THE SOVIET bureaucracy deals with Its most determined opponents by declaring them insane and having them shut up in where the presence o genuinely disturbed people and a variety of forms of treatment may really send them mad. Among those who are suffer ing from this particularly barbaric and sinister form of repression is Mykola His crime was to speak up in defence of Ukrainian dissidents during the wave rebression und swept the Ukraine the late 19ous • At that time ne wrote in a samizdat (underground) essay You were frightened by a handful of people, thrown behind bars, without the possibility of defending themselves. You have resorted to concealment, terror and UnIs means there is a trutr which you dislike, which you fear, which you want to destroy. In order to frighten otners you deal narsmy will nones But you have not vanquished because right is on side.
The bureaucracy were frightened also by Plakhotnyuk's determination to continue to speak out, and police provocation, he was sent in 1972 to the Serbsky Psychiatric Institute, which is run by the KGB There he was "schizophrenia with persecution mania' To prove his persecution mania, doctors used the evidence of a complaint that Plakhotnyuk wrote after being tacked by a KGB agent in 1971. Four years after his arrest, he is still in the Dnipropetrovsk Psychiatric Hospital, and genuine fears have been expressed about his mentar nearn News of Plaknotnyuks situation was brought to the west by Leonid Plyushch, himself released Dnipropetrovsk Psychiatric Hospital and LEONID PLYUSHCH on behalf of Plakhotnyuk, recalling how when news of Plyushch's impending rearound Hospital, Plakhotnyuk reminded him of the responsibility that he now had to work for the release of others.
In this country, Plyushch's appeal has been taken by a new committet formed to defend Soviet political Committee will prisoners. defend the democratic rights of all Soviet political prisoners, whatever their views. it will seek support only from those individuals and sectors of British society which have a clear record of supporting democratic rights. We will not align our selves with any activity by any group or individual who, working on the of political prisoners cerence USSR, is supporting political repression in other countries For further details on the work of this committee, and in particular for further details case MYKOlE