Politizolators ( (singular); abbreviation for "political isolator") were special prisons in

Soviet Russia The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (Russian SFSR or RSFSR), previously known as the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic and the Russian Soviet Republic, and unofficially as Soviet Russia,Declaration of Rights of the labo ...

and 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 ...

to incarcerate political opponents of the

Bolsheviks The Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, were a radical Faction (political), faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) which split with the Mensheviks at the 2nd Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, ...

Social Revolutionaries Social revolutions are sudden changes in the structure and nature of society. These revolutions are usually recognized as having transformed society, economy, culture, philosophy, and technology along with but more than just the political system ...

mensheviks The Mensheviks ('the Minority') were a faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) which split with Vladimir Lenin's Bolshevik faction at the Second Party Congress in 1903. Mensheviks held more moderate and reformist ...

Zionists Zionism is an ethnocultural nationalist movement that emerged in Europe in the late 19th century that aimed to establish and maintain a national home for the Jewish people, pursued through the colonization of Palestine, a region roughly cor ...

, and

anarchists Anarchism is a political philosophy and movement that seeks to abolish all institutions that perpetuate authority, coercion, or hierarchy, primarily targeting the state and capitalism. Anarchism advocates for the replacement of the state w ...

, etc., as well as members of the

Left Opposition The Left Opposition () was a faction within the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) from 1923 to 1927 headed '' de facto'' by Leon Trotsky. It was formed by Trotsky to mount a struggle against the perceived bureaucratic degeneration within th ...

within the Bolshevik Party itself.

History

The first ''politisolator'' was established in 1921 by conversion of the

Vladimir Central Prison Vladimir Prison, popularly known as Vladimir Central (), is a prison in Vladimir, Russia. It is the largest prison in Russia, with a capacity of 1,220 detainees, and is operated by the Federal Penitentiary Service as a maximum-security prison ...

.Игорь Закурдаев, ''Владимирский Централ - история Владимирской тюрьмы'', 2013,
p.87
/ref> Initially they were subordinated to GPU NKVD RSFSR, unlike other prisons, which were subordinated to ГУМЗ НКВД (State Directorate of the Places of Incarceration of NKVD). Under a separate subordination at that time was the infamous

Solovki prison camp The Solovki special camp (later the Solovki special prison), was set up in 1923 on the Solovetsky Islands in the White Sea as a remote and inaccessible place of detention, primarily intended for socialist opponents of Soviet Russia's new Bolshev ...

established in 1923, which also held political prisoners. Over time the subordination changed; these changes were poorly documented."Система исправительно-трудовых лагерей в СССР, 1923-1960 Справочник"
1998, publishing programme of the

Memorial Society Memorial ( rus, Мемориал, p=mʲɪmərʲɪˈaɫ) is an international human rights organisation founded in Russia during the fall of the Soviet Union to study and examine the human rights violations and other crimes committed under Josep ...

, ''Zvenya'' (Звенья), pp. 15-16 The

NKVD The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (, ), abbreviated as NKVD (; ), was the interior ministry and secret police of the Soviet Union from 1934 to 1946. The agency was formed to succeed the Joint State Political Directorate (OGPU) se ...

Decree no. 00403 of November 11, 1935 signed by

Genrikh Yagoda Genrikh Grigoryevich Yagoda (, born Yenokh Gershevich Iyeguda; 7 November 1891 – 15 March 1938) was a Soviet secret police official who served as director of the NKVD, the Soviet Union's security and intelligence agency, from 1934 to 1936. A ...

politisolators were renamed into NKVD special prisons (тюрьмы НКВД особого назначения). In 1937, Yagoda's successor

Nikolay Yezhov Nikolai Ivanovich Yezhov ( rus, Николай Иванович Ежов, p=nʲɪkɐˈlaj ɪˈvanəvʲɪtɕ (j)ɪˈʐof; 1 May 1895 – 4 February 1940), also spelt Ezhov, was a Soviet secret police official under Joseph Stalin who was hea ...

, on the eve of

Yezhovshchina 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 by Leonid Nikolaev ...

, complained that "... politisolators, I may say without an exaggeration, resemble the forced rather than prisons", that the incarcerated have a complete freedom of assembly to develop their anti-Soviet plots, etc. These lax conditions were related to the operation of various organizations aiding political prisoners, such as the

Political Red Cross Political Red Cross was the name borne by several organizations that provided aid to political prisoners in the Russian Empire and later in Soviet Russia and the Soviet Union. The first organization using this name was founded in St. Petersburg i ...

Notable politisolators

*Suzdal PI, based of the prison of the

Monastery of Saint Euthymius The Saviour Monastery of St. Euthymius is a monastery of the Russian Orthodox Church in Suzdal, Vladimir Oblast, Russia, founded in 1352. History Foundation The monastery was founded in 1352 by the monk Yevfimi from Nizhny Novgorod, invite ...

Suzdal Suzdal (, ) is a Types of inhabited localities in Russia, town that serves as the administrative center of Suzdalsky District in Vladimir Oblast, Russia, which is located along the Kamenka tributary of the Nerl (Klyazma), Nerl River, north o ...

*, detailed in a two-volume monograph by Aleksey Yalovenko *Yaroslavl PI (based on the Yaroslavl katorga transit prison (Ярославская Временно-каторжная тюрьма); now ) in the village of ) *

Chelyabinsk Chelyabinsk; , is the administrative center and largest types of inhabited localities in Russia, city of Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia. It is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, seventh-largest city in Russia, with a population ...

PI (Челябинский политизолятор), based on the Chelyabinsk transit prisonВладимир Байков
"Мрачная история Южноуральских политизоляторов"
initially published in ''Chelyabinsnk Segodnya'' ("Chelyabinsk Today"), retrieved August 10, 2010 *

Tobolsk Tobolsk (, ) is a town in Tyumen Oblast, Russia, located at the confluence of the Tobol and Irtysh rivers. Founded in 1587, Tobolsk is the second-oldest Russian settlement east of the Ural Mountains in Asian Russia, and was the historic capita ...

PI (Тобольский политизолятор). Загороднюк Надежда Ивановна
ЧИСЛЕННОСТЬ И СОСТАВ ЗАКЛЮЧЕННЫХ ТОБОЛЬСКОГО ИЗОЛЯТОРА СПЕЦИАЛЬНОГО НАЗНАЧЕНИЯ (1924-1929)
/ref>

References

{{reflist Political repression in the Soviet Union NKVD 1921 establishments in Russia 1935 disestablishments in the Soviet Union