Taganka Prison (Russian: Таганская тюрьма) was built in

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 millio ...

in 1804 by

Alexander I Alexander I may refer to: * Alexander I of Macedon, king of Macedon 495–454 BC * Alexander I of Epirus (370–331 BC), king of Epirus * Pope Alexander I (died 115), early bishop of Rome * Pope Alexander I of Alexandria (died 320s), patriarch of ...

, emperor of

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...

.Katrina Marie
"Taganka: The Haunts of Intelligentsia and Blue-Collar Grit"
''Passport Moscow''. Retrieved December 5, 2011 It gained notoriety for its use as a prison for political prisoners, both by the ruling

tsar Tsar ( or ), also spelled ''czar'', ''tzar'', or ''csar'', is a title used by East and South Slavic monarchs. The term is derived from the Latin word ''caesar'', which was intended to mean "emperor" in the European medieval sense of the ter ...

s and during the years of the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

, by the

Communist Party A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of ''The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. ...

. During the

Great Purge The Great Purge or the Great Terror (russian: Большой террор), also known as the Year of '37 (russian: 37-й год, translit=Tridtsat sedmoi god, label=none) and the Yezhovshchina ('period of Yezhov'), was Soviet General Secret ...

, the prison housed foreign enemies of the state, such as the German communist,

Gustav Sobottka, Jr. Gustav Sobottka Jr. (10 April 1915 – 22 September 1940) was a German communist and the son of Communist Party functionary and trade unionist Gustav Sobottka. He spent several months in Nazi concentration camps, then left Germany, eventually livin ...

, as well as Russians. It played host to a mass protest in 1938 when thousands of prisoners repudiated their confessions made under torture. The prison became immortalized in poems and songs dating from before the

October Revolution The October Revolution,. officially known as the Great October Socialist Revolution. in the Soviet Union, also known as the Bolshevik Revolution, was a revolution in Russia led by the Bolshevik Party of Vladimir Lenin that was a key mome ...

in 1918. The prison was razed in the 1950s. Soviet 'martyr'

Nikolay Bauman Nikolay Ernestovich Bauman () ( – ) was a Russian revolutionary of the Bolshevik Party. His death in a struggle with a royalist upon his release from Taganka Prison in 1905 made him one of the first martyrs of the Revolution, and later o ...

was beaten to death outside of Taganka Prison by a nationalist and reactionary mob upon the release of political prisoners 18 October 1905.

Taganka (song)

Taganka is also the name of one of many Russian prisoners' songs. It takes its name from the prison and was popularized by Russian singers

Vladimir Vysotsky Vladimir Semyonovich Vysotsky ( rus, links=no, Владимир Семёнович Высоцкий, p=vlɐˈdʲimʲɪr sʲɪˈmʲɵnəvʲɪtɕ vɨˈsotskʲɪj; 25 January 1938 – 25 July 1980), was a Soviet singer-songwriter, poet, and actor ...

and Mikhail Shufutinsky.

Notable prisoners

Marcel Pauker Marcel Pauker (rendered in Russian as ''Марцел Паукер'' - ''Martsel Pauker''; December 6, 1896, Bucharest – August 16, 1938, Butovo, near Moscow) was a Romanian communist militant and husband of the future Romanian Communist l ...

Seraphim Chichagov Seraphim Chichagov (9 June or 9 January 1856 – 11 December 1937), born Leonid Mikhailovich Chichagov, was a Metropolitan bishop of the Russian Orthodox Church who was executed by firing squad, and was canonized by the Church in 1997 as a New ...

Pavel Florensky Pavel Alexandrovich Florensky (also P. A. Florenskiĭ, Florenskii, Florenskij; russian: Па́вел Алекса́ндрович Флоре́нский; hy, Պավել Ֆլորենսկի, Pavel Florenski; – December 8, 1937) was a Russian O ...

Thomas Sgovio Thomas Sgovio (7 October 1916 – 3 July 1997) was an American artist, ex-Communist, and former inmate of a Soviet Union GULAG camp in Kolyma. His father was an Italian American communist, deported by the US authorities to the USSR because of his ...

"Thomas Sgovi"
Gulag History / Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media, George Mason University. Retrieved December 5, 2011

References

External links

{{coord, 55, 44, 06, N, 37, 39, 16, E, region:RU_source:kolossus-ruwiki, display=title Prisons in Russia Prisons in the Soviet Union Russian songs Buildings and structures demolished in the 1950s Demolished buildings and structures in Moscow