# Butyrka prison

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{{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](/source/Sokolniki_District), [Moscow](/source/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](/source/Federal_Penitentiary_Service)
| director       = 
}}

thumb|Butyrskaya prison (historical model)
thumb|Butyrskaya prison, 1890s

'''Butyrskaya prison''' ({{langx|ru|Бутырская тюрьма|Butýrskaya tyurmá}}), colloquially known simply as '''Butyrka''' ({{lang-rus|Бутырка|p=bʊˈtɨrkə}}), is a prison in the [Tverskoy District](/source/Tverskoy_District) of central [Moscow](/source/Moscow), Russia. In [Imperial Russia](/source/Russian_Empire) it served as the central transit prison. Now it is a pretrial detention facility ([remand prison](/source/remand_prison)).

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

==History==
The current building was erected in 1879 near the Butyrsk gate ({{lang|ru|Бутырская застава}}, or Butyrskaya zastava) on the site of a fortress-like prison which had been built by the architect [Matvei Kazakov](/source/Matvei_Kazakov) during the reign of [Catherine the Great](/source/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 prison housed, in particular, hundreds of participants of the 1863 [January Uprising](/source/January_Uprising) in [Poland](/source/Poland). Members of [Narodnaya Volya](/source/Narodnaya_Volya_(organization)) were also prisoners of the Butyrka in 1883, as were the participants in the [Morozov Strike](/source/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](/source/Vladimir_Mayakovsky), the Russian [revolutionary](/source/revolutionary) [Nikolay Bauman](/source/Nikolay_Bauman), and the founder of the [KGB](/source/KGB) [Felix Dzerzhinsky](/source/Felix_Edmundovich_Dzerzhinskiy). During the [February Revolution](/source/February_Revolution), the workers of Moscow freed all the [political prisoner](/source/political_prisoner)s from the Butyrka. 

Following the [October Revolution](/source/October_Revolution), Butyrka remained a place of internment for political prisoners. During the [Great Purge](/source/Great_Purge), about twenty thousand inmates at a time were imprisoned in Butyrka. Thousands of political prisoners were shot after investigations. Prominient political prisoners in Butyrka during the rule of [Stalin](/source/Stalin) included the writers [Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn](/source/Aleksandr_Solzhenitsyn) and [Yevgenia Ginzburg](/source/Yevgenia_Ginzburg).

