ACTIVITIES IN 1921 OF THE KURSK PENITENTIARY THEATER NAMED AFTER "MAXIM GORKY" AT THE DISTRICT AGRICULTURAL LABOR COLONY FOR THOSE DEPRIVED OF LIBERTY "RED COMMUNE" NEAR THE VILLAGE OF RYSHKOVO (THE FORMER ESTATE OF KLEYMIKHIL)

The article examines the daily creative activity in 1921 of the Kursk Penitentiary Theater of the Maxim Gorky at the district agricultural labor colony for prisoners "Red Commune". It is shown that even in pre-revolutionary Russia, one of the types of re-education of criminals was the formation of agricultural and craft colonies. Domestic penitentiary practitioners reasonably believed that working in the fresh air together with the study of agricultural skills and crafts has a beneficial effect on the process of re-socialization of offenders. Another aspect of the Soviet agricultural colonies was an extensive cultural and educational program. It should be noted that the penitentiary system did not offer anything like this for the supervised contingent in capitalist countries. Libraries and music and other creative circles successfully functioned in Soviet agricultural and labor colonies. The penitentiary theater became a well-known direction of the creative activity of Soviet prisoners in the 1920-s.