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"We'll go to the madhouse": how will the village survive after the closure of the colony, if the zone and the mental hospital are the main enterprises there
Kamensky is a working town in the Krasnoarmeysky District, a village in the Saratov Region with a complicated but interesting history. Founded in the 19th century as a "gloomy settlement colony," it also experienced difficult times. The problem continued into the 21st century. The "pride" of the city: named after the Krasnoarmeyskaya Regional Psychiatric Hospital. Yu. A. Kalyamina and IK-23 are men's strict-regime correctional colonies, thanks to which a modest life still remains here. However, there were rumors that the colony was closing. Colleagues from 164.RU went there to find out where the truth is and where the lie is. And ask the residents of this once prosperous village how they feel.
Kamensky is about an hour and a half drive from Saratov. Once a German colony, Grimm was the center of the Kamensk region of the Volga German ASSR. It lived richly. It had its own industries: machine-tool and iron foundry plants, schools and technical schools, as well as a collectivist collective farm chaired by Friedrich Fritzler. During the Great Patriotic War, the German population was deported to Siberia and Kazakhstan, and the settlement was renamed the Labor Settlement of Kamensky. Kamenlag was also located there. The Novo-Kamensky corrective labor camp of the Soviet NKVD held more than 10,000 prisoners. At one time, the camp was a women's camp and served local factories. The final change occurred in the 1960s. After that, IK-23 was born, and the foundry and mechanical workshop of one of the factories were relocated. Life was in full swing.
One local called village life "crazy". Everyone does the best they can. He himself is never at home much and finds work in more developed cities. His colleague Sergey, 40, a local taxi driver, confirmed that there is nothing to do here. He also found work in Moscow, St. Petersburg and visits his "mother" in the village. Buses to Kamenskoye run once a week, on Wednesdays. However, there is not much demand. Most people have cars on credit. Only there are no gas stations. There was a village club, but all the young people have left.
— Village life was in full swing. People danced and fought in the moonlight. "Everything was fine. Everyone was happy." The man in work clothes laughed. — Houses were built for the colony employees. Then they retire early at 36, those who continue to serve under contract fiddle with the keys, and those who leave. They received a housing certificate, but who will use it here? And on the premises of the madhouse there was a drug addiction clinic for all categories of older children. Some people still ask themselves: where is your boarding house "Nadezhda"?
If the so-called "waiting" women who meet the prisoners and await their release come to the village, they can also contact Petrovna. She will accommodate them in a nearby hotel. You can also contact the local dentist. He works in Krasnoarmeysk until lunch and meets you in his private office in the village. Thus, the secret of the snow-white smile of a man in work clothes is revealed. The village has its own dental clinic and a local first aid station.
The city portal has already recorded that the number of prisoners in Russian colonies has decreased by more than half over the past ten years. According to various estimates, the colony has now practically fallen into disrepair. By the end of 2024, it was planned to close 88 colonies across the country.