Kholodnogorskaya Correctional Colony (No. 18)
The State Institution “Kholodnogorskaya Correctional Colony (No. 18)” is a medium-security institution for the detention of men sentenced to imprisonment for a specific term for the first time.
The institution is located in the historic Kholodna Hora district of the city of Kharkiv and is part of the structure of the State Penal Service of Ukraine.
The Kholodnogorskaya Correctional Colony is one of the oldest penal institutions in Ukraine. Its history is inextricably linked to the formation of the Kharkiv prison complex, which began to be established as early as the beginning of the 19th century.
In the mid-19th century, the Kharkiv correctional arrest ward and the arrest companies of the civil department operated on the territory of the modern complex.
The development of these institutions served as the basis for the formation of one of the largest penal complexes in Ukraine, which now includes the Kharkiv Pre-trial Detention Centre and the Kholodnogorskaya Correctional Colony No. 18.
At the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century, the complex was repeatedly reconstructed and expanded. In 1903, following a large-scale reconstruction, the majority of the buildings were erected that are still used in the institution’s operations today.
During different historical periods, the complex had different functional purposes and was under the jurisdiction of various state authorities.
Following the revolutionary events of 1917 and until the end of the Second World War, various institutions of the Soviet penal system operated on the territory of the complex, including investigative prisons and special isolators of the Cheka, OGPU, NKVD, and the Gulag.
A particularly tragic chapter in the institution’s history was during the years of the German occupation of Kharkiv (1941–1943), when the city prison of the Kharkiv Gebietskommissariat and the “Stalag-364” prisoner-of-war camp operated on its premises. Thousands of prisoners of war and civilians died within these walls. At the same time, it was here that doctors led by Professor Oleksandr Meshchaninov and members of the underground, risking their own lives, provided assistance to prisoners and prisoners of war.
After the liberation of Kharkiv, the institution was restored as an industrial corrective labour colony, and in 1949 it was reorganised into a children’s labour colony.
In the following decades, the institution repeatedly changed its regime and functional purpose. In 1963, it was repurposed into an intensified-regime correctional colony, and later, following the reform of the Ukrainian penal system, it became a medium-security institution for men sentenced to imprisonment for the first time.
After the proclamation of Ukraine’s independence, the Kholodnogorskaya Correctional Colony No. 18 joined the structure of the State Department of Ukraine for the Execution of Punishments, and subsequently the State Penal Service of Ukraine and the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine.
With the onset of the full-scale armed aggression by the Russian Federation, Kharkiv became one of the most affected regional centres in Ukraine.
Despite constant missile strikes and other threats of wartime, the Kholodnogorskaya Correctional Colony continues to perform the functions assigned to it by the state.
The institution’s administration ensures the proper regime of detention for convicts, their medical provision, and the organisation of labour, professional training, and social and educational work.
Today, the State Institution “Kholodnogorskaya Correctional Colony (No. 18)” is one of the key penal institutions in the Kharkiv region, combining over a century of history with modern tasks in ensuring legality, security, and the resocialisation of convicts.
Contact information State Institution “Kholodnogorskaya Correctional Colony (No. 18)”, 4 Rubanivska St, Kharkiv, Kharkiv region, 61052
Head of the institution: Denys Oleksandrovych KORSAKOV
Telephone: (057) 370-31-25 E-mail: [email protected]