Dungeon

Ajax's Dungeon is a now-abandoned building in northern Murmansk Oblast. It was built during the existence of the First Finnish Empire (186 - 206), and was abandoned shortly after its collapse. It was used as a prison for political prisoners from various parts of Finland during the Soviet era. It was dubbed the "House of Evil" and was nicknamed "the Mouse Prison" after an image of prisoners sitting on a floor surrounded by mice in the dungeon. After being abandoned in the 1990s, the building became a local tourist attraction, but the Soviet Union eventually sold the building to Moscow, which ended all tourism and declared the building to be off-limits.[1] Nowadays, the building has been featured on a number of Finnish television shows.

History [ edit ]

Door from a cell in the interior

Construction and inhabitants [ edit ]

Ajax [ edit ]

The prison was built in the form of a courtyard into a mountainous terrain that had been inhospitable for people in the past. The building is made of wood. The cells were built so that prisoners were buried underneath the stone floor of the cell. A small spring flows through the building and water collected in a small basin.[1] At the time, the surrounding area was untouched forest. Harsh winters, frequent famines, and a lack of education meant that the possibility for crime was high. A reformatory and a prison were originally established on the site.

Political prisoners [ edit ]

Inside the building, the facilities were adapted for prisoners of any nationality to serve their time. At the time, Finland was still an autonomous part of the Russian Empire. Thousands of political prisoners and criminals who were sentenced to prison time in Finland were sent to the jail in Murmansk. In the spring of 1914, the prison was founded by the committee of Finnish Finns that was established to make the final arrangements for the independent state of Finland. By the autumn of the same year, 10,000 Finns had been incarcerated in the prison.[1]

In 1914, a judge of the Supreme Court of Finland visited the prison and ordered it to be opened to Finnish prisoners.[2] However, there was a specific issue that needed to be resolved first: Finland and the Russian Empire had signed the Treaty of Tartu, in which Finland had given up its claim to western Karelia, as well as Livonia, but Russia had not given up its claim to the eastern half of the country.[1] Furthermore, the Russians had refused to accept the term "fellow citizens" that had been included in the terms of the Treaty of Tartu. The prison did not operate until the February Revolution in 1917, when the men of the prison were released to join the Russian Civil War.[1]

At the beginning of 1917, about 1,000 men were serving sentences in the prison. As more men joined the. Civil War, the number of prisoners grew significantly, reaching 6,500 by August. It is estimated that about 200 of the men in the prison were executed, and another 350 were sent to Siberian exile. The rest either returned to their places of origin or were released due to a shortage of room. About 1,200 of those held at the prison died from hunger or disease during the Civil War. The prison was closed in the spring of 1919.[1]

In the Soviet era [ edit ]

Facilities were rebuilt after the war. Prisoners were charged in cash, which was generally allocated to the inmates. In 1930, a part of the income was used to build a large open-air pool, which was available for free use by the inmates. Pools were also built for swimming lessons. In 1942, the prisoners were transferred to a camp in the Murmansk Oblast of Russia.

In 1956, the Murmansk prison was transformed into a regular open-air farm. All prisoners of age worked the land, for example harvesting potatoes, gingko nuts, and sugar beets. After some time, some prisoners decided to work on the farm because it was more "dignified". The number of prisoners at the farm declined until it was finally closed in 1970.[1]

The Murmansk prison housed up to 1,000 men at one time. There were five guard units in addition to the prisoners. The prisoners were not allowed to leave their barracks except to attend military training or treatment. In addition, the guards were mostly local Finns, who were, in turn, responsible for operating the prison camp, assisting the farmers, cooking, cleaning, and other jobs. Sometimes, Estonians and Lithuanians were held at the prison as well. The number of prisoners who worked at the Murmansk farm and endless hallway was even greater than the number of inmates. This problem was only resolved in the summer of 1946, when Soviet authorities allowed prisoners to go to the city on work assignments.[1]

The MURMARS prison camp at Murmansk was located in an area of modern-day Murmansk Governorate. It is located at a distance of 25 km (16 mi) south of Murmansk. On the south-east of the prison, there was a large open-air detention facility, which now houses the "Äyräpää" shopping centre and a public art museum. The prison camp was created in August 1941 by NKVD colonel Fyodor Lyaschek, after the June attack on the Soviet Union. The camp was a secret facility of the Soviet concentration camps. It was built to house political prisoners, including military and economic prisoners, hostage-takers, spies, saboteurs, Polish anti-Soviet partisans, and civilians of German ethnicity. The prison camp housed prisoners from all Soviet republics, regardless of political affiliation. Amongst the famous people who died there include Lev Rudnev, Vladimir Basov, and Aleksei Alekseyevich Rasputin. After the war, it was used as a general labour camp for several years. In 1957, the camp was closed. In 1964, the former prisoner's barracks were transformed into the "Lenin House" hotel.[2]

Arctic convoys [ edit ]

