Boutyrki prison

Boutyrki prison is the Moscow detention facility where Katerina Maslova is held before and during her trial, and from which the convict gang departs for Siberia on 5 July. It is the site of her first encounters with Dmitri Ivanovitch Nekhludoff after a decade of separation, and the place where the moral and emotional crisis that drives the novel's central action begins.

Location and Setting

Boutyrki prison is a large, gloomy building in Moscow, surrounded by a high wall and guarded by sentinels. The interior is characterized by foul, stifling air laden with the germs of typhoid, sewage, and tar, which depresses every newcomer. The women's ward consists of a long, narrow cell with two windows, a large stove, and shelf beds that take up two-thirds of the space; a stinking tub stands by the door. The cell is overcrowded, holding fifteen women including three children, and the atmosphere is so noisome that Maslova, on her return from court, breathes it with horror. The prison also contains a church, rebuilt and ornamented by a rich merchant, where prisoners attend mass on Sundays, and a separate hospital where Maslova later works as a nurse.

Events at Boutyrki

Maslova is brought to Boutyrki after her arrest and spends more than three months there before her trial on 28 April. On the morning of the trial, she is led from her cell through the foul corridors, past the men's ward, and escorted by two soldiers to the Law Courts. After her conviction to four years' hard labour, she returns to the prison in the evening, exhausted and hungry, and is searched and locked in her cell. The next day, Nekhludoff, who served on the jury, attempts to visit her but is initially refused; he finally obtains a pass from the Procureur and sees her in the women's visiting-room, where the double wire netting makes conversation nearly impossible. Later, Nekhludoff brings her a petition to sign, and she is moved to the prison hospital at his request, though she is later removed after a false accusation of an intrigue with a medical assistant. On 5 July, the gang of prisoners, including Maslova, departs from Boutyrki for Siberia by rail; five convicts die of sunstroke on the way to the station that day.

Associated People and Groups

Maslova shares her cell with a variety of women: Korableva, a strong, gloomy woman sentenced for killing her husband with an axe; Theodosia Birukoff, a young woman sentenced for attempting to poison her husband; the watchman's wife, imprisoned for failing to flag a train; Khoroshavka, a small, dark woman accused of theft and arson; a consumptive woman; an idiot; and the deacon's daughter, who drowned her baby. The cell is also home to three children, including a four-year-old boy who plays with the old woman accused of arson. The prison inspector, a kind-hearted but weary man, and his assistant, a smartly-dressed officer, oversee the facility. The new inspector appointed later is a tall, angular, morose man who strictly enforces regulations.

Changes and Narrative Significance

Boutyrki prison is the crucible where Nekhludoff's moral awakening is tested and deepened. His first visit, with the double netting and the deafening roar of voices, fills him with indignation and a sense of moral seasickness. His subsequent visits—to bring the petition, to inform Maslova of the Senate's rejection, and to tell her of the commutation—mark the stages of his evolving relationship with her and his own spiritual growth. The prison also exposes the systemic cruelty of the Russian legal and penal system: the overcrowding, the stench, the flogging of prisoners, the deaths from sunstroke, and the casual brutality of officials. The old man who defies the inspector, calling him a servant of Antichrist, and the mortuary where Kryltzoff's body lies, crystallize Nekhludoff's final conviction that the only true law is the law of forgiveness and love. Boutyrki thus functions as the novel's central symbol of the injustice that Nekhludoff must confront and transcend.