Butyrka Prison - Living Conditions

Living Conditions

Shalamov notes, in one of his tales, that the Butyrka is extremely hot in summer; Eduard Limonov, in his drama Death in the police van, emphatically agrees. He says that, with the collapse of the Soviet regime, overcrowding has become a real issue; there are more than 100 inmates in cells meant to contain 10 people. Most of these people are politically unreliable subjects from the Caucasus. Since epidemics are a problem, the wardens try to fill cells entirely with people with AIDS, or with tuberculosis; however, this avails little, since almost every inmate is a user, and there is at most one needle per cell. Moreover, inmates are brought to the tribunal in overcrowded police vans, so that a healthy inmate may breathe the same air of one with tuberculosis. The gasoline spared in this way is sold on the black market. The Butyrka has a peculiar slang: the wardens are called "manti", the inmates "patzani", to take drugs is "smazatsia", i. e., to oil oneself. The word khuy is used profusely. On a lighter note, television has been allowed since 1995.