The Shlisselburg Fortress was built in the 14th century. for the protection of trade routes. In the XVIII century. it became a political prison reserved for individuals whom the tsars considered their personal rivals. The arrested Decembrists were also held there. In 1870, the Shlisselburg prison was closed.

However, the rise of the revolutionary movement in the 70s of the XIX century made us think of Shlisselburg. The Alekseyevsky ravelin of the Peter and Paul Fortress, where the most dangerous persons, from the point of view of Alexander III, were placed, did not justify its purpose. As P. E. Shchegolev wrote in the preface to his book on the ravelin, S. G. Nechaev, who was sitting in it, "destroyed iron discipline, decomposed the jailers." 1 On December 4, 1882, according to a report by V. K. Plehve, the tsar ordered the construction of a new prison with the strictest regime in Shlisselburg, 60 versts from the capital, closed to all prisoners. any kind of visit: only political criminals and military guards were supposed to be there. "It pleased the Emperor to order the existing institutions for the detention of political prisoners in the St. Petersburg Fortress to be abolished", adapting Shlisselburg for this purpose "as the most appropriate in its position" 2 .

The new prison was being built on an island in the middle of Lake Ladoga. The historian of the Shlisselburg prison compared it to Sakhalin, which they talked about: "all around is the sea, and in the middle is a mountain" 3 . Over 200 thousand rubles were allocated for the construction and equipment of a two-story building designed for 40 prisoners. By the beginning of the 20th century, when only 13 prisoners remained in the fortress, each of them accounted for up to 25 soldiers: the protection of one prisoner cost the treasury about 7 thousand rubles a year. Each convoy was thoroughly checked. Three years of service here counted for five. Non-commissioned officers served in Shlisselburg for 10 - 20 years. During the construction of the prison, the emperor and his entire family, including the heir to the throne Nicholas, visited it in July 1883 and were satisfied with the inspection: this is exactly how he imagined it, considering that imprisonment in it is more terrible than death .4
In September 1882, when construction was still two years away, 12 prisoners were brought from Kara for Shlisselburg and placed in the Peter and Paul Fortress, in the Alekseevskaya ravelin. The first batch of prisoners arrived in Shlisselburg on August 2, 1884 - 11 people. Two days later-ten more people, then 17; by the end of 1884, 36 of the 40 cells were occupied.

The first tragedy in the new prison occurred shortly after its opening. Odessa resident E. I. Minakov asked the caretaker, nicknamed "Herod", for a book to read; he did not give, did not allow smoking. When Minakov went on a hunger strike, the doctor warned him that they would force-feed him, but the prisoner decided to achieve his goal at the cost of his life. On August 24, 1884, he slapped the doctor in the face, knowing that he was facing a court martial. On September 7, a verdict was passed; two weeks later, Minakov was shot. Later it turned out that he was already mentally ill at that time, and the doctor knew about it.

1 Shchegolev P. E. Alekseevsky Ravelin, Moscow, 1929, p. 6.

2 TsGAOR USSR, f. 98, op. 1, d. 3, l. 11.

3 Kolosov E. Gosudareva tyurma-Shlisselburg, Moscow, 1930, p. 25.

4 In March 1887, Alexander III wrote on a memo about the disclosure of an attempt on his life that was being prepared: "It is advisable not to attach too much importance to these arrests. In my opinion, it would be better to learn everything that is possible from them, not to bring them to justice, but simply to send them to the Shlisselburg Fortress. This is the most powerful and unpleasant punishment." Five of the conspirators, however, were sentenced to death, and the sentence was carried out in Shlisselburg.

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Then the tragic events followed one after another: on October 5, M. F. Klimenko, convicted in the trial of 17, hanged himself, and on October 10, artillery Lieutenant N. M. Rogachev and Fleet lieutenant A. P. Shtromberg, convicted in the case of the Narodnaya Volya military organization (trial of 14), were put to death by hanging.

During the existence of the Narodnaya Volya prison in Shlisselburg, 69 prisoners were held there, 15 of them were executed, 14 died of hunger and disease, and 4 committed suicide . Three were transferred to psychiatric hospitals, four were sent to Sakhalin, and 19 were sent to hard labor prisons in Siberia. Only 7 prisoners were released - due to the first Russian Revolution and the subsequent closure of the prison in December 1905.

Among the prisoners of Shlisselburg were 6 members of the Executive Committee of Narodnaya Volya: N. A. Morozov, M. F. Frolenko, M. F. Grachevsky, S. S. Zlatopolsky, V. N. Figner, M. N. Trigoni.

