Dmitry Uspensky executioner biography. How the gulag executioner nicknamed “Solovetsky Napoleon” had fun. For the love of "art"

Dmitry Uspensky is an exemplary lieutenant colonel of the internal service, the head of many camp units. His track record is very impressive, and his work is marked with orders. But many people know Uspensky under the nicknames “amateur executioner”, “Solovetsky Napoleon”, “artist”. What did the exemplary security officer do to deserve them?

Parricide

Dmitry Vladimirovich Uspensky was born in 1902 into the family of a priest. On the threshold of the revolution, he realized that with such a biography he would not have to expect anything good from the Soviet authorities - questionnaires, persecution, exile - and found a way out of the situation - he killed his own father and explained his act by class hatred. Murder due to such strong ideological convictions at that time was not considered the most severe form of crime, so Uspensky was sentenced to 10 years. He was released a year later, and the conviction was subsequently annulled.

“Amateur executioner” in Solovki

In 1920, Uspensky began serving in the Cheka, and in 1927 he was sent to the Solovetsky special-purpose camp. There he quickly took over the post of head of the educational department. But in fact, his activities had nothing to do with education and enlightenment. He was a real camp executioner, not by job description, but by choice. Uspensky was not obliged to engage in executions and did it, as he himself said, “out of love for art.” For this, he became the owner of the nickname “amateur executioner.”

Participation in executions

The head of the educational department of the Solovetsky camp took part in executions many times. Three episodes became the most famous. On the night of October 28-29, 1929, Uspensky himself took part in a mass execution that killed 400 people. His action was highly appreciated by the leadership; he almost immediately received the position of head of the Solovetsky branch of USLON.

In 1930, shortly after his promotion, Uspensky took the initiative to shoot devout peasants from Siberia and the Volga region. Through his sincere efforts, 148 name-slavers were killed.

On June 20, 1931, an “amateur executioner” dealt with a disabled woman, anarchist Evgenia Yaroslavskaya-Marcon. The reason for the execution was the accusation leveled against her by Uspensky that she was “preparing an assassination attempt on him.” During the shot, she attempted to escape, and Uspensky missed. Then he caught up with the woman, hit her with the hilt of a revolver and, falling unconscious, trampled on her until she died.

"Solovetsky Napoleon"

During his service on Solovki, Uspensky acquired another nickname - “Solovetsky Napoleon”. And there were several reasons for this. Firstly, like his great prototype, Dmitry Vladimirovich was a controversial figure - on the one hand, a monster and an unprincipled killer, on the other, a competent leader who, in spite of everything, pursued his tough policy and received only praise from senior management for his exemplary service . His big plans, unscrupulous actions and absolute ruthlessness were also reflected in this nickname, which was awarded to him by prisoners and subordinates. Some eyewitnesses also claimed that Dmitry Uspensky had some similarities with the great and terrible Bonaparte.

Camp permissiveness

Occupying a leadership position in the camp, Uspensky did whatever he wanted: he drank, committed outrages and carried out his own judgment on the prisoners. He forced women into cohabitation. His actions received wide publicity after forcing Natalia Andreeva to be close to him. Since this case was not the only one, in 1932 Dmitry Uspensky came under investigation. But the first deputy people's commissar of the OGPU, G. G. Yagoda, who had a good disposition towards the “amateur executioner,” stopped the case. The injured woman was released, and Uspensky was forced to take her as his wife. As a wedding gift, Uspensky received from Yagoda an appointment to the post of head of the Belbaltlag. From that moment on, he became the manager of the lives and destinies of a huge number of “builders of communism” who erected the White Sea Canal.

As for his wife, she escaped at the first opportunity, but her husband, gifted with power, took revenge on her - she was arrested again and sentenced to 8 years in the camps.

Service in Belbaltlag

Having taken a leadership position in the new camp, Uspensky did not change his usual behavior. The nickname “Solovetsky Napoleon” merged so firmly with Uspensky’s personality that it “wandered” from camp to camp. In Belbaltlag, he continues to show cruelty, participating in various types of punishments. The only thing, after the legal precedent, is that he became more careful in his relations with female prisoners.

"The Artist" in Dmitlag

In 1936-1937, Uspensky headed Dmitlag, one of the largest concentration camps in the Gulag system. Here his behavior took on a new scale - he shifted many of the reprisals onto his assistants and subordinates, and besides, there were so many who were suitable for the role of potential victims that it was not impossible to deal with everyone personally.

End of career

After Nikolai Yezhov, People's Commissar of the NKVD, was removed from his post, the fate of people like Uspensky was determined: they were led to execution. And here Uspensky was luckier than others - after a conversation with the security officer Vlodzimirsky, he was “exiled” to Naryan-Mar, tasked with leading the Polarlag.

It is interesting that here he parted with his “arts” and excesses. According to contemporaries, Uspensky received a warning: one such trick would lead to execution. This change of tactics proves that the reason for his atrocities was not his convictions or mental deviations, but impunity and permissiveness.

Subsequently, Dmitry Uspensky held leadership positions in various camps in remote corners of the country. His career includes Sevpechlag, Perevallag, Nizhamurlag, Sakhalinlag.

In 1952, he was fired from the Ministry of State Security, and on March 17, 1953, Uspensky was sent into retirement, awarded the title “Personal Pensioner of Union Significance.” The executioner lived a long life and died of natural causes in 1989.

On the same topic:

Dmitry Uspensky: “amateur executioner” in Solovki Dmitry Uspensky: what made him become an executioner

Dmitry Vladimirovich Uspensky

(nicknames amateur executioner(Solovki), Solovetsky Napoleon(Belbaltlag), 1902 - July 1989, Moscow) - lieutenant colonel of the internal service, head of many camp departments.

Biography

The son of a priest, according to other sources - a deacon. According to D.S. Likhachev - a parricide. He explained what he had done as class hatred. In a conversation with I. L. Solonevich, Uspensky confirmed that he was sentenced to 10 years. Then the information changed - Uspensky’s father, a deacon, died of natural causes in 1905, and his son had no criminal record.

Received incomplete secondary education. In the Red Army and the Cheka-OGPU since 1920. Since 1927, member of the RCP (b) (according to other sources, since 1925).

Since 1952, a personal pensioner of Union significance. In June 1953 he was dismissed from the Ministry of Internal Affairs. In 1969 he finally retired.

Participation in executions

While still the head of the educational department of the Solovetsky camp, Uspensky repeatedly participated in executions. There is direct evidence of at least three cases:

On the night of October 28-29, 1929, Uspensky led and personally participated in the mass execution of 400 people, including G. M. Osorgin, A. A. Sivers and many others.
In 1930, two months after Uspensky was appointed head of the Solovetsky branch of USLON, on his initiative and with his direct participation, 148 “Imyaslavtsy”, deeply religious peasants from the Terek region, Siberia and the Volga were shot.
On June 20, 1931, Uspensky participated in the execution of a disabled woman, anarchist Evgenia Yaroslavskaya-Marcon, sentenced to death. She was accused of attempting to assassinate Uspensky; According to investigators, she tried to kill him by hitting him in the temple with a stone.

Spitting out curses, he [D. V. Uspensky] stunned the woman with the handle of a revolver and, having fallen unconscious, began to trample her feet.

Marriage

In one of his letters, Uspensky describes the story of his marriage as follows:

In 1931, as a camp administrator... he entered into a personal intimate relationship with the prisoner Andreeva..., for which in 1932 he was under investigation and as a result served a penalty of 20 days of arrest... In 1933, with the permission of the deputy chairman of the OGPU (Yagoda)... married former prisoner Andreeva."

In 1937, Natalya Nikolaevna Uspenskaya (Andreeva) was re-arrested and sentenced as an “enemy of the people” to 8 years in prison.

Probably the consequence of this was that on February 16, 1939, by decision of the general party meeting of the Construction Department of the Kuibyshev Hydroelectric Complex, Uspensky was expelled from the party. However, on April 15, 1939, the Kuibyshev Regional Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) reinstated Uspensky in the party with the wording: “for the actions he committed ... he already has party penalties, and there are no new circumstances that would serve as a reason for his expulsion from the party.”

Achievement list

In 1928 - head of the club of the 4th Special Solovetsky Regiment.
In 1928-1930 - head of the educational department of the Solovetsky special purpose camp, head of the 4th department of USLON, deputy head of the Solovetsky camp, head of the Solovetsky and Kemsky departments of the Solovetsky camp after the arrest of V. G. Zarin and P. Golovkin in 1930. .
In the early 1930s - deputy head of the Belbaltlag, head of the Northern section of the construction of the White Sea-Baltic Canal (about 1931-1933).
From July 2, 1933 to October 7, 1936 - head of the Belbaltlag.
From October 7, 1936 - Deputy Head of Dmitlag.
From August 25, 1937 not earlier than February 2, 1938 - head of Dmitlag, at the same time, from 08.25.37 to 01.31.38 - temporary acting head of the Moscow-Volga Canal Operations Directorate.
Since February 2, 1938, assistant to the head of the construction department of the Kuibyshev hydroelectric complex, head of the Zhigulevsky district.
From October 5 to December 30, 1939 - chief of Nizhamurlag.
From December 30, 1939 to July 20, 1941 - head of Soroklag, dismissed on July 20, 1941.
In December 1941 - head of the Polarlag.
From January 25 to September 5, 1942 - head of the Sevpechlag.
From April 24, 1943 - Head of the Karagandaugol NKVD (Construction of the 4th coal mine in the Karaganda region).
From May 18, 1944 - head of Perevallag.
From October 4, 1945 to March 3, 1946 - chief of Nizhamurlag (reappointed to the same position).
From March 3, 1946 - deputy. Head of the Amur Construction Department of the BAM.
From September 10, 1947 to August 20, 1948 - head of the Yuzhlag.
From August 20, 1948 to July 26, 1952 - head of Sakhalinlag, at the same time headed the Dalneft association.
From July 26, 1952 not earlier than March 17, 1953 - and. O. Head of the ITL Department of Tatspetsneftestroy.

