KGB and Ministry of Internal Affairs to Central Committee: Transfer of “especially dangerous” prisoners from Vladimir Prison to Chistopol Prison. Henceforward political prisoners would be held in Chistopol Prison. [R 17 March 1978, 492-Ch]

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[page one of two]

Secret
Copy no 3

To the CPSU Central Committee

No 06637

The transfer of especially dangerous State criminals
from Vladimir Prison No 2

The USSR Ministry for Internal Affairs and the Committee for State Security [KGB] support the proposal of the Vladimir Region Party Committee that especially dangerous State criminals be transferred from prison No 2 of the Vladimir Region Executive Committee’s directorate for Internal Affairs to another corrective labour facility of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

The question of transferring especially dangerous State criminals was considered by our departments in 1977. Then, in accordance with the suggestions put forward in the memorandum from the Vladimir Region Party Committee, it was considered expedient to transfer the said criminals (they number between 40 and 60) to prison No 4 of the Tatarstan SSR Ministry of Internal Affairs. Among the considerations was that there are no defence or especially important installations at Chistopol, the town where prison No 4 is located. The town is located 144 kilometres from Kazan, at a distance from the country’s major industrial and cultural centres, and is not linked by developed transport connections with other districts. Prison No 4 was built in the 18th century and has no association with the past imprisonment of revolutionaries and progressive figures. [illegible]

[page two]

The suggestion that especially dangerous State criminals be transferred to prison No 4 was discussed in 1977 with representatives of the Tatarstan Regional Party Committee. They postponed a decision because of fears that this would complicate the situation within the republic. The USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Committee for State Security consider that there are no serious grounds for such fears.

Shchelokov [Minister of Internal Affairs]

Chebrikov [KGB deputy chairman]

17 March 1978

No. 492-Ch

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NOTES

General

1. Notes and additions by translator and editor are bracketed, thus [ ];
2. Text added by hand is indicated in italic script;
3. when a handwritten phrase, figure or word has been added
to a previously typed document it is indicated by underlined italic script.

Translation, John Crowfoot