Tag #148640 - Interview #95166 (Semyon Vilenskiy)

During a short period in 1948 they followed the rules. They were trying for a long time to make me accept their accusations. In May 1949 I was taken to Butyrskaya prison.  Hey announced the verdict of the Special council of NKVD USSR [ extrajudicial punitive body in NKVD authorized to issue sentences without a trial or attorney.], written on a thin sheet of cigarette paper. ‘Sentence under articles 58-8/19 (intention to execute a terrorist attack) and 58-10 (anti-Soviet agitation) to 10 years in special camps’. The investigation officer, who was not the worst person among other investigation officers, said at the last interrogation: ‘I only did what my bosses ordered me. You will go to the camp within our system’. At this time they were establishing special camps [1948 special GULAG camps for political prisoners: Norilsk – Gorny camp, Gorlag, Kolyma – Berlag, etc.]. Special camps were created for prisoners to stay in the area they were assigned to after they were released. These people had to obtain special permits from the commandant to leave the area, or they were sentenced to 20 years of penal servitude for desertion, if they left the area without such permit. The Butyrskaya prison was like a resting house against the former prison. There were many prisoners from Moscow, their relatives sent them parcels delivered to the cells on big carts. Every day prisoners were allowed 30 minute walks. There was a wide yard with high fence walls. There were about 100 prisoners in my cell. We were to be transported to exile all together.