Medieval prison. The darkest prisons in the world. Formation of penitentiary systems in modern and modern times

General information

Prison institutions have existed in one way or another since ancient times, their maintenance was extremely expensive, so the criminals were there mainly until the execution of the sentence to another punishment - execution, sending to the construction of roads, to mines, to galleys, etc. However, over time, the prison sentence becomes dominant. This became an indicator of both a certain prosperity of society and the degree of its humanity (in comparison, of course, with the previously existing practice of capital punishment and self-harm). At the same time, even in the late Middle Ages, they did not have any specific goals, or the procedure for organizing the prison. The main task of such institutions, as well as their main element, was the extremely strict isolation of criminals (as well as those who were attributed to them by the authorities).

Only fragmentary evidence has come down to us about prisons of deep antiquity, therefore, it is extremely problematic to talk about specific aspects of this activity of early societies. For example, the first mentions of places of detention are associated with the history of Egypt - special settlements for criminals who perform hard physical work together with slaves. As far as possible, the history of penitentiary institutions is best known to us from the practice of the Roman state.

The Roman state did not know imprisonment as a form of punishment, there were no special institutions in it, where temporarily (as a rule, until the decision of the further fate) was placed persons undesirable for the authorities, who were under investigation and trial, insolvent debtors and other guilty subjects.

Of the Roman prisons, called punishment cells (fence, dungeon), one can name the oldest Mamertine prison located next to the forum with its underground part (Tullianum), which was often used for the execution of criminals. The prison itself was a narrow and long chamber with a vaulted ceiling, carved into the rock. The names of the holy apostles Peter and Paul are associated with the name of the Mamertine prison, who, being tied up in this basement, converted their guards Prokess and Martinian to Christianity, who later became martyrs.

The bodies of those executed with hooks were dragged into the Tiber along the descent from the Capitol Hill, and this last road for many people was called the "Ladders of Sobs" or "Ring Ladder".

Near the Capitol in the quarries there was also a punishment cell of Lautumia since ancient times. In addition, in the largest estates (latifundia) there were so-called ergastulums (work, restraining house) - premises in detached buildings on the territory of the estate, acting as punishment cells for temporarily punished slaves and prisons for slaves who were doomed for some misdeeds for lifelong work in chains. Also, ergastulum was usually called a special prison for citizens, in which rich creditors locked up defective debtors, using them for daily work. Hard labor in the mines was a heavy punishment (up to 40 thousand slaves were employed in the Spanish silver mines alone). At the same time, the convict was viewed as an eternal slave of the state.

Penitentiary aspect of the fight against crime in Western Europe in the XI-XVI centuries.

The formation of the Western European penitentiary policy and the system of special institutions for the organization of punishment in the form of imprisonment was closely related to the vision of the picture of the universe by the Catholic Church and the measures taken by the state to combat the deviant behavior of disadvantaged segments of the population (beggars and vagrants). Therefore, it took place within the framework of the social function of initially public and later state institutions.

In the countries of Western Europe, for a long time, prisons served only as a means of temporary detention for persons under investigation, debtors, beggars, vagrants, incurable patients, insane, etc.

With a completely undeveloped state law enforcement system, only social support for the poor and the poor made it possible to somehow restrain the wave of selfish and violent crime, especially in the years of famine. At times, radical measures were taken to combat begging and vagrancy. So, in the XIII century. in Genoa, during a food shortage, the entire mendicant element was put on several galleases (large galleys) and taken to Sardinia.

Formation of the prison system in England

The earliest prison system took shape in England. In the 1166 Clarendon Assise, an order was established to build a special institution in each county. There were two types of prisons known: counts and immune.

The most common system of penitentiary institutions in England until the second half of the XIX century. There were county prisons, where sheriffs originally placed persons suspected and accused of committing felonies. Directly for the functioning of this or that institution, the deputy sheriff was responsible - the warden or the prison warden.

Over time, a sufficiently ramified system of prison institutions was created. So, along with royal prisons, such institutions were in the form of immune prisons for spiritual and secular aristocrats, prisons of cities and even individual communities, including rural ones, for keeping criminals, debtors, as well as for petty offenders and "newcomers and vagabonds" ( XIII century). Each court also had its own special prison facilities. At the same time, any non-immune prison was under royal jurisdiction, since it was nominally created at the royal court.

There were also special prisons. So, the Tower of London Castle gained its fame - thanks to its proximity to the residence of the British kings, as well as due to its strength and the presence of a garrison as a prison for state and other criminals especially dangerous to the government. For the same purposes, the castles of Walingford, Nottingham, Windsor and Winchester were often used.

Initially, there was no special procedure for keeping prisoners. All were held together: adult and juvenile criminals, men and women, hardened criminals and just vagrants, beggars and sick. Some difference was manifested only in connection with the solvency of a particular subject. During the reign of Henry II, on the basis of general orders of the crown, local sheriffs began to create instructions for the commandants of prison castles - prison provisions.

However, despite the creation of a rather ramified system of prison institutions, the high cost of their maintenance led to the fact that in England until the end of the 18th century. The most severe and at the same time the most common punishment was hanging, including for theft of property in excess of 40 shillings.

Organization of work and correctional houses

A significant tightening of measures of influence on the poor strata of the population characterized law enforcement practice in the countries of the victorious Protestantism - England, Denmark, Sweden. "In these countries, the mere fact of poverty was enough to get hung up."

The first workhouses to provide jobs for vagrants and beggars with a prison regime (zuhthaus) were organized in 1595-1596. in Holland: Rasphuis for men and Spinhuis for women. The terms of stay in these institutions were 8-12 years. In England, workers' houses were created in 1610, in France - in 1612. Over time, the number of such establishments increased significantly. In prisons, in addition to detained criminals, vagabonds and beggars, they also kept madmen.

Zuchthaus gradually began to be created in the cities of the Hanseatic League: in Lubeck - in 1613, Bremen - in 1606, Hamburg - in 1620, Basel - in 1667, Breslau - in 1668, Franfurt - in 1684. At the same time, the Thirty Years War brought ruin to the cities, which resulted in the cessation of the activities of the zuhthaus. Over time, their positive experiences were completely forgotten.

