History of the Sakhalin penal servitude. Sakhalin penal servitude. Any illness was practically a sentence
Sakhalin penal servitude in the XX century. At the beginning of the 20th century, the population of Sakhalin exceeded 40 thousand people. At the same time, the proportion of exiles decreased and the number of free peasants and philistines from the exiles, who became former convicts, increased. In 1904 the prisons at Douai and Honors had to be closed. Hard labor as a means of developing the island has clearly outlived its usefulness.
At this time, various anti-conservative political circles and formations are also gaining popularity. One of the points in the programs and constitutions of many of these societies was the abolition of hard labor on Sakhalin. For example, the underground newspaper of those years, Conversations of the Intelligentsia, wrote: “Sakhalin, with its hard labor regime and the suppression of individual rights, is becoming a symbol of general Russian lack of freedom and oppression. And this symbol must be destroyed in the name of the liberation of Russia.” And the government was preparing to abolish it. On August 18, 1904, the governor in the Far East, Admiral E. I. Alekseev, instructed the Governor-General of the Amur Region to prepare the issue of opening Sakhalin "for free colonization." The development of measures to abolish hard labor was entrusted to the Governor of Sakhalin M.N. Lyapunov with the participation of representatives of the ministries of justice, internal affairs, finance, etc. However, the events of the Russo-Japanese War outstripped the pans of the bureaucratic machine of tsarism.
At the beginning of the 20th century, the rivalry between Russia and Japan for influence in Northeast China and Korea led to an aggravation of the international situation in the Far East.
On the night of January 27 (February 9), 1904, Japanese destroyers attacked the ships of the Russian squadron in the outer roadstead of Port Arthur. It was a commemoration of the beginning of the Russo-Japanese War. The main goal of the Japanese was Manchuria and the Liaodong Peninsula, so Primorye, Kamchatka and Sakhalin were considered by the Russian military command as secondary footholds.
Therefore, the number of troops on Sakhalin was minimal. To avoid the loss of Sakhalin, a number of measures are being taken to strengthen it. All exiles and convicts were urgently transferred to the implementation of the island's defense plan, created by Minister of War A.N. Kuropatkin. The plan provided for the construction of fortifications near the Korsakovsky post, the construction of a hospital in the village of Vladimirovka, as well as preparations for the defense of the Naibuchi and Tikhmenevsky posts. But these works were immediately suspended, not even having time to begin. On January 28, 1904, the mobilization and formation of free squads were announced on the island. For exiles and settlers who joined the squads, benefits were established and the terms of punishment were reduced.
They even introduced a special uniform for them: a gray pea jacket, trousers and hats with a high crown, the top of which was cross-trimmed with red braid. Instead of a cockade, the cap was decorated with a militia cross. The combatant's equipment included a duffel bag, a shovel or an ax, an outdated Berdan rifle with a bandolier.
The idea of the defense was to pull the enemy deep into the island and use guerrilla tactics. The military governor, Lieutenant-General M.N. Lyapunov, commanded the defense of Sakhalin. On June 24, 1905, the 13th Infantry Division of Lieutenant General K. Kharaguchi, with the help of the squadron of Vice Admiral Kataoka, landed on Sakhalin. On June 27, more than half of the island's defense forces were defeated. On July 11, the Japanese delivered the final blow from the sea, which defeated the remaining army. The reason for such a quick defeat was the fact that the bulk of the troops consisted of exiled convicts.
Many of them immediately fled, having received weapons, others were engaged in looting or went over to the side of the Japanese. On August 23 (September 5), 1905, Russia and Japan in the city of Portsmouth (USA) signed a peace treaty, which, among other things, stated that part of Sakhalin Island south of the 50th parallel was ceded to Japan. The Russo-Japanese War and the Treaty of Portsmouth became another important milestone in the history of the Sakhalin penal servitude.
After 1905, the life of the northern and southern parts of the island went on completely different paths for forty years. The dynamic development of the economy and colonization processes in South Sakhalin was in sharp contrast to what was happening in the northern, hard labor part of the island, which was shaking from the social cataclysms that engulfed all of Russia in those years. While negotiations were going on in Portsmouth, Japan sought to establish itself on Sakhalin as soon as possible.
