Black and white photograph of the exterior of the notorious Sukhanovka Prison located in the Moscow region. Sukhanovka was one of the most notorious places for its torture of prisoners under interrogation.

Sketch by Michail Distergeft. Families who sought information on the fate of family members who had been executed were often greeted with the lie that their loved one had been sentenced to a forced labor camp "without the right of correspondence." Consequently, the phrase become a synonym for execution in prisoner language. In the sketch, a guard with a gun stands looking down at a prisoner who has been shot in the head.