The fortification islands of Viapori were a Russian military area, with little Finnish civilian population living there. Prisoners and labour camp inmates under Finnish civilian authorities were an exception to this rule; they were needed for the repairs and construction of the fortress.

 

Who were the prisoners?

 

Viapori housed a prison already during the Swedish era. Finland applied compulsory service obligations; all those who did not have a job or hold a servant’s position were regarded as vagrants. Vagrants, beggars and all homeless who were unable to earn a livelihood were placed in labour camps. Those placed in labour camps were no criminals, but they were treated as such.

 

Finnish civilian authorities were responsible for the expenses incurred by prisoners and labour camp inmates. Information on each prisoner’s crime and punishment was submitted to the commandant of the fortress. Prisoners and labour camp inmates were paid a small compensation, from which fines were deducted. When the number of prisoners vagrants was at its largest, they amounted to around 600. Prisoners were, for example, landless individuals, farmhands, farmers, tailors or shoemakers. The age of the inmates ranged from 17 to 75. The Finnish prisoners and vagrants in Viapori were regarded as good workers As the inmates in Viapori needed to be able to construct fortifications, only individuals in good physical condition were sent to Viapori. Prisoners in poor physical condition were transferred to the fortress of Svartholm.

 

Prisoners outside Viapori

 

As Finnish prisoners were the responsibility of civilian authorities, they could be sent to the Crown’s work sites outside Viapori. For example, on the construction site of the Saimaa channel, a hundred prisoners from Viapori worked in 1848. When railroads began to be built, prisoners were needed at construction sites.

 

In 1859, prisoners were given the opportunity to exchange their prison term for emigration to Siberia. Some even chose this option as life and freedom in Siberia appeared more appealing than a bleak existence in cramped prison conditions. The thick walls of Viapori made escaping a risky endeavour. Those who tried drowned in most cases.

 

In 1863, Finnish prisoners were transferred from the fortresses to Finnish prisons.

 

Russian prisoners

 

The fortress housed thousands of Russian soldiers, who on occasion committed crimes or did not obey orders. The Russians had their own prison in Curtain Wall Hamilton-Polhem, in the same building in which the Finnish prison no. 1 was located. It is said that Russian prisoners had better conditions than Finnish ones. If a Russian soldier committed certain crimes on the mainland, he was brought to justice at a Finnish district court. The last prisoner kept in chains, Russian Grigory Potanin, was brought to Viapori in 1868 to serve his term.

 

Health, food and leisure

 

At the beginning of the Russian era, the health of prisoners was reasonably good, but as the number of prisoners increased, infectious diseases began to spread in the cramped cells. The number of new prisoners amounted to 160 on an annual basis. A hospital for prisoners was available. Common diseases among prisoners were scurvy, diarrhea and tuberculosis, the latter of which often led to death.

 

Prisoners had the right to read in their leisure time. Considering the circumstances, they had a great number of books at their disposal in the libraries. The books were either in Finnish or Swedish, representing educational or religious literature, not forgetting the primer.

 

Dekabrists

 

In 1825, a mutiny broke out among liberal officers in St. Petersburg and in the southern parts of the empire, the participants of which were called Dekabrists.  The mutineers sought to prevent Nicholas I from acceding to the throne. Furthermore, they also demanded that a constitution drafted after western principles be put in place in the empire and that serfdom be abolished. The mutiny was suppressed and the Dekabrists were detained. Many of them were transferred from one prison to another and, finally, they might have been banished to Siberia. Prisoners interned in Viapori served their sentence on the island of Särkkä.