Medieval prison. The darkest prisons in the world. The 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 a different punishment - execution, sent to build roads, mines, galleys, etc. However, over time, prison punishment becomes dominant. This became an indicator of both a certain wealth of society, and the degree of its humanity (compared, of course, with the previously existing practice of capital punishment and self-mutilation). At the same time, even in the late Middle Ages, they did not have any specific goals or the organization of 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 the prisons of ancient times, so it is extremely problematic to talk about the specific aspects of this activity of early societies. For example, the history of Egypt is associated with the first mention of places of detention - special settlements for criminals who perform heavy physical work along with slaves. The history of penitentiary institutions is known to us most fully, as far as possible, from the practice of the Roman state.

The Roman state did not know imprisonment as a type of punishment, it did not have special institutions where temporarily (as a rule, until the decision of the future fate) they placed persons who were undesirable for the authorities, who were under investigation and court, 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 to execute criminals. The prison itself was a narrow and long room with a vaulted ceiling, carved into the rock. The name of the Mamertine prison is associated with the names of the holy apostles Peter and Paul, who, being bound in this cellar, converted their guards Proces and Martinian to Christianity, who later became martyrs.

The bodies of the executed with hooks were dragged to the Tiber down the Capitoline Hill, and this last road for many was popularly called the “Stairs of Sobs” or “Kolechnikov Stairs”.

Near the Capitol, in the quarries, there was also a Lautumia punishment cell from ancient times. In addition, the largest estates (latifundia) had the so-called ergastulums (working, penitentiary house) - premises in separate buildings on the estate, acting as punishment cells for temporarily punished slaves and prisons for slaves who were doomed for some misconduct for lifelong work in chains. Also, ergastulum was usually called a special prison for citizens, in which wealthy lenders locked faulty debtors, using them for daily work. Heavy punishment was hard labor in the mines (up to 40 thousand slaves were employed in the Spanish silver mines alone). At the same time, the convict was considered as an eternal slave of the state.

The penitentiary aspect of the fight against crime in the countries of Western Europe in the 11th-16th centuries.

The formation of the Western European penitentiary policy and the system of special institutions for the organization of punishment in the form of deprivation of liberty was closely connected with 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 of persons under investigation, debtors, beggars, vagrants, terminally ill patients, lunatics, and so on.

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

Formation of the prison system in England

The earliest prison system took shape in England. In the Assize of Clarendon in 1166, an order was fixed for the construction of a special institution in each county. Two types of prisons were known: count and immune.

The most common system of penitentiaries in England until the second half of the XIX century. there were county jails where sheriffs initially placed persons suspected and accused of committing felonies. Directly for the functioning of this or that institution, the assistant sheriff was responsible - the caretaker or prison guard.

Over time, a sufficiently extensive 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 "alien people and vagrants" ( XIII century). Each court also had its own special prison establishments. 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. Thus, the Tower of London Castle gained its fame - due to its proximity to the residence of the British kings, and also due to its strength and the presence of a garrison as a prison for state and other criminals especially dangerous to the authorities. Wallingford, Nottingham, Windsor and Winchester castles were often used for the same purposes.

Initially, there was no special procedure for keeping prisoners. Everyone was kept together: adult and juvenile criminals, men and women, hardened criminals and just vagrants, beggars and sick. Some difference manifested itself only in connection with the solvency of a particular subject. In 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 fairly extensive 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 worth more than 40 shillings.

Organization of workhouses and correctional houses

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

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

Zuchthaus gradually began to be created in the cities of the Hanseatic League: in Lübeck - in 1613, Bremen - in 1606, Hamburg - in 1620, Basel - in 1667, Breslau - in 1668, Frankfurt - in 1684 At the same time, the Thirty Years' War brought ruin to the cities, which led to the cessation of the activities of the tsukhtkhauz. Over time, their positive experience was completely forgotten.

The experience of the Dutch zuchthaus was developed by the activities of the workhouse in Ghent, which marked the beginning of the formation of the Flemish penitentiary 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 particular criminal. Constant labor and training in a craft should be the payment to society for the crime committed. In addition, the accumulation of some funds by the time of release and the acquisition of labor skills for a further decent existence will also play a positive role in protecting society from a possible repetition of a criminal excess.