Awards

Order of the Red Star (08.1933);
Order of Lenin (July 14, 1937, Resolution of the Presidium of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR dated July 14 “for outstanding success in the construction of the Moscow-Volga canal”);
The order of Lenin;
Order of the Red Banner (1944);
Order of the Badge of Honor (1941).

Family

Wife: Natalia Nikolaevna Andreeva(1910 - ?) was born in Moscow. Arrested on December 19, 1928. On September 7, 1929, sentenced by the Supreme Court of the Ukrainian SSR under Article 54-4, 11 of the Criminal Code of the Ukrainian SSR (analogous to Article 58 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR, 4 - “help to the bourgeoisie”, possibly connections with foreign countries, 11 - participation in an anti-Soviet organization) for a period of 7 years ITL.

Imprisoned in the Solovetsky camp.

Her close friend “Josephite” Valentina Zhdan (Yasnopolskaya) left memories of N.N. Andreeva. This is how she describes meeting her at the Belbaltlag hospital:

In the same room with me was a fragile, blue-eyed little mermaid girl, as I mentally called her for her bright appearance. She seemed very angry: she scolded her neighbors, sisters, and then began to hurt me. I was silent, feeling that behind her behavior there was not simple hooliganism, but some kind of terrible mental pain, which in this way was looking for a way out. One day, when we were alone in the ward, she spoke: “Why are you silent? I hurt you, but you remain silent. When you entered, I suddenly felt a breath of fresh wind in the sultry desert, and I really wanted to talk to you, but I didn’t know how, but you were silent, and I began to offend you.”

According to V.N. Yasnopolskaya, this is the fate of her friend. Natalya Andreeva grew up in the Dnieper region. She lost her mother early. The father remarried. The relationship with her stepmother did not work out, and Natalya and her brother ran away from home. They soon became involved with some “bad company” (possibly anarchists). This whole company was arrested, Natasha and her brother ended up in Solovki. Natasha’s brother soon died, and she learned to type and worked in the office of the head of the Solovetsky camp, Dmitry Uspensky, where the affair with him began. V.N. Yasnopolskaya writes that Natalya responded to Uspensky with “frenzied love.”

Prisoner Solovkov D.S. Likhachev, remembering the head of the camp, Uspensky, remarked: “They say he had a decent wife...”.

N. N. Uspenskaya (Andreeva) wrote poetry, her Solovetsky poem is known:

Stop, Solovetsky wind, humming and playing pranks out of boredom!

The amber evening is burning down, wringing its tired hands.

The slender spruce trees became sad, the black pines became thoughtful

And they sang sadly and sadly about what was so simple...

I know the truth of the steel law, but why is it so terrible?

The tired sky has fallen asleep, the tired sky is beautiful,

And white seagulls bathe in the bloody amber of the dawns.

That night the heart was shot on the high Sekirnaya Mountain.

N.N. Andreeva was released early on May 12, 1933, after Yagoda allowed Uspensky to marry (see above). At this time, she wrote to V.N. Zhdan (Yasnopolskaya): “My life is a fairy tale, I am Dima’s wife. And Dima has four diamonds, it’s even scary.”

The family life of D. V. Uspensky was vividly described by the doctor-prisoner in Belbaltlag B. E. Raikov:

A large figure, slanting shoulders, a bright, friendly face. How did this good fellow get to such a responsible post?<директора ББК>? <…>I met him at his government dacha, on the banks of the Kumsa, where his wife, my patient, received me. It is difficult to imagine two more opposite types. He is a fair-haired hero, and she is a little brunette , fragile in appearance, with black wet eyes, always excited and excited and always full of contradictions and even reproaches towards her imperturbable husband. “You see, you see!” - this was her favorite expression.

Children: Ouspensky's eldest children were twins. One son's name was Henry in honor of Yagoda, in 1937 it was renamed Gennady. After the arrest of his wife, D.V. Uspensky sent the twins to an orphanage. In prison, N.N. Andreeva gave birth to another child, who was immediately taken away from her. Her further fate is unknown.

Apparently, D.V. Uspensky soon married a second time, and he had children in his second marriage.

Uspensky in art

In a collection of works by Soviet writers dedicated to the White Sea-Baltic Canal, it is mentioned that they were accompanied by the security officer D.V. Uspensky. Many enthusiastic responses have been devoted to him. In particular, one poet wrote:

This KGB moon

She lit our way with a smile.

The poems were accompanied by a “friendly cartoon” - a handsome, round-faced boy smiling cheerfully.

At the end of his life, D. V. Uspensky appeared on screen in the documentary film “Solovetskaya Power” (directed by M. E. Goldovskaya). This is how Sergei Golitsyn, who knew D.V. Uspensky while still in the position of deputy, describes his impressions. head of construction of the Moscow - Volga canal:

The documentary film “Solovetsky Power” can be compared in terms of the power of impression with the film “Repentance”. The film shows a former prominent security officer who began his career with the murder of his father-priest; his last name is deliberately not mentioned. An old man with a string bag is hobbling, limping along a Moscow street, and on his chest there are six rows of medal bars. - But this is the executioner who killed my sister’s husband Georgy Osorgin!

In the book “Russia in a Concentration Camp” by the famous publicist I. L. Solonevich, Dmitry Uspensky is present in many episodes. Ivan Solonevich managed to convince Uspensky to organize a sports day in the camp with the participation of prisoners. Uspensky, naturally, entrusted the organization of the Spartakiad to Ivan Solonevich himself. Under the cover of organizing a sports festival, Solonevich managed to prepare well for the escape, and, in the end, escaped from the camp along with his 18-year-old son Yuri.

Essays

Uspensky D. Stalin highway: (to the 15th anniversary of the Soviet of Karelia). // White Sea-Baltic Combine. - 1935. - No. 6/7. - pp. 17-19.

Parricide

“Amateur executioner” in Solovki

Participation in executions

In 1930, shortly after his promotion, Uspensky took the initiative to shoot devout peasants from Siberia and the Volga region. Through his sincere efforts, 148 name-slavers were killed.

"Solovetsky Napoleon"

Camp permissiveness

As for his wife, she escaped at the first opportunity, but her husband, gifted with power, took revenge on her - she was arrested again and sentenced to 8 years in the camps.

Service in Belbaltlag

"The Artist" in Dmitlag

Dmitry Vladimirovich’s favorite “entertainment” here was the execution of young attractive women. He did this in a sophisticated manner. Before the executions, Ouspensky forced women to pose naked, making pencil sketches. Because of this hobby, he earned another nickname - “the artist.”
End of career
After Nikolai Yezhov, People's Commissar of the NKVD, was removed from his post, the fate of people like Uspensky was determined: they were led to execution. And here Uspensky was luckier than others - after a conversation with the security officer Vlodzimirsky, he was “exiled” to Naryan-Mar, tasked with leading the Polarlag.

Subsequently, Dmitry Uspensky held leadership positions in various camps in remote corners of the country. His career includes Sevpechlag, Perevallag, Nizhamurlag, Sakhalinlag.

The history of the Solovetsky Monastery dates back to 1429, when the Monks Savvaty and German arrived on the island. They settled in the northern part of the Big Solovetsky Island near Sosnovaya Bay, on the shore of the lake, “raising a cross and setting up a cell for themselves.” The place of the desert exploits of the monks later received the name Savvatievo. The history of the Solovetsky monastery began with him.

The monks lived in the created desert for 6 years, then both left Solovki. The Monk Herman left for the mainland for economic needs. Left alone, the Monk Savvaty felt his death approaching and, wanting to partake of the Holy Mysteries of Christ, he also went to the mainland. At the mouth of the Vyg River, he met a priest who was visiting local Christians, who confessed and gave the ascetic communion. Soon the Monk Savvaty departed to the Lord; this happened on September 27, 1435. The Monk Herman returned to the island only the next year, 1436. Monk Zosima arrived with him. This time the shore of Blagopoluchiya Bay was chosen for the settlement. This place is “fairly green and beautiful.” It is in many ways convenient for setting up a monastery: it is located in the center of the island, with a closed sea bay approaching it on one side, and a freshwater lake on the other.

The place for the establishment of the monastery was predetermined from above. Such an instruction almost always guided the ascetics when choosing a site for future monasteries. Most of them were based in beautiful places. The creations of human hands - the monastery buildings were in tune with the landscape, emphasizing its beauty and grandeur. The harmony of nature and architecture created a visible image of the Kingdom of Heaven.

When choosing a place for a future monastery, their founders heard angelic singing or ringing bells in deserted places, an icon unexpectedly appeared to them, or some vision happened. This was the case with the Solovetsky Monastery. Arriving on the island, Saints Zosima and Herman celebrated the All-Night Vigil. According to the Life, immediately after this, the Monk Zosima saw an extraordinary light in the east and a beautiful church in the air. The Solovetsky Monastery was subsequently built on the site of the vision.

Since the time of the ancient Palestinian laurels, cenobitic monasteries were built primarily according to a quadrangle plan - this is the shape of the Heavenly City of Jerusalem, described in the Revelation of John the Theologian (Apocalypse).

The first wooden ensembles of the Solovetsky Monastery also had a shape close to a quadrangle. The original ensemble, formed in the 50s of the 15th century, included a church in honor of the Transfiguration of the Lord with a chapel of St. Nicholas. The Refectory Chamber adjoined them, and a little to the north stood a belfry with stone bells. The temple complex was surrounded by cells and outbuildings. The monastery was surrounded by a fence. The first wooden ensemble was located on the territory of the current Transfiguration Cathedral.

In the mid-60s of the 15th century, under Abbot Jonah, the monastery underwent significant reconstruction. The economy was developing, the brethren were rapidly increasing - new spacious churches, cells, and outbuildings were needed. On the site of the small Church of the Transfiguration, “a huge wooden church of the Transfiguration of the Lord was built with a meal, and next to it, on the eastern side, a wooden church in the name of the Dormition of the Blessed Virgin Mary; Moreover, the cells were rebuilt; and other monastic services." A chapel in the name of St. Nicholas became a separate church.

The boundaries of the second architectural ensemble of the Solovetsky Monastery, also wooden, were presumably as follows: the northern part of the fence ran just north of the Assumption Refectory complex; southern - along the line of the Saint's cell building; The eastern and western sections of the fence were located on the line of the current fortress walls. This ensemble was destroyed by a fire in 1538.

