CHISTOPOL PRISON

 312121.11.2006

The Chistopol Prison (UYe-149/st.4) was a Soviet penal institution situated in the town of Chistopol in the Tatar Autonomous SSR. In 1978 all political prisoners were transferred from Vladirmir Prison here, around 800 km from Moscow, to ensure greater isolation from the world. From then on this was the only prison in the USSR holding people convicted under “political” articles of the Criminal Code (the so-called “particularly dangerous state crimes”, for example, “anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda”) and sentenced to prison terms, or transferred there from political labour camps for “violations of the regime”. In 1986 the political prisoner Mark Morozov died in the Chistopol Prison, and the death in December 1986 of Anatoly MARCHENKO prompted a large-scale release of political prisoners in the USSR.

Based on material from “Memorial”, Moscow