Butyrskaya prison (), usually known simply as Butyrka ( rus, Бутырка, p=bʊˈtɨrkə), is a prison in the

Tverskoy District Tverskoy District ( rus, Тверской район, p=tvʲɪrˈskoj, a=Ru-Тверской.ogg) is a administrative divisions of Moscow, district of Central Administrative Okrug of the federal cities of Russia, federal city of Moscow, Russia. P ...

of central

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

, Russia. In

Imperial Russia Imperial is that which relates to an empire, emperor/empress, or imperialism. Imperial or The Imperial may also refer to: Places United States * Imperial, California * Imperial, Missouri * Imperial, Nebraska * Imperial, Pennsylvania * ...

it served as the central transit prison. During the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

era (1917–1991) it held many political prisoners. Butyrka remains the largest of Moscow's

remand prison Pre-trial detention, also known as jail, preventive detention, provisional detention, or remand, is the process of detaining a person until their trial after they have been arrested and charged with an offence. A person who is on remand is ...

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 (, or Butyrskaya zastava) on the site of a prison-

fortress A fortification (also called a fort, fortress, fastness, or stronghold) is a military construction designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from L ...

which had been built by the architect

Matvei Kazakov Matvey Fyodorovich Kazakov (; 1738 – 7 November 1812) was a Russian Neoclassical architect. Kazakov was one of the most influential Muscovite architects during the reign of Catherine II, completing numerous private residences, two royal palace ...

during the reign of

Catherine the Great Catherine II. (born Princess Sophie of Anhalt-Zerbst; 2 May 172917 November 1796), most commonly known as Catherine the Great, was the reigning empress of Russia from 1762 to 1796. She came to power after overthrowing her husband, Peter I ...

. The towers of the old fortress once housed the rebellious

Streltsy The streltsy (, ; , ) were the units of Russian firearm infantry from the 16th century to the early 18th century and also a social stratum, from which personnel for streltsy troops were traditionally recruited. They are also collectively kno ...

during the reign of

Peter I Peter I may refer to: Religious hierarchs * Saint Peter (c. 1 AD – c. 64–68 AD), a.k.a. Simon Peter, Simeon, or Simon, apostle of Jesus * Pope Peter I of Alexandria (died 311), revered as a saint * Peter I of Armenia (died 1058), Catholicos ...

, and later on hundreds of participants of the 1863

January Uprising The January Uprising was an insurrection principally in Russia's Kingdom of Poland that was aimed at putting an end to Russian occupation of part of Poland and regaining independence. It began on 22 January 1863 and continued until the last i ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

. Members of

Narodnaya Volya Narodnaya Volya () was a late 19th-century revolutionary socialist political organization operating in the Russian Empire, which conducted assassinations of government officials in an attempt to overthrow the autocratic Tsarist system. The org ...

were also prisoners of the Butyrka in 1883, as were the participants in the

Morozov Strike Morozov may refer to: * Morozov (crater), a lunar crater * Morozov (surname), people with the surname ''Morozov'' See also *Kharkiv Morozov Machine Building Design Bureau Kharkiv Morozov Machine Building Design Bureau (), often simply called Mo ...

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 Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky ( – 14 April 1930) was a Russian poet, playwright, artist, and actor. During his early, Russian Revolution, pre-Revolution period leading into 1917, Mayakovsky became renowned as a prominent figure of the Ru ...

, the Russian

revolutionary A revolutionary is a person who either participates in, or advocates for, a revolution. The term ''revolutionary'' can also be used as an adjective to describe something producing a major and sudden impact on society. Definition The term—bot ...

Nikolay Bauman Nikolay Ernestovich Bauman (; – ) was a Russian revolutionary of the Bolshevik, Bolshevik Party. His death in a struggle with a royalist upon his release from Taganka Prison in 1905 made him one of the first martyrs of the revolution, and ...