M. N. Gernet calls Vera Nikolaevna Figner "a living tablet of the Shlisselburg fortress for 20 years" 6 . In prison, she behaved with " determination, steadfastness and firmness." She was still six months away from completing her doctorate in Zurich when she was summoned to Russia: she was the last member of the Narodnaya Volya PC to remain at large. V. N. Figner set up a printing press in Odessa, prepared the murder of prosecutor Strelnikov there, organized revolutionary circles in the Black Sea and Baltic fleets among the command staff. She was given out by S. Degaev, whom she intended to introduce into the new EC "Narodnaya Volya". Figner was arrested in Kharkov on February 10, 1883, and brought to St. Petersburg in September 1884. The St. Petersburg Military District Court handed down a death sentence to her and six other participants in the "trial of 14" (the execution of two of them, N. M. Rogachev and A. P. Shtromberga, was confirmed).

A special instruction was developed for the Shlisselburg prison. Each step was regulated not only by prisoners, but also by jailers. Once, during an inspection, it turned out that soldiers and non-commissioned officers went to the city on leave; the auditor pointed out that it was necessary to find out who they were meeting. I remember, obviously, the precedent of S. G. Nechaev, when with the help of non-commissioned officers promoted by him, he established a connection with the EC of Narodnaya Volya. On this report, the assistant chief of gendarmes, Gen. M. M. Shebeko, imposed a resolution: "It is necessary to establish". Senator E. Reuter and his family visited the prison on May 14, 1895. They were accompanied by the commandant of the fortress I. I. Gangard. For this, the commandant, who himself informed Shebeko about this visit, received a reprimand from the general. In October 1902, in connection with the 200th anniversary of the liberation of Shlisselburg from the Swedes, Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich, commander of the Imperial Guard and the troops of the St. Petersburg Military District, was supposed to arrive. The prince did not want to see the prison, and the Minister of War who accompanied him, A. N. Kuropatkin, expressed a desire to do so, but he was not allowed to go to prison. The instructions on the regime for prisoners allowed visiting only dying prisoners, but this single right was not respected either.

On October 12, 1884, Figner crossed the threshold of the Shlisselburg prison. "When the clock of life stopped" - this is the name of a part of her memoirs, which describes the years spent there. "A new life has begun," she wrote. "Living in the dead silence that you listen to and hear... How terrible it is in its silence, how terrible it is in its silence and in its unintentional interruptions... In the midst of this silence, the real seems vague and unreal, and the imaginary seems real... And at night, dreams! those crazy dreams. You see the flight, the pursuit, the gendarmes, the skirmish... arrest... you wake up - the nerves of your hands are rattling all over... There is only one healthy place in the soul, and it says:"...Take heart, Vera, and be strong! Remember the Russian people, how they live! Remember all the destitute of the world!.. It wasn't fear of death that said it. I stopped the fear of insanity, this degradation of man, the humiliation of his spirit and flesh.

But to stop meant to strive for normalcy, for mental recovery. And this was helped by friends... The walls spoke

5 M. N. Gernet, in his" History of the Tsarist Prison " (Vol. 3, Moscow, 1961, p.242), mentions Sofya Ginzburg, who was placed in the old building on December 1, 1890. On January 7, 1891, she asked for scissors to work with and used them to open her wrists. The prisoners did not know about her death.

6 Gernet M. N. Uk. soch., p. 243.

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Shlisselburg - relations with comrades were established. They gave affection, they gave love, and they melted the icy crust of Shlisselburg " 7 .

All the prisoners knew that Vera Figner belonged not only to her friends, but also to Russia. This was told to her by her comrades, and she continued to fight. It was impossible to break her. Once the caretaker caught M. R. Popov while tapping with Figner and took him to the punishment cell. Figner turned to the caretaker. "It's not fair," she said, " when two people are talking and one is being punished. Take me to the brig, too." She spent more than a week in the brig, on the cold stone floor, without a bed or even a stool. When the bed was brought to her on the fifth day, she refused, because Popov had been denied it.

