St. Petersburg (dpa) – The cells in Kresty Prison in St. Petersburg are only eight square metres but they house 12 men. The inmates have to sleep in shifts because there are not enough beds.
This chronically overcrowded prison, built 100 years ago, seems an unlikely tourist attraction. Yet Kresty Prison also houses an unusual museum within its secure, red-brick walls.The exhibition offers a glimpse of prison history and a look at prison life in modern Russia. In return, the paying guests are helping to solve the prison’s serious shortage of funds.We were plunged into a prison atmosphere right at the start of our tour. We had to hand in our identity papers before the barred gate was unlocked amid a loud jangling of keys.Then a tour guide from the prison administration led us through a long musty corridor to the prison courtyard, flanked by brick buildings. Then came another security door system and another gate into an oppressive cell corridor.Our guide, prison administrator Olga Masalova, unlocked the door into the show cell. There were two bunk beds against the walls, each with three bunks. On the wall hung eight tin mugs, on the left was a washbasin, on the right a toilet without a cabin. “By European standards only two people would be allowed to share this cell, but in fact it houses 10 to 12. They sleep in shifts.”When Kresty was first opened in 1892, every prisoner had a cell to himself. “The jail was built for 1,150 prisoners, today it houses more than 10,000,” said our guide.But the chronic overcrowding is not the only indignity. The state pays just seven roubles (25 U.S. cents) per prisoner per day for board. “Every day they always receive a half loaf of bread,” said Masalova. In addition, they get whatever the prison could find, or was donated – soup, buckwheat gruel, pasta or fish. “We get support from some foreign charitable organisations,” said Masalova.Many prisoners fall ill in such cramped conditions. “Tuberculosis is a big problem here,” said Masalova. The 500 prisoners with infectious diseases, including AIDS and syphilis, are housed in a special wing, and the prison also has its own hospital.The museum is housed at the back of the prison grounds. The history of the prison is portrayed in photographs and furniture. There are also exhibits of finds from cells: a mobile phone hidden in a transistor radio, a home-made knife, a hollowed out book concealing hand-grenades, a deceptively realistic pistol made of bread.Other exhibits show prisoners’ art work with less dangerous intent: a chess set made of bread. But the Kresty version of the game does not pit black against white, but prison warders in their green uniforms against prisoners in their prison whites.Another jangling of keys and the barred gates closed behind us. But outside there was more to see of prison life. Prisoners were shooting small messages over the prison walls with pea shooters. A young woman on the other side of the wall picked them up – perhaps a message from her boyfriend.