In 1529-1531. in France, beggars with aggressive intentions roamed the streets 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 cruel measures against the beggars and vagabonds were applied 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, reformatoriums and correctional houses began to be created to combat begging. In 1557, a penitentiary was opened in Bridwell with the strictest labor regime and prison discipline. Prisoners were taken to hard physical work mines and bakeries. However, already in 1587 this idea discredited itself, since the creation of a correctional house did not remove the problem of vagrancy and begging, and the joint work of those simply detained for begging and those serving sentences for committing obvious crimes “killed in the first place all sorts of instincts of kindness and eroded into their consciousness of the boundary between good and evil. It can be said that correctional institutions simply merged with prisons. A new surge in the activity of correctional and workhouses in England was associated with the economic upsurge of the middle of the 17th century.

The widespread use of forced labor by detained offenders was also characteristic of other countries. So, in French institutions for the maintenance of "harmful" beggars - hospitals - prisoners worked from 5-6 o'clock in the morning until dusk. At the same time, men's labor was used in mines, breweries, sawmills, while women's and children's labor was used in dressing shoes, sewing, spinning, making buttons, etc. Failure to meet the daily allowance was severely punished by a reduction in food rations, imprisonment. In the XVIII century. beggars began to be punished with whips, sent to galleys or exile in a colony (“over the seas”).

The corresponding material, and later legal, basis for imprisonment as a form of punishment was created only during the period of bourgeois changes.

The formation of penitentiary systems in modern and modern times

Imprisonment as a special measure of correction

The appearance of the term "penal system" is associated with the name of the monk of the Benedictine order, Jean Mabillion, who proposed special system measures to correct criminals. In his opinion, the salvation of a person who has fallen into the sin of a crime, i.e. its correction can be achieved only through spiritual purification - prayer and repentance, as well as the maintenance (punishment) of sinful flesh in conditions of severe imprisonment.

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

In England, the Law on the Establishment of Penitentiaries was issued in 1778. It was supposed to place beggars and vagabonds, negligent servants and workers, soldiers for committing any not particularly serious offenses in such institutions (and later 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 Bill of Parliament of 1779 fixed the role imprisonment in the form of intimidation, moral and religious re-education and training in the craft. However, the project did not go beyond the construction of one of the two prisons planned for the experiment.

Philadelphia penitentiary system

Nevertheless, the idea of ​​penitentiaries in the form of the Philadelphia system received practical formalization in the USA, where in 1776 representatives of the religious sect of Quakers created the first penitentiary (from Latin penitentiamus - penitent, corrective). It was a prison with very strict regime and conditions for serving sentences. According to the idea of ​​the Quakers, crime is generated by apostasy, in connection with which the criminal should be intimidated, forced to repent and reconcile with the Almighty. Therefore, the penitentiary was a prison with extremely strict solitary confinement. They were known to the administration only by numbers: no name, no origin, no crime committed, no sentence. All convicts were shod in felt shoes. They were not supposed to meet or letters and parcels. Absolute silence and isolation from outside world. Everything was replaced by the Bible. For the spoken word - whips, exit from the cell - in a mask. Hospital, bath, walks - a number of solitary cells, courtyards. There are also single booths in the church.

The silent, strictest solitary confinement was calculated on “a person’s ability for endless improvement, on convincing the believing soul that loneliness inevitably induces repentance and will certainly return a person to good,” but in reality it only led to insanity and the inability of the liberated to orient themselves in freedom.

The Philadelphia prison system has found wide application in Germany, Denmark, Belgium, France and some other European countries. In some prisons, prisoners were forced to work - pedaling a huge drum, sometimes for ten hours a day. This senseless 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 the solitary confinement was reduced to nine months, the exercise yards were enlarged, the yards for joint walks were made, and the church boxes were abolished.

Oborne Prison System

Since the middle of the XVIII century. the processes of noticeable mitigation of the criminal and penitentiary policies of European states began. As a result of a deep rethinking of the main approaches to punishment, it gradually begins to lose the properties of proper state revenge and acquires the character of public protection.

