
Vladimir Prison, popularly known as Vladimir Central (), is a
prison
A prison, also known as a jail, gaol, penitentiary, detention center, correction center, correctional facility, or remand center, is a facility where Prisoner, people are Imprisonment, imprisoned under the authority of the State (polity), state ...
in
Vladimir
Vladimir (, , pre-1918 orthography: ) is a masculine given name of Slavic origin, widespread throughout all Slavic nations in different forms and spellings. The earliest record of a person with the name is Vladimir of Bulgaria ().
Etymology
...
,
Russia
Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...
. It is the largest prison in Russia, with a capacity of 1,220 detainees, and is operated by the
Federal Penitentiary Service
The Federal Penitentiary Service (, FSIN) is a federal agency of the Ministry of Justice of Russia responsible for correctional services.
The FSIN is the federal authority for the detention of suspected and convicted persons, the security an ...
as a
maximum-security prison with most inmates serving a minimum of ten years to
life sentences
Life imprisonment is any sentence of imprisonment under which the convicted individual is to remain incarcerated for the rest of their natural life (or until pardoned or commuted to a fixed term). Crimes that result in life imprisonment are co ...
.
History

Vladimir Prison was established by the
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...
in 1783 by
decree
A decree is a law, legal proclamation, usually issued by a head of state, judge, monarch, royal figure, or other relevant Authority, authorities, according to certain procedures. These procedures are usually defined by the constitution, Legislativ ...
of Empress
Catherine II
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 III ...
, located about 160 kilometres (100 mi) northeast of
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 ...
. The building began to be built in 1781, and was completed on August 15, 1783. The architect was Nikolai von Berg.
In 1906, it became known as Vladimir Central and contained
political prisoners
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 ...
. At the beginning of 1921, shortly after the rise 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, ...
to power, Vladimir Central became the first of several special-purpose prisons, ''
politisolators'', intended to incarcerate opponents of the regime.
Vladimir Central was later part of the system of "special camps and prisons" organized on the basis of the
USSR Council of Ministers
The Council of Ministers of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics ( rus, Совет министров СССР, r=Sovet Ministrov SSSR, p=sɐˈvʲet mʲɪˈnʲistrəf ˌɛsˌɛsˌɛsˈɛr), sometimes abbreviated as Sovmin or referred to as the ...
resolution No. 416-159 February 21, 1948 "On the organization of the Ministry of Internal Affairs camps with a strict regime for keeping particularly dangerous state criminals". The resolution widened the range of political prisoners for the detention in Vladimir, including spies,
saboteurs
Sabotage is a deliberate action aimed at weakening a polity, government, effort, or organization through subversion, obstruction, demoralization, destabilization, division, disruption, or destruction. One who engages in sabotage is a ''sab ...
,
terrorists
Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of violence against non-combatants to achieve political or ideological aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violence during peacetime or in the context of war aga ...
,
Trotskyites
Trotskyism (, ) is the political ideology and branch of Marxism developed by Russian revolutionary and intellectual Leon Trotsky along with some other members of the Left Opposition and the Fourth International. Trotsky described himself as a ...
,
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 ...
,
Socialist-Revolutionaries
The Socialist Revolutionary Party (SR; ,, ) was a major socialist political party in the late Russian Empire, during both phases of the Russian Revolution, and in early Soviet Russia. The party members were known as Esers ().
The SRs were agr ...
,
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 ...
, ethnic
nationalists
Nationalism is an idea or movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, it presupposes the existence and tends to promote the interests of a particular nation, Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: Theory, Id ...
,
white émigrés
White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wavelen ...
, participants in other anti-Soviet organizations, and those with ties to any anti-Soviet or enemy activities. The last official name of the prison was "Vladimir special prison of the MGB of the USSR".
After the
dissolution of the Soviet Union
The Soviet Union was formally dissolved as a sovereign state and subject of international law on 26 December 1991 by Declaration No. 142-N of the Soviet of the Republics of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union. Declaration No. 142-Н of ...
, the prison became a regular detention facility. In 1996, a museum about Vladimir Prison was opened on the prison grounds.
Vladimir Prison is currently the largest prison by capacity in Russia, with a capacity for a maximum of 1220 detainees. It is set to be surpassed by
Kresty-2 Prison
Federal State Institution Pre-trial Detention Facility No. 1 of the Federal Penitentiary Service for the City of St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Oblast (), unofficially known as Kresty-2 () is a pretrial detention facility in Kolpino, Saint Peter ...
.
Vladimir prison is an institution for especially dangerous criminals: members of organized crime groups, murderers, killers, maniacs, rapists, repeat offenders with three or four convictions. Some have been sentenced to life imprisonment.
Popular culture
Vladimir Prison is the subject of the songs ''Jewish Prisoner'' and ''Vladimir Central'' by the singer-songwriter
Mikhail Krug
Mikhail Vladimirovich Vorobyov (), known professionally as Mikhail Krug (aka Michael the Circle) (), was a Russian singer. Krug was one of the most popular singers of the style of music known as ''blatnaya pesnya'' or Russian chanson, a genre of ...
.
Notable inmates
*
Vasily Dzhugashvili
Vasily Iosifovich Stalin Dzhugashvili ( ka, ვასილი იოსების ძე სტალინი ჯუღაშვილი, ; 21 March 1921 – 19 March 1962) was the youngest son of Joseph Stalin, born from his second wife, ...
, son of
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Dzhugashvili; 5 March 1953) was a Soviet politician and revolutionary who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until Death and state funeral of Joseph Stalin, his death in 1953. He held power as General Secret ...
.
*
Jan Stanisław Jankowski
Jan Stanisław Jankowski (6 May 1882 – 13 March 1953; noms de guerre ''Doktor'', ''Jan'', ''Klonowski'', ''Sobolewski'', ''Soból'') was a Polish politician, an important figure in the Polish civil resistance during World War II and a ...
,
Polish
Polish may refer to:
* Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe
* Polish language
* Polish people, people from Poland or of Polish descent
* Polish chicken
* Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin ...
politician.
*
Paul Ludwig Ewald von Kleist
Paul Ludwig Ewald von Kleist (8 August 1881 – 13 November 1954) was a German Generalfeldmarschall (Field Marshal) of the ''Wehrmacht'' during World War II. Born into the Prussian noble family von Kleist, Kleist entered the Prussian Army in 19 ...
,
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany, the country of the Germans and German things
**Germania (Roman era)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...
field marshal.
*
Johan Laidoner
Johan Laidoner ( – 13 March 1953) was an Estonian general and statesman. He served as Commander‑in‑Chief of the Estonian Armed Forces during the 1918–1920 Estonian War of Independence and was among the most influential people in the Eston ...
,
Estonia
Estonia, officially the Republic of Estonia, is a country in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, and to the east by Ru ...
n commander-in-chief of the
Estonian Army
The Estonian Land Forces (), unofficially referred to as the Estonian Army, is the name of the unified ground forces among the Estonian Defense Forces where it has an offensive military formation role. The Estonian Land Forces is currently the ...
.
*
Yosef Mendelevitch
Yosef Mendelevitch (or Mendelovitch) (; born 1947 in Riga) is a refusenik from the former Soviet Union, also known as a "Prisoner of Zion" and now a politically unaffiliated rabbi living in Jerusalem who gained fame for his adherence to Judaism a ...
, Jewish
Refusenik
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 oth ...
dissident.
*
Alexei Navalny
Alexei Anatolyevich Navalny (, ; 4 June 197616 February 2024) was a Russian Opposition to Vladimir Putin in Russia, opposition leader, anti-corruption in Russia, corruption activist and political prisoner. He founded the Anti-Corruption Found ...
, Russian opposition politician
*
Garegin Nzhdeh
Garegin Ter-Harutyunyan, better known by his ''nom de guerre'' Garegin Nzhdeh (, ; 1 January 1886 – 21 December 1955), was an Armenian statesman, military commander and nationalist revolutionary. As a member of the Armenian Revolutionary Fed ...
,
Armenia
Armenia, officially the Republic of Armenia, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of West Asia. It is a part of the Caucasus region and is bordered by Turkey to the west, Georgia (country), Georgia to the north and Azerbaijan to ...
n general and
Dashnak
The Armenian Revolutionary Federation (, abbr. ARF (ՀՅԴ) or ARF-D), also known as Dashnaktsutyun (Armenian: Դաշնակցություն, lit. "Federation"), is an Armenian nationalist and socialist political party founded in 1890 in Tifl ...
revolutionary activist.
*
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
*
Francis Gary Powers
Francis Gary Powers (August 17, 1929August 1, 1977) was an American pilot who served as a United States Air Force officer and a CIA employee. Powers is best known for his involvement in the 1960 U-2 incident, when he was shot down while fly ...
,
American
American(s) may refer to:
* American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America"
** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America
** American ancestry, p ...
pilot, shot down in a
U2 spy plane on 1 May 1960, imprisoned here until February 1962.
*
Mečislovas Reinys
Mečislovas Reinys (5 February 1884 – 8 November 1953) was a Lithuanian Roman Catholic titular archbishop and professor at Vytautas Magnus University. He was the Lithuanian Minister of Foreign Affairs from September 1925 to April 1926. He was i ...
,
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 ...
n
Roman Catholic
The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...
bishop.
*
Natan Sharansky
Natan Sharansky (; born 20 January 1948) is an Israeli politician, human rights activist, and author. He served as Chairman of the Executive for the Jewish Agency for Israel, Jewish Agency from June 2009 to August 2018, and currently serves as ...
, Jewish
Refusenik
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 oth ...
dissident.
*
Klymentiy Sheptytsky
Klymentiy Sheptytsky (, ; 17 November 1869 – 1 May 1951) also known as Klymentiy of Univ () was the archimandrite of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Order of Studite Monks and a hieromartyr. He was also the Russian Catholic Apostolic Exarch ...
,
archimandrite
The title archimandrite (; ), used in Eastern Christianity, originally referred to a superior abbot ('' hegumenos'', , present participle of the verb meaning "to lead") whom a bishop appointed to supervise several "ordinary" abbots and monaste ...
of the
Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church
The Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC) is a Major archiepiscopal church, major archiepiscopal ''sui iuris'' ("autonomous") Eastern Catholic Churches, Eastern Catholic church that is based in Ukraine. As a particular church of the Cathol ...
.
*
Serhiy Yefremov,
Ukrainian socialist federalist.
*
Dušan Letica,
Serbian
Serbian may refer to:
* Pertaining to Serbia in Southeast Europe; in particular
**Serbs, a South Slavic ethnic group native to the Balkans
** Serbian language
** Serbian culture
**Demographics of Serbia, includes other ethnic groups within the co ...
fascist politician.
*
Stepan Petrichenko
Stepan Maximovich Petrichenko (; 1892 – June 2, 1947) was a Russian revolutionary, an anarcho-syndicalist politician, the head of the self-styled "Soviet Republic of Soldiers and Fortress-Builders of Nargen" and in 1921, ''de facto'' leader of ...
,
Russia
Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...
n Anarchist, head of the
Kronstadt rebellion
The Kronstadt rebellion () was a 1921 insurrection of Soviet sailors, Marines, naval infantry, and civilians against the Bolsheviks, Bolshevik government in the Russian port city of Kronstadt. Located on Kotlin Island in the Gulf of Finland, ...
*
Andras Toma, a Hungarian soldier taken prisoner by
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People ...
in 1945, and remained in detention until 2000.
*
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 Officer taken prisoner in 1945.
*
Vladimir Retunsky, serial killer.
References
Prisons in Russia
Prisons in the Soviet Union
Buildings and structures in Vladimir, Russia
1783 establishments in the Russian Empire
Objects of cultural heritage of Russia of regional significance
Cultural heritage monuments in Vladimir Oblast
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