A film team from the Australian broadcasting station „Channel 9“ recently found itself behind bars in Krasnoyarsk.
This museum dedicated to the treatment of prisoners and prison methods is situated in the city of Krasnoyarsk, Republic Street and is accomodated with the Central Pretrial Prison. The foreign guests were shown the current exhibition, which is dedicated to the history of the Krasnoyarsk prison and Siberian forced labour in the 19th century. The visitors were deeply impressed by all the rare photographies from archives, reconstructed garments that used to be worn by arrestants and wardens, authentic objects which were used in everyday life of exiles and forced labourers. However, the journalists from Australia were slightly disappointed about the lack of exhibits with regard to the repressions of the 1930s. The corresponding museum section is presently being in the state of construction; instead, there is the possibility to visit the so-called “execution chamber”. This room represents the reconstruction of an authentic shooting chamber, where, at the times of the NKVD, political prisoners were shot by a firing squad. In the premisses of the Central Petrial Priosn N° 1 such a chamber, in fact, exists in one of the cellar rooms. The journalists were guided into today’s block. The correspondant of the Australian broadcasting station, Liam Ross Bartlett, shared his impressions about the contemporary Russian prison with us as follows: „ What we have seen in the museum has shown all the cruelty of your world in a time which is not so long ago yet. The more astonished we are about the changes that happened in your country lately, changes which turned to good account, among others in the field of prison methods and punitive measures“.
„Krasnoyarsk Labourer“, 16.11.10