Under these conditions, elements of the Oborne prison system (1820, USA) appear, 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 to the prisoners.

In France, in 1850, correctional colonies were opened for juvenile delinquents, who were to be “brought up together in strict discipline and used at work in agriculture and related industries. The main goal was the education in the individual of blind obedience to authority and discipline. An exemplary of such institutions was the colony in Mettre (founded in 1840). The main means of disciplinary action was placement in a punishment cell. In addition, heavy physical work in the order of training and education of juvenile delinquents, it was supplemented with physically exhausting games and exercises, since the conviction was in effect: "Everything that causes fatigue contributes to the expulsion of bad thoughts."

Progressive punishment system

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

It originates from the English (brand 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 of detention (on the mainland - with the possibility of building a house, a family institution, a household, with the prospect of a conditional early release). In this case, the behavior of convicts and their attitude to work acted as a criterion. Malicious violators were included in the penalty box, severe corporal punishment and additional fetters were applied to them.

For juvenile delinquents, reformatoriums appear - correctional institutions (State of New York, 1876). At the heart of their activities, like the punishment cell, 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, convicts aged 16 to 30 were placed, who themselves paid for their maintenance from the amounts they earned. The conditions of detention were as follows: a strict rule of silence; drill and other classes according to military regulations. Parole included a probationary period of six months (with the possibility of an extension for another six months or return to prison). "In the wild" the supervision of agents of the prison administration was established. The final decision on release was made by the administration of the reformatorium.

As a result of the improvement of the branding system, the so-called Irish progressive system appeared, 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 "petty" study, control, supervision) and cumbersome, so it gradually faded away. But later it was re-adopted and now operates, for example, in France and Sweden. In the USSR, the idea was realized in the creation of colonies-settlements in the mid-1970s.

To understand how the penitentiary system of medieval Europe differed from what we see in places of deprivation of liberty today, it is enough to turn to the classic work of the Frenchman “Supervise and Punish”. Medieval punishment was, by definition, corporal and meant sophisticated torture and execution. Those who stole gold coins from the royal treasury were not placed under house arrest, but their hands were cut 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 its violator was inevitably waiting for a symmetrical response - physical suffering and terrible deformity.

People with their ears cut off and their nostrils torn out flooded the city's criminal ghettos. In 1525, in Metz, the spinner Jean Leclerc was convicted of overturning the statues of saints: they pulled his hands out of the joints with red-hot tongs, cut off his hand, tore off his nose, and then burned him on a slow fire. The accused were often “tested” with fire: it was believed that a person could 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 the condemned. Courts entertained black people along 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 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 privacy and life. People were buried in common graves, decaying corpses were kept for a long time in anticipation of good weather for burial, 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, chopped, fetid - when they were carried away from the gallows in baskets on a sledge." The heads of the executed hung on the bridge over the Thames and adorned the city walls of Paris.

The executioners often gave the bodies of criminals to anatomical theaters, where they were publicly opened by doctors in full dress. The audience came to such performances with whole families - the physician, like a circus magician, extracted internal organs and laid them out in front of enchanted spectators. The corpses of those who broke the law turned into visual aids for students and artists, but in addition, they were in great demand by witches and sorcerers, who brewed potions from them and made talismans. The bones of the prisoners went to the production of "medical" powders and ointments. Wigs were made from hair, and perfume compositions were made from human fat. Doctor of the Sorbonne, perfumery historian Annick Le Guerre cites in his book Aromas of Versailles in the 17th-18th centuries a recipe by a certain Crollius, a student 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 to prepare 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 interred far beyond the fences of city cemeteries. They were buried in common graves and, of course, without any monuments. It was impossible for criminals to lie in the same land with pious Christians.

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

Despite all the disputes about whether Russia is Europe or not, a person who got into medieval Russia would note a complete resemblance - at least in terms of the attitude towards the criminal and his body. Robbers, thieves and other "dashing people" in Russia were also boiled in boilers, burned and impaled, and the bodies were used to intimidate the people and other domestic needs. Moreover, according to some historians, the death penalty came to Russia from the Byzantine Empire.