The stone ensemble of the second half of the 16th century, like the wooden ones, was created within the boundaries of a quadrangle. Only when constructing the fortress did the architects have to deviate from their previous form. The features of the relief and the requirements of defense forced it to change. The fortress included a mill, Sushilo, and other outbuildings so that the monastery could exist autonomously and, if necessary, withstand a long siege. From the end of the 16th century to this day, the monastery has the shape of an elongated pentagon. This form is also symbolic, as it is similar to a ship, and reminds that the monastery is a ship of salvation in the sea of \u200b\u200blife.

Monasteries were certainly surrounded by a wall. She protected the territory of the monastery from the outside world and turned it into a special spiritual fortress. If possible, they tried to move hotel cells outside the monastery fence, although their arrangement was allowed in the monastery, but immediately at the entrance. And in the Solovetsky Monastery they were located at the entrance, to the left of the Holy Gate, in the Annunciation cell building. Animal farms and stables were located further away from the monastery. In the Solovetsky monastery, according to the charter commanded by the Monk Zosima, cattle yards were even built on another island - Bolshoi Muksalma, more than 10 km away. from the monastery. Household services, for the most part, were also moved outside the monastery territory and only the most necessary were located between the cells and the monastery fence. Likewise, in the Solovetsky monastery, such services were mainly located in the suburbs around the monastery or behind the cell rows in the Northern and Southern courtyards.

The main, front entrance to the monastery is called the Holy Gate. The prototype for the Holy Gates of the monasteries was the Golden Gate in Jerusalem, through which the Lord entered this city before His Passion on the Cross. The main gates of the monasteries symbolize the entrance of Jesus Christ into the monastic City.

A bell tower or a small gate temple was often built above the Holy Gate. The gate church was usually dedicated to the Feast of the Entry of the Lord into Jerusalem, to John the Baptist, or to the holidays in honor of the Most Holy Theotokos, which meant Her patronage over the monastery city. In the Solovetsky Monastery, the gate church is dedicated to the Feast of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Often in such churches, at the very entrance to the monastery, monastic tonsures were performed, and the newly tonsured one, as it were, entered the monastery for the first time in his new state.

Arriving at the monastery pier, the Solovetsky pilgrims walked to the Holy Gate. According to the travelers' recollections, they stood for a long time in front of the main entrance to the monastery and prayed, lamenting their sins and trying to leave all their sinful thoughts behind the monastery wall. For a worthy entry into the monastery, many tried to cleanse themselves not only spiritually, but also physically. For this purpose, 2 baths were built on the Holy Lake: men's and women's.

In the icon case above the Holy Gate there was an image of the Savior Not Made by Hands. On the memorial plate under the image on the left was the following inscription: “This image of our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ was written with the care and diligence of the Founder of the Anzersky monastery, Venerable Eleazar the Wonderworker; during the attack on the monastery by the British in 1854, this image was transferred and placed here under the Holy Gate to protect and save the monastery from enemies visible and invisible.” After the monastery was closed, the icon was lost.

On the left side of the icon is another slab with an inscription about the history of the construction of the fortress with the following content: “By decree of the Sovereign Tsar and Grand Duke Theodore Ioannovich, the hitherto existing stone fortress was built around the monastery to protect the monastery from attacks by foreigners in 1854 under the 27th abbot Jacob on the monastic sum collected from the coastal monastic estates, according to the plan of the Solovetsky monk Tryphon; the construction lasted 12 years under the supervision of governor Ivan Yakhontov.”

Directly opposite the main entrance to the monastery there is usually a cathedral church. It is the spiritual center of the monastery and, as a rule, its architectural dominant. According to the Apocalypse, in the center of Heavenly Jerusalem is the throne of God. The monastery, as an earthly reflection of the Heavenly City, has a temple in its center. The temple is the place where the Divine Liturgy is celebrated and the Lord Himself dwells.

In most cases, the cathedral was built on the site of the very first monastery church, which was often built by the founders of the monastery. The dedication of the first temple gave the name to the entire monastery. In the cathedral there were shrines, main services were performed, distinguished guests were received, sovereign and bishop's letters were read out.

In many monasteries, refectory churches were erected, so called because they had a refectory adjacent to them. The refectory could accommodate all the brethren. Here, in addition to the general eating of food, cathedrals took place - general monastic meetings.

As a rule, monasteries had several churches. So, on the territory of the Solovetsky Monastery in 1906 there were 8 churches with 10 chapels in total. Each temple or chapel in it is a prayer for the intercession of a specific saint. There are many churches and chapels - a prayer to a whole host of saints, with whom in this monastery the idea of their special patronage was united. This is the dedication of the Solovetsky churches to the feasts of the Mother of God (Christmas, Annunciation, Dormition of the Blessed Virgin Mary), Saints Nicholas and Philip, Saints Zosima, Savvaty and Herman.

Churches were erected in monasteries dedicated to the heavenly patrons of the reigning persons and their heirs. Often the kings themselves donated money to such temples, thereby asking the brethren for prayerful intercession. Monastic prayers have always been considered the most effective.

In the central ensemble of the Solovetsky Monastery there were 5 such churches, and they were dedicated to the Beheading of the Head of the Baptist John (the Holy Baptist John - the Heavenly patron of Tsar John IV the Terrible), the Great Martyr Demetrius of Thessaloniki (the patron of the False Dmitry I), the Holy Blessed Prince Alexander Nevsky (the Heavenly Protector of the Emperor Alexander II), St. John Climacus and the Holy Great Martyr Theodore Stratelates. The last two churches - the chapels of the Transfiguration Cathedral - are named in honor of the Heavenly patrons of the sons of Ivan the Terrible.

In terms of the number of churches dedicated to the heavenly patrons of members of the reigning house, the Solovetsky Monastery could only be compared with the Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery. Thus, it turned into the most important sovereign pilgrimage - a place of prayer for the kings and members of their families.

Another obligatory structure of the main monastery courtyard is the bell tower (or belfry). The bell tower is usually the tallest building of the monastery, its vertical axis. The good news is carried by the ringing of bells, announcing the beginning of the service. The ringing, like a cross, connects heaven and earth. The surrounding area was monitored from the bell towers in the monasteries, and if an enemy approached, the bells immediately began to ring. In bad weather, bell ringers saved dozens of lives; in a snowstorm or fog, they rang for hours so that travelers would not lose their way. In Arkhangelsk, in the State Archive of the Arkhangelsk Region, there is even a file entitled “On the conduct of church ringing during snowstorms from the bell tower of the St. Michael the Archangel Monastery.”

On the territory of the central monastery courtyard there could be icon-painting workshops, sacristies, book storage tents (libraries), state and armory chambers, cookhouses (kitchens), bread shops (bakeries), hospitals were also allowed here.

There were cells along the perimeter of the main courtyard. The decor of all cell buildings is the same. Even the abbot's corps did not stand out from the others in any way. This uniformity in design seems to express the equality of the monastic brethren before the Lord.

The windows of most cells overlooked the cathedral square, from which the monks were always able to see the temples. From most of the monastic cells of the Solovetsky Monastery, the throne church was visible - the Transfiguration Cathedral.

The main temple of the Solovetsky Monastery was built in 1558-1566, under the abbot of the holy abbot Philip (Kolychev). The Transfiguration Cathedral became the most important building of the architectural ensemble. This temple is a unique symbol of the greatness of the Solovetsky Monastery.

The cathedral's architecture is in tune with the city. It has high walls and combines several thrones on different tiers. Before the creation of the stone porch, its base included stairs, wooden porches, bell towers, and wooden-stone passages. Thanks to the variety of components and the picturesque composition, it looked like a city, which is especially clearly visible on the icons of the 16th and 17th centuries.

This is one of the tallest buildings of the monastery. Powerful inclined walls (thickness at the base - 4, at the end - 3, 5), lack of horizontal division, massive blades contribute to the upward direction of the temple.

The building has three levels. On the first tier, in a fairly high ground floor, there were utility rooms. On the second, three churches were built: the throne church, dedicated to the Transfiguration of the Lord, and its two chapels - Zosimo-Savvatievsky, in the northeastern part, and Michael the Arkhangelsky - in the southeast. In 1859, on the site of the chapel in honor of the Monks Zosima and Savvatiy, the Holy Trinity Zosima and Savvatievsky Cathedral was built.

In the upper tier, in the corner tower superstructures, there were four more chapels: St. John Climacus, Great Martyr Theodore Stratilates, Councils of the 12 and 70 Apostles.

The front western wall of the cathedral ends with two rows of keel-shaped kokoshniks. They contain the remains of ancient paintings, which depict the Transfiguration of the Lord, the Annunciation of the Most Holy Theotokos, St. Zosima with St. Savvaty and St. Philip with St. Herman. The paintings were first mentioned in the inventory of the monastery in 1711.

In the 18th and 19th centuries, the facades of the cathedral were decorated with paintings with floral and geometric patterns.

The high vaults of the cathedral rest on two pillars. The octagonal light drum is close to the altar wall. It is located directly above the pulpit, where during the Divine Liturgy the Gospel is read and the Holy Gifts are given. Being in front of the iconostasis, the light drum illuminates it perfectly.

The temple premises are also illuminated by windows located at different levels. Currently, the cathedral has two types of windows: in the original forms of the 16th century and rebuilt windows of the 18th century. The early ones have very small light openings and vaulted niches lined with ledges in the lower part.

Chambers and stairs are located in the thickness of the wall. Along such a staircase, which begins in the southwestern corner of the temple, you can climb to the upper aisles of the cathedral. Internal staircases and chambers are characteristic of the early stone buildings of the monastery.

The main decoration of the temple is the iconostasis. Over the centuries it was rebuilt several times. During construction, the iconostasis was a four-tiered tyablo. It was created by icon painters from Veliky Novgorod “Gavrilo Staraya and Ilya”. In the first third of the 17th century, the 5th, ancestral row with 28 icons appeared. Using the seven hundred rubles granted in 1695 by Emperors John V and Peter I, a new carved frame structure of the iconostasis was built in 1697. At the same time it was replenished with new icons.

