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Solovki … For everyone familiar with the history of Soviet Russia, this name evokes associations not with the slender walls of bright churches, the quiet abode of hardworking monks and bells ringing over the desert area, but with a terrible prison and a correctional camp of the same name, a place of imprisonment for thousands of prisoners since the 16th century. century and up to the 30s of the last century.
Now the Solovetsky Monastery is included in the Code of Especially Valuable Objects of Cultural Heritage of the Peoples of the Russian Federation, created by the state, and in the UNESCO World Heritage List, the Spaso-Preobrazhensky Stavropegic Monastery operates here, where thousands of pilgrims from all over the country come, and places left behind.
Solovetsky Monastery – 2004
A bit of history
The history of the Solovetsky Monastery is full of tragic events, while the monks, who first came to these beautiful shores, were looking for solitude, silence and tranquility here. And the Solovetsky Islands themselves, literally by nature itself, were created for a peaceful existence – picturesque rocks, quiet bays, severe, but eye-catching northern vegetation. However, the solitude and remoteness of the Solovetsky Islands was appreciated not only by the monks, but also by the authorities – the monastery served as a prison for the imperial prisoners.
The founders of the monastery on the largest island of the Solovetsky archipelago were Orthodox ascetics Savvaty, German and Zosim, who at the beginning of the 15th century chose the Solovetsky Islands, which are located in the White Sea, just 165 kilometers from the Arctic Circle and 60 kilometers from the Karelian coast “for prayer solitude and wilderness “. At that time, monks who chose the path of hermitism were especially revered, for which they usually chose remote corners, “away from temptations.”.
Inoki Herman and Savvaty in 1429, on an ordinary boat, after a three-day sea voyage, reached the largest island of the archipelago – Bolshoy Solovetsky Island. Near the shore of Pine Bay, in the most convenient area for living by the local lake, they erected a cross and built a cell. It was from this modest refuge of two monks that the history of the Solovetsky Monastery began..
The revered saints and recognized Solovetsky miracle workers Herman and Savvaty lived on a secluded island for six years, as the chronicle says: “Applying labors to works, rejoicing and soaring in mind to the Almighty.” In 1435, Savvaty, who remained on the island completely alone (Herman went to replenish supplies), felt the approach of death and went to the village of Soroka to receive communion. There he was buried, only in 1465 the brethren transferred the relics of the founder of the monastery to a specially arranged chapel behind the altar of the Church of the Assumption of the Most Holy Theotokos.
The Monk Zosima became the organizer, who did a lot for the expansion of the Solovetsky Monastery. The date of foundation of the monastery on the site of the small skete of Savvaty and German is 1436.
The monastery owes its flourishing in the 16th century to the works of Abbot Philip (Kolychev), who was elected in 1548. Generous donations from Ivan the Terrible, who valued the monastery as the northernmost outpost of Orthodoxy and an important border fortress, allowed the monks to erect reliable walls and two churches – the Transfiguration of the Lord and the Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos. At that time, the monastery was one of the largest landowners in the state. In 1558, the main church of the Solovetsky monastery was erected – the Transfiguration Cathedral.
Map of Big Solovetsky Island and Anzer Island
The monks managed to overcome all the difficulties of existence in this northern, desert area: roads were laid connecting small hermitages and deserts scattered throughout the island, lakes were connected by canals, a fishing artel was created (herring salted according to a special monastery recipe was supplied to the royal table up to 1917), a livestock farm was created on the island of Bolshaya Muksalma, monks grew cabbage and other vegetables, hunted fur animals, smithies and salt works operated at the monastery.
The fate of Father Superior Philip is interesting and very tragic – in 1566 Ivan the Terrible, who appreciated the directness and honesty of the head of the monastery, invited him to Moscow. Philip took the high rank of Metropolitan of Moscow and All Russia, repeatedly stood up for the innocent and denounced the crimes of the guardsmen. He was martyred at the hands of Malyuta Skuratov, his relics were transferred to the Solovetsky Monastery in 1591.
Already at the end of the 16th century, the monastery received the status of a “sovereign’s fortress”; the construction of powerful towers from natural stone began. This fortification allowed the Solovetsky Monastery three times – in 1571, 1582 and 1611 – to successfully repel the attacks of the Swedish army..
