The Russian Orthodox monastery was founded on this island in 1517 by St. Cyril of Novozero after having witnessed "a column of fire" hitting the island. The monastery buildings were used as the backdrop in the 1973 Vasily Shukshin movie “Red Roses” and in some of the stories by Russian writer Alexandr Yashin.
Advertisement
Finally in 1997 it became a prison dedicated solely to the prisoners serving life-time and death-penalty sentences. Following the 1996 moratorium on the execution of death sentences, the sentences are automatically converted into the life in prison. There are around 193 inmates incarcerated in the prison, which is formally known as prison No. OE 256/5 – and “Pyatak” amongst the inmates (named after the last digit of the formal name).
Prison No. OE 256/5 (ФКУ ИК-5), of the Federal Penitentiary Service, is in the Belozersky District, Vologda Oblast, about 400 kilometres (250 mi) north of Moscow.