The Pskov judicial charter of 1467 names five crimes for which the accused faces death: church tatba (theft from the church), horse tatba (horse stealing), treason (treason), incendiary (arson) and theft committed for the third time. In fact, the death penalty was applied much more widely. According to the Sudebnik of 1497, “led dashing people”, the killers of their master, traitors, “traitors of the cities”, church and city shashi (thieves), incendiaries who made a false denunciation of the tellers were subject to death. The Code of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich (1649) already mentions about 60 crimes punishable by death.

In fairness, it should be said that the death penalty in Russia for a long time remained a phenomenon less common than in Europe. There was a system of fines - payoffs. 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, a miniature house roof was erected on top. There, the prisoners awaited trial and punishment. It was in such an earthen log house that the famous Old Believer saint Archpriest Avvakum was kept for several years - however, later the preacher was burned in the same log house.

In earthen pits, prisoners often died from lack of air, cold, or poisoning with their own sewage. Over time, the functions of prisons increasingly moved 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 governor with a reprimand for not removing two corpses of criminals hanged on June 18 from the gallows. In 1610, the Berezovsky governor only three years after the hanging, at the request of the relatives of the executed, asked Moscow for permission 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 parts of the body put on public display. It was in this sequence that the humanism of Empress Catherine II manifested itself - to kill, and only then dismember the already insensible body: for comparison, Stepan Razin was first cut off his hands, and then his head. A little later, all the remains of Pugachev were burned, and his ashes were scattered. The bodies were often burned along with the scaffold on which the execution took place; often execution through was applied to people who committed a religious crime. The destruction of the body had a dogmatic meaning: the offender was deprived of a chance for resurrection, and hence eternal life. Some bodies were fed to dogs.

Usually, the corpses of prisoners from prisons were taken to “poor houses” on the edge of the city and buried along with those who died without repentance, apostates and suicides. They buried on the same day, en masse, all at once. As a rule, the burial took place on Trinity Thursday after a general memorial service. Someone in power was also present at the service - he made sure that the criminals were not accidentally buried close to the church. Corpses accumulated in huge numbers; so it was until one day, driving past Moscow Bozhedomka (now Dostoevsky Street), Tsarina Elizaveta Petrovna felt a terrible stench and ordered that a single day of burial for criminals be canceled.

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

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, the sister of the executed Decembrist Sergei Muravyov-Apostol, asked to give her brother's body, but Nicholas I responded with a decisive refusal. Urban legends still associate Golodai Island with the hanged Decembrists.

The bodies of the Narodnaya Volya expected a somewhat better fate. They were often buried in the old Preobrazhensky cemetery. True, they buried secretly. Here is what the cemetery superintendent Valerian Grigoryevich Sagovsky told about the funeral of the executed March 1st - the conspirators who prepared and carried out the assassination attempt on Alexander II on March 1, 1881: civilian gentleman 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. In the far corner of the cemetery in a wasteland, the gravediggers dug a deep hole that same day ... He told me that they had brought five coffins for burial with regicides who were executed in St. Petersburg, on the Semyonovsky parade ground. I'm used to funeral business. But then goosebumps ran through my body. I never had 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 before, so hastily knocked down, that some of them immediately broke. The box in which the body of Sophia Perovskaya lay was broken. She was dressed in a teak dress, the very one in which she was hung up, in a wadded jacket. At the same cemetery (after the revolution it will be renamed the Cemetery of Memory on January 9 - in honor of the victims of Bloody Sunday buried here) they buried imprisoned in the Trubetskoy bastion of the Peter and Paul Fortress and other revolutionaries who died in the dungeons. Their graves are unknown; the literature indicates only the approximate location of the burial.

However, the echoes of medieval practices, in which the bodies of the executed even after death served to intimidate the living, are still audible: in 1878, the Odessa Narodnaya Volya Ivan Kovalsky, who was shot for armed resistance during detention, was buried on a military parade ground. “Troops with music marched over the grave,” an underground newspaper of the 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 massively exiled. 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 fiery speeches next to the coffin.

Death in the Gulag: frozen ground

It is not true that the cold and terrible Gulag began several thousand kilometers from Moscow. Islets of the "archipelago" were within the modern Third Ring Road. Small camps were opened in former monasteries within the city limits - for example, on the Lenin Hills, where the labor of prisoners was used at construction sites.