== Living conditions ==

[Varlam Shalamov](/source/Varlam_Shalamov) notes in one of his tales, that the Butyrka is extremely hot in summer; [Eduard Limonov](/source/Eduard_Limonov), in his [drama](/source/drama) ''Death in the Police Van'', emphatically agrees. He says that, with the collapse of the [Soviet regime](/source/Soviet_regime), overcrowding has become a real issue; there are more than one hundred [inmate](/source/inmate)s in cells meant to contain ten people. In a 2019 interview the [warden](/source/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](/source/Caucasus). Since epidemics are a problem, the wardens try to fill cells entirely with people with [AIDS](/source/AIDS), or with [tuberculosis](/source/tuberculosis); however, this does little to curb the problem, since many inmates are [drug users](/source/User_(drug)), 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](/source/Fabijan_Abrantovich), Catholic priest and a pro-independence activist from [Belarus](/source/Belarus)
* [Anna Abrikosova](/source/Anna_Abrikosova), [nun](/source/nun) of the [Dominican Order](/source/Dominican_Order) and prominent figure in the [Catholic Church in Russia](/source/Catholic_Church_in_Russia)
* [Andrei Amalrik](/source/Andrei_Amalrik), Russian historian and famed dissident during the 1960s; author of "Will the Soviet Union Survive Until 1984"
* [Władysław Anders](/source/W%C5%82adys%C5%82aw_Anders), Polish general and prime minister
* [Isaak Babel](/source/Isaak_Babel), writer, killed in 1940
* [Aron Baron](/source/Aron_Baron), Ukrainian [anarchist](/source/Anarchism)
* [Mieczysław Boruta-Spiechowicz](/source/Mieczys%C5%82aw_Boruta-Spiechowicz), Polish general and one of the leaders of anti-communist opposition in the 1970s
* [Alikhan Bukeikhanov](/source/Alikhan_Bukeikhanov), Kazakh statesman
* [Walerian Czuma](/source/Walerian_Czuma), Polish general
* [Felix Dzerzhinsky](/source/Felix_Edmundovich_Dzerzhinskiy), [Cheka](/source/Cheka) founder
* [Vladimir Dzhunkovsky](/source/Vladimir_Dzhunkovsky), Russian statesman
* [Yuli-Yoel Edelstein](/source/Yuli-Yoel_Edelstein), One of the most prominent [refuseniks](/source/refuseniks) in the Soviet Union who later moved to Israel and became [Speaker of the Knesset](/source/List_of_Knesset_speakers).
* [Blessed](/source/Beatification) [Leonid Feodorov](/source/Leonid_Feodorov), [Exarch](/source/Exarch) and reputed [bishop](/source/bishop) of the [Russian Greek Catholic Church](/source/Russian_Greek_Catholic_Church)
* [Rashid Khan Gaplanov](/source/Rashid_Khan_Gaplanov), [Education](/source/Ministry_of_Education_(Azerbaijan)) and [Finance](/source/Ministry_of_Finance_(Azerbaijan)) Minister of [Azerbaijan Democratic Republic](/source/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](/source/Yevgenia_Ginzburg), author of ''[Journey into the Whirlwind](/source/Journey_into_the_Whirlwind)'' and ''Within the Whirlwind''; mother of the writer [Vasili Aksyonov](/source/Vasili_Aksyonov); her books tell of her arrest during the 1937 purges in the city of [Kazan](/source/Kazan), where she worked as a leading member of the local Communist Party structures of Tartary
* [Filipp Goloshchyokin](/source/Filipp_Goloshchyokin), Soviet politician and party leader, was briefly held in Butyrka and sent to Kuibyshev and shot there in October 1941
* [Sergey Golovkin](/source/Sergey_Golovkin), serial killer and the last person to be executed in Russia
* [Anatoli Granovsky](/source/Anatoli_Granovsky), NKVD agent and (later) defector
* [Dmitry Pavlovich Grigorovich](/source/Dmitry_Pavlovich_Grigorovich), aircraft designer
* [Vladimir Gusinsky](/source/Vladimir_Gusinsky), led to the "shares for freedom" transaction or Protocol No.6 (Протокол N.6. Доля свободы) that was signed by [Minister for Press, Broadcasting and Mass Communications of the Russian Federation](/source/%3Aru%3A%D0%A1%D0%BF%D0%B8%D1%81%D0%BE%D0%BA_%D0%BC%D0%B8%D0%BD%D0%B8%D1%81%D1%82%D1%80%D0%BE%D0%B2_%D0%BF%D0%B5%D1%87%D0%B0%D1%82%D0%B8_%D0%A0%D0%BE%D1%81%D1%81%D0%B8%D0%B8), [Mikhail Lesin](/source/Mikhail_Lesin)
* [Werner Haase](/source/Werner_Haase), one of Adolf Hitler's personal physicians, died in captivity in 1950
* [Heinz Hitler](/source/Heinz_Hitler), German dictator Adolf Hitler's favorite nephew, died after several days of torture in 1942
* [Vladimir Ionesyan](/source/Vladimir_Ionesyan), spree killer executed in 1964
* [Vyacheslav Ivankov](/source/Vyacheslav_Ivankov), mob boss and [thief in law](/source/thief_in_law)
* [Aleksandr Ivanov-Sukharevsky](/source/Aleksandr_Ivanov-Sukharevsky), far right politician and leader of the Peoples National Party (NNP)
* [Bruno Jasieński](/source/Bruno_Jasie%C5%84ski), [Polish poet](/source/Polish_poet) and [futurist](/source/Futurism_(art)), killed in 1938
