Sukhanovskaya special regime prison ( Sukhanovka , Special Object 110 ) is a secret prison for especially important political criminals that existed on the territory of St. Catherine’s Monastery in the Moscow Region in 1938-1953. It was created on the initiative and was under the jurisdiction of Nikolai Yezhov , after his arrest came under the control of Lawrence Beria . The prison was disbanded after the shooting of Beria.
| Sukhanov special regime prison | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Location | City Prominent Moscow Region |
| Coordinates | |
| Current status | closed |
| Number of seats | 170 |
| Opening | 1938 |
| Closing | 1953 |
| Located in the department | NKVD of the USSR |
Content
History
St. Catherine's Desert
The monastery in the Yermolinsky Groves was founded in 1658 by order of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich . The construction and maintenance of the desert was carried out at the expense of the personal funds of the sovereign [1] . The reign of Catherine II was a time of active construction and the heyday of the monastery. A new Catherine’s Cathedral was built, the gate church with a bell tower was renovated, two stone cell buildings were erected, the territory of the monastery was surrounded by a fence [2] [3] [4] .
In 1918, after the revolution, by decree of the Holy Synod, the monks of the male St. Catherine’s monastery were transferred to different monasteries in the Moscow province . The Catherine Deserts was determined to accommodate 164 sisters of the Krasnostok Convent , evacuated from Poland . The deserts were reorganized into a labor artel, but were soon closed, and the abbess was arrested [5] [6] .
Prison
The first prison facilities in the former monastery buildings appeared in 1932 . Until the fall of 1935, an educational colony for juvenile delinquents worked here. Next to the prison were the buildings of the noble estate of Sukhanovo , so the new prison was unofficially called "Sukhanovskaya" [7] .
In 1937, Mikhail Kalinin ordered the NKVD to take over all the buildings of the former monastery and the area around them for the maintenance of political prisoners. The idea of creating a secret prison on the territory of the former monastery for the victims of the Great Terror (first of all , his high-ranking employees who fell into disgrace from Joseph Stalin , as well as the arrested high-ranking officials of the NKVD itself) belonged to Nikolai Yezhov [8] , however, work on its arrangement began directly in early December 1938 , after Stalin removed Ezhov from the post of head of the NKVD of the USSR. The next year after his arrest, Yezhov was sent to the Sukhanov prison he created as a prisoner, where he was held nine months before the execution. The position of Yezhov was appointed Lavrentiy Beria [7] .
Beria became the actual organizer of the prison and took complete control of it. In the circle of initiates, the prison was called the “personal prison of Beria” or the “torture house”. The special prison was designed for 150-160 prisoners, the supervision of which was carried out by 70 guards. In addition, outside the prison was guarded by a detachment of the NKVD special purpose [9] [7] [10] .
Information about the prison was carefully classified. Prisoners were given special numbers upon admission. Relatives of the prisoners were informed that the arrested were sent to Lubyanka , Butyrka or Lefortovo [7] .
Beria for some time held high posts after the death of Stalin, on June 26, 1953 he was arrested, and on December 23 he was shot. After his death, the prison was disbanded, all documents are classified. From April 1959 to 1965, the Moscow Interregional Prison Hospital was located here. Since 1965, the Training Center of the Regional Central Internal Affairs Directorate was transferred to the territory of the former monastery [11] .
In 1989, the buildings were transferred from the balance sheet of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs to the Ministry of Culture , and in May 1992, St. Catherine’s Monastery was restored [9] .
Mode
Sukhanovka is that terrible prison that the MGB only has. She is scared of our brother, her name is pronounced by investigators with an ominous hiss. (And who was there - then you won’t be questioned: either incoherent nonsense is carried or not alive). Sukhanovka is the former Catherine’s desert, two buildings are urgent and investigative of 68 cells. They drive them in craters for two hours, and few people know that this prison is a few kilometers from the Lenin Hills and from the former estate of Zinaida Volkonskaya. There is a lovely area around. The prisoner being taken there is stunned by a standing punishment cell - again narrow so that if you are unable to stand, it remains to hang on your knees, no more. They are kept in such a punishment cell for more than a day - so that your spirit reconciles. Cells there are all arranged for two, but the detainees are often held one at a time. The cameras there are one and a half meters by two. <...> [TS] spruce of soundless Sukhanovka: do not leave you either a minute of sleep or minutes stolen for private life - you always look and are always in power. - Alexander Solzhenitsyn , description of Sukhanovka in the “ Gulag Archipelago ” [12] |
The prison regime was very strict. Names in the prison were forbidden: all prisoners, prison officials, and even the bodies of the executed were under the numbers [7] .
The use of brutal torture against prisoners is confirmed by many documents and eyewitness accounts. For example, in the cipher telegram of January 10, 1939 it read:
| The Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Ukraine clarifies that the use of physical influence in the practice of the NKVD has been permitted since 1937 with the permission of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of the Bolsheviks ... <...> The method of physical influence must necessarily be applied in the future, as an exception, with respect to obvious and under-disarmed enemies of the people, as absolutely correct and expedient method [13] [7] . |
The NKVD Order No. 0068 of April 4, 1953, which describes that various types of torture was established in prison, was also declassified:
| beating, round-the-clock use of handcuffs on arms twisted behind the back, lasting in some cases for several months, prolonged sleep deprivation, cold and hot punishment cells [13] [7] . |
Regulations after the closure of the prison:
| Eliminate organized by b. The Ministry of State Security of the USSR premises for applying physical measures to the arrested, and to destroy all the instruments through which torture was carried out [13] [7] |
There is evidence that a special crematorium was built in the Catherine Cathedral, where the bodies of the dead were burned in prison. Data officially confirming this fact has not been preserved. However, the author of the book about "Special Object 110", historian Lidia Golovkova, received this information from the colonel of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, who visited the prison in 1958 [14] [9] .
