ABSTRACT
In the Inner Prison of the Vecheka in Moscow, prisoners were forbidden to read, to write, to play cards, chess or draughts, to sing, to talk loudly, or make any noise whatsoever; walks and visitors were not permitted, while visits to the toilet were allowed twice daily, under guard. Communications between prisoners, such as knocking on walls according to the 'prison alphabet' or exchanging greetings during walks, were forbidden and were particularly severely punished. The prison attached to the Solovetskii monastery was abolished in 1905 and then revived under the Soviet government as one of the so-called Northern Camps of Special Purpose — Severnye Lageria Osobogo Naznachenia. The interminable journeys between prison and prison and between prison and exile were generally held to be infinitely worse than either prison or exile. In many prisons, and particularly in camps, they were often raped and had to choose between survival and sexual submission to the chekists.
