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Author Robson, Roy R

Title Solovki : the story of Russia told through its most remarkable islands / Roy R. Robson
Published New Haven, Conn. : Yale University Press, ©2004

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Description 1 online resource (xvi, 302 pages) : illustrations, maps
Contents Stones -- Saints -- Prosperity -- Struggle -- Guardian -- Triumph -- Defiance -- Rebellion -- Emperor -- Prison -- Reform -- War -- Pilgrims -- Revolutions -- Gulag -- Life -- Denouement
Summary The tragedies and triumphs of the Russian past are viewed through the lens of isolated islands that served as both monastery and Gulag camp. Located in the northernmost reaches of Russia, the islands of Solovki are among the most remote in the world. And yet from the Bronze Age through the twentieth century, the islands have attracted an astonishing cast of saints and scoundrels, soldiers and politicians. The site of a beautiful medieval monastery--once home to one of the greatest libraries of eastern Europe--Solovki became in the twentieth century a notorious labor camp. Roy Robson recounts the history of Solovki from its first settlers through the present day, as the history of Russia plays out on this miniature stage. In the 1600s, the piety and prosperity of Solovki turned to religious rebellion, siege, and massacre. Peter the Great then used it as a prison. But Solovki's glory was renewed in the nineteenth century as it became a major pilgrimage site--only to descend again into horror when the islands became, in the words of Alexander Solzhenitsyn, the "mother of the Gulag" system. From its first intrepid visitors through the blood-soaked twentieth century, Solovki--like Russia itself--has been a site of both glorious achievement and profound misery
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 261-289) and index
Notes Print version record
Subject Solovet︠s︡kiĭ monastyrʹ -- History
Solovet︠s︡kiĭ lagerʹ osobogo naznachenii︠a︡ -- History
Solovet︠s︡kiĭ lagerʹ osobogo naznachenii︠a︡
Solovet︠s︡kiĭ monastyrʹ
HISTORY.
HISTORY -- Europe -- Russia & the Former Soviet Union.
Solovetski Islands (Russia) -- History
Russia (Federation) -- Solovetski Islands
Russland
Solowezkiinseln
Genre/Form History
Form Electronic book
ISBN 9780300129601
0300129602
9780300102703
0300102704