The most DARING escape from a women's prison in Russian history

The instigator of the escape was a woman named Natalya Klimova, an accomplice in the assassination attempt on the Minister of Internal Affairs Pyotr Stolypin. Sentenced to life imprisonment, she did not want to remain in the cell for the rest of her days. Unexpectedly, Klimova was supported by… a warden, who had become a participant in the conspiracy.

On the outside, the escape of the convicts was prepared by a Socialist Revolutionary named Isidor Morchadze, who rented an apartment from the Mayakovsky family. They knew about his plan and even helped him as much as they could – the mother and sisters of poet Vladimir Mayakovsky even sewed clothes for the fugitives. And he himself, of course, knew about their plan and offered to help the conspirators.

Everything went like clockwork, until the convicts found out that their plan had been exposed. So, they decided to escape immediately. They managed to get out of the building and make their way through an unguarded alley to the church yard next door. They were not afraid of getting caught: the day before, Moscow had celebrated the 200th anniversary of the ‘Battle of Poltava’ and the police had no time for prisoners. Even so, they managed to drug the prison guards with sleeping pills. Of the 13 escapees, 10 managed to escape. Klimova managed to leave Russia and get to France via Mongolia and Japan.

Police authorities were furious – they began arresting everyone who was under suspicion, including the then 16-year-old Vladimir Mayakovsky. It was believed that it was he who gave the conspirators a signal that they could leave the building. “I managed to escape from Novinskaya Prison. They took me away. I didn’t want to sit. I made a scene,” the poet recalled. Mayakovsky spent eleven months in prison. As fate would have it, it was in Butyrka Prison where he began writing poetry.