A photo from open sources
This is the most mysterious and most famous prison in Russia. Not Proclaim it, says folk wisdom. And especially not try to solve its old and new secrets – you will be more whole. Today, anyone curious can learn everything about Butyrka. Well, Almost all. For example, the fact that they built it in Catherine’s times on the territory of the farm of the same name. In the country, I thought loving Queen, it was restless and the prison was not enough. Then no one in it never occurred to him that in the twentieth century Butyrka would be in the very the center of Moscow – at the intersection of Tverskaya and Novoslobodskaya. However she does not spoil the city landscape at all. The building itself was not designed none other than the great architect Matvey Kazakov, who gave us and The Senate Palace in the Kremlin, and Tsaritsyno, and Petrovsky Travel Palace. Therefore, on the wall of the famous prison hangs a name board: “Monument XVIII century architecture, protected by the state. “Four famous Butyrka towers still bear the ancient name – “Pugachevskaya”, “Police”, “North” and “Sentinel”. And they are built, exactly labyrinth of the Minotaur: if you don’t know the rules, you’ll walk along circle to the point of insanity. BLOODY HISTORY First famous the guest of the prison was the main “villain” of the Catherine’s era – Emelka Pugachev, who sat there until his execution in January 1775th. It was after his case that Butyrka was firmly stuck to nickname “Katka-on-prison”. And then who just didn’t sit there! Terrorist and poet Ivan Kalyaev, revolutionary psychopath Lieutenant Schmidt (Ostap Bender could not remember his name, and the name of the hero was Nicholas), Vladimir Mayakovsky, as well as Nestor Makhno and Felix Dzerzhinsky – then allies, who later found themselves on opposite sides of the barricades. In the years when, according to the leader of the peoples, as construction socialism, the class struggle began to flare up, cellars and cameras Butyrs literally burst from overpopulation. Although freed “enemies” quite quickly – not a single prison in the USSR so many executions took place … When I got to this prison Alexander Solzhenitsyn, he began to write a novel, which then destroyed. As his wife recalls, the narrative was too incomprehensible to the reader. The feeling of being in Butyrka’s cell is difficult describe in normal human language. “He would simply be recognized crazy, “Solzhenitsyn explained the writer’s decision. One in short, the past local dungeons are rich and sinister. However their most terrible secrets are revealed only from the inside. I don’t know, for worse or for good, but I happened to get acquainted with them, as they say, first-hand. BROTHER FOR BROTHER It so happened that in the dashing 90s my cousin Kostya was under investigation. And even got behind grate. Although he, as the French say, is just a cousin, I always considered him a brother. All our childhood we were together: in the summer in at the village of my grandmother, in winter we went to visit each other. Shared their kiddie secrets, fished, drove great, played with village girls in potatoes and bouncers. Later synchronously entered the institutes, got married almost simultaneously and got children. But if I kept desperately clinging to an unnecessary one A career as a medical researcher, Kostya went into business. And which one has the business been without crime for years? In addition, he began to drink over measures; in short, Kostya was jailed for stupidity and fatal coincidence: went to negotiate with a negligent companion having a barrel in his pocket. Yes, and told the taxi driver that, they say “right now the frayer will shake.” There he was taken with the “trellis” at the ready. Sewed armed robbery, and even while intoxicated. Pulled on many. Of course, my relatives and lawyer tried to rescue me. poor fellow. And I went to see him on a date, then I met with Butyrka, where his brother was waiting for trial. THERE ARE SPIRITS Wandering … Honestly speaking, the prison complex itself is not particularly impressed with me produced: Vladimir Central and St. Petersburg “Crosses” look more impressive, downright suppress gloom-solemn look. To me told that “White Swan” and “Black Dolphin” in general are a terrifying sight, not for the faint of heart. Butyrka in this sense is no different. At the same time say that, crossing her threshold and filling out the necessary for a visit documents, experiencing joy – is also a big exaggeration. Brother my Kostya, contrary to expectations, looked good. I did not see on it neither bruises nor knocked out teeth. Is that a little thinner. And in anguish splashed in his eyes. – Bone, how are you? – embarrassedly asked I. – Yes, everything is