Ognenny Ostrov

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Ognenny Ostrov (Russian: Огненный остров, literally: "Fire Island") is a small lake island in the central Russian Vologda region which hosts a monastery, converted into a high-security prison for the death-penalty inmates. The Ognenny Ostrov island is located about 400 kilometers north of Moscow on Lake Novozero.

The Russian Orthodox monastery was founded on this island in 1517 by St. Cyril of Novozero after having witnessed "a column of fire" hitting the island. The monastery buildings were used as the backdrop in the 1973 Vasily Shukshin movie “Red Roses” and in some of the stories by Russian writer Alexandr Yashin.

Following the October Revolution in 1917 it was converted into a prison to hold “enemies of the revolution”. During the 1930s and 1940s it functioned as a penal colony for the victims of the purges of Joseph Stalin. After Stalin's death in 1953 it was turned into a regular prison for non-political dangerous criminals.

Finally in 1997 it became a prison dedicated solely to the prisoners serving life-time and death-penalty sentences. Following the 1996 moratorium on the execution of death sentences, the sentences are automatically converted into the life in prison. There are around 193 inmates incarcerated in the prison, which is formally known as prison No. OE 256/5 – and “Pyatak” amongst the inmates (named after the last digit of the formal name).