Valery Tarsis
Encyclopedia
Valery Yakovlevich Tarsis (1906–1983) a Russia
n novelist who was highly critical of the communist regime.
In the twenties he published some short stories but his main focus was on translations of Western writers into Russian. He translated over thirty books while working for a publishing house (until 1937) as a specialist in Western literature.
During World War II
Tarsis was twice severely wounded.
Once a writer and editor in good official standing, Tarsis grew disillusioned with Communism in the 1950s. The publication abroad of his scathing 1962 novel The Bluebottle earned him an eight-month stay in a Soviet mental hospital, an experience he described in his autobiographical novel Ward 7: "All around him were faces exposed by sleep or distorted by nightmares ... it is always hard to be the only one awake, and it is almost unbearable to stand the third watch of the world in a madhouse..."
The fictionalised documentary Ward No. 7 by Tarsis was a first literary work to deal with the Soviet authorities’ abuse of psychiatry. Tarsis based the book upon his own experiences in 1963–1964 when he was detained in the Moscow Kashchenko psychiatric hospital for political reasons. In a parallel with the story Ward No. 6 by Anton Chekhov
, Tarsis implies that it is the doctors who are mad, whereas the patients are completely sane, although unsuited to a life of slavery. In ward No. 7 individuals are not cured, but persistently maimed; the hospital is a jail and the doctors are gaolers and police spies. Most doctors know nothing about psychiatry, but make diagnoses arbitrarily and give all patients the same medication — the anti-psychotic drug aminozin or an algogenic injection. Tarsis denounces Soviet psychiatry as pseudo-science and charlatanism.
In 1966, Tarsis was permitted to emigrate to the West, and was soon deprived of his Soviet citizenship. He settled in Bern, Switzerland where at the age 76 he died after a heart attack on 4 March 1983.
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n novelist who was highly critical of the communist regime.
Biography
Valery was born in Kiev, went to school there and then to Rostov-on-Don University.In the twenties he published some short stories but his main focus was on translations of Western writers into Russian. He translated over thirty books while working for a publishing house (until 1937) as a specialist in Western literature.
During World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
Tarsis was twice severely wounded.
Once a writer and editor in good official standing, Tarsis grew disillusioned with Communism in the 1950s. The publication abroad of his scathing 1962 novel The Bluebottle earned him an eight-month stay in a Soviet mental hospital, an experience he described in his autobiographical novel Ward 7: "All around him were faces exposed by sleep or distorted by nightmares ... it is always hard to be the only one awake, and it is almost unbearable to stand the third watch of the world in a madhouse..."
The fictionalised documentary Ward No. 7 by Tarsis was a first literary work to deal with the Soviet authorities’ abuse of psychiatry. Tarsis based the book upon his own experiences in 1963–1964 when he was detained in the Moscow Kashchenko psychiatric hospital for political reasons. In a parallel with the story Ward No. 6 by Anton Chekhov
Anton Chekhov
Anton Pavlovich Chekhov was a Russian physician, dramatist and author who is considered to be among the greatest writers of short stories in history. His career as a dramatist produced four classics and his best short stories are held in high esteem by writers and critics...
, Tarsis implies that it is the doctors who are mad, whereas the patients are completely sane, although unsuited to a life of slavery. In ward No. 7 individuals are not cured, but persistently maimed; the hospital is a jail and the doctors are gaolers and police spies. Most doctors know nothing about psychiatry, but make diagnoses arbitrarily and give all patients the same medication — the anti-psychotic drug aminozin or an algogenic injection. Tarsis denounces Soviet psychiatry as pseudo-science and charlatanism.
In 1966, Tarsis was permitted to emigrate to the West, and was soon deprived of his Soviet citizenship. He settled in Bern, Switzerland where at the age 76 he died after a heart attack on 4 March 1983.
Works
- The Bluebottle (1962)
- Ward 7 (1965)
- The Pleasure Factory (1967)
- The Gay life (1968)