In April 1980 a commission consisting of three doctors from the Kashchenko Mental Hospital ruled Alexander Kuzkin (CCE 56.13) not responsible after half an hour in Moscow’s Butyrka Prison.
The diagnosis (schizophrenia) ’was established on the basis of a previous diagnosis in the Abramtsevo Psychiatric Hospital’ (CCE 51.15, CCE 53.21). Before the examination Kuzkin’s mother was told at Petrovka 38, Police HQ in Moscow: ‘We’ll give him a little treatment.’
*
In June Kuzkin’s wife Darya Krutilina — she used to work as a Russian language teacher but left her school because of her religious convictions — went to the head of Butyrka Prison to petition for their marriage to be registered: they had been married in church and the registration of their civil marriage was to take place on 14 June. At first, she was told that she must hand in a corresponding statement, then, ‘You shouldn’t marry him. he is seriously ill with schizophrenia.’ The trial began on 11 August, but was postponed on the petition of his relatives, as the lawyer they had appointed was on vacation.
*
On 8 September the Moscow City Court, presided over by a Vice-Chairman of the court, V. G. Romanov, heard the case ‘for the use of compulsory medical treatment’ on Kuzkin (b. 1949), ‘who has committed socially dangerous acts specified in Article 190-1 of the RSFSR Criminal Code’. The prosecutor was Procurator Zaitseva; defence counsel was the lawyer D. A. Kolchin.
The material evidence featured the following items found in Kuzkin’s bag: six cans of paint, four stencils (one of them inscribed ‘Freedom for Sakharov!’), photocopies of an ‘interpretation’ of the number 666, poems by A. Senin and Father Dudko, and leaflets with the prayer ‘People, pray for the whole world’ (CCE 57.9-2).
The lawyer intended to call for a second psychiatric examination, this time in a hospital, but his parents did not give their assent, fearing new charges under Article 70 of the RSFSR Criminal Code. The court resolved to send Kuzkin to a Special Psychiatric Hospital for compulsory treatment. He was arrested on 26 March (CCE 56.13). On 22 October the USSR Supreme Court, having examined his appeal, left the resolution of the Moscow City Court in force. During the pre-trial investigation, a man calling himself a lawyer came several times to Krutilina; he gave her a note from her husband and repeatedly insisted that she send a reply back through him.
====================================
A Chronicle of Current Events 