Alexander Shatravka
Alexander Shatravka | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1950 |
| Nationality | Soviet Union (1950–1986) United States (1992–) |
| Known for | Soviet dissident and peace activist |
| Notable work | Escape from Paradise |
Alexander "Sasha" Ivanovich Shatravka (Russian: Александр Иванович Шатравка; born 6 October 1950) is a Russian-born former Soviet dissident and peace activist who is known for his memoir Escape from Paradise about escaping from the Soviet Union. He now lives in the United States and is a naturalized U.S. citizen.
He is known for his attempt to escape from the Soviet Union as a 24-year-old sailor in 1974 and for spending nine years as a political prisoner in Soviet psychiatric hospitals[1] and Gulag concentration camps, from 1974 to 1979 and from 1982 to 1986. In 1983 he was sentenced to three years in prison for circulating a petition calling for the universal abolition of nuclear weapons, following his release in 1979.[2] He was released in 1986, in time for the changes of glasnost and perestroika.[3][4] He finally made it to the West, and testified before the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe on political abuse of psychiatry in the Soviet Union.[5][6]
He has lived in the United States since 1986 and was naturalized as a U.S. citizen in 1992. His memoir Escape from Paradise was published in Russian in 2010 and in English in 2019.[7]
Bibliography[edit]
- Shatravka, Alexander (2019). Escape from Paradise: A Russian Dissident's Journey From The Gulag To The West. Translated by Fitzpatrick, Catherine A. Academica Press. ISBN 978-1680534849.
- Shatravka, Alexander (2010). Pobeg iz Raya. ISBN 9781312792104.
References[edit]
- ^ "Dnepropetrovsk special psychiatric hospital, December 1978 (51.11)". Chronicle of Current Events. 2021-04-28.
- ^ Documents on Disarmament. .S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency. 1983.
- ^ Satter, David (2008). Age of Delirium: The Decline and Fall of the Soviet Union. Yale University Press. ISBN 9780300147896.
- ^ Bloch, Sidney; Reddaway, Peter (2019). Soviet Psychiatric Abuse: The Shadow Over World Psychiatry. Routledge. ISBN 9781000312676.
- ^ Annual Report of the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe. U.S. Government. 1986.
- ^ ""Другого выхода не было – только бежать". История побега из СССР через пытки карательной психиатрии". Сибирь.Реалии (Siberia.Realities). Retrieved 31 October 2022.
- ^ Shatravka, Alexander (2019). Escape from Paradise: A Russian Dissident's Journey From The Gulag To The West. Academica Press. ISBN 978-1680534849.
See also[edit]
- 1950 births
- Living people
- Russian anti-communists
- Russian dissidents
- Russian memoirists
- Russian non-fiction writers
- Russian political writers
- Russian prisoners and detainees
- Soviet dissidents
- Soviet non-fiction writers
- Soviet prisoners and detainees
- Prisoners and detainees of the Soviet Union
- Political repression in the Soviet Union
- Soviet psychiatric abuse whistleblowers
- Soviet male non-fiction writers