Chistopol Prison

Chistopol Prison (Russian: Чистопольская тюрьма) (previously known as UE 148/T-4^[1]) is a prison in Chistopol, Tatarstan Republic in Russia. It is one of the oldest penitentiary institutions in Russia. Since 2006 (after significant reconstruction) it has been functioning as Regional Pre-trial Detention Facility No. 5 with a maximum capacity of 522 people^[2]. It is the most modern detention facility in Tatarstan, equipped with modern security equipment^[1].

The prison was built in 1855-1857. It was originally intended to hold 350 prisoners. It was also used as a transit prison for convicts being transported to Orenburg and the Urals. The main contingent was criminals whose sentences did not reach penal servitude^[1].

During the Russian Civil War, the prison was intensively used by both the "Reds" and the "Whites". In 1918, the "Whites" arrested the Czech writer and commissar Jaroslav Hasek; a few weeks later, he was able to escape from prison by posing as someone else^[1].

In the 1920s and 1930s, the Chistopol "correctional home" was used as a pre-trial detention center.

During the Great Patriotic War, the number of prisoners in the prison increased to one and a half to two thousand, including Volga Germans and deserters. The high density of prisoners contributed to mass illnesses and deaths: from November 1941 to March 1943 alone, 1,023 people died of illness and hunger^[1]. Immediately after the end of the war, the prison was converted into a special-purpose psychiatric hospital.

In 1953, the prison was rebuilt as a strict and special regime prison. A significant number of prisoners were Ukrainian nationalists, including the father, mother and sister of the head of counterintelligence of the OUN (b) Roman Shukhevych.

Since 1960, the main contingent of prisoners were criminals sentenced to a "special regime of detention".

In the early 1970s, the prison was rebuilt once again: the category of "special regime" was softened to "enhanced regime" (for previously unconvicted citizens who committed serious crimes for the first time). In order to re-educate convicts, the prison began to intensively develop production. A school and a vocational school appeared at the prison, as well as a new residential building, a boiler room, and garages^[1].

Since its inception, the Chistopol Prison held various prisoners. Among the famous prisoners:

• Anatoly Marchenko - Soviet dissident, died in Chistopol in 1986.
• Constantin Bivol
• Igor Ogurtsov- founder of VSKhSON.
• Ivan Sokulskyi
• Konstantin Päts
• Mykola Matusevych
• Natan Scharansky^[3] - later Minister of Internal Affairs of Israel.
• Sergei Grigoryants
• Vazif Meylanov - Soviet dissident, writer.
• Valery Senderov - Soviet dissident, mathematician.
• Viktor Nekipelov - Soviet dissident, human rights activist, poet.
• Alexey Smirnov - Soviet dissident, human rights activist.
• Sergei Kovalev
• Viktoras Petkus
• Jaroslav Hašek