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Entries / House of Preliminary Detention, prison

House of Preliminary Detention, prison


Categories / City Administration/Police, Prisons

HOUSE OF PRELIMINARY DETENTION (25 Shpalernaya Street), the first remand prison in Russia. It was built in 1871-75 (architect K.Y. Maevsky) who took American system as an example: the doors of cells overlooked stepped iron passages; inside the house there was a vast inner court for prisoners' strolls. In the House there are 317 solitary cells, 68 mass cells, punishment cells, prison hospital (assigned for 700 prisoners). On the 3rd and 4th storeys of the yard wing St. Alexander Nevsky church was situated (closed in 1919, rebuilt). Until 1917, the House of Preliminary Detention was mainly used for imprisonment of members of the revolutionary movement. Prisoners were kept there during the time of investigation and in the course of legal proceedings, the latter took place in the building of District Court (Liteyny ave, 4; not preserved), linked with the prison by a passage. Among the first prisoners of the house were the participants of "walking into common people" that were at law with "the trial of 193" (1877-78). Later there were imprisoned many members of Zemlya i Volya, Narodnaya Volya; since the mid-1890s representatives of different revolutionary organizations and groups. In 1895-97 V.I. Lenin was incarcerated in the cell No. 193 (the cell has been turned into a museum). The House of Preliminary Detention had the best prison library in the country (in 1904 it comprised over 7,300 volumes), collected mainly by prisoners themselves (presently has been handed over to the Library of Russian Academy of Sciences). At the time of February Revolution of 1917 the prisoners of the House of detention were freed by the rebels; the building of District Court, burned down. Since the 1920s, The House of Preliminary Detention has been a remand prison of Leningrad (St. Petersburg) administration of the Joint State Political Administration board succeeded by People's Commissariat of Home Affairs, the Ministry of State Security, the Committee of State Security (KGB), Federal Security Service (FSB). Here in murderous conditions numerous victims of the political repressions were kept. The name "Shpalerka" became common among Leningrad citizens. In 1931-32, the building housed the experimental-design bureau-12 where imprisoned engineers and architects worked, carrying out the project plan of "the Big House" under the supervision of N.A. Trotsky. In the 1970-80s, up to 30 political prisoners were kept in the investigatory isolation ward of KGB (including human rights defenders M.M. Molostvov and R.I. Pimenov).

References: Никитин В. Н. Тюрьма и ссылка: Ист., законодат., адм. и бытовое положение заключенных... СПб., 1880; Гернет М. Н. История царской тюрьмы. 3-е изд. М., 1961. Т. 3. С. 361-366.

A. D. Margolis.

Persons
Lenin (real name Ulyanov) Vladimir Ilyich
Maevsky Karl Yakovlevich
Molostvov Mikhail Mikhailovich
Pimenov Revolt Ivanovich
Trotsky Noy Abramovich

Addresses
Liteiny Ave/Saint Petersburg, city, house 4
Shpalernaya St./Saint Petersburg, city, house 25

Bibliographies
Никитин В. Н. Тюрьма и ссылка: Ист., законодат., адм. и бытовое положение заключенных... СПб., 1880
Гернет М. Н. История царской тюрьмы. 3-е изд. М., 1961

The subject Index
District Court
Zemlya i Volya (Land and Liberty) of 1860s
Zemlya i Volya (Land and Liberty) of 1870s
Narodnaya Volya
February Revolution of 1917
Bolshoy Dom

Chronograph
1875


Bolshoy Dom

BOLSHOY DOM (Big House)(4 Liteiny Avenue), the name Leningraders gave to the administrative building where the bodies of Joint State Political Administration Board (OGPU), People's Commissariat of Home Affairs

Cheltsov M.P. (1870-1931), Venerable Martyr

CHELTSOV Mikhail Pavlovich (1870-1931, Leningrad), archpriest, religious and public figure. Graduated from Kazan Theological Academy in 1894. From1898 he lived in St

Chernov V. M. (1873-1952), Socialist Revolutionary

CHERNOV Viktor Mikhailovich (1873-1952) was a political figure, sociologist, and publicist. On graduating from Derpt Gymnasium (1892) he entered the Faculty of Law of Moscow University, and participated in revolutionary circles

District Court

DISTRICT COURT, a judiciary body, established in the course of the Judiciary reform of 1864. Consisted of a chairman, his deputy and members of the court (appointed by the minister of Justice)

February Revolution of 1917

FEBRUARY REVOLUTION OF 1917 is the Second Russian Revolution, which dethroned the Monarchy. Decisive events developed in Petrograd. On 23 February (8 March) 1917

Lenin V.I. (1870-1924), revolutionary, statesman

LENIN (real name Ulyanov) Vladimir Ilyich (1870-1924), political figure, statesman and writer. Upon graduating from the Simbirsk Gymnasium (1887), he entered the Faculty of Law of Kazan University; in the same year got involved in student protests

Milyukov P.N. (1859-1943), statesman, historian

MILYUKOV Pavel Nikolaevich (1859-1943), statesman, historian, essayist, honorary doctor of Cambridge University (1916). He graduated from the Faculty of History and Philology of Moscow University in 1882. From 1886, he was a private tutor there

Prisons (entry)

PRISONS. The first prison in St. Petersburg (Convict gaol, or Convict yard, until 1732 under the jurisdiction of the Admiralty) was built in 1706 in the area of present-day Truda square

Revolution of 1905-07

REVOLUTION OF 1905-07. The first people's bourgeois-democratic revolution in Russia. Caused by socioeconomic contradictions and the country's political development following the reforms of 1860s-70s

Shpalernaya Street

SHPALERNAYA STREET, from Gagarinskaya Street to Rastrelli Square. The street was known as First Line until 1727, then was called First Beregovaya Street. In the late 18th century it assumed the name Voskresenskaya Street or Voskresenskaya Embankment

Trepov F.F. the Chief of the Police in 1866-78

TREPOV Fedor Fedorovich (1809-1889, St. Petersburg), statesman, cavalry general (1878), adjutant-general (1867). The father of D.F. Trepov. In 1826-27 he studied at the Central Engineering school in St. Petersburg