The Japanese authorities hastily tried to "evacuate" the civilian population to the mainland through De-Kastri and Nikolaevsk. A small part of the Sakhalin residents, mainly officials, were taken by steamers to Odessa. In October 1905, convicts, taking advantage of the lack of guards and authorities, made a mess in the post of Aleksandrovsky, set fire to the prison and the building of the district police department. Officials of the General Government made desperate efforts to disperse the "dangerous Sakhalin element" in the Primorsky and Amur regions.
Peasants from the exiles were sent to Western Siberia. Of the small number of convicts who remained by 1905, about 500 people were sent to Transbaikalia to the Nerchen penal servitude. The transition to normal life in Northern Sakhalin was slow. Villages were depopulated, and some of them were completely abandoned. So, in the Aleksandrovsky district, out of 37, only 14 villages remained, and in the Tymovsky district - 23 villages out of 28. Coal mining in the mines stopped. The roads laid by hard labor were destroyed, overgrown with forest and covered with ravines.
The hands of the government did not reach Sakhalin. Shaken by military defeat, Russia was plunged into the whirlpool of revolutionary events of 1905-1907. It seemed that the island, with its richest natural resources, was forgotten by the ruling circles of the empire. In the autumn of 1905, a new military governor arrived on the island - Colonel of the General Staff Arkady Mikhailovich Valuev, who had considerable administrative experience. By this time, there were 5.5 thousand Russian inhabitants and about 2 thousand natives in Northern Sakhalin. “Such a flight is explained by the panic fear induced by the past war, the rumor stubbornly held in the population about a new coming war and the population’s eternal dream of the mainland as a promised land,” A. M. Valuev wrote in his first report.
Prisons and hard labor ceased to exist. Residents of the "free state" made up 79% of the population, exiled settlers - 20%, and only 1% - hard labor. In the end, by the law of April 10, 1906, hard labor on Sakhalin was officially abolished.
End of work -
This topic belongs to:
The main stages of the transformation of Sakhalin Island into All-Russian penal servitude
The government could no longer fight the constant riots and protests of the peasants, for this it chose the method of evicting a dangerous contingent on .. The first part of the Code “The Code of Criminal and Correctional Punishments” - .. Hard labor necessarily involved the work of convicts, and hard work. He had to perform simultaneously in three..
If you need additional material on this topic, or you did not find what you were looking for, we recommend using the search in our database of works:
What will we do with the received material:
If this material turned out to be useful for you, you can save it to your page on social networks:
It is now Sakhalin Island that evokes romantic associations: a picturesque coast, an endless sea, mountains ... But some 150 years ago, everything was different, because Sakhalin penal servitude was the main "prison capital" of Tsarist Russia of the century before last. And any criminal was afraid to get here. Not only convicts, but also many writers and journalists who visited the island in those years for educational purposes, admitted that this was a real hell.
1. Hell was on the way
Even on the way to hard labor, the prisoners found themselves in such unbearable conditions that not everyone could survive. They were sent to hard labor either on foot through Siberia, or by sea from Odessa, on the ships of the so-called volunteer fleet. On the way, their shackles were not removed from them, they walked around the deck in shifts, surrounded by an escort, and spent the rest of the time in dark rooms below deck, where there was a terrible stuffiness.
The hold, where the prisoners were kept, was closed with a grate of metal pipes for reliability. If one of the prisoners tried to rebel or there was a fight, the guards let hot steam through the bars. In order not to be boiled alive, everyone tried to sit quietly. And passengers slept on long bunks for 200 people. Such an agonizing journey lasted about a month and a half.
2. Convicts became settlers
Sakhalin was ideally suited as a place for the exile of convicts. For these purposes, it began to be used from the 1960s and 70s of the century before last. At first, only political prisoners were sent here - opponents of the autocracy, but at the end of the century it became a haven for another kind of criminals - murderers, robbers, and so on. As you know, the famous Sonya Zolotaya Ruchka also served her sentences here.
The authorities of this convict island were allowed to treat the prisoners as they please, so complete arbitrariness reigned here.
Once on the island, the exile went through three stages: convict, settler, exiled peasant and free peasant. The latter, who had already served their term in prison, were allocated land plots. On such a piece of land, a peasant built a simple house, plowed a garden, acquired chickens. Well, in the first years of his stay on Sakhalin, the convict walked exclusively in shackles.
3. Slept straight with a wheelbarrow
Shackled convicts lived in rotten barracks with an earthen floor, on which they slept. They were fed with bread, consisting of unground grain and hay, and a stew of flour and half-rotten potatoes.
