5 of the Federal Penitentiary Service Administration for the Vologda Region") for formerly condemned and other dangerous inmates called Vologodskiy Pyatak or simply Pyatak (Russian: Вологодский пятак, literally: Vologda's fiver).
Ognenny Ostrov is located about 400 kilometers north of Moscow, on Lake Novozero.
The monastery buildings were used as a backdrop in the 1973 Vasily Shukshin movie “Red Roses” and in some stories by Russian writer Alexandr Yashin.
During the 1930s and 1940s it functioned as a penal colony for victims of the purges of Joseph Stalin.
After Stalin's death in 1953, it was turned into a regular prison for non-political dangerous criminals.