History of the Church at the Kremenchuk Prison Castle According toArchive Documents

The purpose of the article is to study the history of the Kremenchuk prison as one of the thousands of places where criminals and people under investigation are sentenced. The prison has long been a part of the city architecture, and the cohort of detainees is an integral part of society. The research is designed to fill certain gaps in urban studies of local history, history of social life, to demonstrate the informational potential of various archival sources, in particular, the magazine "Poltava Eparchial Bulletin" and the directories "Address-calendar" and "Remembrance Book. The methodological foundations of the research are based on the principles of historicism, comprehensiveness, objectivity, and a complex approach, which in turn led to the use of a system of methods, including analysis, synthesis, descriptive method, historical-chronological, historical-genetic, biohistoriographical, the method of microhistories and archival heuristics. The scientific novelty of the research results lies in the publication of materials related to the history of the church at the prison castle, the role of this religious building in the life of the detainees, information about the priests-rectors of the temple, whose social task was the re-education of criminals. Conclusions. Based on the developed and analyzed reference books, documents, and interrogation protocols, it can be concluded that the church at the Kremenchuk prison castle became a necessary element of the city landscape and played an important role in the correction of those who committed a crime and sincerely repented of it.