, and the founder of the

KGB The Committee for State Security (, ), abbreviated as KGB (, ; ) was the main security agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 to 1991. It was the direct successor of preceding Soviet secret police agencies including the Cheka, Joint State Polit ...

Felix Dzerzhinsky Felix Edmundovich Dzerzhinsky (; ; – 20 July 1926), nicknamed Iron Felix (), was a Soviet revolutionary and politician of Polish origin. From 1917 until his death in 1926, he led the first two Soviet secret police organizations, the Cheka a ...

. During the

February Revolution The February Revolution (), known in Soviet historiography as the February Bourgeois Democratic Revolution and sometimes as the March Revolution or February Coup was the first of Russian Revolution, two revolutions which took place in Russia ...

, the workers of Moscow freed all the

political prisoner A political prisoner is someone imprisoned for their political activity. The political offense is not always the official reason for the prisoner's detention. There is no internationally recognized legal definition of the concept, although ...

s from the Butyrka. Following the

October Revolution The October Revolution, also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution (in Historiography in the Soviet Union, Soviet historiography), October coup, Bolshevik coup, or Bolshevik revolution, was the second of Russian Revolution, two r ...

, Butyrka remained a place of internment for political prisoners and a transfer camp for people sentenced to be sent to the

Gulag The Gulag was a system of Labor camp, forced labor camps in the Soviet Union. The word ''Gulag'' originally referred only to the division of the Chronology of Soviet secret police agencies, Soviet secret police that was in charge of runnin ...

. During the

Great Purge The Great Purge, or the Great Terror (), also known as the Year of '37 () and the Yezhovshchina ( , ), was a political purge in the Soviet Union that took place from 1936 to 1938. After the Assassination of Sergei Kirov, assassination of ...

, 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 Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn. (11 December 1918 – 3 August 2008) was a Soviet and Russian author and Soviet dissidents, dissident who helped to raise global awareness of political repression in the Soviet Union, especially the Gulag pris ...

and

Yevgenia Ginzburg Yevgenia Solomonovna Ginzburg (December 20, 1904 – May 25, 1977) () was a Soviet writer who served an 18-year sentence in the Kolyma Gulag. Her given name is often Latinized to Eugenia. Family and early career Born in Moscow, her parents were ...

Living conditions

Varlam Shalamov Varlam Tikhonovich Shalamov (; 18 June 1907 – 17 January 1982), baptized as Varlaam, was a Russian writer, journalist, poet and Gulag survivor. He spent much of the period from 1937 to 1951 imprisoned in forced-labor camps in the Arctic reg ...

notes in one of his tales, that the Butyrka is extremely hot in summer;

Eduard Limonov Eduard Veniaminovich Limonov (né Savenko; , ; 22 February 1943 – 17 March 2020) was a Russians, Russian writer, poet, publicist, political dissident and politician. He emigrated from the Soviet Union in 1974, but returned to Russia in 1991 ...

, in his

drama Drama is the specific Mode (literature), mode of fiction Mimesis, represented in performance: a Play (theatre), play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on Radio drama, radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a g ...

''Death in the Police Van'', emphatically agrees. He says that, with the collapse of the

Soviet regime The political system of the Soviet Union took place in a federal single-party soviet socialist republic framework which was characterized by the superior role of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU), the only party permitted by the C ...

, overcrowding has become a real issue; there are more than one hundred

inmate A prisoner, also known as an inmate or detainee, is a person who is deprived of liberty against their will. This can be by confinement or captivity in a prison or physical restraint. The term usually applies to one serving a sentence in pr ...

s in cells meant to contain ten people. In a 2019 interview the

warden A warden is a custodian, defender, or guardian. Warden is often used in the sense of a watchman or guardian, as in a prison warden. It can also refer to a chief or head official, as in the Warden of the Mint. ''Warden'' is etymologically ident ...

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." Most of these people are politically unreliable subjects from the

Caucasus The Caucasus () or Caucasia (), is a region spanning Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is situated between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, comprising parts of Southern Russia, Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan. The Caucasus Mountains, i ...

