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The prison cell where you chose madness

A poet faces Soviet repression in 1931. His friends are disappearing, and he calculates that his only path to survival is to feign madness.

The prison cell where you chose madness

This episode explores the story of Teodosiy Osmachka, a Ukrainian poet who chose to deliberately lose his mind to survive the Soviet regime. It delves into the profound cost of sustaining such a performance for decades.

Person: Teodosiy Osmachka

Date: 1931

Location: Soviet Ukraine

Event: Poet feigns madness to escape repression

- Teodosiy Osmachka was born in 1895 in Kutsivka, a village in the Cherkasy region of…

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