Vilnius could have looked different: everything was determined by the “triangle of punishment” that was being created

In the 19th century, Lukiškės, with a square and a poor prison in front, was perceived in the context of the capital as a complete suburb without a developed street system. True, the idea of ​​expanding the city to the suburbs was. As early as 1834, Tsar Nicholas I ordered the Governor General of Vilnius Nikolai Dolgorukov to create a new city plan.

The plans were not ambitious and, as Vytautas Jogėla, Doctor of Humanities, wrote in his collective monograph “Lukiškės: From the Suburbs to the Center”, that the plan of the Governor General of Vilnius himself was “more adapted to the beautification and arrangement of city”.

Several contradictions and financial problems also arose, so the connection of the Lukiškės suburb with the heart of the capital took time.

Vilnius’ “heart” could have been different

After more than half a century of planning work in the Lukiškės suburb, the street network began to form only at the beginning of the 20th century. This also coincided with the construction of a modern prison in the Russian Empire. V. Jogėla writes that the appearance of private and state buildings (including the Lukiškės prison) raised the prestige of the suburbs, so it was necessary to form a network of streets by combining buildings.

It is true that it is now clear that the “heart” of Vilnius could have looked different. It turns out that not only the city authorities, but also its residents did not want to build the planned prison in the suburbs of Lukiškės. An attempt was made to contact the Ministry of Justice and its director, Nikolai Muravyov, nicknamed the choir.

A delegation of officials from the Central Board of Prisons decided that Lukiškės prison should be built where planned. The Minister himself had the last word and it was clear that there would be no changes to the prison construction plan. One of the main arguments was the proximity of the prison to the Palace of Justice and Lukiškės Square, where public punishment was inevitable.

The prison, with the two objects already mentioned, formed the so-called “punishment triangle”. Detainees heard the verdict at the Palace of Justice, were incarcerated in a nearby prison, and sometimes gathered in the last minutes of their lives in Lukiškės Square.

This “punishment triangle” also required a decent infrastructure to facilitate the transportation of prisoners. It was necessary to “not be ashamed” in front of honorable guests from abroad, and there really were. After all, the prison is the most modern prison in the entire empire. Therefore, it was necessary to build streets so that the trips of foreign guests or prisoners through the suburbs did not become a headache for the officials in charge.

Streets appeared. Although its construction lasted until the First World War, it did happen. It can be assumed that the formation of the street network was accelerated by the “punishment triangle” with the Lukiškės prison in the forefront. Therefore, we could hardly observe the work of the Netflix team in Vilnius Old Town today if N. Muravjov at that time had supported the raising of a prison outside the city.

Prison construction and personnel selection

The German urban historian and anthropologist Felix Ackermann in the article “Lukiškės prison as the 20th century. Vilnius History Microcosm ”writes that the construction works on the Lukiškės prison did not begin until 1900. They used men who had to meet the criteria of physical ability. In addition, he had to use personal work tools.

According to F. Ackermann, all the necessary building materials were transported from Saint Petersburg itself, and their purchase was financed by the then Ministry of Justice, headed by Nikolai Muravyov.

The construction of the Vilnius prison had to be a very ambitious project. It would not only be used for the detention of convicted prisoners, but also as a detention center for detainees awaiting trial. Make the building complex the most modern prison in all of tsarist Russia.

Historian V. Jogėla points out that the prison had to be modern and domestic innovations. An ice cream parlor, a bakery, a laundry and a hospital are planned for the establishment. And the German historian also notes that it is planned to install heating, air ventilation system.

The diversity of religions as a sign of modernity

It was only after the presentation of the first drafts of the Vilnius prison that it became clear that the places would have to appear here not only for the Orthodox Church, but also for Jewish synagogues and Catholic chapels. It is not difficult to predict why such decisions were made: in Vilnius, a large part of the local population was made up of Jews and Catholics. The Orthodox shrine became a symbol of the power of the Russian Empire, the official state religion. The whole of the church is visible both from the outside and from the inside even today.

