Editing Butyrka prison

{{short description|Prison in Moscow, Russia}}
{{Redirect|Butyrka||Butyrsky (disambiguation){{!}}Butyrsky}}
{{more citations needed|date=September 2012}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2020}}
{{Infobox prison
| prison_name    = Butyrka prison
| image          = Butyrka prison ed.jpg
| caption        = The prison in 2010
| location       = [[Sokolniki District]], [[Moscow]], [[Russia]]
| coordinates    = {{Coord|55|47|04|N|37|35|38|E|type:landmark_region:RU|display=title,inline}}
| status         = 
| classification = 
| capacity       = 
| population     = 
| populationdate = 
| opened         = 1771
| closed         = 
| former_name    =
| managed_by     = [[Federal Penitentiary Service]]
| director       = 
}}

[[File:Butyrsky castle (model).jpg|thumb|Butyrskiy penitentiary castle (historical model)]]
[[File:Moscow, Butyrka Prison, 1890s.jpg|thumb|Butyrka prison, 1890s]]

'''Butyrskaya prison''' ({{langx|ru|Бутырская тюрьма|Butýrskaya tyurmá}}), usually known simply as '''Butyrka''' ({{lang-rus|Бутырка|p=bʊˈtɨrkə}}), is a prison in the [[Tverskoy District]] of central [[Moscow]], Russia. In [[Russian Empire|Imperial Russia]] it served as the central transit prison.

During the [[Soviet Union]] era (1917–1991) it held many political prisoners. {{as of | 2022}} Butyrka remains the largest of Moscow's [[remand prison]]s. Overcrowding is an ongoing problem.

==History==
The first references to Butyrka prison may be traced back to the 17th century. The current building was erected in 1879 near the Butyrsk gate ({{lang|ru|Бутырская застава}}, or Butyrskaya zastava) on the site of a prison-[[fortress]] which had been built by the architect [[Matvei Kazakov]] during the reign of [[Catherine the Great]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Amalʹrik |first1=Andreĭ |title=Нежеланное путешествие в Сибирь |date=1970 |publisher=Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich |isbn=978-0-15-145503-4 |page=68 |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/%D0%9D%D0%B5%D0%B6%D0%B5%D0%BB%D0%B0%D0%BD%D0%BD%D0%BE%D0%B5_%D0%BF%D1%83%D1%82%D0%B5%D1%88%D0%B5%D1%81%D1%82%D0%B2/jTkmAAAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=%D0%91%D1%83%D1%82%D1%8B%D1%80%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%B0%D1%8F+%D1%82%D1%8E%D1%80%D1%8C%D0%BC%D0%B0+%221879%22+%D0%9A%D0%B0%D0%B7%D0%B0%D0%BA%D0%BE%D0%B2&dq=%D0%91%D1%83%D1%82%D1%8B%D1%80%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%B0%D1%8F+%D1%82%D1%8E%D1%80%D1%8C%D0%BC%D0%B0+%221879%22+%D0%9A%D0%B0%D0%B7%D0%B0%D0%BA%D0%BE%D0%B2&printsec=frontcover |access-date=7 January 2025 |language=ru}}</ref> The towers of the old fortress once housed the rebellious [[Streltsy]] during the reign of [[Peter I of Russia|Peter I]],<ref>{{cite book |title=Bolʹshai︠a︡ sovetskai︠a︡ ėnt︠s︡iklopedii︠a︡ |date=1927 |publisher=Sovetskai︠a︡ ėniklot︠s︡pedii︠a︡ |page=261 |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/Bol%CA%B9shai%EF%B8%A0a%EF%B8%A1_sovetskai%EF%B8%A0a%EF%B8%A1_%C4%97nt/5o3pAAAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=%D0%91%D1%83%D1%82%D1%8B%D1%80%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%B0%D1%8F+%D1%82%D1%8E%D1%80%D1%8C%D0%BC%D0%B0+%22%D0%B1%D0%B0%D1%88%D0%BD%D0%B8%22+%D0%A1%D1%82%D1%80%D0%B5%D0%BB%D1%8C%D1%86%D1%8B&pg=PA261&printsec=frontcover |access-date=7 January 2025 |language=ru}}</ref> and later on hundreds of participants of the 1863 [[January Uprising]] in [[Poland]]. Members of [[Narodnaya Volya (organization)|Narodnaya Volya]] were also prisoners of the Butyrka in 1883, as were the participants in the [[Morozov Strike]] of 1885. The Butyrka prison was known for its brutal regime. The prison administration resorted to violence anytime the inmates tried to protest.

