Russian Authorities Forced to Call in Spetsnaz Troops to Put Down Prison Revolt in the Transbaikal

Paul Goble

            Staunton, April 10 – Confronted with a prisoner rising the last two days at a strict regime camp in Angarsk, Russian penal authorities were forced to call in 300 spetsnaz troops to put it down. There were wounded on both sides and at least one death. As usual in such cases, there are disputes as to what caused the rising and what happened when the penal officials put it down.

            But three things seem clear: the state of relations between guards and prisoners has been deteriorating because of fears about the pandemic as well as official repression, the number of prisoners who took part was unusually large – as many as 500 – with 200 reportedly cutting their veins, and the authorities suppressed the rising with difficulty and only with violence.

            As usual, official reporting has been scanty and focused almost exclusively on the bad behavior of prisoners and the need to bring new charges against them. But information reaching the general public from behind the walls suggests that there is blame on both sides and that this rising is the beginning not the end of the current problem.

            The Public Verdict organization has called for hearings about this rising and its suppression (m.vk.com/wall-20601884_5219), and Siberia without Torture reports that inmates in two neighboring colonies in Irkutsk Oblast also intend to revolt against conditions in their places of confinement (mbk-news.appspot.com/news/300-zaklyuchennyx/).

            If indeed that is the case, this trend must be especially worrisome to the police not only because it is likely to strain their resources to prevent it from spreading further but also and far more importantly prison revolts in Russia have often been a leading indicator of broader demands for change.

            Because prisoners are the most oppressed class in Russian society, they are the most likely to rise up; but historically, they have done so at times when repression is hitting other parts of the population as well and when there is some expectation that no one can continue to live as they have up to then.

            Prison revolts in the GULAG in the months after Stalin’s death, the Putin regime will certainly recall, forced the Soviet dictator’s successors to release many of the inmates and more generally loosen state control over the population, a development usually referred to as “the thaw.”

            Thus, in Russia, unlike in other countries, prison revolts, especially if they become widespread, are more than just prison revolts. They may be harbingers of change.

            For information on the current revolt and its violent suppression, see among others meduza.io/feature/2020/04/11/v-irkutskoy-oblasti-proizoshel-bunt-v-kolonii-strogogo-rezhima-ego-podavil-spetsnaz-postradali-sotni-zaklyuchennyh, mbk-news.appspot.com/suzhet/chto-izvestno-o-bunte/, sibreal.org/a/30545788.html  and kasparov.ru/material.php?id=5E91B3C5D8B2C).