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| Leonid Plyushch, Ukrainian Mathematician and Soviet Dissident, Dies | Leonid Plyushch, Ukrainian Mathematician and Soviet Dissident, Dies |
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| Leonid Plyushch, a Ukrainian mathematician who became a leading political dissident in the Soviet era, prompting the Kremlin to commit him to a mental asylum for a nightmarish three years of drugs and deprivation in the early 1970s, died on Thursday near Paris. | Leonid Plyushch, a Ukrainian mathematician who became a leading political dissident in the Soviet era, prompting the Kremlin to commit him to a mental asylum for a nightmarish three years of drugs and deprivation in the early 1970s, died on Thursday near Paris. |
| Mr. Plyushch’s death was announced by Arina Ginzburg, a friend who had also been a Soviet dissident, according to Agence France-Presse. No cause of death was given. Various reports gave Mr. Plyushch’s age as either 76 or 77. | Mr. Plyushch’s death was announced by Arina Ginzburg, a friend who had also been a Soviet dissident, according to Agence France-Presse. No cause of death was given. Various reports gave Mr. Plyushch’s age as either 76 or 77. |
| Mr. Plyushch (pronounced, roughly, Plootch) had lived in Paris in recent years, traveling now and then to Kiev, the Ukrainian capital. It was there, decades ago when Ukraine was a Soviet republic, that he emerged as a double annoyance to the Kremlin, not only resisting thought control in general but balking at Moscow’s efforts to smother Ukrainians’ yearning for sovereignty and their sense of cultural separateness from Russia. | Mr. Plyushch (pronounced, roughly, Plootch) had lived in Paris in recent years, traveling now and then to Kiev, the Ukrainian capital. It was there, decades ago when Ukraine was a Soviet republic, that he emerged as a double annoyance to the Kremlin, not only resisting thought control in general but balking at Moscow’s efforts to smother Ukrainians’ yearning for sovereignty and their sense of cultural separateness from Russia. |
| It was not unheard-of in those days for Ukrainian artists and intellectuals to meet with “mysterious accidents,” said Nadia Diuk, an expert on Russia and Ukraine and a vice president of the National Endowment for Democracy in Washington. | It was not unheard-of in those days for Ukrainian artists and intellectuals to meet with “mysterious accidents,” said Nadia Diuk, an expert on Russia and Ukraine and a vice president of the National Endowment for Democracy in Washington. |
| After Soviet tanks clanked into Czechoslovakia in 1968, Mr. Plyushch was one of nearly a score of dissidents who signed a declaration of solidarity with Czechs who had been protesting Moscow’s iron grip. That year, he was also a signatory to a letter to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights pleading for an investigation into Soviet violations of individual rights. | After Soviet tanks clanked into Czechoslovakia in 1968, Mr. Plyushch was one of nearly a score of dissidents who signed a declaration of solidarity with Czechs who had been protesting Moscow’s iron grip. That year, he was also a signatory to a letter to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights pleading for an investigation into Soviet violations of individual rights. |
| By early 1972, Leonid Brezhnev, the Soviet leader (himself a native of Ukraine), and his Kremlin allies had had enough of Mr. Plyushch’s outspokenness and his work to forge a bond between Ukrainian human rights activists and like-minded people based in Moscow. Mr. Plyushch was arrested and accused of “anti-Soviet propaganda and seeking to undermine Soviet power.” | |
| Questioned several times by the secret police, who confiscated a number of his manuscripts, Mr. Plyushch languished in prison for a year before being brought to trial. Meeting privately, and not bothering to hear expert testimony, the court ruled that he needed psychiatric treatment. | Questioned several times by the secret police, who confiscated a number of his manuscripts, Mr. Plyushch languished in prison for a year before being brought to trial. Meeting privately, and not bothering to hear expert testimony, the court ruled that he needed psychiatric treatment. |
| Locked up in a Ukrainian hospital, in an overcrowded ward for severely psychotic patients, Mr. Plyushch experienced “the daily progression of my degradation,” as he put it in a news conference in Paris after his ordeal. He was given high doses of antipsychotic drugs and insulin, The Journal of Medical Ethics reported in 1976. | Locked up in a Ukrainian hospital, in an overcrowded ward for severely psychotic patients, Mr. Plyushch experienced “the daily progression of my degradation,” as he put it in a news conference in Paris after his ordeal. He was given high doses of antipsychotic drugs and insulin, The Journal of Medical Ethics reported in 1976. |
