Monastery Prisons

Book excerpt: Little is known regarding prisons located inside Russian Orthodox Monasteries for the incarceration of religious dissenters and sectarians, political activists and criminals. This book focuses on the history of such a prison system and the lives and convictions of the inmates subject to incarceration by Imperial Russia and the Russian Orthodox Church. The period covered begins 1441, with the arrival of Isidore, the metropolitan of Moscow, to the Moscow Chudov (Miracles) Monastery for incarceration, and ends 1905, when the final inmates were released from the Suzdal Spasso-Evfimiev Monastery, coincident with the edict of religious toleration of Tsar Nicholas II. Likewise included are the women incarcerated in convents over the same period. This is a part of history that is unknown to the non-Russian speaking world and which the author hopes to unveil. With 11 photographs.