Secret

I hereby declare the Regulatory Code on sanitation in prisons of the NKVD USSR.

Deputy People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR CHERNYSHEV

81. In the event that mothers with nursing children shall enter prison, the children shall be admitted and maintained in prison until the age of a year and a half, that is, until that age when a child no longer need its mother's milk. When the children reach a year and a half, they shall be given to relatives or to the organs of public health (infants' homes), regardless of the imprisoned mother's wishes. Those children whose mothers have died in prisons shall be given to relatives or to infants' homes, regardless of their age.

In specific cases, with the permission of the Director of the NKVD/ UNKVD Prison Section, children may be maintained in prison at ages greater than one and a half years, but no more than two years. When children are given to relatives, a report shall be drawn up, but when they are given to public children's institutions, a certificate shall be taken. The report and certificate shall be shown to the imprisoned mother for her signature, after which the report or certificate shall be attached to her individual prison file.

82. The children's maintenance in prison shall be organized so that they can grow and develop normally. All housing for children shall be dry, warm, with plenty of sun and air.

In the winter, the temperature in their quarters shall not be lower than 18-20 degrees Celsius [ . . . ] The bed linens shall be aired at least two or three times a month. Toys which are not spoiled by washing and boiling, made of rubber, celluloid and bone, shall be permitted.

83. Children up to six months shall be bathed at least two times a week, and children older than six months shall bathe at least once a week. A special tub shall be provided for children with skin diseases: pyoderma, boils, etc. Before bathing the children, all the tubs shall be carefully washed and disinfected. The water's temperature shall be 35 degrees Celsius, [on] hot summer days, 30 to 32 degrees Celsius, the air temperature in the washing room shall be no lower than 20 degrees Celsius.

84. Every child shall receive adequate soft materials and clothing for each season. [Every child] shall have a separate bed supplied with bed linens. All children's bed linens, underwear and diapers shall be washed in the prison laundry in separate troughs specially designated for the purpose. All children's underwear and bed linens shall be boiled.

85. All healthy children shall be inoculated against smallpox at age 4 to 5 months. Other vaccinations will be administered according to epidemiological indicators.

[ . . . ]

90. Breastfeeding by the imprisoned mother of her child shall take place in the feeding room. The feeding shall take place for 20-30 minutes according to a schedule set by the nursery doctor. At these times, the wardens shall bring the imprisoned mothers from their cells to the nursery. Therefore, the feeding room shall answer more to the requirements of a prison facility, it shall have bars on the windows, frosted glass in the frames, doors with "peepholes" and locks, etc. The mother brought in to feed her child shall be asked to wash her hands with soap, scrub her nipples with a boric solution, and only then be given the child. The children's feeding must take place in the presence of a female warden and a nurse [ . . . ]

97. Imprisoned nursing mothers and women in the last month of pregnancy shall receive food from the hospital table according to food norms established for them. In addition, they shall have privileges at the prison commissary to enable them to buy a wider variety of produce for larger sums (up to 150 rubles per month).

98. The prison shall provide women inmates who are nursing or pregnant, [and] who do not have their own linens, with undergarments and bed linens at each scheduled linen change.

99. Women inmates who are more than eight months pregnant shall receive a daily exercise of one hour's duration.

100. Female inmates in the eighth and ninth months of pregnancy shall be summoned for interrogation only in exceptional cases, with the local sanction of the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs of the Republic or the Director of the NKVD Administration and the Prosecutor of the Republic (region, district).

101. Births shall take place in a hospital environment. In large prisons, where doctors are present, births shall take place in the prison hospitals. In jails where there are no doctors, birthing mothers shall be placed, on the eve of delivery, in local civilian hospitals, where they shall remain under prison guard for the entire duration of their stay.