Volume 2. Solovki GULAG
The XX century. Prison
"The Solovetsky Islands (Russian: Соловецкие острова), or Solovki (Соловки), are an archipelago located in the Onega Bay of the White Sea, Russia. Area: 347 square kilometers (134 sq mi). "
( The Solovki Encyclopedia )
The twentieth century finds the monastery in works. At the beginning of the century construction of the system of navigable canals was finished. But the Russian Revolution has happened. It will reflect very destructively on Solovki.
The monastery was dying...
In the times of the Russian-Japanese war, the crew of one of the Russian ships fell into captivity of the Japanese. Seamen swore a common vow: after obtaining freedom, to become monks and live in the monastery. When the prisoners had come back to the motherland, the Holy Synod rapidly (without the passage of obedience) satisfied their request. Thus the crew of new monks arrived to the Solovetsky monastery. In 1917 fellows-monks with the creation of a collective majority, threw deposed Ioannikii. They conducted the first in Russia democratic elections of a father-superior and confirmed Veniamin. (see the Chronicle)
In 1920 the commission created for the liquidation of the monastery under the management of bolshevik Kedrov arrived at Solovki. Monastics were driven away, the abbot was exiled. Fellows-monks supported the organization of the state farm on Solovki and of the ?amp of forced work. In 1922 a special commission exported from the monastery 2528 kg of precious stones, gold and silver. The monastery was dying.
It seems that with the arrival of the Bolsheviks a new page of Solovki history had begun. In a very narrow sense, the Bolsheviks may have improved some purely procedural aspects.
• Today in Solovki, tomorrow all over Russia! (The Camp slogan).
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