Anatoly Koryagin
Sir: The Ukrainian writer, Valery Mar- chenko, died in a Leningrad prison hospit- al early this October. He was 37. He died because of the Soviet authorities' deliber- ate neglect of his chronic kidney disorder, and his entirely avoidable death shows that the Soviet authorities are not embarrassed to dispose of their inconvenient critics in this way.
Now the same may happen again. The condition of Dr Anatoly Koryagin, the Russian psychiatrist now in Chistopol pris- on for his public opposition to Soviet `political' psychiatry, was described by his wife in the Spectator (`The Koryagin fami- ly', 1 September 1984). Since her visit to him last year, his health has deteriorated further. Already weakened by previous prolonged protest hunger strikes and force- feeding, he has now been on hunger strike for four months. He is reportedly in the last stages of starvation, and close to death.
And although he has indicated his desire to end the hunger strike, he is physically unable to eat or swallow, and is being denied intravenous feeding and proper medical treatment in hospital.
The man directly responsible for this treatment of Dr Koryagin is Captain Romanov, the governor of Chistopol pris- on. His address: 422950 USSR, Tatarskaya ASSR, g. Chistopol, uchr. UE-148/st-4. Fiona Mackenzie
Working Group on the Internment of Dissenters in Mental Hospitals, 12 Rosemary Cottages, Rosemary Lane, London SW14
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