Strangling, Solitude: Inside Shlisselburg

It’s hard to believe today, but the once most notorious prison for traitors to the Russian state had, by the end of the 19th century, been transformed into a blossoming garden. How did this come about and what became of the place?
Cells with sumbergeable floors that sent you to your death from being devoured by predatory fish; weapons of torture hanging on walls all around and capable of breaking even the most unwilling; unknown prisoners in damp casemates, in the company of silent, unwavering guards: such were the descriptions, conjured up by the imaginations of ordinary people of the most evil of all tsarist prisons – Shlisselburg.
This prison was located on an island in the middle of Lake Ladoga, at the mouth of the Neva River. The shores were lined with shar granite boulders and the current was so strong that making a journey was difficult and escaping impossible. The giant rock had all manner of dark legends surrounding it, but reality was occasionally quite different.
Read Full Article »


Comment
Show comments Hide Comments


Related Articles