Its famous inmates include the influential revolutionary poet [[Vladimir Mayakovsky]], the Russian [[revolutionary]] [[Nikolay Bauman]], and the founder of the [[KGB]] [[Felix Edmundovich Dzerzhinskiy|Felix Dzerzhinsky]]. During the [[February Revolution]], the workers of Moscow freed all the [[political prisoner]]s from the Butyrka. Following the [[October Revolution]], Butyrka remained a place of internment for political prisoners and a transfer camp for people sentenced to be sent to the [[Gulag]]. During the [[Great Purge]], about twenty thousand inmates at a time were imprisoned in Butyrka. Thousands of political prisoners were shot after investigations. Later, prominent political prisoners included the writers [[Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn]] and [[Yevgenia Ginzburg]].

== Living conditions ==

[[Varlam Shalamov]] notes in one of his tales, that the Butyrka is extremely hot in summer; [[Eduard Limonov]], in his [[drama]] ''Death in the Police Van'', emphatically agrees. He says that, with the collapse of the [[Soviet regime]], overcrowding has become a real issue; there are more than one hundred [[inmate]]s in cells meant to contain ten people. In a 2019 interview the [[warden]] of the prison said "The limit of our detention facility is 1,847 inmates. In fact, now when we are talking there are 2,292 people here."<ref>{{cite web |title=Russian Limbo - Butyrka Prison |url=https://cepa.org/article/russian-limbo-butyrka-prison/ |website=CEPA |access-date=7 January 2025 |date=8 December 2020}}</ref> Most of these people are politically unreliable subjects from the [[Caucasus]]. Since epidemics are a problem, the wardens try to fill cells entirely with people with [[AIDS]], or with [[tuberculosis]]; however, this does little to curb the problem, since many inmates are [[User (drug)|drug users]], and there is at most one needle per cell. Moreover, inmates are brought to the tribunal in overcrowded police vans, so that healthy inmates are exposed to tuberculosis.