The experience of the Dutch zuchthauses was developed by the workhouse in Ghent, which laid the foundation for the formation of the Flemish penal system. The educational approach was based on the idea that the cause of most crimes is idleness, the habit of which should be eradicated in each specific criminal. Constant labor and training in the craft should be a payment to society for the crime committed. In addition, the accumulation of some money by the time of release and the acquisition of labor skills for further decent existence will also play a positive role in protecting society from a possible repetition of criminal excess.

In 1529-1531. in France, beggars roamed the streets with aggressive intentions and even attacked the homes of wealthy citizens. In 1530, with the help of special detachments, beggars were caught and placed in a specially created prison.

However, the most brutal measures against beggars and vagrants were used in England. For example, in accordance with the edict of Henry VIII from 1531, beggars and those who gave them alms were equally subjected to corporal punishment (the first prohibition of giving alms was made back in 1349).

During the reign of Elizabeth I, reformers and correctional houses began to be created to combat begging. In 1557, a reformatory was opened in Bridwell with the strictest labor regime and prison discipline. The prisoners were involved in hard physical labor in mines and bakeries. However, already in 1587, this idea discredited itself, since the creation of a correctional house did not eliminate the problem of vagrancy and begging, and the joint work of those simply detained for begging and persons serving sentences for committing obvious crimes, “killed in the first place all the instincts of kindness and eroded into their consciousness of the border between good and evil. " We can say that correctional institutions have simply merged with prisons. A new surge in the activity of correctional and work houses in England was associated with the economic recovery of the middle of the 17th century.

The widespread use of forced labor by detained offenders was typical for other countries as well. Thus, in French institutions for keeping "harmful" beggars - hospitals - prisoners worked from 5-6 o'clock in the morning until dusk. At the same time, the labor of men was used in mines, in breweries, sawmills, and women and children - in dressing shoes, sewing, spinning, making buttons, etc. Failure to comply with the daily norm was severely punished by a reduction in food norms, imprisonment. In the 18th century. beggars began to be punished with whips, sent to galleys or to exile in colonies ("overseas").

The corresponding material and later legal basis for being kept in prison as a form of punishment was created only during the period of bourgeois changes.

Formation of penitentiary systems in modern and modern times

Imprisonment as a special remedy

The emergence of the term "penitentiary system" is associated with the name of the Benedictine monk Jean Mabillon, who proposed a special system of measures for the correction of criminals. In his opinion, the salvation of a person who has fallen into the sin of crime, i.e. its correction can only be achieved through spiritual cleansing - prayers and repentance, as well as the maintenance (punishment) of sinful flesh in conditions of severe confinement.

Over time, certain provisions of this concept were embodied in various kinds of prison institutions created in Europe: correctional labor homes for children in Genoa and Rome (in 1653 and 1735) and for adult criminals in Milan (in 1766).

In England, the Law on the Creation of Penitentiaries was issued in 1778. In such institutions it was supposed to place beggars and vagabonds, negligent servants and workers, soldiers for committing any not particularly serious offenses (and subsequently children, at the request of their parents, for disobedience and impudent behavior). Here, preference was given to forced labor, but already in conditions of solitary confinement of prisoners. The Parliamentary Bill of 1779 consolidated the role of imprisonment in the form of intimidation, moral and religious re-education and training in the craft. However, the project did not go further than the construction of one of the two prisons planned for the experiment.

Philadelphia Penitentiary System

Nevertheless, the idea of \u200b\u200bpenitentiaries in the form of the Philadelphia system received a practical form in the USA, where in 1776 the first penitentiary was created by representatives of the religious sect of the Quackers (from Latin penitentiamus - penitential, corrective). It was a prison with very strict regime and conditions for serving the sentence. According to the Quaker idea, crime is generated by apostasy, in connection with which the criminal should be intimidated, forced to repent and reconciled with the Almighty. Therefore, the penitentiary was a prison with extremely strict solitary confinement. They were known to the administration only by their numbers: no name, no origin, no crime committed, no term of punishment. All the convicts wore felt shoes. They were not entitled to visits or letters and parcels. Absolute silence and isolation from the outside world. Everything was replaced by the Bible. For the spoken word - lashes, exit from the cell - in a mask. Hospital, bathhouse, walks - a number of solitary cells, courtyards. There are also single booths in the church.

Silent, strict solitary confinement was calculated on "a person's ability to endless improvement, to convince a believing soul that loneliness inevitably induces repentance and will certainly return a person to goodness," but in fact it only led to insanity and the inability of the liberated to orient themselves on freedom.

The Philadelphia prison system is widely used in Germany, Denmark, Belgium, France and some other European countries. In some prisons, inmates were forced to work - pedaling a huge drum, sometimes for ten hours a day. This pointless, exhausting and humiliating occupation was one of the elements of punishment. It is not surprising that in such conditions the prisoners went crazy much more often than in other institutions (V. Stern).

Soon, solitary confinement was reduced to nine months, exercise yards were expanded, courtyards were made for joint walks, and church boxes were canceled.

Oborn Prison System

Already from the middle of the 18th century. the processes of a noticeable softening of the criminal and penitentiary policy of European states began. As a result of a profound rethinking of the main approaches to punishment, it gradually begins to lose the properties of its own state revenge and acquires the character of public protection.

In these conditions, elements of the Oborny prison system (1820, USA) appeared, which was designed to somewhat weaken the negative properties of the Philadelphia system. So, by the middle of the XIX century. the isolation system was replaced by the "punishment cell", which left a little more freedom for the prisoners.

In France, in 1850, correctional colonies for juvenile offenders were opened, which were to "be brought up together in strict discipline and used for work in agriculture and related industries." The main goal was to educate in the individual blind obedience to authority and discipline. An exemplary of these institutions was the colony in Mettray (founded in 1840). The main means of disciplinary action was placement in a punishment cell. In addition, hard physical labor in the education and upbringing of juvenile delinquents was supplemented by physically exhausting games and exercises, since the belief acted: "Everything that causes fatigue contributes to the expulsion of bad thoughts."

Progressive system of punishment execution

In the middle of the 19th century, along with the penitentiary system, some elements of the so-called progressive system of the execution of punishment (which is completely dominant at the present time) appear.

