their good names and social positions. Social and political reorientation ( perestroika ) brought about changes in people's consciousness. Charity and humaness have been restored in the ideology of the country, and

should normalize relationships of people who for many years were reared under conditions of a "class struggle" that generated antagonism, suspicion, and aggressiveness. Professor M.M. Kabanov, who became head of the V.M. Bekhterev Psychoneurological Research Institute in the 1960s, advanced the concept of rehabilitation of the mentally ill. The movement has spread widely in the medical world, overcoming bureaucratic barriers and prohibitions. The daily life of the mentally ill, their living conditions, attitudes toward their problems, and refutation of their imagined danger to others have improved the destinies of many thousands of patients. In the same years - in 1973, to be more exact - in view of the acuteness of the psychological problems of oncological patients, many of whom suffered from reactive states, depressions, and negative emotions connected with the "fatality" of the diagnosis, the often mutilating nature of the treatment, and the fear of pain and of possible "infectiousness" of cancer, a proposal to "rehabilitate" the oncological ambience emerged. In the same period, with the agreement of Professor N.P. Napalkov, Director of the Oncological Research Institute, a "psychiatric landing operation" from the Bekhterev Institute was undertaken. On the staff of the N.N. Petrov Institute of Oncology, the post of psychoneurologist appeared for the first time; and, "tentatively," two psychologists were hired as well. However, it took about ten years in all for psychotherapeutic and psychiatric services to obtain full recognition and approval and for these initiatives to spread to other oncological institutions. Meanwhile, Professor M.M. Kabanov constantly displayed interest in these developments and maintained contacts with oncologists. In 1976 there was even an agreement between the two directors concerning the organization of the Rehabilitation Department at the Institute of Oncology under the patronage of both institutes, the V.M. Bekhterev Institute and the N.N. Petrov Institute. Plans were made for joint scientific-clinical work. Unfortunately, after the Health Ministry had assigned salaries for the "rehabilitation" efforts, N.P. Napalkov withdrew from the joint plans for time-saving reasons. The new Rehabilitation Department began to investigate the problems of invalidization of oncological patients and