. Since epidemics are a problem, the wardens try to fill cells entirely with people with

AIDS The HIV, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a retrovirus that attacks the immune system. Without treatment, it can lead to a spectrum of conditions including acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). It is a Preventive healthcare, pr ...

, or with

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB), also known colloquially as the "white death", or historically as consumption, is a contagious disease usually caused by ''Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can al ...

; however, this does little to curb the problem, since many inmates are 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 Fabian Ivanovich Abrantovich (Fabijan Abrantovič; zh, 龐懷德, , , ; September 14, 1884 – January 2, 1946) was a prominent religious and civic leader from Belarus. Abrantovich was a significant figure in the struggle for the recognition of ...

, Catholic priest and a pro-independence activist from

Belarus Belarus, officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east and northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Belarus spans an a ...

* Anna Abrikosova,

nun A nun is a woman who vows to dedicate her life to religious service and contemplation, typically living under vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience in the enclosure of a monastery or convent.''The Oxford English Dictionary'', vol. X, page 5 ...

of the

Dominican Order The Order of Preachers (, abbreviated OP), commonly known as the Dominican Order, is a Catholic Church, Catholic mendicant order of pontifical right that was founded in France by a Castilians, Castilian priest named Saint Dominic, Dominic de Gu ...

and prominent figure in the

Catholic Church in Russia The Catholic Church in Russia is part of the worldwide Catholic Church, under the spiritual leadership of the Pope in Rome. According to the 2016 Annuario Pontificio, there are approximately 773,000 Catholics in Russia, which is 0.5% of the t ...

Andrei Amalrik Andrei Alekseevich Amalrik (, 12 May 1938, Moscow – 12 November 1980, Guadalajara, Castile-La Mancha, Spain), alternatively spelled ''Andrei'' or ''Andrey'', was a Soviet writer and dissident. Amalrik was best known in the Western world for ...

, Russian historian and famed dissident during the 1960s; author of "Will the Soviet Union Survive Until 1984" *

Władysław Anders Władysław Albert Anders (11 August 1892 – 12 May 1970) was a Polish military officer and politician, and prominent member of the Polish government-in-exile in London. Born in Krośniewice-Błonie, then part of the Russian Empire, he serv ...

, Polish general and prime minister *

Isaak Babel Isaac Emmanuilovich Babel ( – 27 January 1940) was a Soviet writer, journalist, playwright, and literary translator. He is best known as the author of '' Red Cavalry'' and ''Odessa Stories'', and has been acclaimed as "the greatest prose writ ...

, writer, killed in 1940 *

Aron Baron Aron Davydovych Baron (; 1891–1937) was a Ukrainian Jewish anarchist revolutionary. Following the suppression of the 1905 Russian Revolution, 1905 Revolution, he fled to the United States, where he met his wife Fanya Baron and participated in ...

, Ukrainian

anarchist Anarchism is a political philosophy and Political movement, movement that seeks to abolish all institutions that perpetuate authority, coercion, or Social hierarchy, hierarchy, primarily targeting the state (polity), state and capitalism. A ...

Mieczysław Boruta-Spiechowicz Mieczysław Ludwik Boruta-Spiechowicz (20 February 1894, in Rzeszów – 13 October 1985, in Zakopane) was a Polish military officer, a general of the Polish Army and a notable member of the post-war anti-communist opposition in Poland. He join ...

, Polish general and one of the leaders of anti-communist opposition in the 1970s *

Alikhan Bukeikhanov Alikhan Nurmukhameduly Bukeikhanov (5 March 1866 – 27 September 1937) was a Kazakh politician, statesman, journalist and publisher who led the Alash party and the Provisional government of Alash Orda from 1917 to 1920. Early life Alikhan ...

, Kazakh statesman *

Walerian Czuma Walerian Czuma (24 December 1890 – 7 April 1962) was a Polish general and military commander. He is notable for his command over a Polish unit in Siberia during the Russian Civil War, and the commander of the defence of Warsaw during the siege ...

