Kresty Prison.

Categories / City Administration/Police, Prisons
KRESTY (Crosses) (5-7 Arsenalnaya Embankment/ 8 Komsomola Street), a colloquial name of St. Petersburg solitary confinement prison. It was built in 1884-90 (architect A.O. Tomishko) on the site of Vinny (Wine) Settlement adapted for a prison for short-term prisoners in 1868 (architect V.P. Lvov). Two 5-storeyed cruciform in plan (hence the name) buildings comprise 960 cells assigned for 1150 persons. On the upper storey of the central building, five-domed St. Alexander Nevsky church is situated (closed down in 1918). Along with criminals, political prisoners sentenced to solitary confinement were kept here, (including members of Narodnaya Volya - V.I. Braudo, A.A. Ergin, M.S. Olminsky, V.P. Priyutov). At the time of the Revolution of 1905-07, Kresty were predominantly a political prison (among the prisoners were representatives of different political parties and organizations, members of St. Petersburg Soviet of working people' deputies, deputies of the 1st State Duma that had signed the Vyborg proclamation in 1906). On February 27, 1917 the insurgent workers from Vyborgskaya Side and soldiers of Petrograd garrison released all prisoners of Kresty. Following the July events of 1917, arrested Bolsheviks were put into Kresty (V.A. Antonov-Ovseenko, P.E. Dybenko, L.B. Kamenev, A.V. Lunacharsky, F.F. Raskolnikov, L.D. Trotsky and others), subsequently released in August - October of 1917. In the 1920s-early 1950s, numerous victims of mass repressions were kept in Kresty. In 1921, a concentration camp Kresty was situated here, in 1923, Petrograd district infirmary together with prison hospital, in 1937-53, the experimental-design bureau 172 ("a fly-by-night"), where naval armament was developed. Today Kresty is the preliminary isolation ward of the Main Department of Internal Affairs of St. Petersburg and Leningrad region.

References: Ольминский М. С. Три года в одиночной тюрьме (1896-1898 гг.). 2-е изд. М.; Пг., 1923; Гернет М. Н. История царской тюрьмы. 3-е изд. М., 1961. Т. 3. С. 377, 381-382; Федор Раскольников о времени и о себе: Воспоминания. Письма. Документы. Л., 1989. С. 208-261.

A. D. Margolis. Antonov-Ovseenko Vladimir Alexeevich
Braudo V.I.
Dybenko Pavel Efimovich
Ergin Alexander Alexandrovich
Kamenev (Rozenfeld) Lev Borisovich
Lunacharsky Anatoly Vasilievich
Lvov Vladislav Pavlovich
Olminsky Mikhail Stepanovich
Priyutov Vasily Petrovich
Raskolnikov Fedor Fedorovich
Tomishko (Tomishka) Antony Osipovich (Iosifovich)
Trotsky (real name Bronstein) Lev Davidovich
Arsenalnaya Embankment/Saint Petersburg, city, house 5
Arsenalnaya Embankment/Saint Petersburg, city, house 7
Komsomola St./Saint Petersburg, city, house 8
Гернет М. Н. История царской тюрьмы. 3-е изд. М., 1961
Три года в одиночной тюрьме (1896-1898 гг.). 2-е изд. М.; Пг., 1923
Федор Раскольников о времени и о себе: Воспоминания. Письма. Док. Л., 1989 Revolution of 1905-07
State Duma
1890