This portion of the Peter and Paul Fortress was rather fascinating, and I'm not just saying this because I study politics: this prison was used to keep political prisoners, and on each of the cells, there was the story (and sometimes the picture) of the famous dissident kept within the cell walls. Even without the backstory, the exhibit was quite awesome; it described the different conditions within the prison, and how the treatment of the prisoners and functioning of the prison changed from era to era.
It was especially interesting to see how these prisoners lived; I never realized I was claustrophobic until I walked into a room that was specifically designed to lock people (such as myself) in. The museum showed the different security measures in place to keep prisoners from communicating, and even had a brief explanation of the prisoner knocking system.
All this was interesting; the high security cells were downright terrifying.
Political prisons such as this one only served one purpose: keeping prisoners isolated. And that's exactly what cells such as this one did. Literally, it was a dark room, with absolutely no light, and absolutely nothing inside. There was another room outside of it, meant to isolate the noise; and then, the outside world. You could scream all you wanted in that prison cell (if you were actually stuck in there) and no one would ever know.
Not only that, but the descriptions tended to be almost horrifically dispassionate. For example, one placard mentioned that the stairs used to be lined with chicken wire in order to prevent their use for suicide; and then, that was all. Just a perfunctory sentence, and no more.
And then try walking up those stairs with that neutral statement in mind.
Overall, I highly recommend this exhibit. It might make you squeamish, if you're one with an over-active imagination (like I am); however, it's still rather informative, and personally helped me increase my understanding of why being a political prisoner in any era of Russian history was such a terrible thing.
It was especially interesting to see how these prisoners lived; I never realized I was claustrophobic until I walked into a room that was specifically designed to lock people (such as myself) in. The museum showed the different security measures in place to keep prisoners from communicating, and even had a brief explanation of the prisoner knocking system.
All this was interesting; the high security cells were downright terrifying.
Political prisons such as this one only served one purpose: keeping prisoners isolated. And that's exactly what cells such as this one did. Literally, it was a dark room, with absolutely no light, and absolutely nothing inside. There was another room outside of it, meant to isolate the noise; and then, the outside world. You could scream all you wanted in that prison cell (if you were actually stuck in there) and no one would ever know.
Not only that, but the descriptions tended to be almost horrifically dispassionate. For example, one placard mentioned that the stairs used to be lined with chicken wire in order to prevent their use for suicide; and then, that was all. Just a perfunctory sentence, and no more.
And then try walking up those stairs with that neutral statement in mind.
Overall, I highly recommend this exhibit. It might make you squeamish, if you're one with an over-active imagination (like I am); however, it's still rather informative, and personally helped me increase my understanding of why being a political prisoner in any era of Russian history was such a terrible thing.
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| Trubetskoy Bastion Prison |
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