, Polish general *

Cheka The All-Russian Extraordinary Commission ( rus, Всероссийская чрезвычайная комиссия, r=Vserossiyskaya chrezvychaynaya komissiya, p=fsʲɪrɐˈsʲijskəjə tɕrʲɪzvɨˈtɕæjnəjə kɐˈmʲisʲɪjə, links=yes), ...

founder * Vladimir Dzhunkovsky, Russian statesman *

Yuli-Yoel Edelstein } Yuli-Yoel Edelstein (, ; born 5 August 1958) is an Israeli politician who served as Minister of Health from 2020 to 2021. One of the most prominent refuseniks in the Soviet Union, he was the 16th Speaker of the Knesset from 2013 until his res ...

(, is an Israeli politician. One of the most prominent

refuseniks Refusenik (, ; alternatively spelled refusnik) was an unofficial term for individuals—typically, but not exclusively, Soviet Jews—who were denied permission to emigrate, primarily to Israel, by the authorities of the Soviet Union and othe ...

in the Soviet Union, he has been

Speaker of the Knesset The speaker of the Knesset (, ) is the presiding officer of the Knesset, the Unicameralism, unicameral legislature of Israel. The Speaker also acts as President of Israel when the President is incapacitated. The current speaker is Amir Ohana, who ...

since 2013 * Blessed

Leonid Feodorov Leonid Ivanovich Feodorov (; 4 November 1879 – 7 March 1935) was a Studite hieromonk from the Russian Greek Catholic Church, the first Exarch of the Russian Catholic Apostolic Exarchate of Russia, and a survivor of the Gulag at Solovki pris ...

Exarch An exarch (; from Ancient Greek ἔξαρχος ''exarchos'') was the holder of any of various historical offices, some of them being political or military and others being ecclesiastical. In the late Roman Empire and early Byzantine Empire, ...

and reputed

bishop A bishop is an ordained member of the clergy who is entrusted with a position of Episcopal polity, authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance and administration of di ...

of the

Russian Greek Catholic Church The Russian Greek Catholic Church or Russian Byzantine Catholic Church is a ''sui juris, sui iuris'' (self-governing) Byzantine Rite Eastern Catholic Churches, Eastern Catholic particular church that is part of the worldwide Catholic Church. Hi ...

Rashid Khan Gaplanov Rashid Khan Zavid oghlu Gaplanov (', , '; 1883–1937), also known as Rashit-han Gaplanov, was a North Caucasian-Azerbaijani statesman of Kumyk ethnicity who served as the Minister of Finance and Minister of Education and Religious Affairs in th ...

Education Education is the transmission of knowledge and skills and the development of character traits. Formal education occurs within a structured institutional framework, such as public schools, following a curriculum. Non-formal education als ...

and

Finance Finance refers to monetary resources and to the study and Academic discipline, discipline of money, currency, assets and Liability (financial accounting), liabilities. As a subject of study, is a field of Business administration, Business Admin ...

Minister of

Azerbaijan Democratic Republic The Azerbaijan Democratic Republic (), also known as the Azerbaijan People's Republic (; ), was the first secular democracy, democratic republic in the Turkic peoples, Turkic and Muslim worlds. *Tadeusz Swietochowski. ''Russia and Azerbaijan: ...

, author of ''

Journey into the Whirlwind ''Journey into the Whirlwind'' is the English title of a memoir by Eugenia Ginzburg. Its Russian title ''Krutoy marshrut'' can be translated as ''Tough Journey.'' Originally published abroad in translation in 1967, it was not published in Russia ...

'' and ''Within the Whirlwind''; mother of the writer

Vasili Aksyonov Vasily Pavlovich Aksyonov ( rus, Васи́лий Па́влович Аксёнов, p=vɐˈsʲilʲɪj ˈpavləvʲɪtɕ ɐˈksʲɵnəf; August 20, 1932 – July 6, 2009) was a Soviet and Russian novelist. He became known in the West as the autho ...