Prisoners often died. 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 memoirs of former convicts and their diaries, in which great attention is paid to the struggle for survival - everyday problems facing convict - and only in passing it is 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 considered as waste disposal. The dead man was completely undressed back in the morgue, a tag with the number of the prisoner was attached to the corpse, the last name was not indicated. “The watchman on duty checked the direction for the removal of the corpse to the zone with the accompanying documents. Then he took a heavy hammer with a long wooden handle and hit the dead man with force on the head with the words: “This is the last seal on your forehead, so that no one is carried out of the zone alive.” (HRC "Memorial" Fund, 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 lacking. The corpse creates the danger of infectious diseases. The corpse does not work and does not fulfill the norm. “In the conditions of permafrost, ammonal was needed for burial in order to blow up the soil for the pits. The administration of the mine did not give ammonal, arguing that ammonal was needed for production purposes. Not for burials. But the camp administration protested, demanding ammonal for burials. As a result, they gave it, but very little at all. Because of this, and because of the negligence of the funeral brigade, the burial pits were very small. And in the spring, a terrible picture was revealed: in many places, arms and legs were sticking out from under the snow and earth ... ”. (Fund of HRC "Memorial", Grosman A.G., F.2., OP.1, D.50).

There were no coffins, the prisoners were buried in bags or simply naked, stacking the bodies on top of each other. Linen was necessarily removed - after washing it passed 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 a 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 former adits, arranged entire necropolygons like Kommunarka near Moscow.

Death in the Spring: Political Thaw and Prison Burials after 1953

The political changes that followed the death of Stalin and the condemnation of the "cult of personality" 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.

Stalin's death was received with enthusiasm by the prisoners; high expectations were attached to her. But not everyone waited for release. The commissions reviewing cases were in no hurry; in some camps that were quickly suppressed. The convicts killed during the riots were buried in common graves dug by bulldozers. Thus, the Norilsk prisoners who raised the camp uprising in the summer of 1953 were interred at the foot of Mount Schmidt. There were 500 of them.

During the time of Nikita Khrushchev and Leonid Brezhnev, the attitude towards the body of a prisoner became much more humane. The distant camps of the Gulag were disbanded, they were replaced by colonies. The dead began to be given out for burial to relatives or to be buried in neighboring cemeteries, in specially designated places. Coffins appeared; as a prerequisite, the registration of the dead 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 deprivation of liberty must be notified of his death within 24 hours. During this time, the body must be prepared for delivery and transportation. If relatives refuse the body, or the former prisoner did not have any, he is buried at the expense of the Federal Penitentiary Service “in a specially designated place” in the cemetery. The appearance of the grave and the burial clothes of the prisoner are regulated by departmental documents; A sign 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 archival file of the convict.

H. I. Naryshkina - Associate Professor of the Department of Penal 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 become commonplace. P. Spierenburg points out that the statutes of 37 out of 81 Italian cities mentioned prisons (ital. carceri).

G. Geltner, a well-known researcher on 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, Venice, which was, in fact, a city-state, developed a fairly extensive system of prisons, including:

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

• 2. Debt prison, located next to the Rialto bridge and intended to contain insolvent debtors. In the Venetian charter of 1242, it was enshrined that debtors should initially, within 30 days, be limited in their freedom of movement by the central regions of Venice, they were forbidden to cross the bridges that separated this area from other parts of the city. If during the prescribed time the debtors did not pay or violated the boundaries of their stay and routes of movement, then they were subjected to imprisonment. This restriction of spatial freedom was a kind of "open prison" and was designed, on the one hand, to prevent the debtor from escaping, on the other hand, gave him a chance to earn or find the money he needed, and on the third - a situation in which 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 repaying 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 detention. 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), starting from 1173. During the XIII-XIV centuries. were held additional work inside the palace, as a result of which the places of confinement 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, previously kept in nearby monasteries. The practice of monastic confinement of women was suspended in the 1990s. 13th century due to the fact that many of them were prostitutes and invited their clients to the monasteries, which aroused the indignation of the nuns. Somewhat later, the Venetian Council of Ten (Italian: Consiglio dei Died) - the governing body of the Venetian Republic, founded by decree of the Grand Council in June 1310, decided to put into operation (or expand existing ones) the cells on the top floor of the palace, which were used as a place of detention for persons under investigation.
• 4. Prison cells in monasteries. In general, deprivation of liberty was practiced in judicial church practice in relation to erring clergy, starting from the 4th century. Before the creation of secular prisons, this was common. Monastic imprisonment was applied to the laity as well, and this practice increased especially from the thirteenth century onwards, thanks to the development of the papal inquisition, which frequently sentenced heretics to imprisonment. Pope Boniface VIII formally introduced imprisonment into ecclesiastical law in 1298 as a suitable punishment.

