A kishka is a type of prison cell used in Soviet prisons. The cell was named after the gut (Russian: кишка, kíshka), in that it was tall and narrow, like an intestine, but more like a chimney. The prisoner had room to stand, but could not sit or kneel, let alone lie down. In some Soviet prisons there was no drainage and the prisoner was forced to excrete standing up and to stand in his own urine and feces. In some cases the cells were never cleaned. Prisoners could be held in these cells for days at a time.
Rawicz was transferred to an immense fortress prison in Kharkov, Ukraine, where he became the personal project of a huge, muscular – and inventively sadistic – NKVD major known as "The Bull." "He ran his interrogation sessions like an eminent surgeon, always showing off his skill before a changing crowd of junior officers," reflected Rawicz. "His methods were despicably ingenious."
One of The Bull's preferred methods of breaking his subjects' will was to insert them in a kishka. No provision was made for the inmates' bodily functions and the kishkas were never cleaned. Each day, Rawicz would be hauled out of his tiny cell, hosed off, and sent to The Bull for interrogation and torture.