* [Elena Karpuchina](/source/Elena_Karpuchina), the [1967 World Rhythmic Gymnastics Champion](/source/1967_World_Rhythmic_Gymnastics_Championships), born in 1951 and spent her first two years living in Butyrki until her mother's pardon in 1953
* [Aleksandr Kokorin](/source/Aleksandr_Kokorin), Russian footballer
* [Sergei Korolev](/source/Sergei_Korolev), Russian rocket and spacecraft designer
* [Walter Linse](/source/Walter_Linse), German human rights lawyer kidnapped in the American sector of Berlin in July 1952, executed 15 December 1953
* [Alexander Litvinenko](/source/Alexander_Litvinenko)
* [Blessed](/source/Beatification) [Zygmunt Łoziński](/source/Zygmunt_%C5%81ozi%C5%84ski), Catholic bishop of [Minsk](/source/Minsk)
* [Sergei Magnitsky](/source/Sergei_Magnitsky), lawyer, whose 2009 death in [Matrosskaya Tishina Prison](/source/Matrosskaya_Tishina) led to a 2009 Russian law forbidding jailing of tax criminals and also to the [Magnitsky Act](/source/Magnitsky_Act) being passed by the [US Congress](/source/United_States_Congress) in 2012.
* [Nestor Makhno](/source/Nestor_Makhno), Ukrainian [anarchist](/source/Anarchism)
* [Pavel Mamayev](/source/Pavel_Mamayev), Russian footballer
* [Vladimir Mayakovsky](/source/Vladimir_Mayakovsky), poet
* [Günther Merk](/source/G%C3%BCnther_Merk), SS-''[Brigadeführer](/source/Brigadef%C3%BChrer)'' and war criminal, executed in January 1947
* [Leopold Okulicki](/source/Leopold_Okulicki), Polish general, last commander of the [Armia Krajowa](/source/Armia_Krajowa), killed in Butyrki in 1946
* [Konstantin Päts](/source/Konstantin_P%C3%A4ts), president of the Republic of Estonia when it became [occupied](/source/occupation_of_Baltic_Republics) by the [Soviet Union](/source/Soviet_Union) in 1940
* [Unto Parvilahti](/source/Unto_Parvilahti), SS-Officer
* [Nikolai Polikarpov](/source/Nikolai_Polikarpov), Soviet aeronautical engineer
* [Yevgeny Polivanov](/source/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](/source/Radio_Free_Europe%2FRadio_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](/source/Yemelyan_Pugachev), pretender to the Russian throne and leader of a [Cossack](/source/Cossack) insurrection in 1773–1774
*[Iosif Rebelsky](/source/Iosif_Rebelsky),  Soviet psychiatrist, psychologist, educator, professor 
* [Varlam Shalamov](/source/Varlam_Shalamov), writer and soviet dissident; wrote ''[The Kolyma Tales](/source/The_Kolyma_Tales)''
* [Kazys Skučas](/source/Kazys_Sku%C4%8Das), Lithuanian politician and general of the Lithuanian Army
* [Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn](/source/Aleksandr_Solzhenitsyn), [Nobel Prize laureate](/source/Nobel_Prize_in_Literature), writer and dissident; wrote ''[The Gulag Archipelago](/source/The_Gulag_Archipelago)'' and ''[One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich](/source/One_Day_in_the_Life_of_Ivan_Denisovich)''
* [Elena Stasova](/source/Elena_Stasova), Russian communist
* [Karlo Štajner](/source/Karlo_%C5%A0tajner), Yugoslav communist activist and writer
* [Baruch Steinberg](/source/Baruch_Steinberg), Chief Rabbi of the Polish Army
* [Léon Theremin](/source/L%C3%A9on_Theremin), a pioneer of electronic music, the inventor of the [theremin](/source/theremin) and an electronic eavesdropping [bug](/source/Covert_listening_device)
* [Sergei Tretyakov](/source/Sergei_Tretyakov_(writer)), [Avant-Garde](/source/Avant-Garde) playwright during the 1920s; apparently threw himself down a prison stairwell to avoid execution
* [Augustinas Voldemaras](/source/Augustinas_Voldemaras), once the prime minister of [Lithuania](/source/Lithuania), died in this prison after Lithuania was [occupied](/source/occupation_of_Baltic_Republics) by the [Soviet Union](/source/Soviet_Union) in 1940
* [Avgustyn Voloshyn](/source/Avgustyn_Voloshyn), former president of [Carpatho-Ukraine](/source/Carpatho-Ukraine), died in Butyrka in 1945
* [Helmuth Weidling](/source/Helmuth_Weidling), German ''[Wehrmacht](/source/Wehrmacht)'' general and last commandant of Berlin, died in custody in 1955
* [Jonas Žemaitis](/source/Jonas_%C5%BDemaitis), Lithuanian general, head of the Lithuanian [anti-Soviet partisan forces](/source/Forest_Brothers) 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](/source/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](/source/Radio_Free_Europe%2FRadio_Liberty) {{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: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
Category:1771 establishments in the Russian Empire
Category:Buildings and structures completed in 1771

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Butyrka prison](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butyrka_prison) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butyrka_prison?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.