==Notable inmates==
* [[Fabijan Abrantovich]], Catholic priest and a pro-independence activist from [[Belarus]]
* [[Anna Abrikosova]], [[nun]] of the [[Dominican Order]] and prominent figure in the [[Catholic Church in Russia]]
* [[Andrei Amalrik]], Russian historian and famed dissident during the 1960s; author of "Will the Soviet Union Survive Until 1984"
* [[Władysław Anders]], Polish general and prime minister
* [[Isaak Babel]], writer, killed in 1940
* [[Aron Baron]], Ukrainian [[Anarchism|anarchist]]
* [[Mieczysław Boruta-Spiechowicz]], Polish general and one of the leaders of anti-communist opposition in the 1970s
* [[Alikhan Bukeikhanov]], Kazakh statesman
* [[Walerian Czuma]], Polish general
* [[Felix Edmundovich Dzerzhinskiy|Felix Dzerzhinsky]], [[Cheka]] founder
* [[Vladimir Dzhunkovsky]], Russian statesman
* [[Yuli-Yoel Edelstein]] ({{langx|he|יולי-יואל אדלשטיין}}, {{langx|ru|link=no|Ю́лий Ю́рьевич Эдельште́йн}} is an Israeli politician. One of the most prominent [[refuseniks]] in the Soviet Union, he has been [[List of Knesset speakers|Speaker of the Knesset]] since 2013
* [[Beatification|Blessed]] [[Leonid Feodorov]], [[Exarch]] and reputed [[bishop]] of the [[Russian Greek Catholic Church]]
* [[Rashid Khan Gaplanov]], [[Ministry of Education (Azerbaijan)|Education]] and [[Ministry of Finance (Azerbaijan)|Finance]] Minister of [[Azerbaijan Democratic Republic]]<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.gazavat.ru/personalies2.php?people=78 |title=КАПЛАНОВ РАШИД ХАН |trans-title=Kaplanov Rashid Khan |access-date=2011-11-28}}</ref>
* [[Yevgenia Ginzburg]], author of ''[[Journey into the Whirlwind]]'' and ''Within the Whirlwind''; mother of the writer [[Vasili Aksyonov]]; her books tell of her arrest during the 1937 purges in the city of [[Kazan]], where she worked as a leading member of the local Communist Party structures of Tartary
* [[Filipp Goloshchyokin]], Soviet politician and party leader, was briefly held in Butyrka and sent to Kuibyshev and shot there in October 1941
* [[Sergey Golovkin]], serial killer and the last person to be executed in Russia
* [[2014 Moscow school shooting|Sergey Gordeyev]], mass murderer who took 29 students hostage at his school
* [[Dmitry Pavlovich Grigorovich]], aircraft designer
* [[Vladimir Gusinsky]], led to the "shares for freedom" transaction or Protocol No.6 (Протокол N.6. Доля свободы) that was signed by [[:ru:Список министров печати России#Министерство по делам печати, телерадиовещания и средств массовых коммуникаций Российской Федерации|Minister for Press, Broadcasting and Mass Communications of the Russian Federation]], [[Mikhail Lesin]]
* [[Werner Haase]], one of Adolf Hitler's personal physicians, died in captivity in 1950
* [[Heinz Hitler]], German dictator Adolf Hitler's favorite nephew, died after several days of torture in 1942
* [[Vladimir Ionesyan]], spree killer executed in 1964
* [[Vyacheslav Ivankov]], mob boss and [[thief in law]]
* [[Aleksandr Ivanov-Sukharevsky]], far right politician and leader of the Peoples National Party (NNP)
* [[Bruno Jasieński]], [[Polish poet]] and [[Futurism (art)|futurist]], killed in 1938
* [[Elena Karpuchina]], the [[1967 World Rhythmic Gymnastics Championships|1967 World Rhythmic Gymnastics Champion]], born in 1951 and spent her first two years living in Butyrki until her mother's pardon in 1953
* [[Aleksandr Kokorin]], Russian footballer
* [[Sergei Korolev]], Russian rocket and spacecraft designer
* [[Walter Linse]], German human rights lawyer kidnapped in the American sector of Berlin in July 1952, executed 15 December 1953
* [[Alexander Litvinenko]]
* [[Beatification|Blessed]] [[Zygmunt Łoziński]], Catholic bishop of [[Minsk]]
* [[Sergei Magnitsky]], lawyer, whose 2009 death in [[Matrosskaya Tishina|Matrosskaya Tishina Prison]] led to a 2009 Russian law forbidding jailing of tax criminals and also to the [[Magnitsky Act]] being passed by the [[United States Congress|US Congress]] in 2012.
* [[Nestor Makhno]], Ukrainian [[Anarchism|anarchist]]
* [[Pavel Mamayev]], Russian footballer
* [[Vladimir Mayakovsky]], poet
* [[Günther Merk]], SS-''[[Brigadeführer]]'' and war criminal, executed in January 1947
* [[Leopold Okulicki]], Polish general, last commander of the [[Armia Krajowa]], killed in Butyrki in 1946
* [[Konstantin Päts]], president of the Republic of Estonia when it became [[occupation of Baltic Republics|occupied]] by the [[Soviet Union]] in 1940
* [[Unto Parvilahti]], SS-Officer
* [[Nikolai Polikarpov]], Soviet aeronautical engineer
* [[Yevgeny Polivanov]], Soviet linguist, orientalist and polyglot who was executed in 1938<ref name="Rferl 12-2018">{{cite news |last=Tatarsky |first=Carl Schreck Nikita |title=Tortured Past: On Russian Memorial, Victims And Perpetrators of Stalin's Purges Stand Side By Side |publisher=[[Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty]] |url=https://www.rferl.org/a/russian-memorial-victims-and-perpetrators-of-stalin-s-purges-stand-side-by-side/29679174.html |date=2018-12-27 |access-date=2018-12-28}}</ref>
* [[Yemelyan Pugachev]], pretender to the Russian throne and leader of a [[Cossack]] insurrection in 1773–1774
* [[Varlam Shalamov]], writer and soviet dissident; wrote ''[[The Kolyma Tales]]''
* [[Kazys Skučas]], Lithuanian politician and general of the Lithuanian Army
* [[Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn]], [[Nobel Prize in Literature|Nobel Prize laureate]], writer and dissident; wrote ''[[The Gulag Archipelago]]'' and ''[[One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich]]''
* [[Elena Stasova]], Russian communist
* [[Karlo Štajner]], Yugoslav communist activist and writer
* [[Baruch Steinberg]], Chief Rabbi of the Polish Army
* [[Léon Theremin]], a pioneer of electronic music, the inventor of the [[theremin]] and an electronic eavesdropping [[Covert listening device|bug]]
* [[Sergei Tretyakov (writer)|Sergei Tretyakov]], [[Avant-Garde]] playwright during the 1920s; apparently threw himself down a prison stairwell to avoid execution
* [[Augustinas Voldemaras]], once the prime minister of [[Lithuania]], died in this prison after Lithuania was [[occupation of Baltic Republics|occupied]] by the [[Soviet Union]] in 1940
* [[Avgustyn Voloshyn]], former president of [[Carpatho-Ukraine]], died in Butyrka in 1945
* [[Helmuth Weidling]], German ''[[Wehrmacht]]'' general and last commandant of Berlin, died in custody in 1955
* [[Jonas Žemaitis]], Lithuanian general, head of the Lithuanian [[Forest Brothers|anti-Soviet partisan forces]] after World War II, shot to death in 1953;<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://genocid.lt/Leidyba/4/nijole3.htm|title=Nijolė Žemaitienė. Generolo Jono Žemaičio vaidmuo partizaniniame kare|website=genocid.lt}}</ref> later recognized as the fourth President of Lithuania in 2009
* [[Abba Gordin]], anarchist