It originates from the English (vintage or star) system, when in the 1840s. on Norfolk Island (near Australia), the convicts were divided into classes and conditions were created for a gradual transition from a more difficult (in quarries) to a lighter regime (on the mainland - with the possibility of building a house, a family establishment, an economy, with the prospect of a conditional early release). The criterion was the behavior of convicts and their attitude to work. Violent offenders were credited to the penalty boxes, severe corporal punishment and additional shackles were applied to them.

For juvenile offenders, reformers appear - correctional institutions (New York State, 1876). At the heart of their activities, like the punishment cells, was the idea that the cause of all vices is laziness and that work is the best medicine against them. Here for a relatively indefinite period were placed convicts between the ages of 16 and 30, who themselves paid for their maintenance from the sums they earned. The conditions of detention were as follows: strict rule of silence; drill and other exercises according to military regulations. On parole, a probationary period of six months was established (with the possibility of an extension for another six months or return to prison). “On the outside,” the supervision of agents of the prison administration was established. The final decision on release was made by the administration of the reformatory.

As a result of the improvement of the brand system, the so-called Irish Progressive System emerged, the main difference of which was the stage of being in a transitional prison with the possibility of parole.

The Irish system was extremely complex (the need for "small" study, control, supervision) and cumbersome, so it gradually faded away. But later it was re-adopted and is now operating, for example, in France and Sweden. In the USSR, the idea was implemented in the creation of settlement colonies in the mid-1970s.

To understand how the penitentiary system of medieval Europe was different from what we see in places of deprivation of liberty today, it is enough to turn to the classic work of the Frenchman "Discipline and Punish". Medieval punishment was by definition corporal and involved sophisticated torture and execution. Those who stole gold coins from the royal treasury were not assigned house arrest, but their hands were chopped off and boiled in huge cauldrons. The law, like the entire medieval state, seemed to be a continuation of the sacred “body of the king,” so a symmetrical answer awaited its violator - physical suffering and terrible ugliness.

People with severed ears and ripped out nostrils flooded the city's criminal ghettos. In 1525, in Metz, the spinner Jean Leclair was convicted of overturning statues of saints: they pulled his arms out of the joints with hot pincers, cut off his hand, tore off his nose, and then burned him over a low fire. The accused were often "tested" by fire: it was believed that a person can endure torture only thanks to divine intervention, which is an obvious sign of his innocence. A miraculous salvation meant a complete justification - however, they rarely apologized for a mistake to the justified.

Execution and torture served not only to punish convicts. The trials entertained black people on a par with city fairs, theatrical performances and colorful carnivals. Much later, the realization will come that public executions do not turn people away from crimes, but, on the contrary, harden society.

It is logical that they did not stand on ceremony at all with the corpses of criminals. In medieval Europe, the attitude towards death was simple. There were no hospices, hospitals and morgues: people died in the family, at home, in front of their loved ones, and sometimes just on the street. There was a lot of death around, and they treated it accordingly - as an element of private life and everyday life. People were buried in common graves, decaying corpses were kept for a long time in anticipation of good weather for burial, and exhumed for reburial. What can we say about the bodies of criminals?

Their corpses could remain at the place of execution for more than one month, demonstrating to the townspeople the direct effect of the law. In 1660, after the execution of the regicides involved in the death of Charles I, the memoirist John Evelyn wrote: "I did not see the massacre itself, but I met their remains - mutilated, hacked, stinking - when they were being carried away from the gallows in baskets on sleds." The heads of those executed hung on the bridge over the Thames and adorned the city walls of Paris.

The bodies of criminals were often handed over to anatomical theaters by executioners, where they were publicly dissected by doctors in ceremonial robes. The audience came to such performances with whole families - a physician, like a circus magician, removed internal organs and laid them out in front of enchanted spectators. The corpses of those who violated the law were turned into visual aids for students and artists, but in addition, they were in great demand by witches and sorcerers who brewed drugs from them and made talismans. The prisoners' bones were used for the production of "medicinal" powders and ointments. Wigs were made of hair, and perfume compositions were made of human fat. The doctor of the Sorbonne, the historian of perfumery Annick Le Gehrer cites in his book "The Scents of Versailles in the 17th-18th centuries" a recipe of a certain Crollius, a disciple of the great alchemist and physician Paracelsus, who advised to use the body of a red-haired young man who died a violent death to enhance the composition. The 17th century French chemist and pharmacist Nicolas Lefebvre recommended that his students use the meat of young executed prisoners for the preparation of medicines. In European cities, there were entire markets for the sale and resale of the corpses of the executed.

The dead bodies, unclaimed by the market, were quickly buried far beyond the fences of city cemeteries. They were buried in mass graves and, of course, without any monuments. Criminals could not lie in the same land with pious Christians.

Execution, prison and funeral in Russia - from medieval Russia to 1917

Despite all the controversy about whether Russia is Europe or not, a person who ended up in medieval Russia would have noted a complete similarity - at least in terms of attitudes towards the criminal and his body. Robbers, thieves and other "dashing people" in Russia were also boiled in cauldrons, burned and impaled, and the bodies were used to intimidate the people and other household needs. Moreover, according to a number of historians, the death penalty came to Russia from the Byzantine Empire.

The Pskov letter of judgment of 1467 names five crimes for which the accused faces death: the temple tatba (theft from the church), the horse tatba (horse stealing), betrayal (treason), ignition (arson) and theft committed for the third time. In fact, the death penalty was used much more widely. According to the Code of Law of 1497, the death was subject to "led dashing people", murderers of their master, traitors, "traitors to cities", church and city shashi (thieves), lighters, who made a false denunciation of snitchers. The Code of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich (1649) already mentions about 60 crimes punishable by death.

It is fair to say that the death penalty in Russia for a long time remained a less common phenomenon than in Europe. There was a system of fines - buy-out. There was also a semblance of a prison, more like a log grave - a hole was dug in the ground, the walls were lined with wood, and a miniature house roof was erected on top. There the prisoners awaited trial and punishment. It was in such an earthen blockhouse that the famous Old Believer saint Archpriest Avvakum was kept for several years - however, later the preacher was burnt in the same blockhouse.

In the earthen pits, prisoners often died from lack of air, cold or poisoning with their own sewage. Over time, the functions of prisons were increasingly shifted to towers and dungeons.

The bodies of dashing people could remain at the place of execution for a long time. We have received a letter dated August 2, 1696 to the Novotorzhsky voivode with a reprimand for not removing two corpses of criminals who were hanged on June 18 from the gallows. In 1610, the Berezovsky voivode, only three years after being hanged, at the request of the relatives of the executed, requested permission in Moscow to remove the bodies of the Ostyak rebels from the gallows.

