Pyotr Patrushev Петр Егорович Патрушев (26 May 1942 - 28 March 2016) was a Russian author who escaped the Soviet Union by swimming to Turkey across the Black Sea border in 1962. A competitive swimmer in Russia, he was targeted for hazing by a sergeant in his army unit and feigned mental illness to avoid death or maiming. He later escaped and then swam from the USSR to Turkey. He was detained in Turkey and held in solitary confinement for long periods. He was sentenced to death for treason in absentia by the Soviet government for his escape.