Haas, Fyodor Petrovich

HAAS, Fyodor Petrovich (Friedrich Joseph Haas, 1780–1853, originally from Germany), a well-known medical practitioner and an outstanding humanitarian figure in the field of prison affairs. After first studying philosophy and mathematics at the University of Jena, and then medicine in Vienna, Haas moved to Moscow in 1802 and in 1807 was appointed chief physician of the Pavlov Hospital. In 1809–1810, Haas explored the Caucasian mineral waters and discovered in Essentuki the sulfur-alkaline spring named after him. In 1814, he took part in the Paris campaign and, after a short stay in his homeland, moved permanently to Moscow, gaining fame as a doctor and friend of the poor through free consultations and visits to the sick, distributing medications to them, etc. In 1842, during the cholera riots, he successfully, thanks to his popularity, held conversations among the crowds of people at the request of the government. The most notable activity of Haas began in 1828, when he was appointed chief physician of the Moscow prisons, and then introduced into the committee of the newly opened Prison Relief Society (from 1830 to 1835, Haas was the secretary of the committee). Upon coming into contact with the "criminal" world, Haas saw a human being in the prisoner, and in the crime—a consequence of misfortune, disease, and lack of culture, and demanded a softening of the prison regime. The condition of the prisons was terrible: the premises were semi-dark, damp, and dirty; women were often not separated from men, children from prostitutes; the prison population was half-starved, often without medical assistance. Under the guidance of Haas, in accordance with the requirements of hygiene, a significant part of the Moscow provincial prison castle was remodeled; in the prison hospital under the jurisdiction of Haas (a department of the St. Catherine Hospital), he established exemplary order, and upon its transfer to another premise, he organized there a so-called police hospital for the homeless who fell ill on the street (the people called it the Haas hospital; a monument to Haas was erected in front of it). Haas provided the arrested with extensive assistance in the form of clothing, food, books, etc., from donated and personal funds (after the death of Haas, there was nothing left to pay for his funeral), petitioning for pardons or the mitigation of their fate (142 cases), extending aid as far as Siberia. Haas achieved the abolition of shaving half the head, the exile of serfs by the order of landlords, and the separation of the children of convicts from their parents; in 274 cases, Haas bought the freedom of serf children. At the insistence of Haas, the hoops of the chains began to be lined, and the transport of the arrested on a rod (several shackled people were tied to a rod and thus driven on the journey) was replaced by transport only in shackles, manufactured by Haas according to his own, less burdensome, design. Many of the individual measures of Haas were subsequently legalized, significantly improving prison affairs and the situation of the arrested.