Already during the construction of the prison complex, it was clear that the church would play the most important role. It wasn’t just because of the place of prayer. The tsarist government has directed that the care of prisoners could also be based on religious spaces, Ackermann considers. This means that the prisoners in a modern prison had to be grouped precisely according to the religion they professed.

It is true that an indirect interreligious confrontation arose, but only at the beginning of prison history and for a very short time. The Catholics taken to the built prison complex were dissatisfied with its religious location. The place for the chapel did not satisfy not only the faithful but also the priest, who then asked the authorities to designate a larger room. According to the historian V. Jagėla, the first place for the chapel was only 5 meters in area, and those spaces would hardly be enough even for the altar.

Of course, it can be assumed that the tsarist government understood this from the beginning and dedicated the premises knowing this. In other words, the government, by assigning the wrong place, indirectly mocked the unorthodox (unorthodox) authors.

The modernity of the prison, which is still being discussed now, with the last prisoners raised by the institution, has manifested itself not only in the height of the walls, the administrative premises, the construction materials or the organization of work. The prison complex is also praised for its ability to house all three religions in a small area. In the Russian Empire, it was the only detention center of its kind, says F. Ackermann.

The prison as a transit point for the execution of Jews

More than 100 years have passed since the prison opened. During this period, the prison walls saw not only the ever-changing convicts, but the ever-changing government as well. Lukiškės Prison was built under the rule of Tsarist Russia. A little later, the Poles entered Vilnius and a few decades later the Soviets ruled here. After Adolf Hitler’s Germany and the Nazis occupied Lithuania during the war, Lithuania, along with Vilnius, fell back into Soviet hands.

During the reign of Tsarist Russia, Lukiškės Prison did not differ from other prisons in terms of administration and contingent of prisoners. It’s true, unless we highlight what F. Ackermann also writes about. Although political prisoners and criminals were not separated here, Lukiškės prison still became a place of detention for political opponents of the tsarist regime. For example, Feliksas Dzeržinskis, who began to create repressive Soviet structures, was imprisoned in Lukiškės in 1906.

During the years of Polish rule, the principle did not change substantially. More attention was paid to Lithuanians causing public discontent and opposing the government. Naturally, because after Poland occupied Vilnius, Lithuanians did not dare to recognize the capital as a foreign state during the interwar period. This provoked increasing resistance, which the Polish authorities tried to suppress. The repression ended with a “one-way handover”: being sent to Lukiškės prison.

The new order and physical atrocities were brought by the communist government. F. Ackermann writes that Lithuanians, Poles, Jews, Belarusians and promoters of national projects met in Lukiškės prison without exception. The Soviet regime became a real nightmare for political prisoners. The new methods of coercion exceeded the penalties imposed by Tsarist Russia. Executions carried out not only in the building of the Palace of Justice, Lukiškės Square, but also in the prison itself during the Soviet occupation became the norm.

With the start of mass deportations, Lukiškės also played an important role. The prison became a place of transit for people, before being sent in train cars to distant points in Siberia. The people gathered in Vilnius first found themselves in prison and were soon sent to the train station.

When Hitler’s Germany expelled the Soviet Union from the positions occupied during the war, the situation of the common political prisoners eased and there was little less terror against them, but the Jews were no longer considered prisoners in prison. Since 1942, they began to be seen as future victims who did not remain in prison.

The Jews captured in the city were sent there. After that, they were sent on the last trip of their lives to Paneriai, where they were shot.

It is true that F. Ackermann claims that there were a number of cases in which Soviet soldiers, Lithuanian or Polish prisoners were among the Jews themselves, who stumbled face down in the well of Paneriai itself and were brutally shot. During the Nazi occupation, the flow of prisoners in Lukiškės prison increased several times, making it even physically difficult to accommodate detainees.

The article is based on the thoughts of Vytautas Jogėla from the book “Sociotopography of Lukiškpos (1831-1918): from the edge to the center”, in: Lukiškės: from the suburbs to the center (15th – early 20th century ”, by Felix Ackermann Lukiškės Prison as a 20th Century. The microcosm of Vilnius history “in the book”In search of the local spirit “.