Pyatak Prison: Shawshankski Boredemption

What happens when your death sentence is commuted, only to discover that your new life may an even worse punishment?

In this episode of Torture: A Dark History, Kevin Young and Dan Hourigan travel to Ognenny Ostrov, Russia, better known as Fire Island, home to one of the country's most notorious correctional facilities: Prison No. OE 256/5, or Pyatak.

We’ll follow the story of Vyacheslav Sharoyevsky, a convicted murderer whose execution was cancelled at the last moment, and explore the strange history of the island itself, from an Orthodox monastery to a Soviet political prison and eventually a maximum security facility for some of Russia's most dangerous prisoners.

Then we get inside Pyatak. Extreme isolation, brutal restrictions, cramped cells, limited contact with the outside world, and an existence so monotonous that prisoners have reportedly harmed themselves simply to experience a change in routine.

We'll also look at Nur Pashi Kulayev, the only surviving member of the Beslan school attackers, and examine what years of extreme isolation can actually do to the human mind.

And because this is Torture: A Dark History, Kevin and Dan bring their own bleakly twisted humor to a prison where the guards supposedly have one simple philosophy: there is no light at the end of the tunnel.

If you love Russian history, Soviet prisons, Russian prisons, Pyatak, Fire Island, Ognenny Ostrov, solitary confinement, death row, prison torture, psychological torture, true crime, dark history, and some of the most extreme prisons in the world, this episode is going to be a very long walk through a very dark place.

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