Korozhnaya tower of the Solovetsky monastery
Individual boulders of the monastery towers weigh up to 8 tons and sizes from 1.5 meters wide and up to 6 meters long. All stones are carefully fitted, and the empty spaces between the rough blocks are filled with small stones and bricks. The perimeter of the Solovetsky fortress, erected in 1584-1594 under the direction of the monastery architect Tryphon, is more than 1 kilometer, massive walls are 6 meters thick at the base and up to 4 meters in the upper part.
Nikolskaya tower of the Solovetsky monastery
The height of the walls is from 8 to 11 meters. There are only 8 towers in the fortress – Nikolskaya, Uspenskaya, Korozhnaya, Spinning, Arkhangelskaya, Belaya, Povarennaya and Kvasovarennaya, as well as 7 securely locked gates. The area of the Solovetsky Kremlin is about 5 hectares. The fence is over 1 kilometer long. The height of the towers with tops in the form of tents reaches 30 meters. Cannons were installed around the entire circumference of the fence, and along the upper part of the wall, about 4 meters wide, a corridor covered with boards and had a plank floor ran.
The so-called “Solovetsky sitting” became a tragic history of the monastery – after the adoption of the church reform of Patriarch Nikon, the monastery became a stronghold of the Old Believers who did not agree with the changes. The siege of the rebellious monastery lasted from 1668 to 1676, and only after the treacherous betrayal of one of the monks was it taken by the tsarist troops. Almost all the monks were killed then..
The rebellious monastery was officially forgiven only in 1694, when Peter the Great visited Solovki, who recognized the importance of the monastery as a religious and border guard facility..
By the end of the 17th century, there were about 350 monks and about 700 novices and peasants in the Solovetsky Monastery. In 1765, the monastery received the status of stavropegic, that is, under the direct control of the Synod, and not the local diocesan authorities..
In 1777 a new stone bell tower was erected, and in 1798 a hospital church was built in memory of St. Philip.
It is interesting that the Crimean War, far from these northern places, also affected the peaceful life of the community. In 1854, the monastery was forced to repulse the attack – the monastery was fired upon by the British steam engines equipped with 60 cannons each, the frigates Miranda and Brisk. Fortunately, the artillery shelling did not cause severe damage to the thick fortress walls..
Emperor Alexander II, who visited the monastery in 1858, noted with surprise the prosperity of the monastery, appreciated the beauty of the decoration of churches, numerous ancient relics, a rich sacristy, majestic temples, skilful church utensils and, in general, an exemplary monastery economy.
Trinity Cathedral of the Solovetsky Monastery, view from the south. 1905-1915 years
At the beginning of the twentieth century, the Solovetsky Monastery is 6 sketes, 19 churches, 30 chapels, 3 deserts, a school for children of Pomors, a radio station, the Bratsk Theological School, a meteorological station, a hydroelectric power station, its own lithograph and an amazing botanical garden for these places. For some time, even a biological station worked here, which became the first scientific institution on the White Sea. In addition to the monks themselves, several thousand “laborers” and novices lived on the island, hundreds of hired workers, the monastery received more than 15 thousand pilgrims annually, who arrived on the island on monastic steamers..
Prison and camp
As already mentioned above, the solitude, isolation of the monastery located on the island was immediately appreciated by the rulers of Russia. From the 16th to the 20th century, the monastery served as a reliable political and church prison.
The Solovetsky Monastery earned the sad fame of the most terrible prison – in all the monastery towers and walls, which had the shape of a truncated cone, there were tiny chambers – no more than three meters long, two meters high and two meters wide, and at the narrow end – only one meter.
Solovetsky prison cell
The prisoner in such casemates was completely alone, and the guards were forbidden to communicate with the prisoners. Some cells had no windows at all – only a window in the door for serving food – usually only bread and water..
The first prisoners of the Solovetsky prison were participants in the movement of non-possessors who stood up for a poor church and a special attitude to church teaching, then participants in the anti-church movement, and Prince Simeon Bekbulatovich (co-ruler of Ivan the Terrible) spent 6 years here.
At one time, participants in the uprising of Stepan Razin, Old Believers who did not accept Nikon’s reforms and even agents of Napoleon’s intelligence became prisoners of the Solovetsky cells.