The convict was constantly shackled in three-kilogram shackles, even slept with them, and they were removed for him only during work. But especially dangerous criminals were chained to wheelbarrows, and so they walked all the time - not only during work, but also in the barracks, and slept, putting the wheelbarrow next to them.
4. The escape was the same hell
The harsh climate, psychologically unbearable conditions and hard work drove some prisoners crazy, turning them into beasts, or forced them to flee. Escape from this island surrounded by water was almost impossible and very dangerous, but some still managed to do it. It happened that the distraught convicts fled several people at a time, taking with them a young exile only in order to ... eat him along the way.
5. Hard labor
Many convicts worked in the mine, extracting coal. They went down there by 400 people, and not everyone came back. Those who did not fulfill the norm or were guilty were sent to a cold punishment cell or punished with rods. Sometimes the unfortunate could be whipped to death. The authorities turned a blind eye to this, and in cases of especially dangerous criminals, they even tacitly approved such murders.
About the Douai coal mines, the writer Chekhov, who visited Sakhalin, spoke as follows: “a terrible, ugly and in every respect trashy place in which only saints or deeply corrupted people can live of their own free will.”
When the convicts returned to the barracks after work, they were attacked by bugs, of which there were whole hordes in the premises.
6. The execution was turned into a spectacle
The death penalty on Sakhalin took place until the end of the 19th century. As a rule, the prisoner was deprived of his life by hanging. It was a terrible, heartbreaking sight. All the prisoners were brought to watch the execution. A suicide bomber, dressed in clean linen, was read the sentence for a very long time. Before death, a person trembled in horror with a large shiver or involuntarily urinated. And during the execution itself, the drum always beat loudly - this was done so that others would not hear the crying, screams and curses of the dying person. The entire event lasted over an hour.
According to the memoirs of the priest Fr. Alexander, who served at the end of the 19th century on Sakhalin, for several days before the execution, the gallows practically could not sleep - they were worried. Batiushka told how he was sent to support three convicted men, and those actually did not let him go around the clock, “allowing” only to go home to eat. All three days he managed to support them with parting words and prayer: he told them that they should not lose faith, because there were cases when the sentence was canceled right before its execution. One of the three, an old man, tried all day to be brave, but just before the execution he lost heart so much that his arms and legs were taken away and he was carried to the gallows in his arms.
In the history of the Sakhalin penal servitude, there were isolated cases when those going to the execution behaved courageously. For example, the convict Klimenko, sentenced to the gallows for repeated attempts to escape and the murder of the escort who caught him, after the last crime, he himself appeared before the head of the prison with a confession. When he was taken to the scaffold, he delivered a speech full of dignity and repentance: they say that he himself is to blame for everything and deserved to be executed. When they hung him, the drum did not even beat.
7. Any illness was practically a death sentence.
Prisoners on Sakhalin suffered from typhus, scurvy, consumption, dysentery, and their treatment was purely formal. The Sakhalin doctor Zarzhevsky was especially famous for his indifference and even cruelty. When convicts were brought to him with complaints of feeling unwell, he usually wrote in conclusion: "Give out fifty rods." In the end, the doctor was killed by one of the prisoners. The convict Kapiton Zverev, who overstrained himself during hard work and received a standard “recipe” from the doctor in the form of a flogging, during his next visit and a similar conclusion from the doctor, took out a knife he had stored up in advance and plunged it into the hated doctor. As Zverev later admitted, he was not afraid of the risk of being hanged, but acted on the principle: "I will die, but it will be easier for other prisoners." But he was not sentenced to death - he was lucky.
Another black place in our country, the infamous Stalinist Gulag, has always caused a lot of controversy.
For 50 years, on the outskirts of the Russian Empire, an experiment was held to re-educate especially dangerous criminals. Back in the early 1850s, tsarist officials conceived the idea of creating a "separate zone" where recidivists could return to "normal human life" first by forced labor and then by free labor. For the experiment, Sakhalin Island was chosen - an ideal place in terms of protecting convicts: the sea is all around, and beyond the sea - deserted places. Another innovation was that after the end of the penal servitude, people were left on the island in "quarantine", trying to make agricultural colonists out of them. As one of the high-ranking officials of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Panov later admitted, the Sakhalin experiment was written off from the Australian experiment - at that time the British colonized the "green continent" in almost the same ways.