; her books tell of her arrest during the 1937 purges in the city of

Kazan Kazan; , IPA: Help:IPA/Tatar, ɑzanis the largest city and capital city, capital of Tatarstan, Russia. The city lies at the confluence of the Volga and the Kazanka (river), Kazanka Rivers, covering an area of , with a population of over 1. ...

, where she worked as a leading member of the local Communist Party structures of Tartary *

Filipp Goloshchyokin Filipp Isayevich Goloshchyokin () (born Shaya Itsikovich Goloshchyokin) () ( – October 28, 1941) was a Jewish-Russian Bolshevik revolutionary, Soviet politician, and party functionary. A member of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party s ...

, Soviet politician and party leader, was briefly held in Butyrka and sent to Kuibyshev and shot there in October 1941 *

Sergey Golovkin Sergey Aleksandrovich Golovkin (; 26 November 1959 – 2 August 1996) was a Soviet-Russian serial killer, rapist and necrophile, convicted for the killing of 11 boys between the ages of 10 and 16 in the Moscow area between 1986 and 1992. Golovki ...

, serial killer and the last person to be executed in Russia *

Dmitry Pavlovich Grigorovich Dmitry Pavlovich Grigorovich (, ) (born in Kiev, Russian Empire, now Ukraine, 25 January (6 February) 1883, died 26 July 1938 in Moscow) was a Ukrainian, Russian, and Soviet aircraft designer Aerospace engineering is the primary field of engin ...

, aircraft designer *

Vladimir Gusinsky Vladimir Aleksandrovich Gusinsky (, ; born 6 October 1952) is a Russian media tycoon. He founded the Media-Most holding company that included the NTV free-to-air channel, the newspaper ''Segodnya'', and a number of magazines. Early life a ...

, 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,

Mikhail Lesin Mikhail Yuryevich Lesin () was a Russian political figure, media executive and advisor to president Vladimir Putin. In 2006, he was awarded the Order "For Merit to the Fatherland", one of Russia's highest state decorations for civilians. Lesin ...

Werner Haase Werner Haase (2 August 1900 – 30 November 1950) was a professor of medicine and SS member during the Nazi era. He was one of Adolf Hitler's personal physicians. After the war ended, Haase was made a Soviet prisoner of war. He died while in c ...

, 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 Vladimir Mihajlovich Ionesyan (27 August 1937 – 31 January 1964) was a Soviet spree killer. His nickname was "Mosgaz," as Ionesyan broke into apartments pretending to be an employee of that company. It did not work out for the lovers in Ivan ...

, spree killer executed in 1964 *

Vyacheslav Ivankov Vyacheslav Kirillovich Ivankov (; 2 January 1940 – 9 October 2009) was a Russian mafia boss and thief in law who was believed to have connections with Russian state intelligence organizations and their organized crime partners.thief in law Theft (, cognate to ) is the act of taking another person's property or Service (economics), services without that person's permission or consent with the intent to deprive the rightful owner of it. The word ''theft'' is also used as a synon ...

* Aleksandr Ivanov-Sukharevsky, far right politician and leader of the Peoples National Party (NNP) *

Bruno Jasieński Bruno Jasieński (; born Victor Bruno Sysmann; ; ; 17 July 1901 – 17 September 1938), was a Polish poet, novelist, playwright, Catastrophist, and leader of the Polish Futurist movement in the interwar period.Dr Feliks TomaszewskiBruno Jasieńs ...

Polish poet List of poets who have written much of their poetry in Polish. See also Discussion Page for additional poets not listed here. Three 19th century poets have historically been recognized as the national poets of Polish Romantic literature, dubbe ...

and

futurist Futurists (also known as futurologists, prospectivists, foresight practitioners and horizon scanners) are people whose specialty or interest is futures studies or futurology or the attempt to systematically explore predictions and possibilities ...

