Background
Berkhin, Viktor was born in 1930.
Berkhin, Viktor was born in 1930.
Courageously exposed the abuse of Committee for State Security power in the Ukrainian town of Voroshilovgrad in a series of articles in the local press, which led to his arrest. According to the Moscow Meditsinskaia Gazeta. the official medical journal of the USSR, he was interrogated and tortured until he lost consciousness. Never recovered after his release.
His death led to an unprecedented front-page statement in Pravda by Viktor Chebrikov, the Committee for State Security chief, who announced the dismissal of a senior Committee for State Security officer. The party boss of Voroshilovgrad, Boris Goncharenko, was sacked when it had emerged that, together with Berkhin, the local Committee for State Security had arrested on false charges a Dr. Vadin and his brother, Igor Kreinin, from whom they had attempted to obtain statements incriminating Berkhin.