Sekirnaya Mountain on Solovki - a man-made pyramid of a miracle? Moss stack

Many mysteries of Egypt are still not solved. Our northern land also keeps many secrets related to... pyramids

The name of the highest mountain of the Solovetsky archipelago, Sekirnaya (its second name is Chudova Gora), is usually associated with the legend of a miracle that happened here - two angels at its foot whipped the wife of a local Pomor, who was fishing and mowing hay on the Solovetsky Islands. The name supposedly comes from the word “flogged”.

The name of Mount Sekirnaya should have come not from the word “cut”, but from “axe” (medieval battle axe). It turns out that the angels were supposed to kill the Pomor's wife not with axes, but with battle axes. Obviously, the legend about monks with vices does not stand up to criticism...

Man-made mountain

You are one of the supporters of the version of the artificial origin of Sekirnaya Mountain, how do you justify this?

It is no secret that the islands of the Solovetsky archipelago are flat, they seem to have been ironed by a glacier, so the high mountains on them look like artificial formations. Highest point on the Bolshoy Solovetsky Island is Mount Sekirnaya (or Sikirnaya, Sikirka) with a height of almost 100 meters. The huge sand and stone mounds of the Solovetsky Mountains were first described by the Solovetsky Society of Local Lore only in the 30s of the twentieth century. But scientists then were unable to convincingly explain where such a thing could have appeared on flat islands among plains, swamps and small hills. high mountain. Even then, scientists assumed that the highest mountain of the Solovetsky archipelago, Sekirnaya, was partly created by a glacier, and partly was a pyramid of boulders, built several thousand years ago by ancient people who inhabited the shores of the Arctic Ocean and White Sea.

In August 2002, geological and geomorphological studies by Russian scientists confirmed the possibility of the artificial origin of Sikirka. Although the elevation itself (the base of the pyramid) was formed by glacial deposits, there is reason to say that on top it was indeed supplemented with mounds of artificial origin.

Look to the root

Ivan Ivanovich, but where then originally Russian name near the ancient Solovetsky Mountain, if this ancient pyramid? And why did the monks need such a strange legend about angels?

There are big doubts that the name of the mountain was originally Russian, Slavic. After all, the toponym Solovki itself, despite the consonance of this name with the Russian word “nightingales,” has nothing to do with these birds, which have never been found here, beyond the Arctic Circle. And the legend about angels who allegedly expelled local fishermen from Solovki was used by monks for centuries as indisputable “proof” that Solovetsky Island should belong to the monastery, and not to the indigenous inhabitants. However, archaeological data indicate that the Solovetsky archipelago, thousands of years before the arrival of the first monks, belonged to the inhabitants of the White Sea region and served them as a sanctuary for the performance of ancient religious rites. The Novgorodians called these White Sea tribes of the Protopomorians Chudya, and the local peoples, for example, the Nenets, called them Sikirtya.

How can one prove that Mount Sekirnaya comes from a non-Slavic root and is connected with the Sikirtya or Chud people?

If the name of the mountain Si-kirnaya (Sikirka, Chudova) is of pre-Slavic origin, then on the map of Pomerania you need to look for a toponymic series of consonant mountain names. And we really find it: at the mouth of the Pomeranian river Korotaikha we discover Mount Sikhirtesya (translated from Nenets - mountain of the Sikirtya people). And on west coast Vaygach Island we find the high cape Sikirtesale (translated as Cape Sikirtya). Moreover, archaeological evidence has been found on all these mountains that they served as ancient sanctuaries. Thus, the Solovetsky mountain Sikirka, apparently, is from the same toponymic series - one of the sacred mountains of the ancient Sikirtya (Chudi) people. By the way, the mentioned sacred mountain at the mouth of the Korotaikha River, Sikhirtesya, just like the Solovetsky Mountain Sekirnaya has a second historical name - Chudova Mountain! It is unlikely that such a toponymic coincidence could be accidental.