, killed in 1938 *

Elena Karpuchina Elena Alekseevna Karpukhina (; born 21 March 1951 in Moscow) is a retired rhythmic gymnast who competed for the Soviet Union. She is the 1967 World All-around champion and 1971 World All-around silver medalist. Personal life Karpukhina was b ...

, the 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 Aleksandr Aleksandrovich Kokorin (''né'' Kartashov; , ; born 19 March 1991) is a Russian professional footballer who plays as a forward for Cypriot First Division club Aris Limassol. Kokorin had his breakthrough season in 2012–13, which le ...

, Russian footballer *

Sergei Korolev Sergei Pavlovich Korolev (14 January 1966) was the lead Soviet Aerospace engineering, rocket engineer and spacecraft designer during the Space Race between the United States and the Soviet Union in the 1950s and 1960s. He invented the R-7 Sem ...

, Russian rocket and spacecraft designer *

Walter Linse Walter Linse (23 August 1903 – 15 December 1953) was a German lawyer and Acting President of the Association of Free German Jurists, an organization with links to the CIA. During the Nazi reign he was responsible for Aryanization of Jewish prop ...

, German human rights lawyer kidnapped in the American sector of Berlin in July 1952, executed 15 December 1953 *

Alexander Litvinenko Alexander Valterovich Litvinenko (30 August 1962 ( at WebCite) – 23 November 2006) was a British-naturalised Russian defector and former officer of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) who specialised in tackling organized crime, ...

* Blessed

Zygmunt Łoziński Zygmunt Łoziński (5 June 1870 – 26 March 1932) was a Polish Roman Catholic bishop who served as the Bishop of Minsk (1917-1925) and later as the first Bishop of Pinsk. Soviet authorities arrested him on two occasions during his episcopate. ...

, Catholic bishop of

Minsk Minsk (, ; , ) is the capital and largest city of Belarus, located on the Svislach (Berezina), Svislach and the now subterranean Nyamiha, Niamiha rivers. As the capital, Minsk has a special administrative status in Belarus and is the administra ...

Sergei Magnitsky Sergei Leonidovich Magnitsky (, ; ; 8 April 1972 – 16 November 2009) was a Russian tax advisor responsible for exposing corruption and misconduct by Russian government officials while representing client Hermitage Capital Management. His ...

, lawyer, whose 2009 death in Matrosskaya Tishina Prison led to a 2009 Russian law forbidding jailing of tax criminals and also to the

Magnitsky Act The Magnitsky Act, formally known as the Russia and Moldova Jackson–Vanik Repeal and Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act of 2012, is a bipartisan bill passed by the U.S. Congress and signed into law by President Barack Obama in D ...

being passed by the

US Congress The United States Congress is the legislature, legislative branch of the federal government of the United States. It is a Bicameralism, bicameral legislature, including a Lower house, lower body, the United States House of Representatives, ...

in 2012. *

Nestor Makhno Nestor Ivanovych Makhno (, ; 7 November 1888 – 25 July 1934), also known as Bat'ko Makhno ( , ), was a Ukrainians, Ukrainian anarchist revolutionary and the commander of the Revolutionary Insurgent Army of Ukraine during the Ukrainian War o ...

, Ukrainian

Pavel Mamayev Pavel Konstantinovich Mamayev (; born 17 September 1988) is a Russian former footballer who played as midfielder. He primarily played as a right midfielder or central midfielder. At CSKA Moscow he played as a defensive midfielder or deep-lying ...

, Russian footballer *

, poet * Günther Merk, SS-''

Brigadeführer ''Brigadeführer'' (, ) was a paramilitary rank of the Nazi Party (NSDAP) that was used between 1932 and 1945. It was mainly known for its use as an SS rank. As an SA rank, it was used after briefly being known as '' Untergruppenführer'' in ...

'' and war criminal, executed in January 1947 *

Leopold Okulicki General Leopold Okulicki ( noms de guerre ''Kobra'', ''Niedźwiadek''; 1898 – 1946) was a Polish Army brigadier general and the last commander of the anti-Nazi underground Home Army during World War II and the German occupation of Poland ...