At the end of the 17th century, there were more than 1000 images in the cathedral; their listing alone took up more than a hundred pages. In addition to the main iconostasis, along the walls and at the pillars there were five-seven-tiered wall iconostases filled with dozens of folding houses and pieds.

In 1826, wooden gilded and carved iconostases for two miraculous icons of the monastery were built on the pillars of the cathedral. On the southern pillar there was an image of the Sosnovskaya Icon of the Korsun Mother of God, which was revealed in Sosnovaya Bay in 1627. On the opposite side is a copy of the Tikhvin Bread (Baked) Icon of the Most Holy Theotokos, which appeared to Saint Philip when he was serving in the bread shop. The icon itself was in the Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. These icons were lost after the monastery was closed.

The relics of St. Philip have rested in the temple since 1646. In 1652, the relics were taken to Moscow, leaving three of their particles in the former shrine. In 1697, a special arch was built for it on the southern side of the sole. Above the shrine was the “Slovenian” icon of the Most Holy Theotokos (so named due to its iconographic proximity to the miraculous “Slovenian” icon), in front of which the saint especially loved to pray.

In 1861-62 the walls and vaults of the temple were painted. The subjects of the paintings depicted the events of Sacred history, Old Testament and New Testament saints.

Emperor Alexander II, who visited Solovki in 1858, donated 2,000 rubles for the construction of a chapel in the cathedral in honor of his heavenly patron, the Holy Blessed Prince Alexander Nevsky. The monastery built the chapel at its own expense, and used the emperor’s contribution to renovate the iconostasis.

During the camp period, the Transfiguration Cathedral, as a unique architectural monument, was declared a nature reserve. There was a department of the anti-religious museum here, and there were exhibitions on icon painting (up to 2000 icons) and church utensils, as well as a collection of copper engravings. For some time in the temple there were the relics of the Solovetsky saints: Saints Zosima, Savvaty and German, Irinarch and Eleazar.

The restoration of the temple began in the 80s of the 20th century and by the beginning of the 21st century it was largely completed. On April 20, 1990, a divine service was held here - the first after a 70-year break not only in the cathedral, but also within the walls of the monastery. It was headed by Archbishop Panteleimon of Arkhangelsk and Murmansk.

After being moved to Solovki in August 1992, the relics of Saints Zosima, Savvaty and German rested for some time in the cathedral.

The modern five-tier iconostasis was installed in 2002. It was commissioned by the monastery and funded by the Andrei Rublev Charitable Foundation.

On August 19, 2007, Archbishop Alexy of Orekhovo-Zuevsky performed the Great Consecration of the temple. Divine services in the Transfiguration Cathedral are currently held in the summer, usually from July to the end of August and beginning of September. At this time, the shrines of the monastery are transferred to the temple.

The Assumption Refectory complex was built in 1552-1557. With its construction, stone construction began in the Solovetsky Monastery.

Not a single building of the first wooden ensembles of the monastery has survived - they were destroyed by fires, from which the monastery suffered more than once. The fires of 1485 and 1538 were especially destructive. In 1485, the Assumption Church burned down with the Refectory Chamber and all the supplies stored in it. They restored it again to wood. In 1538 the monastery burned down completely.

Fires were the main reason for stone construction. It took a long time to prepare for its start. A brick factory was set up not far from the monastery; timber, mica, iron and lime were brought from the mainland estates. Slaked lime was a binding material in the construction of stone and brickwork. The local building material boulder was widely used in construction.

The complex was erected during the abbess of St. Philip. The architects were invited Novgorod masters Ignatius Salka and Stolypa.

The main part of the building is occupied by the Refectory Chamber; the Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary adjoins it from the south-east, and the Cellar Chamber from the north-east. All these rooms are located on the second tier. Under them, in the basement, there were economic services: a bread store with flour, a bread and leaven cellar, a prosphora service, as well as stoves that heated the building. As in a northern Russian house, everything here was under one roof. In the event of an enemy attack, the brethren could withstand a long siege behind powerful walls, having everything they needed at hand.

The Church of the Assumption has a second tier; there were chapels dedicated to the Beheading of the Venerable Head of the Prophet John the Baptist and the Great Martyr Demetrius of Thessalonica.

The appearance of the building is extremely simple. Its facades are practically devoid of decoration. The walls, as in the cathedral, are laid out with an inward slope. The building is severe and majestic.

A unique decoration of the Refectory was the bell tower with a clock and two bells above its western façade.

An unknown author of the 17th century expressed his admiration for visiting the Refectory Chamber, writing: “And the stone refectory with one pillar is wonderful, bright and great.” The Solovetsky Refectory is the second largest single-pillar chamber of Ancient Rus'. Its area is 483 sq. m., which is slightly inferior to the area of the Faceted Chamber of the Moscow Kremlin, which is considered the largest single-pillar structure.

The vaults rest on a massive pillar with a diameter of 4 meters, made of cut limestone. The shape of the chamber's windows is unusual. Their deep internal niches are rounded in the corners, which allows soft and even illumination of the room. On the eastern wall of the chamber there are two portals leading to the Assumption Church and the Refectory Chamber. The portal to the church is richly decorated, the entrance to Kelarskaya is more modest.

To heat the chamber, a stove was built in the basement, from which passages were laid in the walls. Warm air rose along them to the second floor. In 1800, a stove was installed directly in the Refectory; it replaced the ancient heating system.

The interior of the Refectory has undergone changes several times.

In 1745, as the Solovetsky Chronicler reports, “large windows were made in the fraternal Assumption Refectory and Kelarskaya and instead of mica endings, glass ones were inserted.” In 1800, the portal to the church was cleared and a rectangular arch was built so that those in the Refectory could see the church premises. In 1826, the Refectory was painted.

The restoration of the Refectory Chamber was carried out in the 60-70s of the 20th century. This is one of the first restored monuments on Solovki. The chamber has been recreated in its original forms of the 16th century, as it was before the start of reconstruction.

On the same tier with the Refectory Chamber are the Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Cellar Chamber.

The premises of the Assumption Church are small. An altar barrier with three arches separates the main part of the temple from the altar. In the southern wall there is an internal chamber, and in the western wall there is a staircase leading to the upper aisles. Like the Refectory Chamber, the Assumption Church underwent significant changes at the beginning of the 19th century: the chamber and staircase were destroyed, the vaults with strippings were partially cut down, and the arch of the altar barrier was rebuilt. According to historical documents and natural remains, the temple was completely restored in the 1970s to its original forms of the 16th century.

The cellar chamber is larger in size than the church. It has much in common with the Refectory Chamber. Both of them are single-pillar, but the pillar in Kelarskaya is octagonal. The windows in both rooms have the same shape. In the thickness of the Kelarskaya wall there are niches and chambers for storing property. Here, just like in the Assumption Church, there is an interior staircase that leads down to the bread room (bakery). The bakery ovens heated the Kelar Chamber, and warm air from them rose up through the air ducts. The air duct outlets are preserved in the niches of its southern wall.

The cellar chamber was intended for the cellarer. Its size, unusual arrangement, and rich decoration corresponded to the position of the cellarer in the monastery hierarchy. The cellarer's responsibilities included: management of monastic services, monetary income, sacristy, estates, food supplies, correspondence with government agencies on economic issues, and receiving guests of the monastery.

Next to the Refectory in monasteries there were traditionally cookhouses, bakeries, kvass factories with cellars, barns and glaciers. So on Solovki, next to the Refectory, a similar complex of services and utility premises was formed. Next door to it there was a cookhouse and a kvass brewery, opposite there was a fish barn in the Rukhlyadny building. In the Prosphora building there were pantries for flour, yeast and baked prosphora. And under the Refectory itself, as mentioned above, there was a bread store with flour, leaven and a bread cellar.

At the end of the 18th century, a passage was built from the cookhouse to the Refectory complex, along which food was first brought to the Cellar Chamber, and then distributed to the tables in the Refectory. The complex of Solovetsky premises associated with the reception and preparation of food included another refectory - the General one, built in 1798 opposite Kelarskaya. It was intended “for visiting pilgrims.”

Currently, the Refectory Chamber and the Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary are shown to visitors during tours of the monastery. Several times a year, festive meals are held in the Refectory for guests and brethren. The village bakery operates in the premises of the former monastery bakery.

In 1859, the Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary was built in the northeastern basement of the Refectory Chamber.

It was intended for “monks working in the bread service.” The church was built in memory of the vision of Saint Philip - then still obedient to the monk in the bakery - of the icon of the Mother of God. At the place where it was found, it was called “Khlebennaya” (“Zapechnaya”).

When the church was built, an altar was fenced off in the southeast corner of the room. The temple was decorated with a small single-tier iconostasis.

A memorial chapel was built on the site of the former church in 2007. It was created jointly by the monastery and the museum with funds from benefactor Mikhail Rudyak (+2007), head of the Engeocom Association. The reconstruction of the chapel was timed to coincide with the 500th anniversary of the birth of St. Philip.

The church in the name of St. Nicholas was one of the first in the monastery. Nicholas the Wonderworker is one of the most revered Russian saints; those whose lives are connected with the sea have a special relationship with him. And the life of most residents of the White Sea coast is unthinkable without it. “The sea is our field,” the Pomors said. The proverb speaks about the veneration of the saint in the North: “From Kholmogory to Kola - thirty-three St. Nicholas” - so many churches in the name of St. Nicholas were previously located between these Pomeranian settlements.

The life of the Solovetsky monks was also inextricably linked with the sea. Animal hunting and fishing were the most important in the monastic economic life; all communication with the mainland - with the center and estates - was carried out only by sea; pilgrims reached the monastery only after overcoming the sea elements. The intercession of Saint Nicholas was especially important for the nightingales.

The church in the name of St. Nicholas, which we see today, appeared in the monastery in 1834. It is located between the Trinity Cathedral and the bell tower.

The five-domed temple was erected on the basis of the old, single-domed one. A special feature of the ancient temple was the construction of a belfry on the western wall with bells hanging in the arched openings. The church was built on the preserved solid boulder foundation. The temple building is three-tiered. In the lower tier - the basements (as was customary in the monastery) - utility rooms were built, and above them - a sacristy. A temple was erected on its vaults.

The interior of the temple is pillarless. Despite its small volume, it is spacious and, thanks to two rows of windows, always bright. The church is devoid of any decorative elements; its main decoration has always been the iconostasis. It had four tiers, was never rebuilt, and the icons were not preserved.

There is a bell tower next to St. Nicholas Church. Its height is 50 meters. This is the tallest building of the monastery. The modern bell tower was erected in 1777 on the boulder foundation of the former three-tented belfry.

In the inventory of 1676, the belfry is described as follows: “In the Solovetsky Monastery, the bell tower has seven pillars of stone, three pillars are made of earth, and the other pillars are on church vaults.” The stone belfry, in turn, was preceded by a wooden one.

The bell tower building is decorated under the influence of Western European Baroque, it is distinguished by lightness and elegance. The walls are decorated with inter-tier cornices and picturesque buttress columns. Under the high octagonal roof there are round windows called lucarnes; above the roof there is a two-tier drum of complex shape. The spire crowning the building was built in 1846.

The upper two tiers of the bell tower housed the bells; in 1798, the book depository chamber (library) was built on the lower one.

At the beginning of the 20th century, there were 35 bells on the Solovetsky bell tower. The fate of the old bells is unknown - after the closure of the monastery, not a single one of them survived in the monastery.

The bells on Solovki sounded again on August 20, 1992. With festive ringing they greeted the relics of Zosima, Savvaty and Herman who returned to the monastery. They also rang in honor of His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II, who arrived on the Solovetsky Islands for the first time that day. Before the significant day, 15 bells were raised to the bell tower: 3 new ringings and 12 transferred to the monastery from the funds of the Solovetsky Museum-Reserve.

In 2007, a new set of 23 bells, cast at the expense of benefactors at the Voronezh Bell Foundry, was delivered to the Solovetsky Monastery. A temporary belfry was built for them near the Refectory Chamber. In August 2011, 13 new bells were raised to the bell tower, after removing the old ringings from there. The rest will be placed in the bell tower after its restoration is completed.

The Holy Trinity Zosimo-Savvatievsky Cathedral was built in 1859 according to the design of the Arkhangelsk provincial architect A. Shakhlarev and consecrated in 1866. It became the last large-scale construction of the monastery. The cathedral arose as a result of repeated reconstruction of the Zosimo-Savvatievsky chapel of the Transfiguration Cathedral.

The building was erected over a passage arch. It is crowned with a massive head on a drum.

The temple is divided into three naves by four pillars. The main altar, located in the central nave of the temple, is dedicated to the Holy Trinity. On either side of it there were two chapels: the northern one was consecrated in honor of the Holy Blessed Prince Alexander Nevsky, the southern one - in honor of the Venerables Zosima and Savvaty. There were no walls between the throne church and the chapels. The iconostasis formed a single whole and filled the entire eastern wall of the cathedral.

In the southern aisle there were crayfish with the relics of Saints Zosima and Savvaty. Here, the brethren began every new day with a prayer service at the relics of the founders of the monastery; numerous pilgrims flocked here.

In 1861, the interior of the temple was decorated with a rich carved gilded iconostasis created by the Moscow master Astafiev. Icons for him were painted in the Trinity-Sergius Lavra. In 1873-1876, the temple vaults were painted.

During the camp, the 13th quarantine company was located in the cathedral. All prisoners who arrived at the camp were kept here from several weeks to several months. In the 40-50s of the 20th century, the canteen of the Training Detachment of the Northern Fleet was located in the temple.

Restoration work is currently underway in the cathedral. After their completion, it will become the main operating temple of the monastery.

The passage gallery connected the Transfiguration Cathedral, the Assumption Refectory Complex, St. Nicholas Church, the bell tower, and later the Holy Trinity Cathedral.

With its construction, the center of the Solovetsky monastery city was formed, which includes the largest and most significant monuments of the ensemble.

In the cold and damp climate of Solovki, such a transition was extremely convenient.

The passage was built in 1602 under the leadership of the Solovetsky monk Tryphon (Kologrivov).

What the transition was like in the first two centuries of its existence can be judged from its left, northern part - there a monumental stone staircase leads to an open gallery.

At the end of the 18th century, the entire gallery became closed. “The Solovetsky Chronicler” tells the following about perestroika: “In 1795, under Archimandrite Gerasim, from the Cathedral Church of the Transfiguration to the Assumption Meal on both sides, walls were made between the pillars and windows in them for light, and endings were inserted into them, and a brick floor was paved along the passages.” . In 1826 the gallery was painted.

Restorers restored the monument for different time periods.

Before the establishment of a cemetery near the southern wall of the monastery in the 17th century, its inhabitants were buried on the territory of the monastery. There are several dozen burials known around the Transfiguration Cathedral. The most honorable burial places were located to the north of it.

The Church of St. Herman is one of these places. It is located in a small courtyard between the Transfiguration Cathedral and St. Nicholas Church. The church was consecrated in 1860. This small one-story building is crowned with an onion dome. The church was built on the site of ancient wooden chapels, which contained the graves of three saints: Saints Savvatius and Herman and Saint Markell. In addition, the church still contains the burial places of the first Solovetsky Archimandrite Elijah (Pestrikov) (+1659) and Elder Theophan (+1819).

Behind the Germanovskaya Church, in the basements of the Holy Trinity Cathedral, there are tombs. These are also the most honorable places for burials.

Opposite the entrance to the basement is the chapel-tomb of the Venerable Irinarch, where his relics rested in secret. The stone tomb, which replaced the wooden one, was built in 1753.

Hegumen Irinarch led the monastery from 1614 to 1626. He did a lot to strengthen the defense capability of the monastery and its border mainland estates, entered into diplomatic negotiations with the Swedes, and through his efforts a truce was concluded with the enemy. The abbot blessed the Monk Eleazar to live in the desert on Anzer, and he himself spent the last two years of his life in silence in the desert. The Monk Irinarchus died in 1628.

Behind the wall is the tomb of St. Philip. The relics of the saint were placed in it after they were transferred from Tver in 1591; here they rested before they were transferred to the Transfiguration Cathedral in 1646. Saint Philip bequeathed to bury him next to the grave of his spiritual teacher Jonah Shamin (+1568). The burial place of the saint’s mentor is still in the tomb.

At the eastern wall of the tomb, the Solovetsky abbot, the Monk Jacob (+1597), is buried, at the northern wall is another abbot of the monastery, the Monk Anthony (+1612).

In the courtyard in front of the Church of St. Herman there is a necropolis. The slabs from the monastery cemetery destroyed in the 1930s were transferred to it. The necropolis was created in 2003 by the Solovetsky Museum-Reserve. Here are the tombstones from the graves of Archimandrites Macarius (+1825), Demetrius (+1852), Porfiry (+1865), Theophanes (+1871), monks Theophilus (+1827) and Naum (+1853), the last Koshe chieftain of the Zaporozhye Sich, Peter Kalnishevsky (+1803), well-known philanthropist Afanasy Bulychev in the North (+1902) and others.

In the Germanovsky courtyard, located in the very center of the monastery, there is always blessed silence and peace, as always happens in those places where the righteous are buried.

The gate church of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary is the first to greet visitors to the monastery. It seems to be a joyful greeting to everyone entering the monastery city, since at the Annunciation the Archangel’s speech began with the greeting: “Rejoice!”

A small single-domed temple was built over the passage arch of the Holy Gate in 1596-1601. Its architect is Trifon Kologrivov. Initially, the church was smaller, with a porch adjoining it from the west and a wooden porch from the north. It was crowned with a complex roof with a three-tiered gable roof.

The temple was rebuilt several times: the church, having removed the porch, was “extended” over the Holy Gate. After the fire of 1745, the gabled roof was replaced with a hipped roof, the wooden galleries and porch were built with stone ones, the windows and the passage arch were hewn out.

During the reconstruction, the area of the temple increased, a choir was built above the entrance, and the church was included in the volume of the fortress wall.

The Church of the Annunciation was the home church of the rector and was connected from the altar by a passage with his chambers.

This is the only church in the monastery where the structure of the iconostasis and almost complete wall paintings have been preserved.

The iconostasis has been rebuilt several times throughout its history. In 1836, its last renovation took place before the closure of the monastery.

From 1925 to 1937, the temple housed a camp museum. The temple was painted starting in 1864 for almost 40 years. During this time, the painting was repeatedly updated. The paintings represent Old Testament prophecies about the Mother of God: Jacob's Ladder, the Burning Bush seen by Moses, the Fleece of Saint Gideon, the Vision of Ezekel; the main persons of the Annunciation event: Archangel Gabriel, the Most Holy Theotokos, the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove, as well as the Lord of Hosts, Solovetsky and especially revered saints in the North. The paintings are framed by floral and geometric patterns.

Work to restore the interior of the Church of the Annunciation began in the late 1970s. The wall painting was restored by students of the Moscow Art School named after 1905 under the guidance of restorer Yu. M. Egorov.

Work to restore the iconostasis was carried out by the Solovetsky Research and Production Complex “Palata” (headed by V.V. Soshin). The “Chamber” cooperative also recreated the Royal Doors. They were given as a contribution to Solovetsky by the cellarer of the Trinity-Sergius Monastery, Alexander Bulatnikov, to pray “for themselves and for their parents for an inheritance of eternal blessings.” The Royal Doors were made in 1633 by carver Lev Ivanov from the same monastery. The original gate is in the Kolomenskoye Museum.

The images for the restored iconostasis were created by modern icon painters. Only the icon of the Savior Not Made by Hands is ancient. It was written in 1882 on Solovki specifically for this temple. In 1939, the icon, along with other shrines, was taken to the Kolomenskoye Museum, where it was in the existing church in honor of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God, and in 1993 it was returned to the revived monastery.

On April 5, 1992, the abbot of the monastery, Abbot Joseph (Bratishchev), performed the minor consecration of the gate church. It became the first of the historical churches of the monastery, where, after its revival, regular services began to be held. On April 7, 1992, the first monastic tonsures in the renewed monastery took place in the gate church, and on August 22 of the same year, the first ordination took place. It was performed by His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II. On the same day, the Great Consecration of the temple took place.

Currently, the Sacraments of Unction are performed in the Annunciation Church, they serve here on the patronal feast day, and Saturday morning services are held during Lent. In summer, the temple is open to visitors.

The first church in the name of St. Philip was built in the monastery in 1688 opposite the Refectory Chamber, in the northwestern row of cells. It was attached to hospital wards and was considered a hospital temple. Hospital cells appeared in the monastery during the reign of St. Philip. It is known that from the beginning of the 17th century there was a hospital in the monastery for lay people.

At the end of the 18th century, the hospital cells were moved to the southern part of the central courtyard. The fraternal hospital building housed schema-monks and elderly elders; until the beginning of the 20th century, on the top floor there was a hospital with a pharmacy.

Along with the hospital cells, the temple was also moved. The new church in the name of St. Philip was built in 1798-1799. It is two-tiered. On the first tier there is a temple dedicated to St. Philip. In the octagon towering above it, in 1859, a chapel was built in honor of the icon of the Mother of God “The Sign”. This dedication is connected with the events of the Crimean War. When the monastery was shelled by English ships on July 7, 1854, the icon of the same name, which was located above the entrance to the Transfiguration Cathedral, was hit by the last cannonball - after which the shelling stopped. The monastery was confident that the Mother of God “took upon herself the last wound.” After the construction of the chapel, the icon of the same name from the Holy Trinity Anzersky Skete was transferred to it.

The church communicated with the hospital cells through a door in the refectory and was also considered a hospital church. In 1829, the Church of St. Philip was painted.

The temple was damaged in a fire in 1932. The interior was destroyed, the fire damaged the octagon, it could not be restored and had to be dismantled.

Work to restore the church has been carried out since the mid-1990s through the joint efforts of the monastery and the museum.

On August 22, 2001, His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II performed the great consecration of the Church of St. Philip. Currently, this is the main operating temple of the Solovetsky Monastery. Here are the shrines of the monastery: the relics of Saints Zosima, Savvaty and Herman, Saint Markell, Archbishop of Vologda and Beloezersk, the venerable head of the Hieromartyr Peter, Archbishop of Voronezh and a particle of the relics of Saint Philip, Metropolitan of Moscow.

Monastic cells surround the perimeter of the central courtyard of the monastery. Most of their windows overlook the cathedral square.

The first cells were huts made of wood. The beginning of stone cell construction in the monastery dates back to the 16th century. This is one of the earliest cases of erecting stone residential cells in Russian monasteries. By the middle of the 17th century, almost all the cells in the monastery were made of stone.

Each cell then had a separate entrance. It consisted of two main rooms: a warm entryway and the cell itself. A cold entryway opened into the backyard, where there was a latrine (toilet) and firewood was stored. The small windows, located in deep niches, were made of mica and closed with wooden shutters.

At the end of the 18th - beginning of the 19th centuries, the cell buildings were reconstructed in the monastery. They were arranged according to the corridor principle - the door to each one led from a common corridor. In the cells, the vaults were broken, stone ceilings were installed, the “well” windows were cleared, and the former doorways were blocked with bricks. At the same time, the decor was lost, the roofs were rebuilt, and some buildings were added with a third floor.

Each cell building has its own name. Adjacent to the Church of St. Philip is the Prelate Corps, to the south of the Annunciation Church is the Annunciation Corps, its line is continued by the Nastoyatesky Corps, then the Treasury Corps is located. In the northern row of the perimeter cell building there are the Viceroyal and Rukhlyadny buildings. The eastern row is formed by Povarenny, Kvasovarenny, Prosforny and Novobratsky.

In addition to residential premises, the cell buildings also housed economic services. The purpose of many buildings is indicated by their names: Prosphora, Cookery, Kvasovarnaya, Laundry. The Viceroyal Building housed a candle making, metalworking, and printing workshops, a boiler service in Novobratsky, and a tailor and shoe workshop for some time in Rukhlyadny.

The presence of a large number of services on the territory distinguishes the Solovetsky Monastery from other monasteries, where they tried to move such services outside the fortress wall. This was dictated by the special border location of the monastery and the need to withstand a long siege when attacked by enemies. But even here all services were located outside the Cathedral Square.

The brethren of the revived monastery currently live in the Viceroyal Corps. In the Rukhlyadny building there is a monastery shop, a church-archaeological office, a restoration department and other services of the monastery; in winter, a pilgrimage service is located here. The Prosphora, Novobratsky, Blagoveshchensky and Laundry buildings are occupied by a museum-reserve. Restoration work is being carried out in all other cell buildings.

The Church of St. Philip and the Holy Cell building separate the central courtyard of the monastery from the southern courtyard. This courtyard is a utility courtyard; its main services were connected to the mill canal, through which water flowed from the Holy Lake into the White Sea.

Abbot Philip in the middle of the 16th century connected several lakes with canals and directed their water to the monastery. In the following centuries, the monks repeatedly expanded the lake system, and already at the beginning of the 20th century, water flowed into its final reservoir - the Holy Lake - from 65 lakes. Entering the mill, she rotated the mill mechanisms. It’s not for nothing that the mill is called the pinnacle of the Solovetsky hydraulic system.

The Solovetsky Mill is considered the oldest stone water mill in Russia. It was built in 1601 on the site of a burnt wooden one. Here grain was ground into flour, and a crusher was installed to grind oak and birch bark, which was used for tanning leather. In the 19th century, these mechanisms were supplemented by a grinder, a grinding wheel and a fuller. Until 1908, all mechanisms were driven by water wheels, then they were replaced by a water turbine.

The mill is one of the most richly decorated monuments of the Solovetsky Monastery. Noteworthy is the variety of decor and its richness. Previously, all the details were painted red; they contrasted with the whitewashed facade, and the building looked especially elegant.

The mill is the “heart” of the southern courtyard. It is connected by a canal to the fraternal bathhouse and portomoyka (laundry), and functionally to the grain barn and Sushil.

The sushilo is the oldest structure in the southern courtyard. Its construction dates back to the 16th century. The Solovetsky drying site is one of the oldest in Russia. It was intended for drying and storing grain brought from the mainland. Its heating system is unique. Just like in the Refectory Chamber, warm air rose here to the upper floors from the stove in the basement. The ancient heating systems have not been preserved anywhere else in the same form as on Solovki. Those that existed in other places were lost or significantly rebuilt.

A porto-wash was adjacent to the mill from the east. P.F. Fedorov, in his book Solovki, describes the washing process in the monastery laundry as follows: “From the boilers, through a tube with a tap, hot water was poured into vats with lye. The laundry “boiled” in these vats. After the storm, which lasted from 6 to 12 hours, the laundry was washed in troughs in warm water with soap, and then rinsed directly in the fast running water of the ditch.”

In 1825, a fraternal bathhouse was built near the fortress wall behind the mill.

The laundry building is also located in the southern courtyard. It housed a malt house, a grain barn, cells and, for some time in the 19th century, a laundry. On the 3rd floor, clothes were dried here in winter.

Today the mill, porto-wash and Sushilo are open to pilgrims and tourists. It houses museum exhibitions dedicated to heating systems and hydraulic engineering monuments. In the mill you can see an underground channel, preserved parts of the mill mechanisms, the base of the stand and flour box, and a millstone.

In the first tier of Sushil there was one of the monastery prisons.

The existence of prisons at monasteries was a widespread phenomenon in Russia. Prisoners have been kept in the Solovetsky Monastery since the beginning of the 16th century. Solovki, with its island position, was perfectly suited for isolating criminals dangerous to society. The severity of the monastic imprisonment contributed to the punishment of the culprit.

It was also important that the monasteries were a favorable place for the re-education of prisoners. The very atmosphere of monastic life, soul-saving conversations with the elders, and attendance at services contributed to their correction.

Some prisoners remained in the monastery after their release, joining the ranks of the brethren.

The Solovki prison was closed in 1903. Over four centuries, about 500 prisoners passed through its walls. Among them are those exiled “for matters of faith” and state criminals.

The most famous prisoners of the monastery prison were the compiler of “Domostroi” Archpriest Sylvester, the outstanding figure of the Time of Troubles Abraham Palitsyn, the last Koshevoy Ataman of the Zaporozhye Sich Pyotr Kalnishevsky, senator, diplomat, manager of the Secret Chancellery under Peter I, Count Peter Tolstoy, his comrade-in-arms, member of the Supreme Privy Council, Prince Vasily Dolgoruky, Decembrist Alexander Gorozhansky.

The buildings that we see today in the Northern Courtyard were erected mainly in the first half of the 17th century

In 1615, the Icon Painting Chamber was built here. Initially, the chamber was two-story (“of two dwellings”) with a stone vestibule. On the second floor there was an icon-painting workshop, and next to it there was a shoemaker's workshop ("shoe scum"). Under the shoemaker's workshop there was a sexton, under the icon-painting chamber there was a hospital for the laity.

In 1798, the building was rebuilt as a prison, setting up cell closets where prisoners were kept, and there were also “three chambers for the duty officer and a barracks for the guard soldiers.” In 1838, the “two-story guard castle” was built with a third floor.

The prison on Solovki was closed in 1903, and the building changed its purpose once again. A hospital was equipped here, and on the top floor, for the patients being treated, a church was built in honor of the icon of the Mother of God “Quench My Sorrows.” Its consecration took place on October 24, 1906.

During the camp, the Icon Painting Chamber housed an infirmary. After the camps were closed, there was an island council, a library, and a store with a pharmacy. Since 2005, the building has been transferred to the Solovetsky Monastery. Now there are: on the 1st floor a publishing department and a pilgrimage service in the summer, on the 2nd - a spacious summer pilgrimage refectory, on the 3rd - also in the summer, a hostel for workers.

A leather warehouse was built next to the Icon Painting Chamber in 1619. At first it served as a storeroom at the prison. In 1827, it was converted into living quarters for a guard officer and lower ranks of the military command, and a workshop and a store were set up next to them.

In 1642, a two-story Tailor's (Chobotnaya) Chamber was built, where clothes and shoes were sewn, the guards of the Nikolsky Gate were stationed, and for some time there was a carpentry workshop here.

The Rukhlyadny building, built at the end of the 16th century, faces the Northern courtyard with its northern façade. In the single-pillar chambers there was a fish barn and a warehouse for “junk” clothes, shoes, etc. The windows of the 17th-century Viceroyal Building, where the brethren lived and several workshops operated, also overlook the Northern Courtyard.

The latest buildings of the courtyard were erected at the beginning of the 20th century. The building between the Iconographic and Chobotnaya chambers housed a hospital kitchen and dining room, an operating room and rooms for medical personnel.

Next to the Nikolskaya Tower there was a hotel of the same name. In 1992, a house church was built on the second floor of the St. Nicholas building, where the first services of the renewed monastery were held. In addition to the house church, the monastery's abbot's chambers and a fraternal refectory are now located here.

Many monasteries were fortresses not only spiritual, but also military. The military history of the country is inextricably linked with the history of the monasteries. For centuries they ensured its safety. Such monasteries were considered by the authorities as fortresses of state importance; they contained garrisons with a military command.

One of the guardians of the Russian land was the Solovetsky Monastery. A fortress begins to be built on the islands during the Livonian War. By decree of Tsar Ivan the Terrible in 1578, a wooden fort was built around the monastery, and in 1582, by his decree, later confirmed by a letter from Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich, construction of a stone fortress began.

The construction of the “stone city” began by the Vologda architect - “city master” Ivan Mikhailov, and was continued by the Solovetsky monk Trifon Kologrivov.

The main mass of the fortress was built from local natural material - boulders. Stones were brought to Solovki by a glacier from the Scandinavian Peninsula. This material created by nature gives a special flavor to the fortress - a majestic structure and at the same time striking in its simplicity.

“The Solovetsky Chronicler for Four Centuries” describes the milestones in the construction of the majestic monastery fortress:

“7092 (1584) the Great Sovereign John Vasilyevich granted 753 people 1,100 rubles to the Solovetsky Monastery to commemorate the disgraced Novgorodians.

This summer... by Decree of the Great Sovereign and Grand Duke Theodore Ioannovich, the construction of a stone fortress near the Solovetsky Monastery began to protect against attacks by the Germans and all sorts of military people, who often threatened to ruin this monastery, located near the Swedish border. This fortress was built by the monastery and peasants over the course of ten years. At the same time, at the expense of the monastery, a wooden fort was built in the Pomeranian village of Sume, 120 versts from the monastery to the southwest.

The salaries of Abbot Jacob from the Great Sovereign Tsar and Grand Duke Theodore Ioannovich to the Solovetsky Monastery were as follows:

7092 (1584), in commemoration of his father, the blessed memory of the Sovereign Tsar and Grand Duke John Vasilyevich, in Jonah’s monastery 333 rubles 33 kopecks, and for the brethren 68 rubles 7 kopecks.

7093 (1585), the last half of the Sumy volost was granted to help build the monastery fortress, with all the villages, meadow tax and all sorts of land, as well as salt pans belonging to it along the seashore and on the islands and other monastic services. This same year, a quarter of the Umba volost was granted, with courtyards, barns, mills, salt pans, fish and animal traps, also with the forests, stubbles, sea forests and forest lakes belonging to that part, and with all the land, with tamga (customs duties) in eternal possession.

7097 (1589) by order of the Great Sovereign Tsar and Grand Duke Fyodor Ioannovich, Russian governors with military men went from Solovki on a campaign against the Kayan Germans.

7098 (1590) The Finns, having sailed from abroad on ships along the Kovda River, numbered 700 people, devastated many volosts, namely: Kovda, Umba, Keret, and other small villages, and having caused many devastations, attacked the Kem volost, and from there returned to their places along the Kemya River.

In the same year, by order of the Sovereign, the following military men were sent from Moscow to guard the Solovetsky Monastery: Pan Sevastyan Kobelsky with 5 people of Lithuania, Streletsky head Ivan Mikhailov Yakhontov with boyar children, centurion Semyon Yurenev and 100 people of Moscow archers, among the 500 who had previously arrived with Ivan Yakhontov. These troops, having stood in the monastery all autumn, by winter went to apartments in the Shuya Korelskaya volost, and Smirnoy-Shokurov with a separate detachment and the Circassian Ataman Vasily Khaletsky with forty people of the Serpukhov Circassians (Little Russian Cossacks), returning from a campaign against the Kayan Germans, spent a year in Sumy prison.

This same year, the Great Sovereign Theodore Ioannovich granted two copper one-and-a-half squeaks, 4 barrels of gunpowder, weighing 50 pounds and the same amount of lead, also 4 zatina squeaks, with them gunpowder and lead up to 12 pounds...

7100 (1592) the monastery received five arquebuses, and to them 390 lead cores and 400 iron cores...

7101 (1593) ... military commanders arrived at the Solovetsky Monastery: Prince Andrei Romanovich and Prince Grigory Konstantinovich Volkonsky, Streletsky heads: the second Akinfeev, Elizariy Protopopov, Tretyak Stremoukhov, two hundred Moscow streltsy, 90 people of Little Russian Cossacks, and troops consisting of Serbs , Voloshan, and Lithuania; To increase these troops, the monastery hired 100 military men from other volosts. These commanders, having gone to the Finnish city of Kayana, returned to the monastery with great booty.

7102 (1594) the Great Sovereign Theodore Ioannovich, in memory of Princess Theodosia, granted 500 rubles to the Solovetsky Monastery.

That same summer, Voivode Ivan Yakhontov and other officials were sent to the Solovetsky Monastery to inspect the fortress under construction and to gather people from the volosts belonging to the monastery to help it. In the same year this fortress was completed. It was built from wild rough-hewn large and medium stones, has one round-oblong wall, eight high towers and eight gates. The wall at the bottom with loopholes, and at the top with windows or embrasures and a passage under the roof, a measure around and with towers of 509 fathoms three arshins. The natural location near the fortress gives it both importance and beauty, especially on two sides: on the western sea lip, and on the eastern, a deep and large lake, which is called the Holy. And this entire huge structure was located and its architect was the monk Tryfon, a tonsure of Solovetsky, a native of the Pomeranian village of Nenoksy. After his death in this monastery, in order to commemorate his labors, he was enrolled in the synodik without being discharged, as long as the Holy Monastery stood.”

The total length of the fortress walls is 1200 meters. The walls enclose an area of 4 hectares. The thickness of the fortress walls at the base is up to 7 meters, their height is from 6 to 11 meters, the height of the towers is 12-17 meters. The towers are covered with tents with lookouts, the height of the tower with a tent is 30 meters. The upper part of the fortress wall is made of brick.

The fortress has the shape of an elongated pentagon. There are 5 round towers at its corners, and three more towers are located in the fortress walls. The corner towers are placed outside the volume of the fortress wall, which makes it possible to shoot through the surface of the wall, making it difficult for the enemy to storm the fortress. Each tower has its own name. The corner towers from the Holy Gate (counterclockwise) are called: Spinning (Stratilatovskaya), White (Golovlenkova), Arkhangelskaya, Nikolskaya, Korozhnaya, two towers - Kvasovarnaya and Povarennaya - have a wall, the approach to the monastery from the sea is protected by the Assumption (Arsenal) tower , included in the western part. The main construction of the fortress ended in 1596. However, at the beginning of the next century, it was being completed. In 1614-1621, Sushilo and a wall with two towers - Kvasovarnaya and Povarennaya - were included in the fortress wall. The northern wall was strengthened in 1614 with a dry ditch.

The architect O.D. gave an excellent description of the fortress. Savitskaya in her book “Solovetsky Fortress” (Arkhangelsk, 2005): “The walls of the Solovetsky Fortress, which completed the formation of the monastery ensemble, bear the features that define a special - Solovetsky - circle of architectural monuments, while inheriting the all-Russian traditions of military fortification and construction art, and in terms of artistic embodiment, they remain one of a kind, having no analogues to the structures of antiquity. The highest technical skill, unsurpassed artistic taste, ingenuity, freedom and independence of creative thinking, resulting in an extremely clear, simple composition with a clearly worked out functional scheme, put this structure among the greatest creations of engineering and architecture.”

Twice the Solovetsky Fortress had to repel an enemy attack.

The first time was in the 17th century, when the Solovetsky Monastery, the only one of the monasteries, openly opposed the reforms of Patriarch Nikon. The monastery did not accept the newly printed books, and the monks refused to accept the new abbot sent from Moscow. To pacify the rebellious monks, archers were sent to Solovki in 1668. At first they sat on Zayatsky Island, controlling the main approach to the monastery - Harbor of Prosperity and trying to “reason” with the monks. In 1672, the archers moved to the walls of the monastery, their number increased. All monastic property and buildings around the monastery were burned. But the monks stood firmly for the “old faith.” In 1674, with the arrival of a new governor, active hostilities began. Shchanets were set up near the fortress walls, and shelling of the besieged was conducted from them. The archers dug under the White, Nikolskaya and Kvasovarnaya towers. In December 1675, they tried to take the monastery by storm, but the attack was repulsed. The fortress withstood open battle, showing all its best fortification qualities, but was captured after a monk who left the monastery showed the archers a secret passage near Sushil. On the night of January 22, 1676, the monastery was taken.

The fortress was attacked for the second time in the mid-19th century during the Crimean (Eastern) War. In 1854-55. There was an Anglo-French squadron in the White Sea. On July 6 (19), two English steam frigates approached the monastery; on July 7 (20), they shelled it for 9 hours, firing more than 1,800 shells. The monastery, despite the scarcity of weapons and the absence of a military garrison - by that time there was only a disabled team guarding the prisoners - organized worthy resistance to the enemy. Cannons were skillfully placed along the fortress wall and on the cape in front of the monastery, riflemen fired at the enemy with guns along the coastline, its inhabitants, the lay people who were on the island at that time, and even the prison prisoners stood up to defend the monastery along with the disabled team. They defended their city not only with bullets and shells, but also with prayer - during the shelling, divine services did not stop, and a religious procession walked along the walls of the monastery. The forces were unequal: against 60 cannons on the ships, the monastery had only 10 cannons of incomparably smaller caliber, but the British could neither persuade the monastery to surrender, nor land troops, nor even cause significant material damage to the monastery. The Solovetsky fortress once again demonstrated its fortification qualities by withstanding hurricane fire, which, according to the commander of the English squadron, could destroy several medium-sized cities.

The monastery city was built through the efforts of thousands of workers. The names of most of them are known only to the Lord. Realizing that they were working in a holy place and creating a shrine, people did not strive for honors or wealth, but sought only God’s glory. They worked conscientiously, remembering the words of the prophet Jeremiah: “Cursed is the man who does the work of the Lord carelessly” (Jeremiah 48:10). Sincerely believing people at all times have worked and are working with the faith that “their works follow them” (Rev 14:13) and will be noted in eternity.

History has not preserved the names of not only the builders, but also many architects. We do not know under whose leadership the St. Nicholas and Filippov churches, the bell tower, the mill, cell buildings and other buildings were erected. Few architects are known. Among them are the creators of the Assumption Refectory Complex and, presumably, the Transfiguration Cathedral, Novgorodians Ignatius Salka and Stolypa, the architects of the fortress “city master” from Vologda Ivan Mikhailov and the tonsured monk Trifon (Kologrivov) of the Solovetsky Monastery from the Pomor village of Nenoksa, as well as the Arkhangelsk provincial architect A Shakhlarev, according to whose design the Holy Trinity Zosimo-Savvatievsky Cathedral was built. The names of these architects are forever inscribed in the history of the monastery.

Each new building in the monastery was erected with the blessing and care of its abbots.

The wooden ensemble of the monastery was erected under Abbot Jonah I (mid-15th century). Saint Philip (1548-1566) began stone construction. During the years of his abbess, the Assumption refectory complex, the Transfiguration Cathedral, Sushilo, and several stone cell buildings appeared in the monastery. Under St. Jacob, who led the monastery from 1581 to 1597, the construction of the St. Nicholas Church was completed, a fortress was erected, and construction of the Church of the Annunciation began.

Hegumen Isidore (1597-1604) completed the construction of the gateway Church of the Annunciation, begun by his predecessor, and built a passage gallery for the central courtyard and a stone mill. Through the efforts of the Monk Markell, who was abbot in 1639-1645, the Tailoring (Chobotnaya) Chamber was erected. Under Archimandrite Dositheos I (1761-1777), a bell tower was erected. And under Abbot Jonah II (1796-1805), a library was built underneath it, and the Church of St. Philip with hospital cells and a refectory for pilgrims opposite the Cellar Chamber were also built.

Through the efforts of Archimandrite Melchizedek (1857-1859), the construction of the Holy Trinity Zosimo-Savvatyevsky Cathedral and the Church of St. Herman began.

Their construction was completed by Archimandrite Porfiry (1859-1865), under him a chapel was also built in the name of the Icon of the Sign of the Most Holy Theotokos on the vaults of the Church of St. Philip, the Prosphora building was built, the 3rd floor of the Tailor (Chobotnaya) Chamber was erected, under the walls of the monastery on the Holy Lake a granite embankment appeared.

Thus, century after century, the monastery city was formed. Each building fit into the existing ensemble, complementing and decorating it. Gradually, a unique, different from all others, image of the Solovetsky monastery was created, which is so dear to every Russian heart.

On the shore of the Holy Lake there is a stone forge built in the 17th century. The building was rebuilt several times; in 1841, a second floor with cells for blacksmiths and mechanics was erected.

On the same side there is a two-story Onion building, in which pilgrims-investors lived, on the contrary - the Nikolsky building, built in 1896-1897 for the residence of pilgrims-workers, then cattle yards, a carriage barn, a boulder cellar for storing meat, a kitchen building, a little further away is the building of a pottery factory.

The most interesting building in this group of buildings is the building of the monastery school, built in 1860. This building housed a school for working boys, opened under the rector of the monastery, Archimandrite Porfiry I, who considered it his duty “to educate the minds and hearts of these children for their own happiness and good.”

To the north of the monastery, a boulder Beletsk bathhouse (for workers and pilgrims of the monastery) from 1717, a tannery building from the 18th century, and two tar mills from the 19th century have been preserved.

Close to the sea, next to the monastery, there are three monastery hotels of the 19th century: Arkhangelskaya, Preobrazhenskaya and Petersburgskaya.

Over the course of centuries, a unique complex of hydraulic structures was created on Solovki.

Back in the middle of the 16th century, under Abbot Philip, a system of canals began to take shape, which today has 242 inter-lake connections, including a system of shipping canals, about 12 km long, built “along the old Filippov channels” at the beginning of the 20th century under the leadership of a monk Irinarch (in the world Ivan Semenovich Mishnev, from the peasants of the Vologda province), a very talented self-taught engineer. Traveling along canals and lakes leaves an unforgettable impression. As one pilgrim of past centuries noted, “it is impossible to describe the local lakes... in their beauty God revealed the greatest of his miracles.” In total, there are more than 500 lakes on the Solovetsky Islands.

Under Abbot Philip, a small bay was separated from the sea by a boulder dam, where cages were built, called Filippovsky. They were intended to contain fish caught at sea. The weather was not always favorable for fishing and the monks were forced to stock up on fish for future use. These cages were successfully used in the 19th century.

At the beginning of the 17th century, a water mill was built on the territory of the monastery, which worked on one of the three canals leading from the Holy Lake to the sea. The mill has been improved many times. The mill building still retains its original appearance. This is the most elegant outbuilding in the monastery.

In the second half of the 19th century, a dam was built - a grandiose stone bridge that connected the islands of Solovetsky and Bolshaya Muksalma. Its length is 1200 m, width from 6 to 15 m and height about 4 m. The dam has three arches for the passage of carbas and water during the ebb and flow of the tides.

The construction was supervised by the monk Feoktist (in the world Sosnin Fedor Ivanovich, a peasant of the Kholmogory district of the Arkhangelsk province). Under his leadership, the embankment of the Holy Lake was built, the harbor was developed, and the dry dock was expanded and deepened (1880-1881).

A dry dock was built on the canal leading from the Holy Lake to the sea in 1799-1801 for the repair and construction of ships. When filling and draining it, the difference in levels between the Holy Lake and the sea was used. The rector of the monastery, Archimandrite Dosifei, noted that “due to the advantageous location and ability of this shipyard, many experts testify that there is nothing like it anywhere else.” In the 40s of the 19th century, the dock was improved according to the plan of monk Gregory, and in the early 80s, as mentioned above, it was expanded and deepened. The heads of the Arkhangelsk port, who were present at the opening of the new dock, gave it very high marks.

On the canal there was also a sawmill that has not survived to this day, unique in the sense that it required almost no maintenance personnel.

In 1912, a hydroelectric power station was built on the same canal. All these structures invariably aroused the surprise of visitors, and the Solovetsky monks, seeing it, proudly said: “The harbor, the docks... everything was conceived by peasant heads, but made by peasant hands.” These wonderful structures are a monument to many famous and unknown Russian craftsmen - and today they amaze and delight with their grandiose scale and technical perfection.

Published by: MONASTERY CITY. The central estate of the Solovetsky Monastery.

Illustrated guide. Solovetsky Monastery, 2012. 68 p.

Photos: mon. Onufry (Porechny), M. Skripkin, V. Nesterensko, S. Potekhin

) , Solovetsky Napoleon(Belbaltlag), June 20, 1902 - July 1989, Moscow) - lieutenant colonel of the internal service, head of many camp departments.

Born on June 20, 1902 in the family of the deacon of the St. Nicholas Church in the village of Snopot, Mosalsky district, Kaluga province, Vladimir Mikhailovich Uspensky, mother - Elizaveta Ivanovna (née?), a housewife. According to Uspensky himself, his father died in 1905. However, there was a persistent rumor in Solovki that Uspensky did not come to the islands of his own free will, but was condemned as a parricide, and explained his actions by class hatred. It should be emphasized that in a conversation with I.L. Solonevich, Uspensky confirmed, without indicating the reason, that he was sentenced to 10 years, but nowhere in public documents is there information about Uspensky’s criminal record.

In memory of his deceased father, a deacon, he enjoyed the support of the local priest. He graduated from a 5-year theological school in Kaluga and in 1916 entered the Kaluga Seminary. Training in both educational institutions was conducted “at public expense.” From June 1918 he worked as a clerk in the Snopot Volost Executive Committee, from November 1920 as the head of a regional logging artel in Spas-Demensk, and as an assistant accountant at timber mill No. 2 of the Bryanskles trust in Bryansk. In October 1924, he was drafted into the special purpose division (ODON) at the Collegium of the OGPU of the USSR. (According to other information in the Red Army and the Cheka-OGPU since 1920). Since 1927, member of the RCP (b) (according to other sources, since 1925).

Since 1952, a personal pensioner of Union significance. In June 1953 he was dismissed from the Ministry of Internal Affairs. In 1969 he finally retired.

While still the head of the educational department of the Solovetsky camp, Uspensky repeatedly participated in executions. There is direct evidence of at least three cases:

Spitting out curses, he [D. V. Uspensky] stunned the woman with the handle of a revolver and, having fallen unconscious, began to trample her feet.

(Yagoda) ... married former prisoner Andreeva."

In 1937, Natalya Nikolaevna Uspenskaya (Andreeva) was re-arrested and sentenced as an “enemy of the people” to 8 years in prison.

Probably the consequence of this was that on February 16, 1939, by decision of the general party meeting of the Construction Department of the Kuibyshev Hydroelectric Complex, Uspensky was expelled from the party. However, on April 15, 1939, the Kuibyshev Regional Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) reinstated Uspensky in the party with the wording: “for the actions he committed... he already has party penalties, and there are no new circumstances that would serve as a reason for his expulsion from the party.”

N. N. Uspenskaya (Andreeva) wrote poetry, her Solovetsky poem is known:

A large figure, slanting shoulders, a bright, friendly face. How did this good fellow get to such a responsible post?<директора ББК >? <…>I met him at his government dacha, on the banks of the Kumsa, where his wife, my patient, received me. It is difficult to imagine two more opposite types. He is a fair-haired hero, and she is a little brunette , fragile in appearance, with black wet eyes, always excited and excited and always full of contradictions and even reproaches towards her imperturbable husband. “You see, you see!” - this was her favorite expression

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