The first exiles appeared on Sakhalin in 1858 - 20 people were sent there on foot along the stage. 4 people died on the way, after 2 years 4 more convicts died on the island itself. But dispatches went to St. Petersburg - "the island is a disastrous place, but you can adapt it to life."
In 1869, the island was officially declared a place of hard labor and exile. In total, during the existence of the Sakhalin penal servitude (until 1905), about 37 thousand people were exiled here. That is an average of about 1,000 people a year. At the same time, for the first 10 years, the exiles were sent to Sakhalin on foot through Siberia - and their journey here sometimes took up to 14 months. Since 1879, convicts began to be transported by sea on steamers of the Volunteer Fleet. Ships sailed from Odessa around Asia, stopping at Constantinople, Port Said, Aden, Colombo, Singapore, Nagasaki and Vladivostok. The journey took an average of 65-75 days. All this time the criminals sat in suffocating holds in shackles. In some parties, about 10% of the convicts died on the way (as in 1893).
Another innovation was that very few political people were sent to Sakhalin - in 36 years, only 58 people. In Siberia, the political conducted missionary activities among the convicts - they taught the convicts to read and write, and treated them. And on Sakhalin, criminals were deprived of such attention.
The content of convicts on the island was very harsh. For the first 3-5 years they were shackled in hand and foot shackles, and sometimes chained in addition to a wheelbarrow. 80% of the convicts worked in coal mines (mostly near Aleksandrovsk), the rest - in logging and construction work. They lived in barracks for 30-50 people, with an earthen floor. About 20% of the convicts, while serving time, committed new violations, for especially serious (mostly murders) they were sentenced to death. The sentence was carried out in the Voivodship prison, and the executioner was chosen from among the convicts themselves. So, the executioner Komlev, sentenced to 55 years of hard labor for murders and escapes from custody, personally executed 13 people.
The hopes of tsarist officials for the strict isolation of convicts did not come true. Only from 1898 to 1901. about 1100 people fled, of which about 320 people ended up on the Japanese islands. It got to the point that the Japanese Foreign Ministry sent an official letter to Russian colleagues demanding to strengthen the security of prisoners.
Women began to refer to Sakhalin since 1884, they were in prison only while the investigation lasted, and then served a special penal servitude - a little easier in content than that of men. So, in shackles they were only in prison, especially dangerous criminals could be kept in them for up to a year.
For what crimes women were exiled here - you can, for example, see from the statistics for 1894 and 1895. In the first case, out of 120 women, 75 were convicted of murder, in the second, out of 84, 52 women were murderers. In 80-90% of cases they took the lives of their husbands.
The rest of her days were spent in the Sakhalin penal servitude and the infamous swindler Sonya "Golden Pen" (Blyuvshtein). Moreover, the local administration made good money on it. Journalist Pankratiev wrote about her then:
“Katorga, from the administration to the prisoners, was proud of Sonya Golden Hand. Sonya has become the main attraction of Sakhalin. Even in solitary confinement, with shackles on his legs, Sonya was haunted. She herself recalled the following - only, it happens, you calm down, again they demand Sonya the Golden Pen. Think again? No, take a photo. I was tormented by these photos...
Sonya was taken out to the prison yard, the scenery was set up - anvils, blacksmiths with hammers, guards - and they allegedly filmed the scene of shackling the Golden Handle in shackles. These photographs were sold by the hundreds on all the ships that came to Sakhalin. These photographs were especially popular in Europe.
At the end of 1894, Sonya went to the settlement and was determined to live in cohabitation with Stepan Bogdanov, the most ferocious of the convicts, exiled for murder. The whole island was afraid of him, but Sonya found an approach to him and he performed the functions of a protector and bodyguard with her.
As can be seen from this passage, the prison authorities voluntarily distributed women among the convicts. "To endure - fall in love." The ratio of men and women in hard labor was 8-10: 1, and getting a girl was a great happiness. That is why the administration - as part of the experiment - thus rewarded exemplary prisoners (or those needed in the case - for example, executioners or sex workers). At the same time, the administration did not give women the right to choose their partner.
The next stage of the experiment on Sakhalin: the gradual adaptation of the former convict to ordinary life through agricultural work.
After serving the term of hard labor, the prisoner received the title of an exiled settler, he was given at the expense of the treasury an ax, a shovel, a hoe, 2 pounds of rope and 1 month of provisions - 30 pounds of fish, 15 pounds of corned beef and 1.5 pounds of crackers. With these reserves on his own back, the settler went to the remote taiga, 30-40 kilometers from his former habitat, and there he had to build a house and develop a plot of land.
If in the future the settler was noticed "in diligence and integrity", then, by order of the administration, he received a cow, a horse, agricultural equipment, seeds for sowing in the form of a loan. In addition, the exiled settlers remained on government food allowance for two years. So, in a year, about 25 kg of flour, 50 kg of meat, 3 kg of cereals were supposed to per person. For 2 years, 2 pairs of boots and 20 sq. m of cloth. When entering into marriage, a bonus was laid on a husband and wife - 15 rubles each.
According to Karpov, a Sakhalin statistician, in 1895 there were 2,251 men and 222 women exiles. Approximately 30% of them "had a model economy." “Basically, the Old Believers, Poles and Stundists were distinguished by their diligence,” wrote Karpov. About 10% hid from the authorities - "got together in criminal gangs, brewed moonshine, wandered around." The remaining 60% of the exiled settlers "served their number", waiting in "some kind of labor - just not to stretch their legs" for the expiration of the term of exile and the opportunity to leave for the mainland.
By the beginning of the Russo-Japanese War in 1904, about 46 thousand prisoners, exiled settlers, free residents and the indigenous people of the Ainu (about 2 thousand) lived on the island. The loss in the war with Japan, as you know, led to the rejection of South Sakhalin from Russia, the border between the two parts of the island passed along the 50th parallel. On April 10, 1906, the Law on the abolition of the Sakhalin penal servitude was announced. Although the penal system was abolished, the restoration of the full rights of former exiles and convicts was carried out gradually. So, in 1910 they were allowed free enterprise and movement around the island. But these rights became invalid if the person left the island. Only in February 1913 their rights were fully restored. By this time, only about 6 thousand people remained living on the Russian part of Sakhalin (including prisoners in the only prison remaining on the island - in Aleksandrovsk).
Almost all Russians were evacuated from the Japanese part of the island. Free people, the Japanese paid the cost of lost property. About 400 fugitive convicts and exiled settlers, huddled in gangs and living by robberies and murders, were caught and shot by the Japanese within six months (the tsarist government had been looking for them for years). Only about 220 people remained to live under the Japanese - now former citizens of the Russian Empire. Basically, these were the already mentioned Poles, Old Believers and Stundist Germans.
Between 1908 and 1917, the tsarist government tried to repopulate the northern part of Sakhalin - now with free people. The settlers were promised significant benefits: cash allowance - 400 rubles per family, exemption from military service for 3 years and from taxes - for 5 years. But even such excellent economic conditions at that time could not attract more than 600 people to the island in 9 years. Sakhalin continued to be perceived by people as a disastrous, inhospitable place, "almost hell."
women prisoners being transported on the streets of Alexandrovsk on SakhalinOn December 10, 1929, the Politburo considered the question of using the labor of prisoners directly on Sakhalin. The resolution of the Politburo Commission of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks provided for sending to the island at the disposal of the Joint Stock Sakhalin Society (ASO) persons sentenced to long terms and held in places of detention of the NKVD, OGPU for use "in works of national importance." It was not supposed to send "active counter-revolutionaries, bandits, robbers, recidivist thieves and professional killers" to the island. The first batch of convicts (1000 people) was planned to be transferred as early as April 1930.
Prisoners transported to the island were to be considered paroled and had the right to move freely within a certain area. ASO was instructed to conclude contracts with them, which would specify the nature and place of work, methods of its implementation, salary, conditions for supplying food, etc.
The Kirovsky (now Tymovsky) district was connected with the regional center by a single gravel road 57 km long, built by the Oshosdor NKVD in 1936 year.
Plans for the 3rd five-year plan primarily provided for highway construction Derbinsk - state border (121.5 km) and Derbinsk - Nogliki (145 km), which was entrusted to the road authorities of the NKVD. Technical research in these areas was carried out back in 1937 year. Ensuring the construction of the necessary labor force in the amount of up to two thousand people assigned to the NKVD. (about the construction of roads on Sakhalinhttp://vff-s.narod.ru/sakh/tp/t02.htm )
1937 In the village of Upper Armudan, the construction of "defense facility No. 429" began - a high-power broadcast radio station. 700 convicts were involved. The labor of convicts is actively used in the construction of the strategic highway Aleksandrovsk-Derbinsk, which goes through the Kamyshovy pass.
1940 April. The Council of People's Commissars of the USSR and the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks adopted a resolution on the construction of the Okha-Sofiyskoye oil pipeline. With a length of 388 kilometers, passing along the bottom of the Nevelskoy Strait, it was designed to transport crude oil to processing sites.
November 1941 the oil pipeline was put into operation ahead of schedule.
On the eve of the Great Patriotic War, a number of departmental regulatory instructions were adopted aimed at stabilizing the operational situation in places of deprivation of liberty. The degree of isolation of the special contingent increased, security was strengthened, correspondence with relatives was limited, radio loudspeakers were confiscated, the working day was 10 hours.
During the war years, 117,000 employees of labor camps and colonies were mobilized to the front, the administration of places of deprivation of liberty was forced to recruit foremen, supply managers, and even heads of prison camps.
1947 On August 4, the Department of Correctional Labor Colonies of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Sakhalin Region was created. For the maintenance of convicts on the island formed 7 colonies various modes and 3 prisons. The department is headed by junior lieutenant Vasily Alekseevich Levin. At first, the prisoners lived in tents. There was no hot food, there was not enough food. Potatoes were issued exclusively for the purpose of antiscorbutic prophylaxis.
1948 A large number of convicts are being transported to Sakhalin - a large-scale construction of auto and railway lines is planned.
1949 The Council of Ministers of the USSR adopted a secret resolution on the construction of the Pogibi - Pobedino railway line (332 km.) And the Tymovskoye - Aleksandrovsk branch (46 km.). The number of prisoners in the camps was 7639 people.
1950
The Department of Correctional Labor Camps and Construction No. 506 of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs is being created. The colonel of the internal service is appointed as the head N. Potemkin. Survey work and construction of a strategic railway tunnel under the Tatar Strait - known as "object No. 506" - begins. More than 10 thousand convicts, of which 70% were convicted under Article 58 of the Criminal Code of the RFSR those. "Enemy of the people". Approximately a quarter of the prisoners were thieves, bandits and recidivists. The terms of imprisonment for almost all of them are from 15 to 25 years.
The section of the narrow-gauge railway Okha - Nogliki was built in record time.
"From now on colonies converted to campsites SakhLAGA 506th building. Again, as many years ago, during the time of hard labor, convicts began to be delivered to the island in large batches. Now they were called not convicts, but prisoners. A year later, the former ITL system was unrecognizable, the monstrous mechanism was gaining momentum: by the end of 1951, there were 12533 people, including 2258 women. (from the book by A.M. Pashkov)
1951 Sakhalin has 26 camps. All of them were located along the Pogibi-Pobedino railway line. The headquarters of the entire construction site was located in Tymovsk, and nodal centers - in Pobedino, Voskresenskoye and Nysh.
1953 Death of Stalin. The tunnel construction project is "frozen" and abandoned. After the amnesty, the number of prisoners was reduced to 3.5 thousand people. 1966
1966 On October 27, according to the order of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Gulag was renamed into the Main Directorate of Correctional Labor Colonies of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs.
In tsarist Russia there were prisoners:
In 1912 - 183 thousand people;
In the Soviet Union there were prisoners:
In 1924 - 86 thousand people;
In 1927 - about 200 thousand people;
In 1937 - about 16 million people;
In the 40-50s - about 17-22 million people;
In the 70s - about 3 million people;
In the 80s - about 4 million people.
From prison and from the bag do not renounce.
In Russia, hard labor may be revived. This idea was voiced at the Congress of Lawyers by the Honored Lawyer of Russia Alexei Alexandrov. In his opinion, the concept of “crime” should appear in the criminal law of Russia, uniting a number of serious crimes, for the commission of which terrorists, drug dealers and murderers of children would be sent straight to indefinite hard labor. Alexandrov, a member of the Bureau of the Presidium of the Association of Lawyers of Russia, believes that hard physical labor without amnesty, without pardon, visits, correspondence is extremely necessary as a punishment in criminal law. Hard labor could replace the death penalty, on which a moratorium is currently imposed in the Russian Federation.