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

As for the organization of the activities of Venetian prisons, G. Geltner initially characterizes it as semi-improvised, corresponding to very limited legislation in this area, which, while providing for the grounds for imprisonment, paid little attention to the functioning of prisons and the determination of specific terms of imprisonment (up to the start 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 protect prisoners than to create independent structural units that ensured compliance with the requirements of the regime.

If the guards were specially appointed to supervise the behavior of the prisoner in custody, then the latter had to pay them a salary, as was done in 1275, when a certain Simone Steno, as an perjurer, was sentenced to pay a fine of 300 lire for 15 days. The Great Council (Italian Maggior Consiglio) - the governing body of the Venetian Republic, which existed since 1172 - decided that in case of failure to pay the fine properly and within the prescribed time limits, the convict should be imprisoned in a large prison (Italian maior career) of the Doge's Palace in order to ensuring the payment of his debt with the imposition of the obligation to pay the salary of 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 to inspect the prisons weekly, more for the purpose of ensuring the judicial expediency of detention than for the purpose of monitoring the conditions of the prisoners and the behavior of the guards. Later, in connection with the fixing in regulatory legal acts of certain terms of imprisonment, divided into urgent and life (eternal), an 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 well-being, including through charity, the system of control over the functioning of prisons has changed, and the mechanism for recruiting prison staff has been transformed.

So, shortly before 1250, “lords of the night” (“lords of the night”, “lords of the night”) appeared - noblemen who were elected from each of the six districts of Venice and monitored what was happening in the city at night. Since 1297, the "lords of the night" had to visit the prisoners weekly, which until then had been the responsibility of the doge and members of the Great Council, and in 1321 they were responsible for paying salaries to the guards of the prisons, divided into upper and lower.

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

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

• - the principle of segregation of prisoners was respected:
  • a) men and women. Women's prisons built in Venice starting in the 1360s;
  • b) sick (weak, insane) and healthy. In the 1320s. in Venice, the surgeon Ricobaldo treated prisoners for free, despite his poverty. In Venetian prisons, by 1400, sick prisoners were usually placed 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 demanded in 1309 that criminals sentenced to imprisonment be kept separately. Despite legislative efforts, power, wealth, influence of relatives, and not the severity of the crime committed, influenced placement in prisons;
• - prisoners were exempted from paying dues and fees for entry, exit and their stay in prisons, regardless of social status or grounds for detention;
• - prisoners were subjected to torture, which was actively practiced against them by the personnel of Venetian prisons in the 13th-14th centuries;
• - the authorities of Venice, starting from 1442 (following Padua, Vincenze, Verona, Ravenna), appointed a public defender to prisoners, but in general legal assistance was available to prisoners throughout the end of the 13th-15th centuries;
• - the authorities in 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, in order to release 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 at the expense of the commune, begging for alms or charity;
• - the involvement of prisoners in labor in medieval Venetian prisons was carried out very limitedly

Venetian "nightingales" were the other 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 ...
That's why I want to post this article. Its source: http://index.org.ru.
On the attached photos - the Doge's Palace; Bridge of Sighs; and finally, a real cell in a Venetian prison.

