Memorial publishes the thirty-first film of the project "Gulag Right Here" - the story of Alexander Podrabinek about the history of the family, the arrest of his father and grandfather, the first time he went to Pushkin Square, and his work on the book "Punitive Medicine". Alexander Podrabinek was born on August 8, 1953 in the city of Elektrostal, Moscow Region. His father was Pinkhos Podrabinek, a doctor of medical sciences, human rights activist and author of the memoirs "Pages of Life" (1997), and the documentary chronicle "A Branch of Hell on Earth: The "Trial" of Kirill Podrabinek" (1982). In 1938, he was arrested in Saratov, spent six months in prison, and was later released. Grandfather - Abram Podrabinek. Born in 1898 in Chisinau. Engineer, head of the laboratory of the Orgmetall trust. In 1938, he was arrested and shot at the Butovo firing range. In 1974, Alexander Podrabinek graduated from medical school as a paramedic and worked in Moscow in the ambulance service. In 1977, he completed the book Punitive Medicine, based on data from more than 200 victims of psychiatric abuse. Podrabinek collected materials for the book over three years, visiting psychiatric hospitals in various republics of the Soviet Union, interviewing staff and former patients. Part of the collected materials was confiscated by the KGB in March 1977, but the remaining materials appeared in samizdat under the title Punitive Medicine in May of the same year. The book was presented by Amnesty International as one of the documents at the International Congress of Psychiatrists in Honolulu (1977), which condemned the use of psychiatry for political purposes in the USSR. In 1977, Podrabinek became one of the co-founders of the Working Commission for the Investigation of the Use of Psychiatry for Political Purposes at the Moscow Helsinki Group, achieved the release of several prisoners of special psychiatric hospitals, and participated in the publication of the Chronicle of Current Events. In 1978, Podrabinek was arrested in connection with the distribution of the book Punitive Medicine, accused of "slandering the Soviet system" and sentenced to 5 years of exile in the Chunsky District of the Irkutsk Region. Podrabinek's brother, Kirill, who was also involved in human rights activities, was sentenced to 2.5 years of imprisonment on falsified charges. In 1980, Alexander Podrabinek was arrested again in exile in Ust-Nera, accused of continuing to work on the text of Punitive Medicine for publication in English. On January 6, 1981, he was sentenced to 3.5 years of imprisonment in a penal colony. After his release, he lived under administrative supervision in the city of Kirzhach in the Vladimir region. In 1987-2000, he was the editor-in-chief of the Express-Chronicle newspaper, conceived as a continuation of the Chronicle of Current Events. In 1988, he became one of the co-founders of the East European Information Agency, which united independent journalists from Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, the USSR and Czechoslovakia; he established an intensive exchange of uncensored information between Poland and the USSR thanks to the Express-Chronicle and Boryuschayasya Solidarnost newspapers. In 1989, he became one of the four co-founders of the Independent Psychiatric Association of Russia, which was admitted to the World Psychiatric Association that same year. In 2000-2009, he was the editor-in-chief of the human rights information agency PRIMA-News. In 2004–2005, he headed the Russian branch of the Civil Liberties Foundation. In 2005–2007, he was a columnist for Novaya Gazeta. Since 2009, he has been a correspondent for the Russian Service of Radio French Internationale; he regularly publishes in the online publications EZh, Grani.ru, and on the ISR website (Institute of Modern Russia, USA). In 2010, he was elected to the federal political council of the Solidarity movement. In 2014–2017, he collaborated with Radio Liberty as the author and host of the Deja Vu program. Since 2021, Podrabinek has continued to publish on the Radio Liberty website. The statements and opinions of the project’s heroes do not constitute the position of Memorial or reflect the views of the project’s authors. Gulag Right Here Director: Lyudmila Sadovnikova Editing: Anton Androsov Camera operator: Anton Androsov Design: Arkady Gridnev Technical editor: Sergey Samsonov Volunteer coordination: Katerina Sycheva Russian Memorial, NIPC Memorial, 2024 Video time codes: 0:00 - Memories of the St. Petersburg camp 0:41 - Grandfather's emigration and arrival in the USSR 4:54 - Father's arrest and release 6:40 - Father during World War II 8:44 - Life with family and communication with Marshak 11:54 - Support for the dissident movement 16:47 - Ways to escape state control 19:12 - University and dissident acquaintances 23:07 - About working on a book 25:11 - How to get into a mental hospital 28:28 - What public attention gives 00:00:00 - Press conference and the creation of the commission on psychiatry 00:33:30 - On disagreements and the ability to admit mistakes 00:35:04 - The work of the commission 00:42:09 - "Punitive medicine" saw the light of day 00:45:39 - What was not allowed in the commission 00:47:08 - How surveillance works 00:53:11 - Preparation for arrest, arrest 01:01:22 - Court