And the prison absorbed more and more victims. I. N. Myshkin, the hero of the "trial of the 193s", was sentenced to ten years of hard labor. On the Square, for the speech delivered over the coffin of L. A. Dmokhovsky, - even to 15 years. From there, he fled. He was arrested in Vladivostok, and from 1884 he died in Shlisselburg. V. I. Lenin put his name next to the names of P. Alekseev, S. Khalturin, A. Zhelyabov8 . Ippolit Myshkin decided to ease the fate of other prisoners by his death. He hoped that he would be able to draw the attention of the whole of Russia to the situation of prisoners. On December 25, 1884, he threw a copper plate at Sokolov's caretaker, "Herod". On January 15, 1885, a military court was held. On January 21, Myshkin was shot. And no publicity. Myshkin hoped that the prisoners would support him. But by that time, everyone was still divided. The prison was silent.

However, some small shift has occurred. A friend of the Minister of Internal Affairs, General P. V. Orzhevsky, visited the prison. Six prisoners were allowed a daily walk together. So V. N. Figner met with L. A. Volkenshtein. The next step was to be allowed to work in vegetable gardens (although not immediately and not all of them). But soon a number of prisoners, including V. N. Figner and L. A. Volkenshtein, announced that they were refusing to take part in the festivities and gardens until everyone was allowed to do so.

Each new benefit wasn't easy. But since 1893, a furniture workshop and a blacksmith shop were opened, and it became possible to engage in gardening, gardening and floriculture. Shlisselburgers grew flowers - about 450 different varieties, tobacco.

Throughout the entire existence of the Shlisselburg prison, there was a persistent struggle of its prisoners for existence. And the prisoners won. Food expenses were increased (from 11 kopecks to 23 kopecks). per day), so deaths from exhaustion stopped. The prisoners were able to spend most of the day outdoors, communicating with each other. The library has grown from 160 to 2 thousand volumes. In 1897, correspondence was allowed (2 letters per year-after a 13-year break). But what was it all worth, how many people died from exhaustion, tuberculosis, how many went mad, committed suicide!

The almost ten-year period of the" new regime "ended on March 2, 1902, when the prisoners were informed that the commandant was dissatisfied with the" disorder " in the prison and ordered to apply the instructions in full. 9 The caretakers made their rounds, everyone was excited, their nerves were tense. Suddenly, someone was dragged down the corridor. The commandant's voice rang out:"Untie me." So someone must have hanged themselves. All the doors rattled. "A violent frenzy took hold of us," Figner recalled. "The prison has become a violent ward. By the evening of the next day, I had the idea to write a letter to my mother with the following content:: "Dear Mother, I was about to answer you, but something happened that turned everything upside down. Contact the Minister of the Interior or the Director of the Police Department to conduct an on-site investigation. Your Faith, March 3, 1902."

Caretaker Gudz, a minor formalist, told Figner that such a letter would not be sent. She replied that censorship belongs to the Police Department. Goodz repeated his statement. When Figner said that she would not write another letter, Gudz threatened that in this case she would be deprived of the right to correspond. "Only then did I realize the gravity of the moment: ... The old regime will be restored - we will not be able to bear it. Comrades... what will happen to them?.. And then about yourself... military court, execution... Do you have enough-

7 Figner V. N. Soch. T. 2. Moscow, 1932, pp. 16-24.

8 Lenin V. I. PSS. Vol. 6, p. 106; vol. 8, p. 248.

9 Figner V. N. Uk. soch. Vol. 2, pp. 204-210.

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are you strong enough for all this?.. Instantly, my hands are raised: I touch the caretaker's shoulders and forcefully tear off his shoulder straps." She told her friends about everything, asking for one thing: no riots - they are unnecessary.

Three days later, Colonel Kairov, the adjutant of the Comrade Minister of the Interior, arrived in Shlisselburg. He interviewed 10 soldiers and officers and several prisoners, including Figner. On the results of the investigation, Kairov drew up a memo in which he raised the question of further tightening the regime. He drew attention to the fact that prisoners are not deprived of the possibility of mutual communication: after getting up, all cells are unlocked, prisoners converge, have conversations, several people gather in the cells, where they drink tea, and then go to work or to the courtyard for a walk, and no one accompanies them. He did not like that the prisoners were allowed to read Russian and foreign newspapers. He did not miss the fact that 35 kopecks are now spent on food for prisoners. per day, and one of them makes wine from fruit, etc. All this, Kairov reported, appeared in the last 10 years.