Two other facilities existed near the Sukhanovskaya prison, where prisoners detained during the Stalin period were kept and shot - this is the Butovo training ground and the special object of the NKVD Kommunarka . According to Golovkova, the number of victims in these three zones can amount to tens of thousands [7] .
Famous Prisoners
- Isaac Babel is a Soviet writer and playwright [15] .
- Mikhail Belyanchik - Soviet military leader, major general [15] .
- Ivan Bovkun-Luganets (Orelsky) - Russian revolutionary, employee of the OGPU-NKVD, envoy to China (1937-1939), was killed by the NKVD.
- Dmitry Bystrolyotov is a Soviet intelligence agent.
- Eugene Gnedin - Soviet diplomat, writer, journalist, member of the dissident movement.
- Nikolai Ezhov - Soviet party and statesman, general commissioner of state security.
- Kira Simonich-Kulik - the wife of Marshal Grigory Kulik , was abducted in 1939 by officers of the NKVD and placed in Sukhanovskaya prison [16] [17] .
- Grigory Lyaskin - Soviet military leader, major general [18] .
- Miron Merzhanov is a Soviet architect.
- Vladimir Tamruchi - Soviet military leader, lieutenant general of tank troops (September 9, 1941), commander of the armored forces of the South-Western Front (autumn 1941) [19] .
- Meer Trilisser is a Soviet statesman, one of the leaders of Soviet special agencies.
- Mikhail Frinovsky - leader of the Soviet state security agencies, commander of the 1st rank (1938).
- Chingiz Ildrym is an Azerbaijani Soviet metallurgical engineer, People’s Commissar of the Azerbaijan SSR for military and naval affairs (April 28, 1920 - June 1920), the first of Azerbaijanis awarded the Order of the Red Banner, deputy construction manager of the Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works [20] .
See also
- Shlisselburg Fortress
- Bastille
- Tower
- Prison Pletzensee
- Abu Ghraib Prison
Notes
- ↑ History. XVII century . St. Catherine's Monastery for men. Official site. Date of treatment July 16, 2017.
- ↑ History. XVIII century . St. Catherine's Monastery for men. Official site. Date of treatment July 16, 2017.
- ↑ Golovkova, 2014 , p. 6-10
- ↑ St. Catherine’s Monastery, 2003 , p. 11-15
- ↑ History. XX century . St. Catherine's Monastery for men. Official site. Date of treatment July 16, 2017.
- ↑ St. Catherine’s Monastery, 2003 , p. 45-58
- ↑ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 L. Golovkova “Beria's Cottage”. Special facility number 110 - Stalin's secret prison - was not in distant Siberia, but near Moscow . Immortal Hut (July 16, 2016). Date of treatment March 29, 2017.
- ↑ Smykalin, 1997 , p. 185
- ↑ 1 2 3 History. 1931-1991 years . St. Catherine's Monastery for men. Official site. Date of treatment July 16, 2017.
- ↑ Golovkova, 2014 , p. 29-36; 59-70
- ↑ Golovkova, 2014 , p. 145
- ↑ Alexander Solzhenitsyn. Gulag Archipelago. Volume 1 . Librebook Date of treatment July 16, 2017.
- ↑ 1 2 3 Golovkova, 2014 , p. 32-33
- ↑ Golovkova, 2014 , p. 143-144
- ↑ 1 2 Creating a Biography of Isaac Babel | Alternatives
- ↑ Lushnikova, Catherine "Special Object 110" or "cottage" of the NKVD . Echo of Russia (February 21, 2017). Date of treatment March 18, 2017. Archived March 18, 2017.
- ↑ Copies of the minutes of the interrogation of witness A. Ya. Gertsovsky and the accused L. Ye. Wlodzimirsky on August 4, 1953, the Politburo and the case of Beria. Collection of documents - M .: 2012, p. 567-572
- ↑ Golovkova L.A. Sukhanovskaya prison: special object 110. - M .: Return, 2009. - T. 3. - P. 163
- ↑ Stalin's torture prison (inaccessible link) . Date of treatment May 8, 2014. Archived April 24, 2014.
- ↑ Archive
Literature
- Golovkova L.A. St. Catherine’s Monastery. - M .: Summer, 2003 .-- 152 p.
- Golovkova L.A. Sukhanovskaya prison. Special Object 110. - M .: Return, 2014 .-- 164 p. - ISBN 9-785715-702326.
- Smykalin A. S. Colonies and prisons in Soviet Russia. - Yekaterinburg: UGLA, 1997.
Links
- Sukhanov special regime prison
- Sukhanovskaya special regime prison on the site “Moscow. Topography of Terror » http://topos.memo.ru/suhanovskaya-osoborezhimnaya-tyurma