A lost civilization is nearby

What does the name of the Sikhirtya people mean? And what did these people have to do with the pyramid mounds?

The answer to this is given by the ancient Indo-European root stems, consisting of the consonant sounds skhrt (skrd, skrt), which, upon comparative semantic analysis, reveal much in common. In fact, skhrt or skrd translated from the ancient proto-language means “an artificial embankment of an elongated shape.” For example, this root is still found today in such a well-known word as rick. So, a haystack literally means an artificially created mountain of hay that has an elongated shape. But the stack can be made not only from hay.

Based on linguistic analysis, a version arose that “shrt” is a form of primitive bulk prehistoric dwelling, like a giant stack of grass, moss and branches in which our ancient ancestors lived. I would also like to draw attention to the fact that the same ancient root basis “skrt” is contained in the word “hide”, which corresponds to the purpose of the structure, because the main function of the dwelling is to hide from the cold or wild animals. The same ancient stem "skrt" is also found in the Latin word "secret", which is equivalent to the word hide. Terms with the same root basis, despite the reduced letter “r”, obviously include the word denoting a primitive dwelling “skete”. People who lived in such primitive dwellings were called hermits, and in the north they were called sikirtya (skhirtya, siirte).

It is curious that the first chronicles of the Novgorodians about the Donetsk cave population of the north (the Nenets came to the territory of the Pechora tundra from behind the Ural ridge only in the 13th-14th centuries) indicate that the tribes living there did not know iron and lived in caves. By the way, the Novgorodians themselves were brought to this northern nation of fishermen and hunters of wild deer and sea animals (apparently, the ancestors of the current Mezen and Kanin Pomors) by representatives of other Finno-Ugric tribes of Ugra and Samoyed who have disappeared today. The name Pechora suggests that they really were cave people.

My home is my pyramid

But in the flat Pechora tundra there are practically no mountains in which such caves can be found today, and even for cavemen to live in them...

You are right: such “mountains” of the ancient cave people could only have been artificial mounds-dwellings - huge stack houses made of peat and moss. In this case, it is clear why, after a thousand years, practically nothing remained of such dwellings and the “caves” dug in them - they turned into ordinary, not very large hills among the flat landscape of the tundra. But there are probably archaeological artifacts preserved in the soil of these hills. And from time to time, archaeologists find traces of Donetsk civilization in the tundra - bronze and stone tools, jewelry.

What is the Novgorod chronicle and what exactly does it write about the Sikirtya people, who lived in such bulk houses-stacks?

This description can be found in the Tale of Bygone Years, in its Laurentian list, where there is a story by the Novgorod boyar Gyurata Rogovich, whose youth went to Ugra and Samoyad in the 11th century. I will quote him almost verbatim: “The Yugra tribe told my youth about a miracle, which they themselves heard about only three years ago: near the sea bays there are huge mountains, almost reaching the sky. In these mountains you can hear screams and talking, “and they cut the mountain wanting to be cut out.” ". And in that mountain there is a small window cut through for negotiations. They do not understand the language and explain with gestures that they need iron. And they pay those who give them a knife or ax with skins."

Are there really no traces of the dwellings of these cave people left?

Traces, of course, remained: back in the century before last, Academician I.I. Lepyokhin wrote: “The entire Samoyed land in the current Mezen district is filled with desolate dwellings of a certain people. They are found in many places, near lakes on the tundra and in forests near rivers, made in the mountains and hills like caves with openings like animals. In these caves they find stoves and they find fragments of iron, copper and clay household items."

And as for the stone bulk mountains, like Sekirnaya (the large Solovetsky Island), Sikirtesale (on the western coast of Vaigach Island), Mount Sikhirtesya (at the mouth of the Korotaikha River) - these are no longer the same residential buildings made of peat and moss intended for living people, and the houses of the dead, pyramids made of stones.