Some have half their heads cut. So they marked the convicts, so that, in the event of an escape, it was immediately clear that he was a prisoner, so to speak. They gave a special note. The convicts were shaved either the left or right half of the head, depending on the degree of the crime. CLEAN-shaven - indefinitely, so there was no point in shaving all the fugitives - they would take it for an PERMANENT convict.
A haircut is a trifle! From 1845 to 1863 in the Russian Empire they branded s/k. There were several types of brands: "SK" - exile convict, "SB" - exile fugitive. The brand was placed on the right arm below the elbow. If a person “chased a fool”, said that he did not remember who he was and where he was from, he was given a “B” clelio - a tramp. But in general, crooks in Rus' were stigmatized since ancient times. And now, for some, the stigma would not hurt ...
Take a look at the Statute of the Exiles and you will find out that hard labor in the summer could not exceed 11 hours, and in the winter - 10 hours.
On church holidays, parishioners brought food to the prisoners. The prison was a frequented place for society. People understood that anyone can become a convict.
The photo was taken around 1885.
It should be noted that many of the sentenced were put in shackles, which they did not remove during the entire period of their imprisonment, and this is on average from 10 to 20 years. Can you imagine this?
Tyumen province
Party of convicts, rest on the road near Tomsk.
Kara mine in Eastern Siberia; prison, barracks in 1885. Hard labor for both ordinary criminals and political offenders.
Siberian settlers-prisoners.
Socialist-Revolutionary terrorists, killers of executive authorities, drink tea in the Maltsev women's hard labor prison (near Akatuy, the Nerchinsk penal servitude system) 1909
Fugitive convicts
True, colorful types?
Arriving convicts are put on shackles
The chaining of the wrist is called the golden hand.
Convicts are being escorted to Aleksandrovsk on Sakhalin.
According to the verdict of the court, a convict in hard labor could be kept both in shackles and without them. Prisoners in steel shackles were placed in special "shackled" prisons, which were distinguished by a tougher regime. Shackles could be both hand and foot; the time spent in them, which usually amounted to a third of the entire period of conviction and often exceeded 5 years, turned into a severe test for physical and mental health. The leg irons weighed half a pound; manual ones were arranged in such a way that the chained could not spread his arms more than 30 centimeters. It is clear that the shackles made the simplest household tasks incredibly difficult: try to dine yourself or gird yourself with a strap with your hands tied. Or at least just fall asleep ... Here it is hard labor!
A convict in shackles. These photographs illustrate well the design of leg irons: a long (up to a meter) chain connecting two metal cuffs riveted at the ankles. The chains were necessarily large-link, since, as practice has shown, a prisoner could not hang himself on such a chain. To prevent the chain from dragging along the floor, it was usually tied to the waist belt (in the left figure it can be clearly seen that it was also tied to the knees). If a prisoner was suicidal, no tie-strings were given to him; in this case, he had to carry the chain in his hands. True, it was possible not to wear it, but the sound of a chain of shackles dragging along the floor, as noted by those who heard it, infuriated even the most balanced people.
A convict in steel shackles. The photograph illustrates a particularly sophisticated punishment - chaining to a wheelbarrow (This is a fetish! - editor's note). The weight of such a wheelbarrow reached 5 pounds (80 kilograms). Nothing was carried in the wheelbarrow; such prisoners usually did not work due to their extreme danger to the convoy and other prisoners. Chaining to a wheelbarrow could only be awarded by hard labor or the highest local administration for especially heinous crimes; usually the wheelbarrow was received by those sentenced to death, but pardoned. They also forged from the wheelbarrow by a special decree.
In the bath, the shackles were not removed - the clothes were pulled through the gaps between the body and the iron. To prevent the metal from rubbing over the body and not tearing clothes, special leather pads were inserted under the steel cuffs. Prolonged wearing of shackles led to thinning of the bones at the wrists and ankles, and muscle atrophy; in addition, a specific gait was developed, which made the former convict recognizable even many years after the removal of the shackles. Experienced police officers easily recognized the faces of this category in the crowd, which has preserved a lot of historical evidence.
A cage with convicts on the cargo ship Petersburg, transporting them to Sakhalin, 1890
The imposition of shackles. This procedure, despite its apparent simplicity, was very delicate, since steel shackles in the hands of a physically strong man turned into a deadly weapon. Hard labor knows many cases when the fights of shackled prisoners led to human casualties.
Stage. 1885