most beautiful italian city Venice is one of the most visited tourist destinations in Italy. You can spend hours walking along its narrow streets, traveling by boat along its canals (and if you have money, then hiring a gondola is, I must say, an expensive pleasure), drinking what is considered to be the best coffee in the world on St. palaces, called here "palazzo", arising directly from the water ...
But there are also places of particular interest not only for ordinary tourists, but also for employees of the penitentiary department of any country. Venice has three famous medieval prisons- 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 here 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, guilty citizens were sentenced 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 doges appeared before the inhabitants of Venice during solemn occasions, the main of which were carnivals and executions. There is also a Torture Hall (sala de Tormenti) in the Doge's Palace, where blocks attached to the ceiling are shown, on which the victim was hung with his hands tied behind his back.
I must say that in the Republic of Venice, denunciations became widespread. Moreover, anonymous denunciations were not considered: the signature of the scammer and two witnesses was required. In the cellars of the palace there was a huge hall with documentation on Venetian citizens. Here you could find information on anyone. And in 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 Pozzi underground prison and Piombi, a prison located under the very roof.
The underground prison got its name "Pozzi" because its cells were 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 nineteen terrible underground dungeons at the disposal of the state inquisitors; criminals who deserve to die are sent there. These nineteen subterranean prisons are exactly like tombs, but are called Pozzi, wells, for there is always two feet of sea water, which enters through the same barred opening, whence a little light enters the cells; these holes are only a square foot in size. The prisoner, if he does not prefer to stand knee-deep in salt water all day long, should sit on the box where his mattress lies and where at dawn they put water and a piece of bread for him; he must eat the bread at once, for if he hesitates, the fattest sea rats will tear him out of his hands.
Casanova was seized on July 26, 1755 on a denunciation and charges of heresy and communication with spirits. However, the list of accusations also included debauchery and fraud. Casanova successfully lightened the wallets of wealthy Venetians. To arrest him, the Inquisition sent forty soldiers, led by the head of the guard - so much the authorities feared his ability to fool anyone and immediately disappear.
In the prison cells, which were located in the basement, almost nothing was visible. Due to the high humidity, prison conditions in the Venetian prison were especially harsh. Prisoners often fell ill and died.
The prisoners sat on bread, water and ... wine. 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 the departure of the appointed prison term, prisoners, if they managed to survive, could leave the prison, but only after paying for their content. Those who were unable to collect the indicated amount of money remained in the dungeons for an indefinite period. True, to help such poor people in Venice, a religious order was created that collected donations for these prisoners.
It is easy to imagine all these horrors while wandering the dungeon all alone. Here, out of habit, you can even get lost. Some underground corridors seem to lead to the light, but when you arrive 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 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 in Italian "lead"). These cells were not flooded with water, but its prisoners suffered in summer from terrible heat, reaching up to 60 degrees, and in winter from cold and dampness.
Piombi prison is also associated with the name of Casanova. The great adventurer and heartbreaker, transferred to this "heavenly" prison from an underground prison, was the only one in its entire 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 more than 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 festive day when no one would be there. But when everything was ready to escape, Casanova (that's bad luck!) Is unexpectedly 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 this to his superiors. But Casanova manages to negotiate with the money-hungry jailer and hush up the case. And although the escape failed, Casanova did not lose the 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 a neighboring cell, he made a hole on the roof of the palace, through the dormer window they made their way into one of the palace rooms and then, bypassing the guards, got out to freedom.
His escape is still something phenomenal: Casanova managed to escape from the most guarded dungeons, which were monitored 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 say, much more interesting than all the legends about him put together. 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 extensively in Europe, personally knew Voltaire, Mozart, Goethe, not to mention the largest aristocrats and rulers various countries, starting from Frederick the Great and ending with the Russian autocrat - Empress Catherine II. According to one version of his biography (and there are many in addition to the one 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 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 managed to elude so cleverly. 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 Carceri prison (carceri in Italian means "prison") is shrouded in legends and mysteries, no less terrible than Piombi and Pozzi. It is authentically known that in one of its cells the great English poet Byron, hoping to survive what the prisoners of Carcheri felt.
The conditions in this prison were hardly more comfortable than in the other two Venetian prisons: cramped cells, powerful bars, rats everywhere, dampness, disgusting food, torture.
Karcheri prison served its functions until the end of the Second World War. Then it was closed and turned into a museum, where tourists go 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 take their last look at freedom, see a piece of the sea, breathe the air of freedom, before, perhaps, forever saying goodbye to their relatives. and loved ones.

