Zerentui Prison

Zerentui Prison

 

the central prison of the Nerchinsk penal servitude settlement. It was located in the small town of Gornyi Zerentui, 700 km southeast of Chita. The first convicts appeared in Zerentui in the second half of the 18th century. A group of Decembrists was transported to the prison in 1827, and they soon organized the Zerentui Conspiracy of 1828. A three-story stone prison for 300 inmates was built in 1889. After the suppression of the Revolution of 1905–07, more than 800 convicts were imprisoned in the Zerentui Prison. The sadistic regime at the prison led to the Zerentui Tragedy. The Zerentui Prison was closed in February 1917.