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Black Dolphin Prison

correctional facility in Russia

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJul 1, 2026
Entity authorityQ4518872 ↗
Source-derived summary

Federal Governmental Institution - Penal Colony No. 6 of the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia in Orenburg Oblast, commonly known as the Black Dolphin Prison (Russian: Чёрный дельфин, romanized: Chyorny delʹfin) and formerly known as NKVD Prison No. 2 is a prison in Sol-Iletsk, Orenburg Oblast, Russia, near its border with Kazakhstan. It is one of the oldest prisons in Russia, and one of the first in the Orenburg Oblast to accept prisoners with life sentences. It gets its unofficial name from a prisoner-constructed sculpture depicting a black dolphin, which is set in front of the main entrance.

Originally, Black Dolphin was a jail (ostrog) for those sentenced to life at hard labor, since at least 1745. After the suppression of Pugachev's Rebellion in 1773, the prison was updated for the deportation and confinement of robbers. The prison houses approximately 700 inmates convicted of grave offenses, including sexual violence against minors, homicide, terrorism, and cannibalism. Prisoners at Black Dolphin are all serving sentences of life imprisonment. The prison began accepting these inmates on November 1st, 2000.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Black Dolphin Prison” as correctional facility in Russia. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Black, Dolphin and Prison.

Editorial reviewA concise reference frame for defining the subject, testing terminology and identifying the institution closest to the evidence. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1745, 1773, 2000—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1773. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Black, Dolphin and Prison providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Black Dolphin Prison”, the useful work is to connect “correctional facility in Russia” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 1, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q4518872. Authority coordinates are 51.156, 54.993. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1745, 1773 and 2000.

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Black Dolphin Prison” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.