The beautiful Italian city of Venice is one of the most visited tourist destinations in Italy. You can spend hours walking along its narrow streets, traveling by boat along its canals (and if you have money, then hiring a gondola is, I must say, an expensive pleasure), drinking what is considered to be the best coffee in the world on St. palaces, called here "palazzo", arising directly from the water ...

But there are also places of particular interest 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 here 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, guilty citizens were sentenced 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 doges appeared before the inhabitants of Venice during solemn occasions, the main of which were carnivals and executions. There is also the Hall of Torture (sala de Tormenti) in the Doge's Palace, which shows blocks attached to the ceiling, on which the victim was hung with his hands tied behind his back.

I must say that in the Republic of Venice, denunciations became widespread. Moreover, anonymous denunciations were not considered: the signature of the informer himself and 2 witnesses was required. In the cellars of the palace there was a huge hall with documentation on Venetian citizens. Here you 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 2 prisons at the Doge's Palace: the Pozzi underground prison and the prison, located under the very roof, Piombi.

The underground prison got its name "Pozzi" because its cells were 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; criminals who deserve death are sentenced to them. These 19 underground prisons are exactly like graves, but are called Pozzi, wells, for there is always 2 feet of sea water, entering through the same barred opening, from which 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 all day long, should sit on the box where his mattress lies and where at dawn they put water and a piece of bread for him; he must eat the bread at once, for if he hesitates, the fattest sea rats will tear him out of his hands.

Casanova was captured on July 26, 1755. on denunciation and accusation of heresy and communication with spirits. However, the list of accusations also included debauchery and fraud. Casanova successfully lightened the wallets of wealthy Venetians. To arrest him, the Inquisition sent 40 soldiers, led by the head of the guard, so the authorities feared his ability to fool anyone and immediately hide.

In the prison cells, which were located in the basement, almost nothing was visible. Due to the high humidity, prison conditions in the Venetian prison were especially harsh. Prisoners often fell ill and died.

The prisoners sat on bread, water and ... wine. 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 the dungeons for an indefinite period. True, to help such poor people in Venice, a religious Order was created that collected donations for such prisoners.

It's pretty easy to imagine all these horrors while wandering the dungeon all alone. Here, out of habit, you can even get lost. Some underground corridors seem to lead to the light, but when you arrive 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 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" (piomb in Italian "lead"). These cells were not flooded with water, but its prisoners suffered in summer from terrible heat, reaching up to 60 degrees, and in winter from cold and dampness.

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

After the famous adventurer was transferred from the Pozzi to the Piombi, he immediately began to prepare an escape plan. In total, he spent more than 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 festive day when no one would be there. But when everything was ready to escape, Casanova (that's bad luck!) Is unexpectedly 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 this to his superiors. But Casanova manages to negotiate with the money-hungry jailer and hush up the case. And although the escape failed, Casanova does not lose heart and immediately begins 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 the dormer window into one of the palace rooms and then, bypassing the guards, got out to freedom.

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

Casanova left the 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 say, much more interesting than all the legends about him put together. 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, which have now become the main association with his name (even Valery Leontiev has a song dedicated to him), were far from the main hobby of Giacomo himself.

Casanova traveled extensively in Europe, personally knew Voltaire, Mozart, Goethe, not to mention the largest aristocrats and rulers of various countries, from Frederick the Great to the Russian autocrat - Empress Catherine II. According to one version of his biography (and there are many in addition to the one 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 is sometimes indicated, that led Casanova to the Pozzi and Piombi Venetian prisons. And 20 years after his phenomenal escape, he returned to Venice and became an agent of the very Inquisition, from which he managed to elude so cleverly. 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 and means "prison") is shrouded in legends and secrets, no less terrible than "Piombi" or "Pozzi". It is authentically 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 Carcheri felt.

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

Karcheri prison performed its functions until the end of World War II. Then it was closed and turned into a museum, where tourists go 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 take their last look at freedom, see a piece of the sea, breathe in the air of freedom and ... often never again meet their relatives and close ones.

Prepared by Yuri ALEXANDROV

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