He also touched Figner. "Prisoner No. 11 (V. N. Figner)," says his memo, " is like a cult for the whole prison, the prisoners treat her with the greatest respect and respect, she undoubtedly guides the public opinion of the whole prison, everyone obeys her orders almost implicitly; it is possible to say with great confidence that she is not a prisoner. that the protests of prisoners that manifest themselves in prison in the form of general hunger strikes, refusals to celebrate, work, etc. are made according to its tuning fork. " 10
In practice, the tightening of the regime was somewhat delayed: relevant orders were developed, drafts of new instructions were drawn up. On January 13, 1903, the commandant informed Figner that, "heeding the pleas of the mother," the tsar had replaced her hard labor without a term of 20 years of hard labor. This term ended on September 28, 1904. Figner considered the pardon an insult and decided not to write to her mother again, to break up with her. After all, her mother promised her not to go to the authorities with requests 11 . But three days later, Figner received a letter from home: it was written by her mother and sisters - her mother was dying, she had not left her bed for three months...

Uncompromising attitude when it came to honor was a constant quality of Figner as a politician. Here's another fact. On September 28, 1884, after the trial, the caretaker of the house of pre-trial detention came to her cell. "The military men who have been sentenced to death have decided to apply for a pardon,"he said," but Baron Stromberg hesitates and asks for your opinion." "Tell Stromberg,"Figner replied," that I will never advise others to do anything that I would not do myself under any circumstances. " 12
Later, V. N. Figner learned how her indefinite hard labor became 20 years old: "At the end of 1902, my brother Nikolai (singer) once occupied a box next to the box of the director of the Police Department - Lopukhin. Lopukhin leaned over to his brother and said in a low voice:"Now we can take care of our sister." After that, the brother gave the letter to his mother where it should be. " 13
Thus, Figner escaped the fate of D. Minakov and I. Myshkin, and was not brought to trial. The explanation for this lies in the changed political situation - the development of the peasant and student movement, and the mass strikes of the workers.

The Shlisselburg prison lasted until 1906. It was created in the context of the reaction that came in the 80s. But during this time, new revolutionary fighters grew up to replace Narodnaya Volya, the working class grew, and Marxist organizations appeared.

10 TsGAOR USSR, f. 98, op. 1, d. 89, ll. 68-69. "On the Shlisselburg fortress and the indulgences allowed in it in relation to the prisoners held there".

11 Figner's mother did not stay true to her word to her daughter on their last date in 1884. The archive contains seven of her letters of petition: dated October 16, 1884, V. K. Plehve with gratitude for the gift of her daughter's life; to him, dated March 9, 1885, with a request to inform about her health; from October 6, 1885, about the transfer of 50 rubles to her; from November 13, addressed to the emperor, about mitigation of June 10, 1895, addressed to the Empress, requesting a pardon; of June 23, 1896, addressed to the Minister of the Interior, requesting the application of the manifesto of amnesty on the occasion of the coronation; of March 2, 1898, addressed to the Emperor, requesting exile to Siberia; and, finally, the last-the only known Figner - from 1903 (ibid., f. DP, 7-e d-vo, 1903, d. 5283a, l. 118).

12 Figner V. N. Uk. soch. T. 1. p. 356

13 TsGALI SSSR, f. 1185, op. 1, d. 78, l. 17.

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circles that united in the RSDLP, the Leninist Bolshevik Party emerged. The end of the Shlisselburg prison is not accidental: On October 21, 1905, the tsar had to issue a decree granting amnesty to political prisoners. On October 26, the commandant of Shlisselburg gathered 11 prisoners. Four of them - N. A. Morozov, M. F. Frolenko, M. R. Popov, G. A. Lopatin-were here from the very beginning of the prison's existence, from 1884; P. L. Antonov - from 1885, S. A. Ivanov - from 1886, I. D. Lukashevich and M. V. Novorussky-from 1887. The revolution gave them freedom. Three of them - P. V. Karpovich, M. M. Melnikov and G. A. Gershuni-had their sentences reduced (Karpovich-by half, Melnikov and Gershuni - 15-year terms instead of indefinite hard labor). On December 8, 1905, the Shlisselburg prison and its guards were abolished, but after the defeat of the 1905 - 1907 revolution, a convict central was established in Shlisselburg, which was liquidated in 1917 by the people who rebelled against the autocracy.

Paying tribute to the heroism of the Narodnaya Volya people, V. I. Lenin said: "They showed the greatest self-sacrifice and caused the entire world to be surprised by their heroic terrorist method of fighting." 14 They did not and could not achieve their immediate goal of awakening the people's revolution; only the proletariat succeeded in its revolutionary struggle. But their sacrifices were not in vain: they contributed to the revolutionary education of the people.

14 Lenin V. I. PSS. Vol. 30, p. 315.

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