The story of the execution and burning of the corpse of Yemelyan Pugachev is noteworthy. He was first beheaded, and then quartered, and the body parts were put on public display. It was in this sequence that the humanism of Empress Catherine II manifested itself - to kill, and only then to dismember an already insensitive body: for comparison, Stepan Razin was first cut off his hands, and then his head. A little later, all of Pugachev's remains were burned, and his ashes were scattered. The bodies were often burned along with the scaffold on which the execution was performed; often execution through was applied to people who committed a religious crime. The destruction of the body had a dogmatic meaning: the criminal was deprived of the chance for resurrection, and therefore - and eternal life. Some of the bodies were fed to dogs.

Usually, the corpses of prisoners from prison were taken to the "squalid houses" on the outskirts of the city and buried together with the dead without repentance, apostates and suicides. Buried in one day, in bulk, all at once. As a rule, the burial took place on Trinity Thursday after the general funeral service. Someone from those in power was also present at the service - making sure that the criminals were not accidentally buried close to the church. The bodies piled up in great numbers; This was until one day, passing by the Moscow Bozhedomka (now Dostoevsky Street), Tsarina Elizaveta Petrovna felt a terrible stench and ordered to cancel a single day of funeral for criminals.

The death penalty became especially widespread under Peter I - but after him this type of punishment gradually fell out of use. Already a hundred years later, under Alexander I, no more than 80 people were executed per year in the entire vast Russian Empire. Punishment in the form of death was prescribed in the most extreme cases when it came to an encroachment on power. The most massive and high-profile executions of the 19th century were the hanging of the Decembrists and Narodnaya Volya terrorists.

The burial place of the executed Decembrists is unknown. Petersburg rumor said that they were either drowned in the cold waters of the Gulf of Finland, or secretly buried on the deserted island of Golodai. It is known that Ekaterina Bibikova, sister of the executed Decembrist Sergei Muravyov-Apostol, asked to give her brother's body, but Nicholas I replied with a resolute refusal. Urban legends still associate Golodai Island with the hanged Decembrists.

A somewhat better fate awaited the body of the Narodnaya Volya. They were often buried in the old Preobrazhensky cemetery. True, they were buried in secret. Here is what the cemetery superintendent Valerian Grigorievich Sagovsky told about the funeral of the executed First Martyrs - conspirators who prepared and executed the assassination attempt on Alexander II on March 1, 1881: civilian and ordered to hastily prepare a common grave for five coffins in a remote corner of the cemetery. He promised to deliver the document for this grave tomorrow. On the same day, in the far corner of the cemetery, in a vacant lot, the gravediggers dug a deep hole ... He told me that they had brought five coffins with regicides, who were executed in St. Petersburg, on the Semenovsky parade ground, for burial. I'm used to funeral matters. But then goose bumps ran through my body. I didn’t have to bury the executed, and, moreover, with the observance of such secrecy and without any funeral rites ... They brought boxes with the bodies of the executed to the grave and began to lower them. The boxes were so bad, so hastily knocked down that some of them broke on the spot. The box in which lay the body of Sophia Perovskaya broke. She was dressed in a teak dress, in the same one in which she was hung, in a wadded jacket. " In the same cemetery (after the revolution it will be renamed the Cemetery of Memory on January 9th - in honor of the victims of Bloody Sunday buried here), they buried those imprisoned in the Trubetskoy bastion of the Peter and Paul Fortress and other revolutionaries who died in dungeons. Their graves are unknown; only an approximate burial site is indicated in the literature.

However, the echoes of medieval practices, in which the bodies of the executed and after death served to intimidate the living, are still audible: in 1878, the Odessa People's Will Ivan Kovalsky, who was shot for armed resistance during detention, was buried on a military parade ground. “Troops marched over the grave with music,” an underground newspaper of that time wrote about his funeral.

But already at the end of the 19th century, the funeral of political prisoners in numerous demonstrations, not only in large cities, but also in Siberia, where failed revolutionaries were exiled en masse. Such actions became the prototype of the "red funeral", a rite that would arise in the first years after the revolution: the deceased was dressed in a scarlet shirt, and those who came to say goodbye to him spoke next to the coffin with fiery speeches.

Death in the Gulag: the frozen ground

It is not true that the cold and terrible GULAG began several thousand kilometers from Moscow. The islands of the "archipelago" were also within the limits of the modern Third Transport Ring. Small camps were opened in former monasteries in the city, for example, on the Lenin Hills, where prison labor was used on construction sites.

Prisoners died often. Despite the officially low mortality rate (from 0.5% to 20% during the war years), there were an order of magnitude more deaths, as evidenced by the memories of former convicts and their diaries, in which great attention is paid to the struggle for survival - the everyday problems facing a prisoner - and only in passing is it said how they passed away. There was so much death that it became commonplace.

Reading the diaries that we found in the archives of the Memorial center, you understand: the funeral in the Gulag was viewed as waste disposal. The deceased was completely undressed in the morgue, a tag with the prisoner's number was attached to the corpse, the surname was not indicated. “The watchman on duty checked the direction for carrying the corpse into the zone with accompanying documents. Then he would take a heavy hammer on a long wooden handle and forcefully beat the deceased on the head with the words: "This is the last seal on your forehead, so that no one alive will be taken out of the zone." (Fund HRC "Memorial", Gursky, F.2, OP.3, D.18)

The corpse was perceived as an unnecessary problem for the camp administration. Its disposal requires labor resources, which are constantly in short supply. The corpse poses a danger of infectious diseases. The corpse does not work and does not fulfill the norm. “In the permafrost conditions, ammonal was needed for burials to blow up the soil for the pits. The administration of the mine did not give ammonal, citing the fact that ammonal was needed for production purposes. Not for burials. But the camp administration protested, demanding ammonal for burial. As a result, he was given, but very little at all. Because of this and due to the negligence of the funeral team, the burial pits were very small. And in the spring a terrible picture came to light: in many places, arms and legs were sticking out from under the snow and earth ... " (HRC Memorial Foundation, Grosman A.G., F.2., OP.1, D.50).