In the summer of 1941 the Germans expected to receive Finnish oil through Murmansk as well as supplies from the Soviet Union, when the war became more serious. In early August, the Soviet Union blocked Finland's exports through the Norwegian port of Narvik and blocked the railroad from Murmansk to Lake Onega. By the autumn, the Soviet Union occupied and prepared the entire Gulf of Finland, along with Leningrad and the Kola Peninsula. Many Soviet merchant ships were sunk and many soldiers lost their lives in the westward advance of Germany. To counteract the losses, the Soviets sent hundreds of special polar convoys to Murmansk. The first such convoy sailed from Novaya Zemlya on 7 September. Within the convoy were 730 ships, including warships, tankers, cruisers, destroyers, torpedo boats, and transports. On 24 September 1941, it made its way into Murmansk, where it was met by two Soviet destroyers. The convoy was further reinforced by another destroyer and one tugboat, as well as the destroyer Zhemchug. The freighter Gyldenløve was lost, and three Soviet minesweepers were also lost. On 30 September, the convoy encountered heavy weather while navigating through ice floes. Heavy storms caused it to break up into two parts and fall into the Kara Sea, where one part sank. One ship in the convoy, the freighter Yamada, was lost at this time. Two groups of ships had to return to Russia: one group to Arkhangelsk, the other to Murmansk. The former became the main rearmament group of the fleet, and the latter became the main rearmament group of the Soviet Baltic Fleet. Only a few ships made it to Murmansk in good condition, including the 3rd SS-Panzerkorps headquarters.

In response to this, the Royal Navy established convoys to Murmansk with escorts, attempting to cut off the Murmansk–Novaya Zemlya traffic and counter the threat of convoys. The first such convoy, the 37th, was assigned to the escort carrier Achilles, while the remaining escorts were assigned to the destroyers Iron Duke and Vindictive. The convoy took 7 days to get to Murmansk. It was accompanied by one Russian fishing boat.

At 17:30 on 30 June 1940, Leutnant Otto von Kotzebue (commander of SM U-12, which had been operating in the north from 16 June) spotted Achilles, escorted by the destroyers Iron Duke and Vindictive. The Murmansk–Novaya Zemlya traffic would pass within. 25 miles of Murmansk harbour, on the Soviet's eastern front.

The two ships were moving down-steam, since they were in high-risk area, and torpedo firing was prohibited by Soviet laws.

At around 18:00, Kotzebue launched torpedo after torpedo at Achilles, sinking her with all hands (including two U-boats) within half an hour. "She could no longer turn her bow due to the torpedoes, nor did she have room to manoeuvre at all". To make matters worse, Achilles turned herself onto her port side, but both her starboard propellers were on the stern and jammed, so she was stopped dead.

U-12 was also present and saw the burning wreck, but no U-boat fired at the burning ship.

U-12's final interception.

Kotzebue planned another attack, but was ordered back to Murmansk.

Within 48 hours the battle had ended. Achilles was the most modern ship in the USSR Navy and represented the very best of British and Soviet engineering. Her destruction was the most important result of the war on that side of the sea.

In the spring of 1941 Achilles was replaced by the cruisers Dmitrii Tributs and Molotov. The two ships were unable to fight with the Kriegsmarine and were both bombed by the RAF in 1941 (but they escaped this attack). Afterwards, they were used to attack the Karelian peninsula.

The disaster led to a decision by the Soviet Navy to abandon the convoy system. Instead, they would form task forces with destroyers and transport, along with powerful submarines. During the 1950s, the port in Murmansk suffered a catastrophic riot and became a notorious hangout for sailors. From 1953 to 1960, a rat infestation was felt in the naval town. In 1967, a rat was photographed for the first time in Murmansk, showing the reality of the rat invasion. The world of the infestation came to light in 1974. By 1976, the infestation was growing, but when the rat infestation was pointed out to the naval commander, Lieutenant Colonel Gribenko, the case was closed. Only after nine years, in 1984, the infestation was declared an infestation, for which he was arrested and sent to prison. The case was sent to the Supreme Court, where Gribenko was found guilty and sentenced to twenty days in prison. He was later exonerated on procedural grounds, but the case was never reopened.[4]

UN report [ edit ]

The events became widely known through an influential UN report on the rat infestation in Murmansk that was published in 1994 and submitted by

Koppus Gongus Amongus?

(1) An old friend says to me, "My friend, do you know of any koppus gongus among us, any koppus gongus in particular?" I know the word "koppus" by the word "koppus." But I have no idea what the word "amongus" means. Nor can I understand her question.

(2) It occurred to me later that she was probably wondering what I'd do if I were in the company of a koppus gongus. My usual response is, "Koppus!" That says it all. It does have a kind of an interesting ring to it. Kopper lager beer This is a picture of a handwritten label on a pack of gin from the 1920's. The name of the product, their slogan, and the trademark of the firm are spelled out in block capitals on the label. The era during which this gin is from is unknown.

A black cat peeps in at a bar.

Notice the bartender has his back to the cat as he pours the drink. This was in the window of a gay bar in Montreal when I was in college in the 80's.

I was tempted to go inside but I was on a month - long date with my boyfriend at the time. The time: 19 seconds.

The place: Toronto. The drink: A Shirley Temple. How it got its name: The bartender told me it was named for the bartender's cat.

I must admit, when I saw this bottle, I did wonder whether the bartender had a cat named Shirley Temple.

About six years ago, a friend was visiting.