Soviet prison – the brainchild of the NKVD

Abstract

In the article examines and analyzes the characteristics of the Soviet prison, as one of the links of the Gulag system, which were the most limited rights and freedoms of the person compared to other places of detention, where unbearable harsh conditions of serving the sentence in order to break, trample the identity of the "incorrigible" convict. Initially, the prison was organized to provide a higher degree of protection, maximum isolation and harsh treatment than other places of detention. Organizers of Soviet prisons assumed that the established and persistent prison regime was to promote vigilance of supervision, to exclude any deviation from the established rules of conduct and the possibility of escaping. The functional purpose of the Soviet prison was to keep recalcitrant, obstinate prisoners in harsh conditions, limiting their rights and freedoms as much as possible, in order to intimidate the entire "population" of the Gulag. The prison was a place of detention, where particularly dangerous state criminals and violators of the regime were sent in labor camps and labor colonies. The algorithm of the functioning of the Soviet prison for the following decades was set by orders of the NKVD of the 30s. An analysis of Soviet-era prison regulations suggests that they are completely contrary to modern ideas about the purpose of the prison, its purpose, and what the treatment of prisoners should be. The Soviet prison was a place of maximum isolation of prisoners, where their ability to communicate with the outside world and among themselves was minimized. Attention is drawn to the inconsistency of the conditions of serving the sentence in the Soviet prison by the UN Minimum Standard Rules on the treatment of prisoners.