The pond actually has fish in it, and from time to time fishing competitions are held among the prisoners (after the competitions, the prisoners return the fish to the water). The first thing that stikes you when you enter the prison is its pond and small fountain, located next to the administration building. They ask me to hand over my mobile phone and passport. “Any weapons?” asks the security guard at the entry checkpoint. There is a shaggy dog tied up to the gates, raising its head in alarm when we appear. We approach the gates of of the prison, which are painted in a kind of brown and green spotted camouflage. We’re built on a cliff edge, so it’s impossible to dig an underground passage even if you wanted to.
Since then, no one has even tried to escape. The prisoners eventually surrendered, but only on the condition that their sentences wouldn’t be extended. We got troops on high alert, and had them surround the prison. They shut themselves in one of the administrative buildings and demanded a car and money. There was one incident back in 1989, when the prisoners took hostages. “But what if someone tries to escape? They’d have to shoot, right?” “The guards working in the watchtowers are generally women,” says one officer. A warning sign - “Attention! Security zone!” - appears from among the pines, and then after that, a fence with barbed wire and watch towers.
#BLACK DOLPHIN PRISON DRIVER#
“It’s going to be a bit bumpy,” the driver cautions, moving from the smooth tarmac onto a dirt road. Outside my hotel, which was packed with homeless fire victims and fire-fighters, two officers were waiting for me in a service vehicle. The guards working in the prison watchtowers are generally women. Every breath of air had the bitter aftertaste of ash.
#BLACK DOLPHIN PRISON FULL#
It was a darkness that failed to lift when dawn broke: lost to the forests and mountains, the town was still full of smoke from the burning taiga. The night I arrived and stepped out onto the platform, I found myself immediately engulfed by darkness. The “Priobye” express train stops in Ivdel for two minutes in the dead of night. Almost all of them are convicted murderers: two hundred had an original death sentence commuted to 20-25 years in prison and 47 others were sentenced to serve their entire life behind bars. “The Black Eagle” is located approximately 40 km from the city of Ivdel, in Sverdlovsk Oblast. There are currently five such colonies, each identified not only by official number, but also by nickname: for example “The White Swan”, “The Black Dolphin”, “The Vologda Coin”, “The Village of Harps” or “The Black Eagle”.
Those criminals who would previously have been sentenced to death are now sent to special colonies to serve life terms. Russia has observed a moratorium on executions for almost thirteen years now. I became friends with a man who pickled his wife and children in a barrel” Emigre Writer Sergei Dovlatov “Prison changes every idea you have about life.
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