Refbatch: The Russian Dancer

A Note From the Writer:

Let me open this post by saying this took so long to post for a number of reasons. The biggest being it is very hard to get any concrete information on this case as those closely involved are rarely a source of reliable information. The other is the more I've dug into this case, the more depressing it becomes. So before reading this, please be aware that I've done the best I can with my research but everything should be taken with a grain of salt. I will leave links of my sources at the bottom of this post. Whatever the real answers are, much like the case of Chip-Chan, none of them are happy. Most of this post was aided by YouTuber, Atrocity Guide, and her amazing coverage of this case. I will link her video below to check out. I would also like to state before we go any further, if you do end up looking up this user's channel, please do not harass her or mock her. I do not condone that behavior in any way and she does not deserve that.

We've all entered that part of YouTube before. Whether it's a video that seems completely random and makes no sense, or an entire channel we can barely begin to comprehend, we've all been there. Sometimes it's worth it to dig around to find out the meaning of what we're seeing. Sometimes it's a part of an ARG or sometimes it's a piece of interpretive art with a meaning we may have missed. But sometimes there are just more questions than answers and the circumstances just put a bad feeling in the pit in our stomachs. Such is the case with the YouTube user, Anna Matskevich, more infamously known as "Refbatch."

In 2008, Anna began uploading videos to YouTube of a very bizarre nature. They mostly consisted of her shouting rapidly and angrily into the camera, often while wandering the streets, as well as performing short interpretive dances in various states of undress, usually in a snowy forest. Her appearance typically involved some form of very frizzy, disheveled hairstyle, and odd combination of dance attire sometimes not worn completely (ie. arms not in sleeves, tops pushed around her waist, etc.), and heavy eye makeup stylized in an odd manner. The descriptions in her videos were usually written in very broken English with numerous typos and her actual dialogue has been known to be virtually impossible to translate as it consists of a mixture of Russian and English which is spoken so rapidly, it's hard to follow. On top of that, Anna's post history is in the tens of thousands and has spanned numerous channels over the years.

While it's almost impossible to translate what Anna says in her videos, what little has been deciphered reveals her overwhelming belief that the Russian government is watching and harassing her. She believes that she herself has fallen victim to their barbaric practices as punishment for speaking out against them.

The story might sound unlikely but Anna is not the only one making these claims. Her husband, Maxim Belov, who also runs a YouTube channel, has stated that Anna was victimized by the Russian government by being forcibly detained in a psychiatric ward against her will in order to try to silence her. Maxim's channel mainly consists of videos of his wife and in the descriptions he tells the story of her forced psychiatric treatment, along with other claims of abuse. The stories are frightening to think about if they are true, but many have come to believe that Maxim and Anna are exhibiting a condition known as "folie a deux," a phenomenon in which two people share the same delusion due to spending a significant amount of time around each other.

While the general consensus is that she suffers from paranoid schizophrenia (which is the most likely situation based on her behavior, speech patterns, and seemingly compulsive uploading), exploring her claims shines a darker light on the reality of the Russian government and its history. For example, Anna and her husband are by far not the only ones to claim to have been forced into treatment within psychiatric wards as punishment for protesting or speaking out against the Russian government. In fact, this practice has very much existed in Russia's past.

During the reign of the Soviet Union, punitive psychiatry was practiced, incarcerating thousands of dissidents in order to quiet them and prevent an uprising. Most notoriously, the USSR invented a disease called "Sluggish Schizophrenia," claiming the victim was suffering from a slow onset of schizophrenia that surfaced much later in life than schizophrenia typically would. This was used in order to explain away any anti-soviet behavior, claiming that a mentally stable person would not oppose the Soviet Union. The imprisoned dissenters, after being diagnosed, were then subjected to "treatments" such as electroshock therapy without anesthetic, insulin comas, and large amounts of anti-psychotic medication.

Despite punitive psychiatry in Russia essentially being done away with in the 90s, there have been recent claims that the practice is resurfacing. Since 2012, over 30 cases have been reportedly documented. There are varying claims as to the truth to those numbers but the Russian government, unfortunately, has a history of hiding such information, making it difficult to tell what is the truth and what is a fabrication. Given their past as well as their current regime under Vladimir Putin, this isn't entirely beyond the realm of possibility.

Unfortunately, in Anna's case, we may never know if her claims are true. Whether the Russian government is to blame or mental illness, her reality is a sad story and all one can really hope for is that she either receives actual help for whatever condition she may have or that she is and remains safe in her current situation. Currently, Anna can be found on Youtube under the username, "Youdon'tknowyouknow Youknowyoudon't."

Sources:

• Anna's Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCeRXV0lrOTQMKEdvcP_z0Pg
• Maxim Belov's Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQU_51WSn02lHm4dCN6xVMg
• Atrocity Guide's Analysis of Refbatch (recommended watch): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4OSReIXxyrI
• "The Cosmic Vision of Refbatch" (long): http://www.actionyes.org/issue15/wang/wang1.html
• "Political Abuse of Psychiatry in the Soviet Union"(*Wikipedia): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_abuse_of_psychiatry_in_the_Soviet_Union
• "Is Soviet-era punitive psychiatry making a return?":
   https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2017/05/soviet-era-punitive-psychiatry-making-return-170530141852510.html

*- I am citing Wikipedia because it was a starting point to more legit sources on the history of the Soviet Union and punitive psychiatry cited throughout the page. I recognize that Wikipedia itself should not be considered a legitimate source of information and am not citing it to claim that it is as it can be edited by anyone. But since it led me to other, more informed sources, I'm giving back credit where credit is due.