Vladimir Central Prison

Vladimir Central — Vladimirsky Tsentral — is one of Russia's most notorious prisons, built in 1783 and expanded under both the Tsars and the Soviets. In the Stalin era it held some of the most prominent victims of the Great Terror, and from the late 1940s became a major Soviet political prison. The KGB transferred sensitive foreign prisoners here, including Americans and European nationals, to keep them away from the larger camps.

The prison is still an active penal institution, but its history has made it a landmark and it features in the popular Russian song "Vladimirsky Central" by Mikhail Krug, one of the most widely known shanson songs in Russia. The exterior — a severe 18th-century building surrounded by high walls on a quiet street northeast of the centre — is visible from outside. There is no museum or tourist access inside, but the building itself is an atmospheric sight and a significant chapter in Russian history.

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Among the foreign nationals held at Vladimir Central were Francis Gary Powers — the American U-2 spy plane pilot shot down over the Soviet Union in 1960 — and the violinist Ida Haendel, interned as a German national during the Second World War. Soviet-era prisoners included Nikolai Bukharin's wife and Raoul Wallenberg, who died here in 1947, though the Soviet authorities long denied this. The prison is still in use today.