Vladimir Central is one of the most famous prisons in Russia. Her more than two hundred year history hides many mysteries. In the mid-90s of the last century, a museum was opened on its territory. It is called the Vladimir Central by analogy with the name of the prison itself. In fact, this is a bit wrong. This is a museum of the history of Vladimir prison. This article is devoted to its foundation, description and conditions of visit.
Background
Treasury houses for the maintenance of criminals in our country appeared 6 centuries ago. True, there were very few of them, since in pre-Petrine Russia the court was swift, and for many, as they would say today, criminal offenses immediately took their lives, were cut off with rods, or cut off their hands. There were, of course, state criminals who, for one reason or another, were afraid to execute for fear of popular unrest or on the basis of some other considerations. Such persons, mainly belonging to the royal, princely and boyar clans, were forced to take monastic tonsure and sent to distant cloisters.
Everything has changed in the reign of Catherine the Second, who, among other reforms, has implemented transformations in the sphere of the system of punishment for crimes. In 1783, she issued a decree which ordered that the offender who committed petty theft be punished with lashes and placed in “workers” or, as they were called, state-owned houses. There they had to work until they worked out not only the amount of damage caused to the owner of the stolen property, but also 6 percent more.
To implement the decree, it was required to build "work houses" throughout the country.
Prison foundation
Immediately after reading the decree, the Vladimir governor's board ordered the architect Nikolai von Burke to develop a project and draw up an estimate for the construction of the provincial "working house".
As a result, it was decided to limit the construction of four log huts with canopies and closets, as well as a square log-house with a width and length of 9 arshins.
More than 145 rubles were spent on the construction of this treasury house from the provincial treasury, and in August 1783 the prison was opened.
In 1838, the Vladimir Worker’s House was renamed the prison company, which became the prototype of modern temporary detention facilities. It was used to support those who are commonly called “diurnals” in modern prison jargon. They kept them there for only a few days, but were daily taken out to community service.
The history of the prison in the first half of the 20th century
Only in 1902, Vladimir Central, a museum at which today is considered one of the most interesting sights of the city, became a prison in the modern sense of the word.
After the revolution of 1905, the composition of the prisoners changed significantly, among which political prisoners began to dominate. By the way, the prison began to be called the Vladimir Central just when those who sought to overthrow Nicholas II began to be brought there. They were kept until a party was recruited, which was sent into exile on the famous Nizhny Novgorod road.
After the Bolsheviks came to power in the country, the situation has not changed. More precisely, since 1918, in the Vladimir Central prison, along with other categories of prisoners, they began to contain those who disagree with the Soviet regime.
In the mid-30s, it was transferred to the jurisdiction of the NKVD, and later became subordinate to the USSR State Security Directorate. In the postwar years, there were also collaborators who collaborated with the Nazis.
Modern history
In 1978, on the eve of the Olympics, documents were prepared for the transfer of especially dangerous criminals to prisons in Kazan and Chistopol. A large influx of tourists was expected in Vladimir, which is part of the Golden Ring of Russia, so it was decided to send all political prisoners as far as possible from the capital. At the same time, 26 so-called thieves in law were transferred to the Vladimir Central, the museum of which is constantly updated with new exhibits, so the criminal situation there has sharply worsened and there has been a bias towards criminal activity.
Prison Description
At the moment, Vladimir Central is a prison for dangerous criminals. It contains murderers, rapists, repeat offenders, etc. Among them there are also life-sentenced maniacs who are housed in cells in two. The regime in the Vladimir Central in recent years has become more humane and close to international standards. The cameras have televisions, and some even have refrigerators. Almost any literature is available to prisoners. They are allowed to write newspapers and magazines, as well as receive programs and see relatives.
One of the chambers of the Vladimir Central in 1995 was converted into an Orthodox church, which was consecrated in the name of St. Nicholas. In 2003, a dome was erected over the church, and a few years later a small belfry was built.
In order to provide detainees and convicts with legal information in 2003, the first in the Russian Federation “Legal Information Center” was opened at the Vladimir Central.
Famous prisoners
According to the staff of the Vladimir Central Museum, relatives of famous people who at different times were forced to be in the walls of this prison very often come there.