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
{{Commons category-inline}}
* {{Official website|http://www.butyrka-sizo.ru}} {{in lang|ru}}
* [https://www.rferl.org/a/Former_Butyrka_Inmate_Says_They_Throw_You_There_To_Break_You_/1910566.html Former Butyrka inmate says: "They throw you there to break you"] - interview on [[Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty|Radio Free Europe]] {{in lang|en}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20080203190817/http://politzeki.mypeople.ru/users/politzeki/wiki/butyrskaia_tiurma/ Article of the political prisoner's department of the Russian mypeople.ru]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20071225091711/http://www.agentura.ru/infrastructure/specprisons/butirka/ Article of ''Rossiskaja Gaseta''] {{in lang|ru}}
* [http://www.arestant.msk.ru/infosizo.shtml A list of prisons in Moscow] {{in lang|ru}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20080110115804/http://www.cdi.org/russia/johnson/7209-4.cfm BBC report about Butyrka prison at Johnson's Russia list]
* [http://fsin.ucoz.ru/ Unofficial website of workers of The Russian Federal Penitentiary Service] {{in lang|ru}}

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Buildings and structures in Moscow]]
[[Category:Castles in Russia]]
[[Category:Prisons in Russia]]
[[Category:Prisons in the Soviet Union]]
[[Category:Tverskoy District]]
[[Category:Cultural heritage monuments of federal significance in Moscow]]
[[Category:Execution sites in Russia]]