Viktor Koval Collection at SIS Archive Moldova

This ad-hoc collection was separated from the fonds of judicial files concerning persons subject to political repression during the communist regime, which is currently stored in the Archive of the Intelligence and Security Service of the Republic of Moldova (formerly the KGB Archive). It focuses on the case of Viktor Koval, an engineer of Russian ethnic background who expressed ”anti-Soviet” political opinions during the late 1970s and early 1980s, when he was working at an electrical equipment factory in the city of Bălți. In August 1982, Koval was found guilty of “spreading calumnies and lies aimed at discrediting the Soviet state and social order.” However, instead of being sentenced to prison, he was sent to a special psychiatric facility of the Soviet Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD), where he spent almost eight years before being released in May 1990. Koval’s case is a revealing example of the use of punitive psychiatry in order to suppress voices critical of the Soviet regime. His file is also significant in the context of the early 1980s, usually viewed as a period featuring few open manifestations of oppositional activity.

本临时编纂的资料集源自于关涉于共产主义时期遭受政治迫害之人员的司法档案，现藏于摩尔多瓦共和国情报与安全局档案（前身为苏联国家安全委员会档案）。该资料集聚焦于维克多·科瓦尔的案例，科瓦尔系俄罗斯族裔工程师，于20世纪70年代末至80年代初，在巴尔特市的电器设备工厂工作时，表达了“反苏”的政治观点。1982年8月，科瓦尔被判定犯有“散布诽谤和谎言，旨在诋毁苏联国家和社会秩序”的罪行。然而，他并未被判处监禁，而是被送往苏联内务部（MVD）所属的特殊精神病院，在那里度过了近八年的时间，直到1990年5月获释。科瓦尔的案例揭示了惩罚性精神病在压制对苏联体制持批评态度的声音方面的应用。在早期1980年代这一通常被视为反对活动较少公开表现的时期背景下，科瓦尔的档案也显得尤为重要。