There were no coffins, prisoners were buried in bags or simply naked, stacking bodies on top of each other. The linen was taken off without fail - after washing it was transferred to a new prisoner. The graves were shallow.

One of the former prisoners recalled how the corpses of a prisoner were laid out in a row where the new road was supposed to pass. Then the bulldozer leveled the ground and at the same time buried the bodies of the dead. The corpses were floated into the water, buried in the snow, buried in the former adits, and whole necropolises were set up like the Kommunarka near Moscow.

Death in Spring: Political Thaw and Prison Funeral after 1953

The political changes that followed the death of Stalin and the condemnation of the "personality cult" also affected the conditions of detention. Within three years, several million people were released, up to 75% of prisoners received amnesty. By 1956, fewer than one million people remained in prison.

The prisoners received Stalin's death with enthusiasm; great expectations were associated with her. But not everyone was released. The commissions reviewing the cases were in no hurry; in some camps that were quickly suppressed. The prisoners killed during the riots were buried in mass graves dug by bulldozers. Thus, the Norilsk prisoners, who had raised a camp uprising in the summer of 1953, were buried at the foot of Mount Schmidt. There were 500 of them.

During the times of Nikita Khrushchev and Leonid Brezhnev, the attitude towards the prisoner's body became much more humane. The distant camps of the GULAG were disbanded, and colonies replaced them. The dead began to be given out for burial to relatives or buried in neighboring cemeteries, in specially designated places. Coffins appeared; as a prerequisite, registration of the deceased was introduced with an indication of the place of burial. The dead have found their graves.

In post-Soviet Russia, relatives of the deceased in places of imprisonment are required to notify of his death within 24 hours. During this time, the body must be prepared for delivery and transportation. If the relatives refuse the body, or the former prisoner did not have one, he is buried at the expense of the FSIN "in a specially designated place" in the cemetery. The appearance of the grave and the prisoner's burial clothes are regulated by departmental documents; a plate is installed at the burial site, from which you can find out who is buried here. The number of the grave is entered in the archive file of the convict.

H. I. Naryshkina - associate Professor of the Department of Criminal Execution Law of the Vladimir Law Institute of the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia,

phD in Law

In the Middle Ages, prisons in the city-states of Italy became commonplace. P. Spirenburg points out that 37 out of 81 Italian cities mentioned prisons (Italian carceri) in statutes.

G. Geltner, a well-known researcher of the history of the formation and development of the institution of prisons and imprisonment of cities in medieval Italy, points out that, starting from the 12th century, in Venice, which was, in fact, a city-state, a rather developed system of prisons developed, including:

I. State prisons (Italian casoni), located in each of the six districts (Italian sestieri) of the city. The word "casa" literally translates from Italian as "home". Accordingly, we can say that these were detention houses.

• 2. Debt prison, located next to the Rialto Bridge and intended to contain insolvent debtors. The Venice Statute of 1242 stipulated that debtors should initially, within 30 days, restrict their freedom of movement to the central regions of Venice, they were forbidden to cross the bridges separating this area from other areas of the city. If within the specified time the debtors did not pay or violated the boundaries of their stay and travel routes, then they were imprisoned. This restriction of spatial freedom was a kind of "open prison" and was intended, on the one hand, to exclude the debtor's escape, on the other hand, to give him a chance to earn or find the money he needed, and on the third - a situation in which the debtor turned out to be, quickly became known to his neighbors, which could increase public pressure on him and force him to pay the debt, because the impossibility of paying off the debt was considered a shame in the eyes of public opinion. In Venice, unlike many other European states, private arrests of debtors were legalized, but there was no private conclusion. That is, the creditor could demand the arrest of the debtor or arrest him personally, but he could not keep him in custody, for example, in his own house.
• 3. Prison cells that functioned inside and around the Doge's Palace (Italian Palazzo Ducale), since 1173. During the XIII-XIV centuries. Additional work was carried out inside the palace, as a result of which the places of imprisonment occupied the entire first floor of the southern wing of the palace, and several cells were equipped under the roof of the eastern wing for the imprisonment of heretic women, who were previously held in nearby monasteries. The practice of confining women in the monastery was suspended in the 90s. XIII century due to the fact that many of them were prostitutes and invited their clients to monasteries, which aroused the indignation of the nuns. A little later, the Venetian Council of Ten (Italian Consiglio dei Died), the governing body of the Venetian Republic, founded by a decree of the Grand Council in June 1310, decided to commission (or expand the existing ones) cells on the upper floor of the palace, which were used as places of detention under investigation.
• 4. Prison cells in monasteries. In general, imprisonment has been practiced in church court practice in relation to erring clergymen since the 4th century. Before the creation of secular prisons, this was common. Monastic imprisonment was also applied to the laity, especially this practice has expanded since the 13th century, thanks to the development of the papal inquisition, which often sentenced heretics to imprisonment. Pope Boniface VIII in 1298 formally introduced imprisonment into ecclesiastical law as an appropriate punishment.

That is, medieval Venetian prisons served as places of deprivation of liberty, preliminary detention, both for secular crimes and crimes against the church, and were also intended to contain insolvent debtors and political opponents.

With regard to the organization of the Venetian prisons, G. Geltner initially characterizes it as semi-improvised, in line with very limited legislation in this area, which, while providing for the grounds for imprisonment, paid little attention to the functioning of prisons and the definition of specific terms of imprisonment (up to the beginning XIV century). Since most of the Venetian places of detention were located in the Doge's Palace, it was much easier to attract palace guards to guard prisoners than to create independent structural units to ensure compliance with the requirements of the regime.

If the guards were specially appointed to supervise the behavior of the detained prisoner, then the latter had to pay them a salary himself, as was done in 1275, when a certain Simone Steno, as an oath-breaker, was sentenced to pay a fine of 300 lire during 15 days. The Grand Council (Italian Maggior Consiglio), the governing body of the Republic of Venice, which existed since 1172, decided that in case of failure to pay the fine properly and on time, the convict should be imprisoned in a large prison (Italian maior career) of the Doge's Palace in order to ensuring the payment of a debt by them with the imposition of the obligation to pay salaries to the guards assigned to him, which can be regarded as an aggravating element of the imprisonment of an insolvent debtor.

