prisoners, a large minority of political prisoners (Bolsheviks, Social Revolutionaries, and trade unionists) were released, along with thieves, debtors, murderers and others, without discrimination. After the Revolution After the February Revolution, Kresty became a place of imprisonment for the ministers of the Tsarist government and prominent police officers. After the October Revolution they were joined by people from the Russian Provisional Government, non-Bolshevik politicians and intelligentsia. Among the people imprisoned there were Prime Minister Boris Stürmer, who died in Kresty in September 1917, Justice Minister Ivan Scheglovitov, Minister of the Interior Alexei Khvostov, Minister of War Mikhail Belyayev, former Minister of War Vladimir Sukhomlinov, Chief of Police Yevgeny Klimovich, the great Russian poet Nikolay Gumilyov. In 1920 the prison was renamed as the Second Special Camp for Involuntary Labor. It was administered by the Petrograd Ispolkom. In 1923 the prison became the Petrograd District Isolation Prison (Петроградская Окружная Изоляционная Тюрьма), part of the Petrograd Cheka system. During the Great Purges, the prison overflowed with inmates accused of state crimes. Cells designed for solitary confinement often held 15–20 inmates or more. Among the inmates were: painter Kazimir Malevich, poet Nikolay Zabolotsky, historian Lev Gumilyov, poet and writer Daniil Kharms, actor Georgiy Zhzhonov, future Marshal of the Soviet Union Konstantin Rokossovsky and many others. The prison features prominently in Anna Akhmatova's poem Requiem. In the poem she writes: Her wish was fulfilled half a century after her death. On the grounds of the prison operated a sharashka – a research and development facility called OKB-172, that used inmates as weapons engineers and researchers. The facility developed torpedo boats that were widely used by the Soviet Navy during World War II. During the Siege of Leningrad most detainees were either conscripted into the Penal military units of the Soviet Army or transferred to the Eastern regions of Russia. The prison was used for detaining those involved in stealing of food or ration cards, and later for German POWs. Many guards and detainees died of starvation during the siege. Post World War 2 In 1964 the prison became a facility used mostly for pre-trial detentions. It was greatly overcrowded: in the mid-1990s the prison held more than 12,500 inmates, more than ten times the design capacity (1,150 inmates). Often a cell originally designed for solitary confinement during the Tsarist period and according to the Soviet rules suitable for only six inmates would actually hold