name-list-style=amp |title=Из жёлтого безмолвия: Сборник воспоминаний и статей политзаключенных психиатрических больниц|date=1977|location=Moscow|url=http://periodics.memo.ru/journal/show/journal_id/472|trans-title=From yellow silence: the collection of memoirs and articles by political prisoners of psychiatric hospitals|language=ru}} * {{cite book|author=Podrabinek, Alexander|title=Punitive medicine|year=1980|publisher=Karoma Publishers|location=Ann Arbor|isbn=978-0-89720-022-6|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XsJrAAAAMAAJ}} Russian text: {{cite book |author=Podrabinek, Alexander [Александр Подрабинек] |script-title=ru:Карательная медицина |trans-title=Punitive medicine |year=1979 |publisher=Издательство "Хроника" [Khronika Press] |location=New York |url=http://www.imwerden.info/belousenko/books/kgb/podrabinek_karat_med.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160622085613/http://www.cchr.spb.ru/wp-content/uploads/podrabinek_karatelnaya_meditsina_1979_text%5B1%5D.pdf |archive-date=2016-06-22 |language=ru |access-date=2015-09-11 }} * {{cite book|author=Подрабинек, Александр|title=Диссиденты|trans-title=Dissidents|date=2014|publisher=АСТ|location=Moscow|isbn=978-5-17-082401-4|language=ru}}

=== Articles === '''(in English, French and Russian)''' * {{cite journal|author1=Podrabinek, Alexandre |author2=Mathon, Tania |title=Déclaration finale|trans-title=Final declaration|journal=Esprit|jstor=24268683|date=June 1981|volume=54|issue=6|pages=127–145|language=fr}} * {{cite journal|author=Podrabinek, Alexander|title=Does the Soviet press have a future?|journal=Index on Censorship|date=1990|volume=19|issue=8|pages=2–3|doi=10.1080/03064229008534912|s2cid=146918831|doi-access=free}} * {{cite journal|author=Podrabinek, Alexandre|title=Liberté russe et tolérance européenne|journal=Revue Russe|date=2009|volume=33|issue=1|pages=17–23|url=http://www.persee.fr/doc/russe_1161-0557_2009_num_33_1_2381|trans-title=Russian liberty and European tolerance|language=fr|doi=10.3406/russe.2009.2381}} * {{cite journal|author=Александр Подрабинек|script-title=ru:Клеточников|trans-title=Kletochnikov|journal=Zvezda|date=2014|issue=2|url=http://magazines.russ.ru/zvezda/2014/2/6p.html|access-date=21 March 2014|language=ru}}

== Further reading == * {{cite news|title=Russ open new dissident trial|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1338&dat=19780815&id=uvpLAAAAIBAJ&sjid=D_kDAAAAIBAJ&pg=6760,3942269&hl=com|work=Spokane Daily Chronicle|date=15 August 1978}} * {{cite news|author=Anderson, Jack|title=Another dissident tells of medical torture|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1346&dat=19780721&id=jpJNAAAAIBAJ&sjid=3foDAAAAIBAJ&pg=2204,6227464&hl=com|work=Lakeland Ledger|issue=21 July 1978}} * {{cite book|title=The Podrabinek trial. Punitive Medicine or fabrications known to be false...?|date=1978|publisher=Amnesty International|location=Moscow|url=https://www.amnesty.org/download/Documents/204000/eur460441978en.pdf}}

== Interviews == * {{cite web|author=Строганова, Анна|title=Александр Подрабинек о своей книге "Диссиденты": "Все были готовы к тому, что их посадят"|trans-title=Alexander Podrabinek about his book ''Dissidents'': "All were ready to be imprisoned"|url=http://ru.rfi.fr/rossiya/20140606-aleksandr-podrabinek-o-svoei-knige-dissidenty-vse-byli-gotovy-k-tomu-chto-ikh-posad|publisher=Radio France Internationale|language=ru|date=10 June 2014}} * {{cite web|author=Подрабинек, Александр|title="Надежду обрекли на смерть", — Александр Подрабинек о суде над летчицей Савченко|trans-title="Nadezhda is doomed to death," — Alexander Podrabinek about the trial of woman-pilot Savchenko|url=http://ru.rfi.fr/ukraina/20150211-nadezhdu-savchenko-obrekli-na-smert|publisher=Radio France Internationale|language=ru|date=11 February 2015}} * {{cite web|author=Подрабинек, Александр|title=Путин и судьи|trans-title=Putin and judges|url=http://ru.rfi.fr/rossiya/20160217-putin-i-sudi|publisher=Radio France Internationale|language=ru|date=17 February 2016}} * {{YouTube|kkaH-h1UySs|Александр Подрабинек в программе Александра Гранта "Контакт" (Alexander Podrabinek in Alexander Grant's program "Contact", in Russian, 56 min, 16 July 2015)}} * {{YouTube|3_nMKqRdP7w|Встреча с А. Подрабинеком у Бориса Паланта (Meeting with A. Podrabinek in Boris Palant, in Russian, 99 min, 15 June 2015)}} * {{YouTube|MpZkKWeHbb0|Александр Подрабинек // "В Нью-Йорке с Виктором Топаллером" (Alexander Podrabinek // "In New York with Viktor Topaller", in Russian, 53 min, 28 July 2015)}}

==References== {{reflist}}

==External Sources== * {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20161023222258/https://chronicleofcurrentevents.net/ A Chronicle of Current Events (Moscow), 1968-1982.]}} * [https://vesti-iz-sssr.com «Вести из СССР» (Vesti iz SSSR, Munich)], 1978-1987.

==External links== *{{YouTube|c=UCoMNaCW3qNikXBRaS4pdLtQ}} *{{Facebook}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Podrabinek, Alexander}} Category:1953 births Category:Living people Category:People from Elektrostal Category:Soviet Jews Category:Russian Jews Category:Paramedics Category:Soviet dissidents Category:Soviet human rights activists Category:Soviet psychiatric abuse whistleblowers Category:Amnesty International prisoners of conscience held by the Soviet Union Category:Working Commission to Investigate the Use of Psychiatry for Political Purposes Category:Independent Psychiatric Association of Russia Category:Solidarnost politicians Category:Russian activists Category:Soviet non-fiction writers Category:Soviet male writers Category:Russian non-fiction writers Category:Russian political writers Category:20th-century Russian journalists Category:20th-century Russian male journalists Category:21st-century Russian writers Category:Writers from Moscow Category:Russian memoirists Category:Russian editors Category:Russian radio personalities Category:Soviet prisoners and detainees Category:Russian prisoners and detainees Category:Male non-fiction writers Category:Russian human rights activists Category:Russian activists against the Russian invasion of Ukraine