, Polish general, last commander of the

Armia Krajowa The Home Army (, ; abbreviated AK) was the dominant resistance movement in German-occupied Poland during World War II. The Home Army was formed in February 1942 from the earlier Związek Walki Zbrojnej (Armed Resistance) established in the ...

, killed in Butyrki in 1946 *

Konstantin Päts Konstantin Päts ( – 18 January 1956) was an Estonian statesman and the country's president from 1938 to 1940. Päts was one of the most influential politicians of the independent democratic Republic of Estonia, and during the two decades p ...

, president of the Republic of Estonia when it became

occupied ' ( Norwegian: ') is a Norwegian political thriller TV series that premiered on TV2 on 5 October 2015. Based on an original idea by Jo Nesbø, the series is co-created with Karianne Lund and Erik Skjoldbjærg. Season 2 premiered on 10 October ...

by the

in 1940 *

Unto Parvilahti Unto Ilmari Parvilahti (until 1944 Boman ; September 28, 1907 Maaria – October 27, 1970 Málaga, Spain)Mikko Uola: Parvilahti, Unto (1907–1970) Kansallisbiografia-verkkojulkaisu (maksullinen). 6.9.2001. Helsinki: Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Se ...

, SS-Officer * Nikolai Polikarpov, Soviet aeronautical engineer *

Yevgeny Polivanov Yevgeny Dmitrievich Polivanov () was a Soviet linguist, orientalist, and polyglot who wrote major works on the Chinese, Japanese, Uzbek, and Dungan languages and on theoretical linguistics and poetics. Life He participated in the developm ...

, Soviet linguist, orientalist and polyglot who was executed in 1938 *

Yemelyan Pugachev Yemelyan Ivanovich Pugachev (also spelled Pugachyov; ; ) was an ataman of the Yaik Cossacks and the leader of the Pugachev's Rebellion, a major popular uprising in the Russian Empire during the reign of Catherine the Great. The son of a Do ...

, pretender to the Russian throne and leader of a

Cossack The Cossacks are a predominantly East Slavic Eastern Christian people originating in the Pontic–Caspian steppe of eastern Ukraine and southern Russia. Cossacks played an important role in defending the southern borders of Ukraine and Rus ...

insurrection in 1773–1774 *

, writer and soviet dissident; wrote ''

The Kolyma Tales ''Kolyma Tales'' or ''Kolyma Stories'' (, ''Kolymskiye rasskazy'') is the name given to six collections of short stories by Russian author Varlam Shalamov, about labour camp life in the Soviet Union. Most stories are documentaries and reflect the ...

'' * Kazys Skučas, Lithuanian politician and general of the Lithuanian Army *

Nobel Prize laureate The Nobel Prizes (, ) are awarded annually by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the Swedish Academy, the Karolinska Institutet, and the Norwegian Nobel Committee to individuals and organizations who make outstanding contributions in the ...

, writer and dissident; wrote ''

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'' and ''

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich ''One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich'' (, ) is a short novel by the Russian writer and Nobel laureate Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, first published in November 1962 in the Soviet literary magazine ''Novy Mir'' (''New World'').Elena Stasova Elena Dmitriyevna Stasova (; 15 October Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates.html" ;"title="nowiki/>Old Style and New Style dates">O.S. 3 October1873 – 31 December 1966) was a Russian Soviet people">Soviet revolutionary, Old Bolshevik and an early le ...

, Russian communist *

Karlo Štajner Karlo Štajner (15 January 1902 – 1 April 1992) was an Austrian-Yugoslav communist activist and a prominent Gulag survivor. Štajner was born in Vienna, where he joined the Communist Youth of Austria, but emigrated to the Kingdom of Serbs, ...

