Solovetskye Islands

Solovki — a canvas woven from spiritual courage and physical weakness, human joy and universal grief, power of will and betrayal, beautiful lie and ugly truth, hiss of breaking wave and unique sunsets, silver fish and the whisper of wing petals. It is stitched with the roots of heather and the rays of the sun, covered with snow and illuminated by the northern lights, flavored with blood, vodka and rains. Solovki are rinsed with the White Sea winds, iridescent with all the colors of life, murmuring their stories to everyone who wants to listen.

photo: Vlad Sokolovskiy

The Solovetsky Archipelago (Solovki) is located in the Onega Bay of the White Sea, 164 kilometers from the conventional line of the Arctic Circle. The archipelago consists of six large and about 260 small islands. The area of the Big Solovetsky Island is 221.8 km2, and the area of the entire archipelago exceeds 300 km2. The highest point is Mount Verbokolskaya (88.2 m) on the island of Anzersky.

photo: Kirill Ponomarev

The geographical position of the archipelago sets the conditions of its own microclimate: cherry blossoms (but does not bear fruit) on the islands, cedar pines, maples, and hazel trees grow there. Most of the archipelago is covered with coniferous and deciduous forests, but some sections are tundra and forest-tundra. An important role in the formation of the archipelago was played by the glacier. There are more than 600 freshwater lakes on Solovki, where bass, roach, pike, burbot, and trout live. In the forests you can find hares, foxes, squirrels. In rare years, when the White Sea is covered with ice, reindeer and elk come by. Among the sea animals — seal, beluga whale, sea hare, harp seal. Catfish, pinagor, flatfish, cod, navaga and Solovetsky herring are found in the sea. The coastal strip of the archipelago is unusually rich in plantations of algae — seaweed (kelp), fucus and anfeltia, used to extract agar-agar.

photo: Kirill Ponomarev

The history of the exploration of the Solovetsky archipelago has about 7000 years. Ancient sites, mounds and seita were discovered here. The most mysterious monuments are the shrines of the III-II millennium BC, that include the famous northern labyrinths. The main historical and architectural monuments of the archipelago are associated with the history of the Solovetsky Monastery — an influential spiritual monastery and the northernmost medieval fortress of the world. The Solovetsky Kremlin, reflected in the waters of the Holy Lake or the Wellbeing Bay, is one of the most popular spots loved by tourists. In Soviet times, the first special-purpose camp in the USSR, that started the Stalinist Gulag, was located on the archipelago. More than 1,000,000 prisoners passed through the Solovetsky camps and their branches on the mainland.

photo: Natalia Bochkareva

Today the territory of the Solovetsky archipelago and the adjacent water area is a conservation spot. In 1992, the historical and architectural ensemble of the Solovetsky Monastery was included in the UNESCO World Heritage List, and in 1995 the Solovetsky Museum-Reserve was assigned to the most valuable natural and historical heritage of Russia.

text: based on materials from the guide «History of the Solovetsky Archipelago», author Oleg Kodola

photo in the upper block: Svetlana Ladkina, Anna Khazova, Igor Pavlov, Lyudmila Gagarinova, Evgeny Kondratyev, Nikolay Kvartnikov, Kirill Ponomarev