The Prison Officer In Post-Soviet Russia

There is a sparsity of research on prison personnel in the Russian Federation, which together, with Turkey, tops the list of European countries for its imprisonment rate. During research on two projects focused on the experience of women and ethnic minority prisoners in Russia, a small number of interviews were conducted with officers. I draw upon these in this chapter to make some observations about prison work in Russia, discussing the motivations of officers for joining the prison service and how they understand their job. I do this against the backdrop of verified reports of violence perpetrated by staff against prisoners and the invasion of Ukraine, which has confirmed the prison service as one of the modern Russian state’s instruments of political repression. I suggest that a combination of legacy and contingent factors have contributed to prison officers being complicit in this process.