Leningrad

MacGyver traveled to Leningrad with Pete to break Pete’s friend, Alexander Karsoff, out of a mental hospital where he was being held as a political prisoner.

Pete had originally traveled to Russia to help Karsoff’s daughter, Maria,  escape after finding out her father had died under police interrogation because of his contacts with an “American secret agent”. The agent was Pete, who was helping Karsoff move letters of political prisoners to relatives and friends outside of Russia. Somehow the police got wind of the activity and used the information to arrest him in retaliation to his political and civil rights activities against the Russian state.

Once Pete found Maria she quickly informed him that her father was alive and being held in a state mental hospital on the outskirts of Leningrad. Maria explained that they put out the death notice to see how much public upset it causes and if there is not too much then they will kill him for real. Upon hearing this Pete and MacGyver devised a plan to break  Karsoff out by posing as a psychologist and patient in the asylum.

Notes:
On 26 January 1924, shortly after the death of Vladimir Lenin, it was renamed to Leningrad, meaning “Lenin’s City”. On 6 September 1991, the original name, Sankt-Peterburg, was returned by citywide referendum. Today, in English the city is known as “Saint Petersburg”.