Thus, these stone mountains “stacks” are monuments to the ancient civilization of the early pro-topomorians, who thousands of years ago mastered the expanses of the ancient Arctic long before the current indigenous inhabitants of the North arrived here. And our researchers still have a lot of work to do to study this history hidden in the earth.

Back in 2002, Russian scientists confirmed the possibility of the artificial origin of Sekirnaya Mountain - the one located on the Solovetsky archipelago.

Although the elevation is based on glacial deposits, there is every reason to believe that on top it is actually supplemented with embankments of artificial origin, that is, all this is the work of human hands.

About hills and mounds

It's no secret that on the numerous islands and islets of the Solovetsky archipelago there are hills and mountains of completely different heights. So, Sekirnaya Mountain is perhaps the highest mountain on the entire Bolshoi Solovetsky Island. This mountain also has another, more euphonious name - Chudova Gora.

Let us return to the more established name – Sekirnaya. So, it was named in memory of the angels. The essence of the myth is that once upon a time angels descended from heaven and flogged the wife of a fisherman, the wife of a Pomor. According to legend, the Monks Savvaty and Herman lived and lived near this apparently still nameless mountain.

In the summer, fishermen and their wives came to the foot. The husbands, as expected, fished, while the wives mowed the grass and ran the household. Why the Pomors disliked the Monks Savvaty and Herman, history is silent. But a conflict broke out between them and the fishermen. I repeat that this happened in ancient times and, as often happens in the myths of any people, heavenly forces intervened in the situation - in our case, angels in the form of blond youths.

The latter took and flogged one of the fishermen's wives with rods, and ordered them to reel in the fishing rods as best they could. And that, they say, this island with a mountain in addition belongs to the monks for prayers... It was not possible to argue with the angels, so the fishermen left this island and henceforth began to treat the monks with respect.

Ancient people tried

This is where questions arise related to the name of this mountain. Judging by the legend, the name “Sekirnaya” supposedly comes not from the word “sect”, but from “axe” - the name of a medieval battle ax. It turns out that the angels were supposed to kill the Pomor's wife not with axes, but with battle axes. It’s somehow tough, especially for angels.

It is known that the islands of the Solovetsky archipelago are flat, as if ironed by a glacier. The high mountains look strange on them, as if they were artificial formations. On the Big Solovetsky Island, Mount Sekirnaya (or Sekirka) is the highest, its height is almost one hundred meters. Where does she get to this kind of plateau?

Let us note that the huge sand and stone mounds of the Solovetsky Mountains were first described by local historians in the 30s of the last century. But scientists then could not explain where such a high mountain could have appeared on the flat islands. It has been suggested that Sekirka was partly created by a glacier and partly a pyramid of boulders, which was built several thousand years ago by ancient people who inhabited the shores of the Arctic Ocean and the White Sea.

In 2002, Russian scientists confirmed the possibility of the artificial origin of Sekirnaya Mountain. Although the basis of the elevation is glacial deposits, there is reason to believe that on top it is actually supplemented with embankments of artificial origin.

Nightingales do not sing on Solovki

Of course, the question arises: if the ancient Solovetsky Mountain is a pyramid, where did it get its original Russian name? And why did the monks need such a strange legend about angels? In fact, there are doubts that the name of the mountain was originally Slavic. After all, the word “Nightingales,” although consonant with “nightingales,” has nothing to do with them - nightingales have never been found in the Arctic Circle.

Well, the monks used the legend of the angels as proof that Solovetsky Island should belong to the monastery, and not to the indigenous inhabitants. In addition, archaeologists have confirmed that the Solovetsky archipelago belonged to the inhabitants of the White Sea region thousands of years before the arrival of the first monks. The Novgorodians called these White Sea tribes “Chudya”, and the established local Nenets called them “Sikirtya”.