Among the famous prisoners are the last ataman of the Zaporozhye Sich Pyotr Kalnyshevsky (spent 26 years in a solitary cold cell and at the age of 110 (!) Was pardoned by Emperor Alexander I, but did not want to leave the monastery any more), Pyotr Tolstoy (associate of Peter the Great), a member of the Supreme Privy Council Vasily Dolgoruky, Decembrist F.P.Shakhovskoy.
The record for staying in the Solovetsky prison was set by Semyon Shubin, “committed to a split” – 63 years in a tiny cell did not convince the stubborn man to change his religious views.
The Solovki regime was so severe that back in 1835 a check was carried out, which recognized that public opinion turned out to be right, and the prisoners were in inhuman conditions. Then many prisoners were transferred to warmer and more comfortable cells, some were released or their sentences were reduced. However, the relief did not last long; after a couple of years, the cramped cells again received new “guests”.
On average, there were no more than 20 prisoners in the Solovetsky Monastery at the same time – for the entire period of its existence (more than 300 years) – from 500 to 550 prisoners visited here, which is quite a bit by modern standards.
The Solovki received a much darker reputation already in Soviet times – in 1920 the monastery was completely abolished and in its place the Solovetsky Special Purpose Camp (SLON) was opened, which 17 years later was transformed into the Solovetsky Special Purpose Prison (STON), which had already been disbanded in 1939 year.
In the 20s and 30s of the last century, most of the prisoners of the Solovetsky camp were precisely “political” – Socialist-Revolutionaries, clergy, officers of the White movement, the intelligentsia. Alexander Solzhenitsyn wrote about all the horrors of the Soviet Solovki in detail in his book The Gulag Archipelago, so we will not repeat ourselves here. It is impossible not to mention only the very unattractive role of the “singer of the revolution” Maxim Gorky, who, having visited Solovki, then wrote a laudatory article, describing how perfectly the prisoners are corrected under the wise leadership of the Communists.
More than 60 monks in the 20s refused to leave their native monastery and remained in the camp as workers, only in 1932 the last monks were evicted from the territory of the former monastery.
Prisoners of the Solovetsky camp during work
In total, in the history of the existence of the Solovetsky camp, more than 80 thousand prisoners passed through its terrible cells, including metropolitans, bishops, archbishops, archimandrites and ordinary Orthodox Christians who did not renounce their faith. Over 40 thousand prisoners never left the camp – they were shot, tortured or died from cold and hunger.
By the way, the 500-ruble note depicts the Solovetsky Monastery precisely from the time the camp existed – without domes and crosses.
New story
After debunking the personality cult of Stalin, Khrushchev issued a decree to restore by that time the heavily destroyed buildings of the Solovetsky monastery. In 1961, the restoration of buildings and churches began by the efforts of state cultural institutions. In 1967, the Solovetsky Museum-Reserve was formed, and in 1974 it was reorganized into the Solovetsky State Historical, Architectural and Natural Museum-Reserve, which is still active.
Most of the territory of the Solovetsky Islands is a special protected area and is under state protection.
In 1990, a men’s monastery was reopened on Solovki, in 1992 the relics of the Solovetsky miracle workers – Gerasim, Savvaty and Zosima were transported from St. Petersburg. In 2001, Vladimir Putin visited the newly opened monastery. In 2006, the reconstruction of the bell tower, which burned down in the 1920s, was completed, on which a new titanium cross 4 meters high is now erected..
As His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II noted: “The 20th century began for the monastery with destruction, and ended with revival. Nowadays, this cloister, watered with the blood of confessors, is being recreated, which in the 21st century should once again become what it used to be for the Russian Orthodox person – an inexhaustible source of peace and abundant grace. ” I would like to believe that the history of Solovki as a terrible prison and a correctional camp is over. Now the peaceful monastery again accepts pilgrims who want to touch the history of this ancient, truly holy place. Yes, and at the pier, all guests of the island can again buy the famous Solovetsky herring of a special ambassador – some traditions have remained unchanged.
Can you provide more information about the Solovetsky Monastery? I’m particularly interested in its historical significance as both the main temple of the Russian north and a notorious prison.