Solovetski Islands
off the coastline of Russia
in the
White Sea.
Hauntingly beautiful monastery
World Heritage Site
or
Horrifying reminder of
Stalin's Gulag
It's Complicated.
An archipelago of six islands
total square acreage
a little more
that 116 square miles.
Only Solovetski
is inhabited.
The largest island
at 95 square
miles.
Built in the 15th Century, by the end of the 1600's this monastery was one of the wealthiest religious centers held by Russia.
Among the amazing features of the island and opulence of the monastery are The Stone Labyrinths which remain to this day.
But 35.
Their significance and use unknown.
One way in and out with the mouth headed toward the sea.
Video of Labyrinths
https://www.wondermondo.com/stone-labyrinths-of-bolshoi-zayatsky-island/
Video of Monastery
https://youtu.be/-sGV8gLGrEI
Rebuilt from an earlier fire, the monastery is now a World Heritage Site.
Beneath the beautiful new exterior is the horrifying history of 1923 - 1939 when Stalin decided (...because of the remoteness...) to take over the monastery and use it as the prototype for his Gulags.
From the beautiful peacefulness of a monastery to the tortures and deaths of his camps.
Most of the monks murdered during the takeover. The surviving few sent to work camps. Many of those literally worked to death.
They converted the monastery to what they called a "special" camp.
Officers for his other camps were brought and trained here.
Although hundreds of thousands arrived at the camp less that 3000 survived. Some were worked to death digging the Baltic-White Sea Canal. Others committed suicide or were tortured to death.
The island installed a semi-permanent memorial/museum devoted to the Gulag after it closed in 1939, but all traces of it were removed by 2017.
Portrait of a Gulag
https://youtu.be/9Xnh3D1WyyI
So now we have seen both sides of Solovetski.
And it it time to travel on.
Next time:
St.Peter and Saint Paul Rocks