Moss stack

Mention of the Sikitrya people is found in the Tale of Bygone Years. Translated from the ancient language, “skhrt” or “skrd” is an artificial embankment of an elongated shape. The word “stack” has the same root. A stack is an artificial hay stack of elongated shape. But a stack can be made not only of hay, so a version arose that “shrt” is a form of primitive bulk prehistoric dwelling, like a giant stack of grass, moss and branches in which our ancient ancestors lived.

The same ancient root stem “skrt” is in the word “hide”. After all, the main function of a home is to hide from the cold and wild animals. People who lived in such primitive dwellings were called hermits, and in the North - sikirtya.

The first chronicle information from the Novgorodians about the Donenets cave population of the north (the Nenets came to the territory of the Pechora tundra from behind the Ural Range only in the 13th–14th centuries) confirms that the tribes who lived there did not know iron and lived in caves.

Cave people

But the question reasonably arises that in the flat Pechora tundra there are practically no mountains in which such caves can be found today, and even for cavemen to live in them. Perhaps such “mountains” of the ancient cave people could only be artificial mounds-dwellings - huge stack houses made of peat and moss.

Only then does it become clear why, after a thousand years, practically nothing remained of them - they turned into ordinary small hills among the flat tundra landscape. By the way, archaeologists periodically find traces of Donetsk civilization in the tundra - bronze and stone tools, jewelry.

It is worth saying that traces of the dwellings of the Sikitrya people also remained. Back in the 19th century, Academician Lepekhin wrote: “the entire Samoyed land in the current Mezen district is filled with desolate dwellings of a certain people. They are found in many places, near lakes on the tundra and in forests near rivers, they are made in the mountains and hills like caves with openings similar to animals. In these caves, stoves are found and fragments of iron, copper and clay household items are found.”

As for the stone bulk mountains, like Sekirnaya, these are no longer houses made of peat and moss for living people, but houses of the dead - pyramids made of stones. Thus, the stone mountains on Solovki are nothing more than monuments ancient civilization. Our researchers have a lot of work to do to study the history hidden in the ground.

Solovetsky Islands (Solovki). By decision of the UNESCO General Assembly of December 14, 1992, the historical and cultural ensemble of the Solovetsky Islands was included in the UNESCO World Heritage List.

The Solovetsky Islands are unique place. On a small archipelago in the White Sea, a unique natural, historical and cultural complex has developed, which has no analogues in the world. The largest and richest in attractions is Solovetsky Island, on which the famous Solovetsky Island has been operating for centuries monastery.
A separate topic on the monastery was posted last year, so I think it’s not worth distracting your attention with a repetition. Who missed this material, you can go back and read it at the specified link .

During the XV-XVI centuries. the monastery gradually grew, acquiring large islands of the archipelago into its possession. By the end of the 15th century, the monks erected three wooden churches: Assumption, Nikolskaya and Preobrazhenskaya, numerous wooden cells and outbuildings, surrounded by a wooden fence.

Spiritual stronghold of the Russian North.

In the middle of the 16th century, the monastery entered a period of serious economic transformations. Roads were built here in the 1550s and 1560s, but a “dairy yard” with deer and cattle was established on the island. To provide the population of the monastery with running water, 52 lakes of Solovetsky Island were connected by drinking canals. For defense in 1582-1594. A stone fortification wall with towers and gates was erected. Throughout the 17th century, the Solovetsky Monastery continued to develop as an administrative, economic, spiritual, military-political and Cultural Center White Sea region. In the XVIII-XX centuries. it was one of the places of exile and imprisonment of state criminals.

GULAG Archipelago.

From 1920 to 1939, the territory of the islands and all the buildings of the former Solovetsky Monastery were occupied by the Solovetsky special-purpose camps of the OGPU-NKVD (SLON). The Solovetsky camps were among the largest in Russia. Composition of prisoners in SLON in different time changed. Among them were representatives of the Russian aristocracy, the church, the intelligentsia, all pre-revolutionary political parties, criminal elements convicted in domestic cases, representatives of national parties and many others. Among those exiled to SLON were scientists and cultural figures, writers, poets, and religious figures of Russia.

