(11 Aug 2000) Russian/Nat
XFA
Andras Tamas, the Hungarian man who spent 53 years in a Russian psychiatric hospital is finally on his way home.

Tamas, taken prisoner by Soviet troops during World War II, was brought to the hospital in Kotelnich in 1947, records show.

He has spent the last 53 years trapped in time, never leaving the confines of a small psychiatric hospital in provincial Russia, with no identity, fading memories and speaking a language nobody understood.

A Hungarian doctor who examined Tamas last month hopes to get him to his homeland for treatment as quickly as possible.

When he hears his mother tongue spoken around him, the doctor believes the 75-year-old will recover his memory.

But it is unclear who will welcome him.

The Hungarian authorities have found no record of Tamas' birth or any living relatives.

Some 150-thousand troops fought in the Hungarian army under Nazi command at the Don River in 1944.

Red Army soldiers killed about 90-thousand Hungarians and thousands more died in freezing temperatures trying to walk back to Hungary.

SOUNDBITE: (Russian)
"I'm glad the things are going this way. He (Tamas) managed to live till 75 at the Kotelnich psychiatric hospital - and I hope he will live at least 20 more years when he gets home at long last."
SUPER CAPTION: Karl Moravchuk, Kotelnich local man who used to translate for Tamas

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