"10 years without the right of correspondence" (Russian: Десять лет без права переписки, romanized: Desyat' let bez prava perepiski) was a clause in a sentence of many political repressions victims of Stalinist Great Purges in Soviet Union that implied death.
[1]: 486 In many cases during the late 1930s 'Great Purge' campaign of political repression, the sentence "10 years of corrective labor camps without the right of correspondence" was announced to relatives, while the paperwork contained the real sentence: "the highest degree of punishment: execution by shooting".
[2][3] Many people did not understand the official euphemism and incorrectly believed that their relative was still alive in prison.
"[4]For example, all of the bodies identified from the mass graves at Vinnytsia and Kuropaty were of those people that had received "10 years without the right of correspondence".
[6] based on the novel Ударом на удар, или Подход Кристаповича by Aleksandr Kabakov.