The Doge and the members of the Grand Council were required to inspect prisons on a weekly basis in order to ensure the judicial expediency of detention, rather than to monitor the conditions of detention and the behavior of the guards. Later, in connection with the consolidation in regulatory legal acts of certain terms of imprisonment, divided into urgent and life (eternal), the increase in the number of prison premises, the growing interest of judges in the conditions of detention of prisoners in prisons, the growth of their welfare, including through charity, the system of monitoring the functioning of prisons has changed, and the mechanism for recruiting prison staff has been transformed.

So, shortly before 1250, there appeared "lords of the night" ("lords of the night", "lords of the night") - nobles who were elected from each of the six districts of Venice and watched what was happening in the city at night. Since 1297, the "lords of the night" had to visit the prisoners on a weekly basis, which was previously the responsibility of the doge and members of the Grand Council, and in 1321 they were responsible for paying the salaries of the guards of the prisons, which were divided into upper and lower ones.

The statute of 1339 mentions for the first time the position of the chief or capitano of the lower prisons, along with which the guards served. The staff of the prison staff consisted of 6-8 people, and the salary gradually increased from 4 to 5 lira per month. The office of a notary was introduced into the state of prisons only since 1343. In the upper prisons, which were mainly used by the Council of Ten to detain suspects and accused of crimes, the number of guards by 1398 was 6 people, one from each district of the city, with a monthly salary of 13 lira.

The legal status of prisoners in medieval Venetian prisons was characterized by the following features:

• - the principle of the separation of prisoners was observed:
  • a) men and women. Women's prisons were built in Venice beginning in the 1360s;
  • b) sick (weak, insane) and healthy. In the 1320s. in Venice, the surgeon Ricobaldo treated prisoners free of charge, despite his poverty. In Venetian prisons by 1400, sick prisoners were usually housed in more comfortable cells, but were not released for health reasons;
  • c) convicted criminals, debtors and persons under investigation. They were supposed to be located on different floors of the Doge's Palace: the upper and lower prisons. But the separation was not always respected in practice, despite the efforts of the judges, who in 1309 demanded that criminals sentenced to imprisonment be held separately. Despite legislative efforts, power, wealth, the influence of relatives, and not the severity of the crime committed, influenced placement in prisons;
• - prisoners were exempted from paying dues and fees for entering, leaving and their detention in prisons, regardless of social status or grounds for detention;
• - prisoners were subjected to torture, which was actively practiced against them by the staff of Venetian prisons in the XIII-XIV centuries;
• - the authorities of Venice, starting from 1442 (following Padua, Vincenza, Verona, Ravenna), appointed prisoners a public defender, but in general legal assistance was available to prisoners throughout the end of the 13th-15th centuries;
• - the authorities of Venice rarely released prisoners on religious holidays, some prisoners could regain their freedom by posting bail and providing an obligation to appear in court. They could also be released from prison in order to combat the overlimit of the special contingent. For example, to free the overcrowded prisons of Venice in 1331, the Council of Ten ordered the release of all debtors who had been imprisoned for more than two years;
• - poor prisoners could receive food from the commune, begging or charity;
• - the recruitment of prisoners to work in medieval Venetian prisons was very limited

Venetian Solovki were the flip side of dances and iconic local carnivals; how at one time in Russia the GULAG was the other terrible side of enthusiasm, great construction projects and bravura marches ...
Therefore, I want to place this article as well. Its source: http://index.org.ru.
On the attached photos - the Doge's Palace; Bridge of Sighs; and finally, a real cell of a Venetian prison.