Her most famous prisoners include:
- Pre-revolutionary State Duma deputy V. Shulgin, who accepted the abdication of the throne from Nicholas II;
- participant of the White Movement General D. Semenov;
- revolutionary and one of the prominent military and Soviet figures M.V. Frunze;
- Colonel of the Abwehr and one of the organizers of the SS division “Galitchina” Alfred Bizanz;
- the head of the Hungarian People’s Republic, Janos Kadar (at the time of imprisonment, the former head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Hungary);
- Armenian military and statesman Garegin Nzhdeh;
- Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR Stepan Mamulov, a close friend of Beria;
- the son of the “leader of the peoples” Vasily Stalin;
- the last Nazi commandant of Berlin G. Weidling;
- the famous singer Lidia Ruslanova, arrested together with her husband Vladimir Kryukov, who was in the close circle of G.K. Zhukov and was recognized as a member of the "Military Conspiracy";
- Field Marshal F. Scherner, commander of the Center group of the German Wehrmacht;
- classic of Tajik literature Said Rizo Ali-Zade;
- Lithuanian pre-war Prime Minister A. Merkis;
- Israeli Government Minister and former Soviet dissident Nathan Sharansky;
- Archimandrite of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church K.K. Sheptytsky and others.
Vladimir Central Museum: address
You can get to this first institution of this kind in Russia on foot, walking along one of the main streets of the city - Bolshoi Nizhny Novgorod - to house No. 67. You can also get there. To do this, use trolley bus number 1. After passing from the station 3 stops (to the "Turn to Tochmash"), you should walk along the left side of the street a bit on foot in the direction of travel. If you get lost, although it is almost impossible, you can ask any passerby about where the Vladimir Central is located.
By the way, the walk will be quite interesting and informative, since along the way you can see the five-domed Virgin Assumption Church of the 17th century (address: Bolshaya Moskovskaya), the Frunze monument, the Nativity Monastery, the Stoletovs House-Museum with an interior of the 19th century, etc.
Museum of the Vladimir Central
How to go to jail? Such a question may seem strange. However, in the case of the Vladimir Central, it is quite logical. After all, there is a museum in the prison, which not only Russians but also foreigners want to visit, among which there are many relatives of those who have been in this prison at different times.
The opening hours of the Vladimir Central Museum are undefined. The duration of the allowed visit is 1.5-2 hours. Of these, the tour itself takes 40 minutes.
Museum foundation
Having found out where the Vladimir Central is located, many doubt whether it is worth visiting, since not everyone wants to go to a place where they will be presented in all their glory with the peculiarities of life “by concepts”. Those who have already visited the museum unanimously argue that this should not be feared, since it is not dedicated to the laws adopted among criminal criminals, but to the history of the Vladimir Central and to famous personalities who were kept in its walls for different years.
The idea of ​​creating such an institution appeared in the 1980s. However, in the Soviet period, its implementation was out of the question. Work on the museum exposition began in the mid-1990s. It was attended by employees of the prison and the Vladimir-Suzdal Museum-Reserve, who enthusiastically got down to business and achieved good results.
Description
The museum opened in 1997. He became one of the first in Russia. The Vladimir Central Museum occupies two former chambers with embedded window openings. In the corridor through which visitors follow the museum, the best works of painting and graphics drawn by prisoners are exhibited. Among them there are very good jobs.
The museum itself presents a lot of interesting documents and photographs taken in different years, personal belongings of prisoners, prison items, etc. They reflect the history of the Vladimir Central from the end of the 18th century to the present day. The search for exhibits was carried out for several years. To recreate the history of the prison, archives were studied that preserved interesting information about dissidents, German high-ranking military men, intellectuals, as well as the Soviet and party elites who became victims of political repression, etc.
Some exhibits entered the museum from abroad. For example, in the museum you can see a number of documents received by Vladimir from the United States from relatives of the American pilot Powers, who was serving his term at the central station in the early 1960s.
A separate place is reserved for a collection of objects created by prison craftsmen. Among them - a tattoo machine made from a razor, a charger for a mobile phone, built into the sole of the slates, etc. One of the most interesting exhibits is an old samovar, which provided “sitters” with boiling water almost since the reign of Catherine II.
With great interest, visitors get acquainted with photographs taken in 1935-1940, when mostly “enemies of the people”, including relatives of Joseph Stalin’s wife, were in prison.
Museum visitors are invited to inspect the products of workshops in which prisoners work. These are soccer balls, boxing gloves, telephones, etc.
Reviews
The prison is a gloomy place, so people with a weak mentality should better refrain from visiting the museum of the Vladimir Central. The reviews show that they are inspiring the inspection of the premises of the prison, which are allowed to visit. As for the rest, history buffs consider this tour to be very interesting and informative. Of particular interest to them are old photographs, a collection of counterfeit bills, which in their leisure were drawn by counterfeit prisoners, chess made from bread crumb.
Now you know why the prison museum of the Vladimir Central is interesting. A telephone for excursion requests can be found on the institution’s website. Well, is it worth it to visit, you decide. However, if you like unusual museums and want to get acquainted with the details of people's lives in Russian prisons, then be sure to visit this unique institution.