The oldest operating prisons and pre-trial detention centers in Russia (38 photos)

Author: KombrigMeNeKolun

15 June 2022 19:30

Tags: pre-trial detention center stories photos  

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Today the penal system consists of: 762 correctional colonies, 198 pre-trial detention centers, 8 prisons and 62 juvenile colonies. Many operating Russian pre-trial detention centers are located in historical buildings erected in the 19th century and earlier.

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Butyrka (FKU pre-trial detention center No. 2 of the Federal Penitentiary Service for Moscow).

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Year of foundation: 1771; Capacity - 2700 seats; It was erected according to the design of the architect Matvey Kazakov on the site of a soldier's castle-fortress. It was used as the central prison of Moscow and as the largest transit point in the Russian Empire. In 1908, the famous illusionist Harry Houdini, performing in Butyrka, took 28 minutes. got out of the “transport box” for prisoners; Famous prisoners - Emelyan Pugachev, Vladimir Mayakovsky, Felix Dzerzhinsky, Nestor Makhno, Osip Mandelstam, Sergei Korolev, Varlam Shalamov, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Sergei Mavrodi.

Black golden eagle

The prison is located in the Urals. Until 2022, prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment or a long term served their sentences there.

“Black Golden Eagle” was included in the list of the most terrible ones, since as a result of the harsh conditions, many convicts went crazy after 10-12 years of imprisonment.

But in 2022 the prison ceased to exist. It was closed due to unprofitability and poor sanitary conditions. But the future of the building itself has not yet been decided. On the one hand, people living in the surrounding area lost their jobs. BUT on the other hand, there are fewer such creepy places in Russia.

Rumor has it that the prison will be turned into a tourist attraction, which will attract tourists who love extreme recreation.

Vladimir Central (FKU T-2 Federal Penitentiary Service for the Vladimir Region).

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Year of foundation: 1783; Capacity - 1220 seats; Built by decree of Empress Catherine II as a “workhouse” for petty thieves, in 1906 it became a central prison - a particularly fortified place of imprisonment with strict internal regulations. In the 1950s in solitary confinement there were “nameless” prisoners kept under numbers (relatives of Joseph Stalin, former leaders of the Baltic countries). Currently a maximum security prison; Famous prisoners - Mikhail Frunze, Vasily Stalin, Francis Gary Powers, Janos Kadar, Vladimir Bukovsky.

Civil Prison (FKU Pre-trial Detention Center No. 2 of the Federal Penitentiary Service for the Chuvash Republic).

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Year of foundation: 1809; Capacity - 312 seats; The historical building was built on the site of a wooden prison that was part of a military fortress; According to local legend, when Catherine II was traveling from Cheboksary to Kazan via Tsivilsk, a boy threw a stone at her carriage. The Empress ordered to find the hooligan and put him in prison - so the boy became the youngest prisoner. Today, correctional institutions (pre-trial detention centers and two colonies) are actually the city-forming institutions for Tsivilsk.

Map of prisons and colonies in Russia

Modern information retrieval systems allow you to find Russian prisons on the map. To do this, you can use a ready-made map:

It is also possible to find the necessary institution using a map that provides information in real time. To do this, you need to go to the website of one of the major Internet search engines in the maps section.

Yaroslavl Central (FKU pre-trial detention center No. 1 of the Federal Penitentiary Service for the Yaroslavl region).

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Year of foundation: 1810; Capacity - 1000 seats; The prison was erected in Korovnitskaya Sloboda at the suggestion of Yaroslavl Governor-General Alexei Melgunov. It served as a transit point for prisoners being transferred to Siberia. After the revolution, participants in peasant uprisings, counter-revolutionaries, and hierarchs of the Russian Orthodox Church were kept in "Korovniki". Since 1964 - regional detention center; Famous prisoners are former Minister of War of the Provisional Government Alexander Verkhovsky, security officer Vyacheslav Menzhinsky, common-law wife of Admiral Kolchak Anna Timireva.

Lefortovo

This Moscow prison is subordinate to the Federal Penitentiary Service of the Russian Federation. It is located at st. Lefortovo Val, 5. Telephone: 8 (495) 3613638.

Lefortovo began its existence in 1880 as a prison for war criminals. But subsequently its purpose changed several times.

In the 1920s, prisoners were held there with 10-year sentences; in the 1930s, Lefortovo became a forced labor colony. And a little later it became a departmental detention center of the NKVD.

It has been a pre-trial detention center since the 1950s.

Why is it considered one of the most terrible?

They keep 2-3 prisoners in cells, which are under covert video surveillance. They are also regularly transferred from one cell to another.

All information about the regime in Lefortovo comes only from the words of prisoners, since the departments to which this prison is subordinate do not disclose the nuances of internal conditions.

Who gets here?

Since the 90s, people under investigation in cases investigated by the FSB have been kept in Lefortovo.

Eduard Limonov, Andrei Vlasov, Said Amirov were sitting here.

Minusinsk prison (FKU Prison of the Federal Penitentiary Service for the Krasnoyarsk Territory).

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Year of foundation: 1823; Capacity - 1000 seats; One of the oldest and largest penitentiary institutions in Siberia. Built as a transit prison for prisoners sentenced to exile; The stone building was completed in 1912. In Soviet times, it became an “executive” prison - death sentences were carried out on the territory of the prison. Currently, persons who have committed particularly serious crimes and terrorist attacks, repeat offenders, as well as leaders of criminal communities are serving their sentences here; Famous prisoners are the Decembrists Vasily Davydov, Nikolai and Pavel Bobrishchev-Pushkin, and the revolutionary Yuli Martov (Zederbaum).

