Vetokhin Yury Alexandrovich

Vetokhin Yury Alexandrovich

Born March 19, 1928 in Leningrad. In February 1942, his parents died during the siege. Evacuated. Studied at the Naval Academy, sailed as a navigator on a ship of the Pacific Fleet. Married in 1951. Lived in Vladivostok. In 1954, his wife wrote a statement to the party organization accusing her husband of anti-Sovietism. After the investigation, he attempted suicide. Divorced in 1955. Moved to Leningrad. In 1958, he joined the Leningrad City Literary Association. In the 1960s, he worked as the chief engineer of the computing center of the Leningrad Engineering and Economics Institute. On August 13, 1963, he tried to swim across the USSR border with Turkey from Batumi. On August 14, 1963, he was arrested in Poti. Released after the investigation. In September 1964 he returned to Leningrad and was fired. He worked as a leading engineer in the Bureau of Mechanization of Engineering Labor of the Leningrad Council of National Economy. He was preparing an escape from the USSR (intelligence in the Crimea). He worked at the Institute of the Baking Industry. On July 12, 1967, he was arrested while attempting to escape from the USSR to Turkey. He was charged under Articles 17 and 75 of the Criminal Code of the Ukrainian SSR. He was held in the temporary detention facility of the UKGB, then Article 75 was replaced by Article 56. He was held in Kharkov, then in Kherson prison. A forensic psychiatric examination found him healthy. In December 1967, he was transferred to Moscow with the note "prone to escape." He was held in Butyrka and Lefortovo prisons. He was sent to the secret political department No. 4-E of the All-Union Research Institute of Forensic Psychiatry named after Serbsky. Declared insane. In March 1968, sent to the Dnepropetrovsk Special Psychiatric Hospital. After the case was reviewed by the Supreme Court of the USSR, the sentence was not changed. Prescription of courses of sulfur, insulin, haloperidol. Occupational therapy (work as a storekeeper). At the end of 1974, he became bedridden. In 1975, he wrote a statement admitting to being mentally ill - cancellation of compulsory treatment. On September 23, 1975, the commission decided to discharge him from the hospital. In March 1976, he fell ill with pneumonia. Transferred to the Leningrad Regional Psychiatric Hospital. By decision of the Leningrad Court, he was released on September 15, 1976. He worked as a loader, preparing to escape. On November 28, 1978, he arrived in Vladivostok. Escaped from a cruise ship through a porthole. Reached the village of Vayowa (Indonesia). Met the American consul in Jakarta. In 1979 he moved to America and lived in San Diego. He worked on a book of memoirs, "Inclined to Escape" (published in Russian in 1983 and translated into English).