The author presents a brief account of the development of psychiatric rehabilitation during the past two centuries. He draws attention to new trends in rehabilitation of the mentally sick during the post-war period and at present. He describes the system of rehabilitation in the Soviet Union which began to develop as a results of efforts in the Bekhterev Institute in Leningrad. In our country the law on social security in 1964 created conditions for protected workshop and protected work places. In 1973 methodical instructions of the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs issued instructions which specified the principles of planning, establishment and operation of these facilities. At the end of 1986 the Ministry of Health CSR issued an amendment to the concept of psychiatry which contains the organization of psychiatric rehabilitation not only in in-patient but in particular in out-patient psychiatric facilities.