The most terrible and dangerous prisons
Contents:
• We are taught from childhood that evil must be punished. Where should evil be punished? Of course, in jail. And compared to Russian prisons, many foreign penitentiaries seem like a resort. Don't believe? Then take a look at the most terrible prisons.
10. Matrosskaya Silence
• This place has a long history of correction, dating back to 1775, when a chastity house was built for the "presumptuous" – petty thieves and swindlers. Then it was renamed the Moscow Correctional Prison and additional buildings were erected to house prisoners.
• In 1918, on the basis of the prison, a correctional institution for minors called the Reformatorium was created, and later tuberculosis patients were also kept in it.
• Matrosskaya Tishina began to perform its functions as a place of stay for adult criminals in 1946. At different times, the Soviet party elite, Russian oligarchs, such as Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Sergei Polonsky, and the country-famous swindler Sergei Mavrodi, and well-known personalities in the criminal world, such as killer Alexander Solonik and thief in law Yaponchik (Vyacheslav Ivankov).
9. Yelets "lid"
• At first, this prison, built in 1592, did not even have prison cells. The prisoners were placed in earthen pits covered with wooden planks. A wooden prison appeared in Yelets, presumably, in 1763, and a stone one much later, in the 19th century.
• Many political exiles passed through the Yelets “Krytka”, including Druzhinin, Kamenitsky and Chigirinsky. Bunin mentioned this institution in his books.
• With prisoners in the Yelets prison they did not stand on ceremony. For the slightest offense, the prisoners were placed alone without food and water, severely beaten.
• Now, of course, this is not how prisoners are treated. However, the conditions of detention in the Yelets prison remain among the most severe, which is not surprising, given the local contingent. About 80% of the prisoners are imprisoned for murder, robbery and rape.
• According to unofficial information, cases of beatings and other types of violence against prisoners are not uncommon in the Yelets "Krytka". And there were several suicide attempts by prisoners who could not stand the abuse.
8. Butyrskaya prison
• Butyrka is the largest prison in Moscow and one of the oldest prisons. It was founded during the reign of Catherine II, as, by the way, the Vladimir Central. Once the Butyrka prison was the central transit point for those who went to Siberia. And in the period from 1937 to 1938, up to 20 thousand people were kept in Butyrka, many of whom were shot.
• But the popularity of the Butyrka prison is connected not so much with the date of construction and the number of prisoners, but with the personalities of those who happened to be in it (and these are Emelyan Pugachev, Osip Mandelstam, Nestor Makhno, Sergei Korolev, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, etc.) and frequent mention in the literature, cinema and music.
• Even today, prisoners are kept in poorly ventilated, stuffy and small rooms, and prisoners have to sleep in 2 or even 3-4 shifts, depending on the number of prisoners in the cells.
7. Vologda nickel
• The institution, once known as the Kirillo-Novoezersky Monastery for men, and then as a prison for “enemies of the revolution”, is now one of the few Russian special regime colonies for life-sentenced pedophiles, murderers, etc.
• Every day, their cells are searched, and after waking up and filling the bed, prisoners cannot sit or lie down on it during the day.
• Given the specifics of the place, many prisoners talk about mystical incidents taking place within the walls of the Vologda penny. For example, about the fact that they were angels, saints, the souls of murdered people, and even the spirit of Vasily Shukshin, who once visited the prison for the filming of the film "Kalina Krasnaya".
6. Lefortovo prison
• The most closed of Russian prisons was originally a military prison that held people convicted of minor offenses.
• During the Great Terror, the NKVD used the prison as an interrogation and torture facility. And from 1954 to 1991, she served as a pre-trial detention center of the KGB of the USSR, where many dissidents, such as Alexander Solzhenitsyn, visited.
• Now the Lefortovo Prison has turned into a Detention Facility where journalists are not allowed in, where there are no tours and there is no museum, unlike most of the other prisons on this list. Here, the defendants are awaiting trial. The Lefortovo prison contained the "ex-hope of Ukraine" Nadezhda Savchenko and Svetlana Davydova, suspected of treason in favor of Ukraine.
• A unique feature of the Lefortovo prison is the absence of an internal hierarchy and problems with the delivery of alcohol and drugs. This was achieved due to the fact that those arrested from different cells do not contact each other.
5. White swan
• This name is given to the prison unofficially. The most popular version of its origin is associated with the posture of prisoners who move through the corridors of the correctional facility leaning forward at an angle of 90 degrees and with their arms wound back.
• Sitting in the "White Swan" are people sentenced to life imprisonment. They are allowed to receive letters from relatives after ten years of imprisonment.
4. Black golden eagle
• In the Ural wilderness there is another colony with a bird's name, in which, until recently, either long-term or life-sentenced persons were serving their sentences – maniacs, murderers and rapists.
• Due to the harsh conditions of detention, many prisoners from the Black Berkut went crazy after 10 years in prison.
• The prison was closed in 2018 due to constant complaints about terrible sanitary conditions and unprofitable maintenance, but its future has not yet been determined. It is possible that the frightening Black Golden Eagle will be turned into a tourist attraction for those who want to tickle their nerves. This is perhaps the best way out for residents of nearby villages, because there is simply no other work there.
3. Vladimir Central
• The prison for especially dangerous criminals, sung in the songs of Mikhail Krug, has long been distinguished by harsh conditions of detention. It is alleged that there was not a single successful escape from it.
• In the 20th and 21st century, such famous prisoners as the German Field Marshal Friedrich Paulus, the singer Lidia Ruslanova, the Berlin commandant Helmut Weidling and the famous Stalinist "wolfhound" Pavel Sudoplatov visited the Vladimir Central.
The most dangerous prisoners, who have nothing to lose, are kept in a special block under the most stringent control. Such prisoners walk along the corridors under a reinforced escort, and their cells are opened in the presence of a cynologist with a dog and an on-duty assistant to the head of the prison. However, such conditions – consider that greenhouse, compared with the worst prison in the world.
2 Snowy Owl
• This colony for life-sentenced prisoners, located in the YaNAO, opened back in 1961. Its first "guests" laid the Trans-Siberian Railway for the country.
• In 2004, the Polar Owl received the status of a place where especially dangerous criminals will serve life sentences. Little is known about what is happening outside the walls of this prison, but from time to time there are loud scandals associated with it.
• So, in 2014, the officer of the Federal Penitentiary Service Yuri Sandrykin was convicted, who in 2010 was engaged in knocking out confessions from prisoners, having managed to get 190 confessions. Moreover, the cases were high-profile, such as the murder of journalist Anna Politkovskaya, the first president of Chechnya, Akhmat Kadyrov, and the Magadan governor, Valentin Tsvetkov.
• Those who refused to take the blame were subjected to moral, physical and even sexual violence.
1. Black Dolphin
• The video of the most terrible prison, perhaps, does not convey the fear and despair of those who ended up in it forever. They don’t go free from the Black Dolphin, this place is intended for real “dregs of society” – cannibals, terrorists, serial killers, etc.
• Prisoners are monitored around the clock, and they move along the corridors in handcuffs, under escort. When moving from corps to corps, the prisoner is blindfolded so that he cannot remember the plan of the prison.
• Given such strict security measures, it is not surprising that no one has ever escaped from the Black Dolphin.
• In this prison, the maniac Vladimir Mukhankin, who killed 8 people, the rapist and murderer Vadim Ershov, whose victims were 19 people, the terrorist Tamarlan Aliyev, who blew up a house in Makhachkala, and many other dangerous criminals, are serving their terms.