The most beautiful Italian city of Venice is one of the most visited tourist destinations in Italy. For hours you can walk along its narrow streets, move by boat along its canals (and if you have money, then hiring a gondola is, I must say, an expensive pleasure), drink what is believed to be the best coffee in the world on St. Mark's Square, admire palaces, here called "palazzo", emerging directly from the water ...
But there are also places that are especially interesting not only for ordinary tourists, but also for employees of the penitentiary department of any country. There are three famous medieval prisons in Venice - Piombi, Pozzi and Carceri.
The Doge's Palace (Palazzo) is the most famous and, without a doubt, the most beautiful palace in Venice. In the Middle Ages, it was in it that the authorities of this city-state were located, it was here that the most important matters were decided, alliances were concluded, agreements were signed, and guilty citizens were condemned to death or eternal imprisonment.
On the facade of the Doge's Palace, white columns are located in an even row. But if you look closely, you can see two pink ones in the middle. This is the place where the doji appeared in front of the inhabitants of Venice during solemn occasions, the main ones of which were carnivals and the death penalty. There is also a Torture Hall (sala de Tormenti) in the Doge's Palace, where blocks are displayed attached to the ceiling, on which the victim was hung with his hands tied behind his back.
I must say that denunciations have become widespread in the Republic of Venice. Moreover, anonymous denunciations were not considered: the signature of the informer himself and two witnesses was required. In the basements of the palace there was a huge hall with documents for Venetian citizens. Here one could find information on anyone. And at the right time, this information was extracted, the person was arrested and ended up in the famous Venetian dungeons, where, some time after the trial, he was either executed or sentenced to imprisonment.
There were two prisons at the Doge's Palace: the underground prison Pozzi and Piombi, a prison that was under the very roof.
The underground prison got its name "Pozzi" because its cells were made of stone wells (pozzo in Italian).
The famous Italian adventurer Casanova also spent some time in this prison. This is how he describes these casemates in his memoirs: “In the Doge's Palace there are nineteen terrible underground dungeons at the disposal of the state inquisitors; criminals who deserve to die are sent there. These nineteen underground prisons are exactly like graves, but they are called Pozzi, wells, for there is always two feet of sea water flowing in through the same barred opening, from where some light enters the cells; these holes are only a square foot in size. A prisoner, if he does not prefer to stand knee-deep in salt water all day, must sit on the box, where his mattress lies and where water and a piece of bread are put for him at dawn; he needs to eat bread at once, for if he hesitates, the fattest sea rats will snatch him out of his hands.
Casanova was captured on July 26, 1755 on denunciation and charges of heresy and communion with spirits. However, the list of charges also includes debauchery and fraud. Casanova successfully lightened the wallets of wealthy Venetians. To arrest him, the Inquisition sent forty soldiers, led by the chief of the guards - so much were the authorities afraid of his ability to fool anyone and immediately disappear.
In the prison cells in the basement, almost nothing was visible. Due to the high humidity, the prison conditions in the Venetian prison were particularly harsh. The prisoners often got sick and died.
The prisoners sat on bread, water and ... wine. The bread was bought by weight, so the bakers added water to it to save money, and the prison guards themselves diluted the wine with water.
It should also be noted that after serving the appointed prison term, the prisoners, if they managed to survive, could leave the prison, but only after paying for their maintenance. Those who were unable to collect the indicated amount of money remained in dungeons for an indefinite period. True, to help such poor people, a religious order was created in Venice to collect donations for these prisoners.
It's easy to imagine all these horrors wandering through the dungeon all alone. Here, from habit, you can even get lost. Some underground corridors seem to lead to the light, but upon arriving there, you find yourself right in the inner closed courtyard of the prison, from which there is no way out.
But the dungeons of Pozzi Prison are not the only place in the Doge's Palace where prisoners languished. There were also cells for prisoners in the attic of the Palace, under the very roof covered with lead, hence their name Piombi, which means "lead" (piombo is Italian for "lead"). These cells were not flooded with water, but its prisoners suffered in the summer from the terrible heat, reaching 60 degrees, and in the winter from cold and dampness.
Piombi prison is also associated with Casanova's name. The great adventurer and heartthrob, transferred to this "heavenly" prison from the underground prison, was the only one in its history who managed to escape from it.
After the famous adventurer was transferred from Pozzi to Piombi, he immediately began to prepare an escape plan. In total, he spent over a year here. Finally, an escape plan was devised. First, he made a hole in the floor of his cell, located directly above one of the halls of the palace. Casanova intended to go down there on a holiday, when no one would be there. But when everything was ready to escape, Casanova (what bad luck!) Is suddenly transferred to another cell. And soon one of the guards discovered a hole in the floor of his old cell and was going to report it to his superiors. But Casanova manages to come to an agreement with the money-hungry jailer and hush up the case. And although the escape failed, Casanova did not lose his will to freedom and immediately began to develop a new plan, which turned out to be more successful. A few months later, with the help of a prisoner from the next cell, he made a hole on the roof of the palace, through the dormer window they made their way into one of the palace premises and then, bypassing the guards, got out to freedom.
His escape is still something phenomenal: Casanova managed to escape from the most guarded dungeons, followed not only by the Doge's guards, but also by the servants of the Council of Three - the terrible Venetian Inquisition.
Casanova left Piombi under almost mystical circumstances: at the sound of the midnight bell. In all colors, this story, like the whole life story of the great adventurer, is described in his memoirs, which are called "The Story of My Life."
The real Giacomo Girolamo Casanova was an outstanding personality and, as historians note, much more interesting than all the legends about him put together. A secret agent, alchemist, magician, adventurer, writer, one of the most educated people of his time, Casanova was and remains a household name. However, love affairs, now primarily associated with his name, were far from the main hobby of Giacomo himself.
Casanova traveled a lot in Europe, he personally knew Voltaire, Mozart, Goethe, not to mention the greatest aristocrats and rulers of various countries, from Frederick the Great to the Russian autocrat - Empress Catherine II. According to one of the versions of his biography (and there are many other than the one that he himself proposed), Casanova was a secret agent in the service of France. It was this fact, and not at all another love adventure or blasphemy, as it is sometimes indicated, that led Casanova to the Venetian prisons of Pozzi and Piombi. And twenty years after his phenomenal escape, he returned to Venice and became an agent of the very Inquisition, from which he so cleverly escaped. Then he again did not please the authorities, again fled and settled in the Czech Republic, where he quietly and peacefully lived out his days as the personal librarian of Count Waldstein. There he died on June 4, 1798, not knowing that after centuries his name would still be known to the whole world.
But back to the Venetian prisons.
When there was not enough space for the prisoners languishing in the cells of Pozzi and Piombi, a new prison was built next to the Doge's Palace, on the Schiavoni embankment. It was connected to the Palace by a bridge known as the Bridge of Sighs.
This prison of Carceri (carceri in Italian means "prison") is shrouded in legends and mysteries, no less terrible than Piombi and Pozzi. It is reliably known that the great English poet Byron voluntarily spent the night in one of its cells in the hope of experiencing what the prisoners of Karcheri felt.
The conditions in this prison were hardly more comfortable than in two other Venetian prisons: cramped cells, powerful bars, ubiquitous rats, dampness, disgusting food, torture.
Karcheri Prison served until the end of World War II. Then it was closed and turned into a museum, where tourists come with pleasure. To enter it, you need to go through the famous, recently restored Bridge of Sighs, so named because it was from this bridge that prisoners could cast their last glance at freedom, see a piece of the sea, breathe the air of freedom, before, perhaps, say goodbye to their families forever and loved ones.

The most beautiful Italian city of Venice is one of the most visited tourist destinations in Italy. For hours you can walk along its narrow streets, move by boat along its canals (and if you have money, then hiring a gondola is, I must say, an expensive pleasure), drink what is believed to be the best coffee in the world on St. Mark's Square, admire palaces, here called "palazzo", emerging directly from the water ...

But there are also places that are especially interesting not only for ordinary tourists, but also for employees of the penitentiary department of any country. There are 3 famous medieval prisons in Venice - Piombi, Pozzi and Carceri.

The Doge's Palace (Palazzo) is the most famous and, without a doubt, the most beautiful palace in Venice. In the Middle Ages, it was in it that the authorities of this city-state were located, it was here that the most important matters were decided, alliances were concluded, agreements were signed, and guilty citizens were condemned to death or eternal imprisonment.

On the facade of the Doge's Palace, white columns are located in an even row. But if you look closely, you can see 2 pink ones in the middle. This is the place where the doji appeared in front of the inhabitants of Venice during solemn occasions, the main ones of which were carnivals and the death penalty. There is also a Torture Hall (sala de Tormenti) in the Doge's Palace, where blocks are displayed attached to the ceiling, on which the victim was hung with his hands tied behind his back.

I must say that denunciations have become widespread in the Republic of Venice. Moreover, anonymous denunciations were not considered: the signature of the informer himself and 2 witnesses was necessary. In the basements of the palace there was a huge hall with documents for Venetian citizens. Here one could find information on anyone. And at the right time, this information was extracted, the person was arrested and ended up in the famous Venetian dungeons, where, some time after the trial, he was either executed, or he was sentenced to imprisonment.

