The affair of «simulation of the priests' execution» in the Ryazan Provincial Concentration camp in the fall of 1919

The article is devoted to unstudied issues of the history of the penal system of Soviet Russia during the Civil War. During this period, two penal structures existed in a parallel: the first was the penitentiary system inherited by the Commissariat of Justice from Russian Empire; the second was the system of concentration camps of forced labor organized by the jurisdiction of the Commissariat of Internal Affairs. The aim of this article is to differentiate the typical problems and peculiarities of the system of concentration camps on an example of Ryazan province. The paper is based on the historical archive documents and materials, settled in the collections of the State archive of the Ryazan region and first introduced in the scientific circulation. The authors describe the organization of the Ryazan province concentration camps of forced labor. The authors draw attention to the fact that this problem is still poorly understood, and existing studies and journalistic materials quite often contain biased information and erroneous conclusions and evaluation. The article contains documented information about the number and social composition of the prisoners: convicted criminals, prisoners of civil war and deserters, "class enemies" and political prisoners from all over the province. The paper presents the characteristics of the regime of detention, the order of the day, and the characteristics of forced labor in the concentration camp. The authors report on the details the activities of the camp administration. The economic and material base of the concentration camp was organized on the basis of the Kazan Jawlensky female convent. The paper describes the dissolution of the convent, requisition of its property and the eviction of the nuns and residents. Of particular interest, according to the authors, is the reaction to the events that occurred in this period - the affair of "simulation of the priests' execution": the Deputy Camp commandant staged mass shooting of Orthodox priests. According to the authors, this case best describes the general direction of the penal and punitive policy of the Soviet state, the emerging new relationship between the Soviet government and the Church, but also punitive institutions in the extraordinary conditions of Civil War. Based on documentary sources, the authors came to the conclusion that the system of concentration camps formed during the Civil War was extraordinary and repressive. However, it differed from the later system of the camps of the era of mass repression of the Stalin era.

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