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. Lenin (real name Ulyanov) Vladimir Ilyich
Maevsky Karl Yakovlevich
Molostvov Mikhail Mikhailovich
Pimenov Revolt Ivanovich
Trotsky Noy Abramovich
Liteiny Ave/Saint Petersburg, city, house 4
Shpalernaya St./Saint Petersburg, city, house 25
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 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
1875