There were 2 prisons at the Doge's Palace: the underground prison "Pozzi" and the prison, which was located under the very roof, - "Piombi".

The underground prison got its name "Pozzi" because its cells were made of stone wells (pozzo in Italian).

The famous Italian adventurer Casanova also spent some time in this prison. Here is how he describes these casemates in his memoirs: “In the Doge's Palace, there are 19 terrible underground dungeons at the disposal of the State Inquisitors; they are sentenced to criminals who deserve death. These 19 underground prisons are exactly like graves, but they are called Pozzi, wells, because there is always 2 feet of sea water, which enters through the same barred opening, from where a little light enters the cells; these holes are only a square foot in size. A prisoner, unless he likes to stand knee-deep in salt water for days on end, must sit on the box where his mattress lies and where water and a piece of bread are put for him at dawn; he needs to eat bread at once, for if he hesitates, the fattest sea rats will snatch him out of his hands.

Casanova was captured on July 26, 1755. on denunciation and accusation of heresy and communion with spirits. However, the list of charges also includes debauchery and fraud. Casanova successfully lightened the wallets of wealthy Venetians. To arrest him, the Inquisition sent 40 soldiers, led by the chief of the guards, so much the authorities feared his ability to fool anyone and immediately disappear.

In the prison cells in the basement, almost nothing was visible. Due to the high humidity, the prison conditions in the Venetian prison were particularly harsh. The prisoners often got sick and died.

The prisoners sat on bread, water and ... wine. The bread was bought by weight, so the bakers added water to it to save money, and the prison guards themselves diluted the wine with water.

It should also be noted that after serving the appointed prison term, the prisoners, if they somehow managed to survive, could leave the prison, but only after paying for their maintenance. Those who were unable to collect the indicated amount of money remained in dungeons for an indefinite period. True, to help such poor people, a religious Order was created in Venice, collecting donations for such prisoners.

It's pretty easy to imagine all these horrors wandering through the dungeon all alone. Here, from habit, you can even get lost. Some underground corridors seem to lead to the light, but upon arriving there, you find yourself right in the inner closed courtyard of the prison, from which there is no way out.

But the dungeons of the Pozzi prison are not the only places in the Doge's Palace where prisoners languished. There were also cells for prisoners in the attic of the Palace, under the very roof covered with lead, hence their name "Piombi", which means "lead" (piomb is Italian for "lead"). These cells were not flooded with water, but its prisoners suffered in the summer from the terrible heat, reaching 60 degrees, and in the winter from cold and dampness.

Piombi prison is also associated with Casanova's name. The great adventurer and heartthrob, transferred to this "heavenly" prison from the underground prison, was the only one in its history who managed to escape from it.

After the famous adventurer was transferred from Pozzi to Piombi, he immediately began to prepare an escape plan. In total, he spent over a year here. Finally, an escape plan was devised. First, he made a hole in the floor of his cell, located directly above one of the halls of the palace. Casanova intended to go down there on a holiday, when no one would be there. But when everything was ready to escape, Casanova (what bad luck!) Is suddenly transferred to another cell. And soon one of the guards discovered a hole in the floor of his old cell and was going to report it to his superiors. But Casanova manages to come to an agreement with the money-hungry jailer and hush up the case. And although the escape failed, Casanova did not lose heart and immediately began to develop a new plan, which turned out to be more successful. A few months later, together with a prisoner from a neighboring cell, they made a hole on the roof of the palace, made their way through a dormer window into one of the palace premises and then, bypassing the guards, got out to freedom.

His escape is still something phenomenal: Casanova managed to escape from the most guarded dungeons, followed not only by the Doge's guards, but also by the servants of the Council of Three - the terrible Venetian Inquisition.

Casanova left Piombi under almost mystical circumstances: at the sound of the midnight bell. In all colors, this story, like the whole life story of the great adventurer, is described in his memoirs, which are called "The Story of My Life."

The real Giacomo Girolamo Casanova was an outstanding personality and, as historians note, much more interesting than all the legends about him put together. A secret agent, alchemist, magician, adventurer, writer, one of the most educated people of his time, Casanova was and remains a household image. However, love affairs, which have now become the main association with his name (even Valery Leontyev has a song dedicated to him), were far from the main hobby of Giacomo himself.

Casanova traveled a lot in Europe, he personally knew Voltaire, Mozart, Goethe, not to mention the greatest aristocrats and rulers of various countries, from Frederick the Great to the Russian autocrat - Empress Catherine II. According to one of the versions of his biography (and there are many other than the one that he himself proposed), Casanova was a secret agent in the service of France. It was this fact, and not just another love adventure or blasphemy, as is sometimes indicated, that brought Casanova to the Venetian prisons of Pozzi and Piombi. And 20 years after his phenomenal escape, he returned to Venice and became an agent of the very Inquisition, from which he so cleverly escaped. Then he again did not please the authorities, again fled and settled in the Czech Republic, where he quietly and peacefully lived out his days as the personal librarian of Count Waldstein. There he died on June 4, 1798, not knowing that after centuries his name would still be known to the whole world.

But back to the Venetian prisons.

When there was not enough space for the prisoners languishing in the Pozzi and Piombi cells, a new prison was built next to the Doge's Palace, on the Schiavoni embankment. It was connected to the Palace by a bridge known as the Bridge of Sighs.

This prison "Carceri" (Carceri in Italian means "prison") is shrouded in legends and mysteries, no less terrible than "Piombi" or "Pozzi". It is reliably known that the great English poet Byron voluntarily spent the night in one of its cells in the hope of experiencing what the prisoners of Karcheri felt.

Conditions in this prison were hardly more comfortable than in 2 other Venetian prisons: cramped cells, powerful bars, ubiquitous rats, dampness, disgusting food, torture.

The Karcheri prison functioned until the end of World War II. Then it was closed and turned into a museum, where tourists come with pleasure. To enter it, you need to go through the famous, recently restored Bridge of Sighs, so named because it was from this bridge that prisoners could cast their last look at freedom, see a piece of the sea, breathe in the air of freedom and ... often never meet with their relatives and loved ones.

Prepared by Yuri ALEXANDROV

In the photo: camera in Pozzi; the escape of Casanova from Piombi; Bridge of Sighs leading to Karcheri