fine. Scary only. It’s very scary here, Misha! I what just did not think then! First of all, our hapless businessman in one cell with gangsters and thugs all sorts, and even sadistic cops cast out over him. – What, Bone, than I can help? – I ask. “Nothing, bro.” This is she – Butyrka. Her perfume. They are crushing. Hurry to term and – away from here. Honestly, I myself felt some strange feeling, passing through endless the corridors of the old prison. It seemed like someone was watching me even watching. Someone is invisible but omnipresent. Almighty and incomprehensible. It was then that I first thought: what is it all about for a prison like that – Butyrka? VOICES AND DREAMS I often visited his brother, tried to support as best he could. It should be noted he held fast – did not complain, did not become limp, did not ask for excess. And I was more interested in this strange place, especially after one case. Somehow, after another meeting with my brother, I married Butyrka’s gate and suddenly felt a heavy look on himself. Lifting up eyes, saw a few steps young, but very shabby a woman who silently looked at me point blank. I don’t know why, but I approached her. – Have a drink? – asked the stranger hoarse in a voice. As if hypnotized, I went with her to the nearest stall and bought a piece of vodka. – Who are you there? Wife? Friend? ”She nodded toward the prison and took a noble sip. -Brother! I answered. – Clear. And I just live nearby. Although life you can’t name it. Pavel and I just got married and moved to inherited from the grandmother odnushka. There are our windows. ”She pointed to gray building across the road. – And, you know, hell immediately began: voices at night, scary dreams, headaches, hallucinations. Unbearable! I even went to a gypsy woman, to a fortuneteller. And she says: leave your at home, few can resist Butyrka. Will suck your whole soul prison, will leave dummies, rubber baby dolls. And it will be too late. I said so. Paul really left. I left. But I stayed. Apartment it was a pity to leave. I began to suppress pain and horror with booze, and now I can’t fall asleep without this swill. By the way, we also have a neighbor I was tormented, and then I stepped out of the window … – Maybe you should leave too? -No, Butyrka won’t let me go. Listen, buy some more vodka, can you? I bought it. Swirl, abyss and … GOOD LUCK Elusive fears Butyrs all took possession of me more, brother’s words about the invisible didn’t go out of my head prisoners who can’t leave the gloomy corridors of the prison. Meetings with us were short, and for a long time I did not dare to idle questions. And really, he still didn’t have enough to entertain a curious relative with the will of tales about his prison. But one day he still could not restrain himself, asked what he meant by saying about the ghosts of an old prison. And Kostya spoke – as if just waiting for a signal to speak out, share the horror with someone damned prison. He began with the fact that, according to rumors, since ancient times about Butyr land was notoriety. The locals tried bypass them. They believed that they were marked by a curse and able to radically change their life, of course, not for the better side. Orthodox peasants from neighboring villages, and Muslim Tatars from the village of Cherkizovo, and pagan Cheremis, who served as grooms and cabmen in Kitai Gorod. All of them refused to bring those who wanted to. And then they built it here jail. CATS (CAT-Aboriginal prisoner) From that moment began to bring to Butyrka prisoners who had to suffer not only because of bondage and prison orders. The prison had its own spirit, your appetites. Maybe that’s why in the thirties of the last century he became not only a place of mass imprisonment of enemies of the people, but also giant frontal spot. How much blood of the enemies of the people is here spilled, no one knows. They say that it was walking along the corridors slippery. And also some mysterious experiments were conducted. It seems to be experiments on crossing monkeys and people … Isn’t that why local ghosts so monstrously squealing in the night? Many here prisoners not only heard strange moans and screams at night, but also felt panting in the surrounding emptiness and turned around echoing steps behind. There were those who claimed that by miracle saved from the tenacious arms of invisible villains. By the way, if not in moderation a brave prisoner is trying to laugh at the one who tells about the ghostly inhabitants of Butyrka – you will not envy him. Above this they’re not joking here. Although the spirits of the four towers themselves may well punish an overly arrogant convict. According to brother, prisoner Sergey P., suspected of a series of robberies, extremely