Work more - break less

Official representatives of the FSIN and members of the Public Observatory Control (POC, which has prison system institutions in each region) often have different data on the process of humanization taking place in Russian prisons, pre-trial detention centers and colonies.

The position of the Federal Penitentiary Service is that every year the conditions of detention of Russian prisoners are improving and approaching European standards. This especially concerns the occupancy of prison cells. In many “covers” today it is even less than the norm.

The famous Vladimir Central, according to the Federal Penitentiary Service of the Vladimir Region, today is more comfortable in terms of living conditions: the cells on the windows no longer have “eyelashes” (iron blinds), the premises are equipped with televisions, refrigerators and radios. In 2003, in the Vladimir Central Prison, they were the first in the FSIN system to open a Legal Information Center for convicts.

In almost all Russian prisons, the production of products sold outside the “cover” has been established - the Federal Penitentiary Service considers occupational therapy in custody to be an important factor in the law-abiding behavior of prisoners. In the Vladimir Central they make souvenirs with the symbol of the “lid”, they sell well. In the Verkhneuralsk prison they sew work clothes, in Minusinsk they produce building materials. Most Russian prisons have subsidiary farms where convicts grow agricultural products and raise livestock - from chickens to cows.

Oryol Central (FKU pre-trial detention center No. 1 of the Federal Penitentiary Service for the Oryol region).

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Year of foundation: 1840; Capacity - 200 seats; The prison company building is one of the oldest in the city. In 1908, one of the largest convict prisons in Tsarist Russia was built on its basis, which was distinguished by very harsh conditions for prisoners. During the Great Patriotic War, the Germans turned the prison into a concentration camp for partisans. Today it is a regional detention center and prison hospital for patients with tuberculosis; Famous prisoners - Felix Dzerzhinsky, Grigory Kotovsky.

Vologda nickel

One of the most terrible prisons in Russia. Previously, after construction, the building was known as a monastery. During the revolution, “enemies of the revolution” were kept there. But today it is a special regime correctional facility where pedophiles and serial maniacs serve life sentences. The Vologda Pyatak is the last place of residence of convicts. There is no way out of this prison.

The cells are searched daily. After waking up and making the bed, prisoners are prohibited from even sitting on it for the entire day.

Many prisoners say that this place is cursed. Periodically, the souls of the people they killed and angels appear to them. Experts attribute this to the fact that this place was once the house of the Lord.

Krasnoyarsk prison (FKU pre-trial detention center No. 1 of the Federal Penitentiary Service for the Krasnoyarsk Territory).

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Year of foundation: 1850; Capacity - 1500 seats; Because of the color of the walls, the stone building of the prison castle received the nickname “White Swan” in the city (not to be confused with the colony for life prisoners in Solikamsk, Perm Territory, the pre-trial detention center of Pyatigorsk and Veliky Novgorod). The transit prison was expanded and rebuilt several times. In the 1970s turned into a pre-trial detention center. In 2006, a new building was put into operation; in 2015, the detention center won the FSIN competition for the best correctional institution in Russia; Famous prisoners - Joseph Stalin, Yakov Sverdlov, Georgy Zhzhenov, Ariadna Efron, Alexander Maslyakov.

Crosses

The St. Petersburg “Crosses” also stand out for their strict content. They were founded in 1892, and in 2022 the prisoners were transferred to new buildings located in Kolpino. The uniqueness is that there are covered passages between the buildings with cameras.

Looking at the Old Crosses, it is difficult to imagine that this is a place where prisoners are kept. The beautiful red brick building looks more like an architectural monument. The cells remember their famous inmates, among whom were Marshal Konstantin Rokossovsky, actor Georgy Zhzhenov, and poetess Anna Akhmatova stood in lines for hours to see her son.

There have been three famous escapes throughout history. The most resonant was the escape of Lyonka Panteleev in 1922.

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Yenisei Prison (FKU Prison No. 2 of the Federal Penitentiary Service for the Krasnoyarsk Territory).

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Year of foundation: 1865; Capacity - 150 seats; It was built to replace the former prison, located in another part of the city on the site of a prison, which, in turn, appeared in Yeniseisk back in 1647. Since the last third of the 19th century, a significant part of the prisoners were political. In Soviet times, it had the status of “executive” (death sentences were carried out in prison). Today, the old building operates as a pre-trial detention center, the new one is a special regime prison for especially dangerous repeat offenders and extremists; Famous prisoners - Socialist Revolutionary terrorist Grigory Gershuni, Joseph Stalin.

polar owl

Located in the village of Kharp in the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Okrug on the picturesque bank of the Sob River. The colony opened for life prisoners in 1961, and its first prisoners worked on the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway.

In those days, there were worse living conditions here, since the buildings of the institution were poorly suited for human habitation. In 2004, it received the status of a colony where especially dangerous criminals serve their life sentences.

Loud scandals are associated with the institution. The latest ones, 2012-2013, are associated with the fact that colony employees falsified confessions and exerted physical and psychological pressure to extract testimony.

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Lefortovo Prison (FKU Pre-trial Detention Center No. 2 of the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia).

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Year of foundation: 1881; Capacity - 200 seats; The prison was built according to the design of the architect P. Kozlov, initially it housed lower ranks who were sentenced to short terms. After the October Revolution of 1917 - a special prison for especially dangerous criminals, in 1992-2005. - pre-trial detention center of the FSB of the Russian Federation. In 2006, it came under the jurisdiction of the Federal Penitentiary Service; Famous prisoners - Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Eduard Limonov, Matias Rust, Salman Raduev, Valeria Novodvorskaya, Vladimir Kvachkov.

Federal state prison-type institutions

Citizens of Russia can obtain general information about prison-type institutions located within the state. The most famous are the following objects: