World Prisons
All prisons

Russia · Tverskoy District

Butyrka prison

Low
Verified
Aging · 5mo ago
Sources last reviewed on

Data is aggregated from public sources and may be incomplete or out of date. Always verify with primary sources before acting on any figure. See data sources.

For families

How to send mail, money, and visit Butyrka prison

Step-by-step guidance using the Russia system — addresses, money services, visit booking, what to bring on your first visit.

Open toolkit
Photograph of Butyrka prison

Gallery

From Wikimedia Commons (CC-BY-SA where not otherwise stated).

  • Butyrka prison ed.jpg

    Photo by Butyrka_prison.jpg: Stanislav Kozlovskiy derivative work: V2k (talk) via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)

  • Butyrka prison.jpg

    Photo by Stanislav Kozlovskiy via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)

  • Butyrka's Bread.jpg

    Photo by A.Savin via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)

  • Butyrka01.jpg

    Photo by A.Savin via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)

  • Butyrka02.jpg

    Photo by A.Savin via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)

  • Butyrsky castle (model).jpg

    Photo by OlegVD via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)

  • Moscow, Butyrka Prison, 1890s.jpg

    Photo by Unknown authorUnknown author via Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)

  • Ph571.gif

    Photo by Unknown authorUnknown author via Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)

Background

Butyrskaya prison (Russian: Бутырская тюрьма, romanized: Butýrskaya tyurmá), colloquially known simply as Butyrka (Russian: Бутырка, IPA: [bʊˈtɨrkə]), is a prison in the Tverskoy District of central Moscow, Russia. In Imperial Russia it served as the central transit prison. Now it is a pretrial detention facility (remand prison). During the Soviet Union era (1917–1991) it held many political prisoners. As of 2022 Butyrka remains the largest of Moscow's remand prisons.

Source: Wikipedia article lead, CC-BY-SA.

Capacity

—

Current population

—

Occupancy

—

Year opened

1771

Operational

Figures from official sources · verified 29 May 2026 · methodology

Facility profile

Operator

—

Population held

Mixed/unknown

Opened

1771

Region

Tverskoy District

Security level

—

Death-row facility

No

Conditions

No conditions summary available yet.

Visiting

No visiting information available.

Mailing

No mailing information available.

Practical info

Contact the operator's website for inmate-specific procedures.

Known issues

No major issues documented in our database.

Notable inmates

  • Kajetan Klug
    1895–1977 · author
  • Władysław Anders
    Władysław Anders
    1892–1970 · military officer
  • Yevgenia Ginzburg
    Yevgenia Ginzburg
    1903–1977 · journalist

    Yevgenia Solomonovna Ginzburg (December 20, 1904 – May 25, 1977) (Russian: Евге́ния Соломо́новна Ги́нзбург) was a Soviet writer who served an 18-year sentence in the Kolyma Gulag.

  • Kurt Pflugbeil
    1890–1955 · military officer

    Kurt Leopold Pflugbeil (9 May 1890 – 31 May 1955) was a German general (General der Flieger) in the Luftwaffe during World War II who commanded 4th Air Corps and Luftflotte 1.

  • Aron Baron
    Aron Baron
    1891–1937 · anarchist

    Aron Davydovych Baron (Ukrainian: Аро́н Дави́дович Ба́рон; 1891–1937) was a Ukrainian Jewish anarchist revolutionary.

  • Fritz Noether
    Fritz Noether
    1884–1941 · mathematician

    Fritz Alexander Ernst Noether (German: [ˈnøːtɐ]; 7 October 1884 – 11 September 1941) was a German mathematician who emigrated from Nazi Germany to the Soviet Union.

  • Antoni Krahelski
    Antoni Krahelski
    1892–1949 · engineer
  • Aleksander Krzyżanowski
    Aleksander Krzyżanowski
    1895–1951 · military officer

    Aleksander Krzyżanowski nom de guerre "Wilk" (18 February 1895 – 29 September 1951) was an artillery colonel of the Polish Army, officer of the Service for Poland's Victory, Union of Armed Struggle, commander of the Vilnius District of the Home Army and political prisoner of the Stalinist period.

  • Yevgenia Ginzburg
    Yevgenia Ginzburg
    1903–1977 · journalist

    Yevgenia Solomonovna Ginzburg (December 20, 1904 – May 25, 1977) (Russian: Евге́ния Соломо́новна Ги́нзбург) was a Soviet writer who served an 18-year sentence in the Kolyma Gulag.

Showing 9 of 12. Source: Wikidata + Wikipedia.

Contact & address

+7 499 7912132
Official site

Conditions Risk Score

Derived signal — not a judgement. How it's calculated

—
Insufficient data
We don't have enough public data on this facility to score it. Have something to add? Send us a correction.

Related facilities

All in Russia →

Same country, matched on type + security level where possible.

Data completeness

24%

How many of our profile fields are populated. We surface this so families and researchers know the limits.

Sources

Cite this page

Under CC-BY-4.0. Include the URL and access date; the site is a living reference and entries can change.

APA
World Prisons. (2026). Butyrka prison. Retrieved October 15, 2026, from https://worldprisons.com/prisons/butyrka-prison
Chicago
"Butyrka prison." World Prisons. Accessed October 15, 2026. https://worldprisons.com/prisons/butyrka-prison.
BibTeX
@misc{worldprisons-butyrka-prison,
  author = {{World Prisons}},
  title = {Butyrka prison},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://worldprisons.com/prisons/butyrka-prison},
  urldate = {2026-10-15}
}