skeptical of the dark spirits of the prison, where he had to wait court. But once he himself faced what turned him upside down ideas about life and death. Returning to the camera after goodbye, the prisoner became the object of persecution by the sidelord from another era. A ghost grabbed his shoulders, whispered hellish threats, stabbed with a knife. Frightened to death, he spoke of his horror sculpted paramedic. He just laughed … A simple suburban brother Seryoga, being in Butyrka, closed himself, stopped joking and bullying newcomers, he was silent for a long time, not responding to external irritants, and at night, on the contrary, he yelled and moaned. He told his cellmates that in one of the corridors of the prison he met an old convict in some ridiculous rags, thickly stained with blood. Blood flowed down his hands and face. The old man was staring into Seryoga’s eyes and smiled bitterly, then languidly pulled in an undertone creepy “song” … about “organ transplantation”. And suddenly menacing demanded from a stunned guy … a liver. Experienced “passenger” in The chamber, after listening to this story, grinned. – This is Mikhalych, – he authoritatively declared – in the 30s he was spanked here, and the liver – for experiments. By transplant. Only then do the Chekists have nothing happened. And how many people were killed! .. – And now what about me is waiting? – asked Sergey with fear. – Death with a scythe is waiting for you! -answered authority. – Who saw Mikhalych – that, consider, the dead man. Soon Serge from the horror of expectation opened his veins. He was pumped out, and what then became of him, no one knows. Another prisoner underwent attack directly on the shkonka – a prison bed, in the Pugachev tower. At night, he felt him being choked, and the hands of the strangler came out as if from a wall. Fought off. Then he looked in the mirror – remained on his neck traces, sort of like hematomas. Some of the brothers laughed, and experienced they said: I got off well – this is Golovkin, one of the main pedophiles of Russia. RUN, WHILE YOUNG. And is it possible to escape from Butyrs? Any employee will say no, but, as Italians say, “time is an honest man.” And this happened. Became the first fugitive supposedly Iron Felix back in 1905, right on the eve of the first revolution. They fled in Soviet times, but never told. In July 1996, a woman escaped from Butyrka for the first time – Natalia Sorokozherdeva went to the “jerk” for 26 years. Three days later she was detained at the Dorogomilovsky market in Moscow when she was buying carrot. In September 2001, three escaped from death row especially dangerous criminal, digging a cement floor with spoons to collector, from which they got out into the street. Two were detained in Moscow region in three weeks, the third – only in April 2003 year. They say he still sits in Butyrka, because mystically feels if someone is about to leave jail without proper permission. Jeanne tried to escape from here. Aguzarova, who was in the local chamber in the 84th. But not had: the future superstar sov-rock and so released. CHILDREN DUNGEONS According to rumors, there are mysterious underground in Butyrka. moves: Catherine allegedly went to prison to look at them Pugacheva. Each is like a whole underground street, along which a carriage pulled by a train and you can drive a car. They say Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin himself in December of the 41st, frightened clearly what, planned to wait out times dashing for the country. My brother, Kostya, he was frank: you just pay grandmas – and leave the underground roads where your soul desires. Only grandmas are very specific are needed. Mainly because even corrupt jailers are scared go in there. Prisoners are sure: somewhere there forever walled up the most terrible criminals. For example, a bloody Russian maniac, the person whose name has become a household name is Andrey Chikatilo. The laden convicts of the “North” claim that no execution was: too important and interesting for psychiatrists was this “instance”. Allegedly, he still eagerly talks about his “exploits.” They say the screams of this monster in a mystical way they reach the farthest cells of the prison, driving the prisoners crazy. Although, perhaps, they come not from the dungeon, but from hell itself, where maniac is the place. One way or another, the truth is that in fact became with Chikatilo, – Butyrka’s last secret. Although they don’t like it here this word: those who are in its walls prefer to speak “extreme”. p.S. My brother received a suspended sentence and left Butyrka, but literally six months later it burned down from tuberculosis, which was tied for him from the old prison. Mikhail MOLOTOV
Time Life Moscow Russia
