First psychiatric hospital in the world

Valeria Novodvorskaya, the firebrand Russian activist and writer who died in Moscow on July 12 at the age of 64, was practically unknown abroad and had a somewhat scandalous notoriety at home.

Enemies derided her, often in crudely misogynist terms, as a demented Russia-hating hag; even many allies viewed her as something of an embarrassment, a ridiculous old woman prone to saying things that made the already marginalized liberal opposition look crazy.

Andrei snezhnevsky

Insane asylum

History of psychiatric hospitals

Political abuse of psychiatry in the soviet union

Владимир буковский

In death, she was quickly and almost literally canonized by the same opposition. Many said that they were only now beginning to understand what a great soul had lived in their midst, and was now gone. "The things we whispered, she said loudly," wrote former tycoon and political prisoner Mikhail Khodorkovsky.

"The things we were willing to tolerate, she was not."

On the other side, some gloated about "Granny Lera" burning in hell—but others voiced respect for her courage and conviction. In