, Yugoslav communist activist and writer *

Baruch Steinberg Baruch or Boruch Steinberg (17 December 1897 – after 9 April 1940) was a Polish rabbi and military officer. He was Chief Rabbi of the Polish Army during the German invasion of Poland and Soviet invasion of Poland in 1939 and was executed by the ...

, Chief Rabbi of the Polish Army *

Léon Theremin Lev Sergeyevich Termen ( 18963 November 1993), better known as Leon Theremin, was a Russian inventor, most famous for his invention of the theremin, one of the first electronic musical instruments and the first to be mass-produced. He also worke ...

, a pioneer of electronic music, the inventor of the

theremin The theremin (; originally known as the ætherphone, etherphone, thereminophone or termenvox/thereminvox) is an electronic musical instrument controlled without physical contact by the performer (who is known as a thereminist). It is named aft ...

and an electronic eavesdropping bug * Sergei Tretyakov,

Avant-Garde In the arts and literature, the term ''avant-garde'' ( meaning or ) identifies an experimental genre or work of art, and the artist who created it, which usually is aesthetically innovative, whilst initially being ideologically unacceptable ...

playwright during the 1920s; apparently threw himself down a prison stairwell to avoid execution *

Augustinas Voldemaras Augustinas Voldemaras (16 April 1883 – 16 May 1942) was a Lithuanian nationalist political figure. He briefly served as the country's first prime minister in 1918 and continued serving as the minister of foreign affairs until 1920, representing ...

, once the prime minister of

Lithuania Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania, is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, bordered by Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, P ...

, died in this prison after Lithuania was

by the

in 1940 *

Avgustyn Voloshyn The Rt Rev. Avgustyn Ivanovych Monsignor Voloshyn (, , 17 March 1874 – 19 July 1945), also known as Augustin Voloshyn, was a Carpatho-Ukrainian politician, teacher, essayist, and Greek Catholic priest of the Mukacheve eparchy in Czechoslova ...

, former president of

Carpatho-Ukraine Carpatho-Ukraine or Carpathian Ukraine (, ) was an autonomous region, within the Second Czechoslovak Republic, created in December 1938 and renamed from Subcarpathian Rus', whose full administrative and political autonomy had been confirmed by ...

, died in Butyrka in 1945 *

Helmuth Weidling Helmuth Otto Ludwig Weidling (2 November 1891 – 17 November 1955) was a German three-star general during the Second World War. He was the last commander of the Berlin Defence Area during the Battle of Berlin, led the defence of the city agai ...

, German ''

Wehrmacht The ''Wehrmacht'' (, ) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the German Army (1935–1945), ''Heer'' (army), the ''Kriegsmarine'' (navy) and the ''Luftwaffe'' (air force). The designation "''Wehrmac ...

'' general and last commandant of Berlin, died in custody in 1955 *

Jonas Žemaitis Jonas Žemaitis, also known under his ''nom de guerre'' ''Vytautas'' (March 15, 1909 – November 26, 1954) was a Lithuanian general and freedom fighter who served as the ''de facto'' president of Lithuania from 1949 until his death in 1954. A ...

, Lithuanian general, head of the Lithuanian anti-Soviet partisan forces after World War II, shot to death in 1953; later recognized as the fourth President of Lithuania in 2009 * Abba Gordin, anarchist

References

External links

*
Former Butyrka inmate says: "They throw you there to break you"
- interview on

Radio Free Europe Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) is a media organization broadcasting news and analyses in 27 languages to 23 countries across Eastern Europe, Central Asia, the Caucasus, and the Middle East. Headquartered in Prague since 1995, RFE/RL ...

Article of the political prisoner's department of the Russian mypeople.ru

Article of ''Rossiskaja Gaseta''

A list of prisons in Moscow

BBC report about Butyrka prison at Johnson's Russia list

Unofficial website of workers of The Russian Federal Penitentiary Service
{{Authority control Buildings and structures in Moscow Castles in Russia Prisons in Russia Prisons in the Soviet Union Tverskoy District Cultural heritage monuments of federal significance in Moscow Execution sites in Russia