| “I lost interest in politics, then in scientific problems, finally in my wife and children,” Mr. Plyushch recalled. “My speech became blurred; my memory worsened. In the beginning, I reacted strongly to the sufferings of other patients. Eventually I became indifferent. My only thoughts were of toilets, tobacco and the bribes to the male nurses to let me go to the toilet one more time.” | “I lost interest in politics, then in scientific problems, finally in my wife and children,” Mr. Plyushch recalled. “My speech became blurred; my memory worsened. In the beginning, I reacted strongly to the sufferings of other patients. Eventually I became indifferent. My only thoughts were of toilets, tobacco and the bribes to the male nurses to let me go to the toilet one more time.” |
| Three Soviet medical panels that examined Mr. Plyushch after he had been confined for a year concluded that he was suffering from “reformist delusions” with “messianic elements” as well as “sluggish schizophrenia.” One commission was headed by Dr. Andrei V. Snezhnevsky, who was the pre-eminent psychiatrist in the Soviet Union and whom the Russia scholar and former Moscow-based journalist David Satter described in an interview as “the father of psychiatric repression” there. Mr. Plyushch’s ordeal drew international condemnation. The Russian dissident and nuclear physicist Andrei Sakharov protested. Hundreds of fellow mathematicians from the United States wrote a letter to the Soviet Embassy. Amnesty International held a day in Mr. Plyushch’s honor in 1975. | Three Soviet medical panels that examined Mr. Plyushch after he had been confined for a year concluded that he was suffering from “reformist delusions” with “messianic elements” as well as “sluggish schizophrenia.” One commission was headed by Dr. Andrei V. Snezhnevsky, who was the pre-eminent psychiatrist in the Soviet Union and whom the Russia scholar and former Moscow-based journalist David Satter described in an interview as “the father of psychiatric repression” there. Mr. Plyushch’s ordeal drew international condemnation. The Russian dissident and nuclear physicist Andrei Sakharov protested. Hundreds of fellow mathematicians from the United States wrote a letter to the Soviet Embassy. Amnesty International held a day in Mr. Plyushch’s honor in 1975. |
| Finally released early in 1976, Mr. Plyushch was expelled from the Soviet Union along with his wife, Tatiana, and two children. The family settled in France. In 1979, with the help of his wife, Mr. Plyushch published “History’s Carnival: A Dissident’s Autobiography,” describing his and other dissidents’ confinement in mental institutions. | Finally released early in 1976, Mr. Plyushch was expelled from the Soviet Union along with his wife, Tatiana, and two children. The family settled in France. In 1979, with the help of his wife, Mr. Plyushch published “History’s Carnival: A Dissident’s Autobiography,” describing his and other dissidents’ confinement in mental institutions. |
| “He could have lived a relatively easy life as a member of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences,” said Mark Kramer, an expert on the Cold War and a program director at the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies at Harvard. “But to his great credit he chose to stand up for what was right, and he therefore sacrificed all the perks he could have enjoyed.” | “He could have lived a relatively easy life as a member of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences,” said Mark Kramer, an expert on the Cold War and a program director at the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies at Harvard. “But to his great credit he chose to stand up for what was right, and he therefore sacrificed all the perks he could have enjoyed.” |
| Leonid Plyushch was born into a working-class Ukrainian family. His father, a railroad foreman, was killed in World War II. | Leonid Plyushch was born into a working-class Ukrainian family. His father, a railroad foreman, was killed in World War II. |
| Leonid showed early promise as a mathematician and graduated from Kiev University. His specialties included the history and psychology of games. | Leonid showed early promise as a mathematician and graduated from Kiev University. His specialties included the history and psychology of games. |
| In the end, Mr. Plyushch could be said to have triumphed over his tormentors. Dr. Snezhnevsky, the psychiatrist who had pronounced him schizophrenic, was linked to the deliberate misdiagnosis of other dissidents and was severely diminished in the eyes of other medical professionals well before his death in 1987. | In the end, Mr. Plyushch could be said to have triumphed over his tormentors. Dr. Snezhnevsky, the psychiatrist who had pronounced him schizophrenic, was linked to the deliberate misdiagnosis of other dissidents and was severely diminished in the eyes of other medical professionals well before his death in 1987. |
| Looking back at his three years in the psychiatric ward, Mr. Plyushch recalled a moment when he lifted his spirit from the depths: | Looking back at his three years in the psychiatric ward, Mr. Plyushch recalled a moment when he lifted his spirit from the depths: |
| “I began to experience a new thought: ‘I must remember everything I see here,’ I told myself, ‘so that I can tell about it afterwards.’ ” | “I began to experience a new thought: ‘I must remember everything I see here,’ I told myself, ‘so that I can tell about it afterwards.’ ” |