Verkhneudinsk prison at the late 19th - early 20th century: the way of life of prisoners

The article describes the life of convicts in Verkhneudinsk prison at the end of the 19th - the beginning of 20th century, the features of social and physical environment that surrounded prisoners. We have appealed to the reliable data from the funds of the State Archive of the Republic of Buryatia for reconstruction of the images of the past. The article describes the building of Verkhneudinsk prison, organization of supervision over prisoners, their work activities and way of life. The issues of organizing paperwork are studied. The analysis of social and living conditions of prisoners allows us to understand the forms of social prisoners’ interaction and their features. The author concluded that the emergence of informal groups of convicts and distribution of a criminal prison subculture throughout Russia mainly came from transmission of prisoner behavior patterns developed in Siberian penal servitude.