Solovetsky Monastery
The Solovetsky Monastery ( Russian Соловецкий монастырь ) is one of the most important centers of Orthodox Christianity in northern Russia. It is located on the Solovetsky Islands in the White Sea . In its eventful history, it experienced epochs of promotion by secular rulers as well as serious conflicts with the state, up to sieges and temporary dissolution.
In 1923 it was converted into the country's first labor camp and thus became the prototype of the Soviet GULAG system.
history
The monastery was founded in 1436 by the two monks German and Sawwatij from the Kirillo Belozersky monastery . In the 15th and 16th centuries, the monastery was able to expand its lands. It acquired - mostly through donations - large tracts of land on the mainland, especially along the rivers that flow into the White Sea. A clever production and trade policy soon made it the economic and political center of the region around the White Sea. The business activities of the Solovetsky Monastery included, among other things, the extraction of salt , fishing , fur hunting, mica and iron processing , pearl extraction . The monastery employed numerous people from the surrounding area. For many of them, work in the monastery was their livelihood. In the 16th century the Solovetsky monastery had 350 monks, plus around 700 craftsmen , farmers and servants . It also became significant as a place of theological education, as a very large library with numerous manuscripts grew over the years. One of his monks, Theodoret von Kola , worked as a missionary among the Sami in the second quarter of the 16th century .
In the second half of the 17th century, after the schism of the Russian Orthodox Church , the monastery became one of the strongholds of the Old Believers . Because the monastery opposed the reforms ordered by Patriarch Nikon from 1652. Thereupon it was besieged by an army of the tsar from 1668 to 1676 , but held out.
Since 1765 the monastery is stauropegial , i. That is, it is no longer subordinate to the local bishop, but is directly subordinate to the Holy Synod . The archimandrites of the monastery were appointed by the tsar and the patriarch.
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Together with the two fortifications in Sumskoi and Kem, the Solovetsky Monastery formed an important Russian border fortress. It had dozens of cannons and a strong garrison . It was able to repel several attacks and sieges by the Livonian Brotherhood of the Sword and by the Swedes in 1571, 1582 and 1611. During the Crimean War , the monastery was attacked by two British frigates in July 1854 , but after unsuccessful bombardment they left the White Sea.
From the 16th to the early 20th century, the monastery also served as a place of exile for opponents of tsarist autocracy and the Orthodox Church and also included a prison.
After the October Revolution , the Soviet rulers closed the monastery in 1920, which then numbered 430 monks. In 1923 they transformed it into the country's first labor camp under the GULAG system. The approximately 3,000 prisoners in the year it was opened, including around 60 bishops, had to cut down the surrounding forests, among other things. The camp grew to up to 50,000 internees and until 1939, when the camp was closed because of its proximity to the border at the beginning of the Second World War , tens of thousands of prisoners were killed. A Navy Cadet School was opened in its place.
The monastery as an architectural ensemble
The Solovetsky Monastery is located on the coast of the Prosperity Bay ( бухта Благополучия ). The territory of the monastery is surrounded by massive walls (height: 8 to 11 meters, thickness: 4 to 6 meters), with seven gates and eight towers (built between 1584 and 1594). The huge boulders that make up the walls are up to five meters long. Most of the churches and monasteries are connected to each other by covered column passages, surrounded by numerous household buildings and residential quarters, including a 500 m² refectory . Most of the buildings that have survived to this day were built in the 16th century during the tenure of Igumen Filip Kolytschew. The buildings that shape the image of the monastery include the Uspensky Cathedral (1552–1557), the Preobrazhensky Cathedral (1556–1564), the Annunciation Cathedral (1596–1601), a water mill (early 17th century), a bell tower (1777 ) and the Nikolai Church (1834).
The Solovetsky Monastery today
In 1990 the Holy Synod decided to rebuild the monastery. In 1992 a small group of monks returned there. The community has since grown to around 30 monks.
The Solovetsky Monastery houses a historical and architectural museum . It was one of the first Russian sites in the World Heritage Site of UNESCO were taken. In recent years the monastery has undergone a major renovation, many buildings are still being reconstructed.
literature
- Aleksandr Troitski: Soloveckij monastery . In: Religion Past and Present (RGG), 4th Edition, Vol. 7:. R-S . Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen 2004, ISBN 978-3-16-149634-9 , Sp. 1431-1432.
- Andrea Gullotta: Intellectual Life and Literature at Solovki 1923-1930 . Legenda, 2018
Footnotes
- ↑ Hubertus Knabe: Solowki - The first gulag. April 5, 2019, accessed April 7, 2019 .
- ↑ a b c d e Aleksandr Troitski: Soloveckij monastery . In: RGG, 4th ed., Vol. 7, col. 1431.
- ↑ Christoph Schmidt: Painted for eternity. History of icons in Russia . Böhlau, Cologne 2009, ISBN 978-3-412-20285-9 , p. 174.
- ^ Gabor T. Rittersporn: The undocumented history of the Soloveck camp
- ^ Silent days at the Arctic Circle , Spiegel, October 1, 2003
- ↑ a b Aleksandr Troitsky: Soloveckij monastery . In: RGG, 4th ed., Vol. 7, col. 1432.
Web links
- Online museum
- Information in Russian
- Official website of the monastery
- Solovetsky Monastery in the 19th century
- Spherical panorama
Coordinates: 65 ° 1 ′ 28.4 ″ N , 35 ° 42 ′ 37.6 ″ E