Interview with Andrey Kovalev, 2022-01-21, 2021-02-23
Scope and Contents
Mr. Kovalev tells about the role of various domestic and international actors in the process of democratization of the U.S.S.R. in the late 1980s and bringing human rights into the Soviet Union. He also assesses the political factors of the early 1980s that allowed Gorbachev come to power and retain it. Mr. Kovalev shares his insights about the Soviet foreign policy of the second half of 1980s-early 1990s and the U.S. - U.S.S.R. relationships. He shares his knowledge about the history of abuse of psychiatry and the reasons for resorting to it; the Soviet psychiatric register and the consequences of being on a register; the sealed instruction on involuntary commitment that existed but was not available to the public. Mr. Kovalev talks about the chain of decision making in ensuring that the American visit will actually happen and the key events on that road. He also comments on the internal tensions between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Health (M.O.H.) as well as the resistance put up by the M.O.H. in organizing the American visit. He also shares his views about the "system dissidents" in the U.S.S.R.
Olena Protsenko, a Post-doctoral Research Associate in Psychiatry and Law at the University of Virginia School of Law, conducted this interview remotely over the Zoom application.
Dates
- Creation: 2022-01-21
- Creation: 2021-02-23
Creator
- From the Collection: Roth, Loren H. (Person)
- From the Collection: Bloom, Joseph D. (Person)
- From the Collection: Borissow, Kyrill (Person)
- From the Collection: Carpenter, William T. (Person)
- From the Collection: Farrand, Robert William, 1934- (Person)
- From the Collection: Hirschfeld, Robert M. A. (Person)
- From the Collection: Hopkins, William H. (William Hugh), 1942- (Person)
- From the Collection: Keith, Samuel J. (Person)
- From the Collection: Kleyman, Felix, Dr. (Person)
- From the Collection: Kovalev, A. A. (Andreĭ Anatolʹevich) (Person)
- From the Collection: Mercer, Ellen Robertson (Person)
- From the Collection: Monahan, John (John Thomas), 1946- (Person)
- From the Collection: Reddaway, Peter (1939) (Person)
- From the Collection: Regier, Darrel A. (Person)
- From the Collection: Smith, Carolyn (Person)
- From the Collection: Stern, Leon (Person)
Conditions Governing Access
Andrey Kovalev did not request any additional restrictions on access to this interview beyond those that the University of Virginia has made for all the oral histories from the Soviet Psychiatry Oral History Project (2021-2022).
Biographical / Historical
As of 1989, Mr. Kovalev was a Senior Advisor of the Department for International Humanitarian and Cultural Relations at the Soviet Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He was charged with bringing Soviet legislation and practice in line with the international obligations of the U.S.S.R. Mr. Kovalev was responsible for the development and implementation of the psychiatric reform, including the organization of the visit of the American psychiatric delegation in 1989.
Extent
From the Series: 138.5775 Gigabytes
From the Series: .25 Cubic Feet
Language of Materials
Russian
Repository Details
Part of the Arthur J. Morris Law Library Special Collections Repository
Arthur J. Morris Law Library
580 Massie Road
University of Virginia
Charlottesville Virginia 22903 United States
archives@law.virginia.edu