This year, extensive restoration work is being carried out here; almost all the domes and walls of the Solovetsky Monastery are in scaffolding. For this reason, there is no point in photographing them.
The restoration of the monastery will cost the Russian budget 6 billion rubles. They plan to restore almost 70 objects in the next four years. cultural heritage. About it reports TASS with reference to the Minister of Culture Vladimir Medinsky.

I would like to note that it is difficult morally and spiritually to be in these places. Every square meter of the island is a mass grave of repressed citizens, or rather, mass graves of unknown victims of the regime. Barracks were built at these burial sites, documents were destroyed, and fires were set in the offices to cover their tracks and hide the number of victims.

But the more people visit these places, the better the memory of both the beauty and the tragedy of Solovki is preserved...

Map of the Archipelago.
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In the first half of the 1920s, in Kemi, the Soviet authorities organized the first official criminal and first political concentration camp, which served as a transit point when sending prisoners to Solovki, to the Solovetsky special purpose camp.

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Kem berth. Apparently from here the repressed were sent to Solovki Island.

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Here, in Kemi, the Russian feature film “Island” was shot

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Solovki Island. Tamarin pier. Motor ships and boats with tourists moor here.

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Map of the island and attractions.

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On the island, in one of the surviving barracks, there is a museum:

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No comments...

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Naftaliy Aronovich.

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It should be noted that many barracks, buildings and buildings from the USLON period have been preserved. Based on the resolution of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR of October 13, 1923, the Northern camps of the GPU were liquidated and on their basis the Office of the Solovetsky Camp of Forced Labor for Special Purposes (USLON or SLON) of the OGPU was organized. All the property of the Solovetsky Monastery, closed since 1920, was transferred to the camp for use.

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The main attraction and spiritual center of the islands is the Solovetsky Monastery (listed World Heritage UNESCO)

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Corner tower of the Trinity Cathedral in the Solovetsky Monastery.

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Place of mass burials. During the existence of the camp, about 7.5 thousand people died in it, of which 3.5 thousand died in the famine year of 1933. At the same time, according to the historian, former SLON prisoner and then WWII participant Semyon Pidgainy, only during the construction railway to Filimonovsky peat mining in 1928, ten thousand Ukrainians and Don Cossacks died along eight kilometers of the road.

The official number of prisoners in 1923-1933 is shown in the table below (figures as of the end of the year)

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Every square meter of the island is a mass burial of innocent victims. Nobody knows their exact number. All archival documents were classified at first, then there was a fire in the office and they burned down.

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There are also mass graves here...

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The prisoners lived in this dugout, and here they were buried in a common pit.

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A worship cross was erected in memory of the victims of repression

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And memorial signs to the dead

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Wardens, NKVD officers, prison workers and guards lived in such barracks.

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Solovki. Cape of Labyrinths.

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There are two labyrinths on the cape: large and small. These are reconstructed stone labyrinths. They served our ancestors in ancient times, but how exactly they served - modern science has not yet established exactly - there are several hypotheses. Perhaps for ritual purposes.

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Monastery pier. It was here that those repressed were brought from Kem to serve their sentences. The monastery hotel (where renovations are currently underway) served as a place of residence for camp authorities, guards, and the third floor was a dormitory for family guards. On the ground floor there was a commandant's office.

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The fugitives had no chance

Under Soviet rule, the country's first special purpose camp operated on the territory of the monastery; the buildings were systematically destroyed.

The features of the White Sea made it the best barrier against attempts to escape from the islands. In summer, a person can survive in such cold water for only a few minutes, and in winter, the water off the coast never freezes enough for the ice to support the weight of people. Inaccessible locations and climatic conditions made Solovki an excellent place for isolation from the world, which was used by both Orthodox monks and the state. Opponents of the government and heretics were sent here under the Tsar, but the real “prison machine” began to work here in full force only after the Bolshevik Revolution. For comparison: over the 400 years of the monastery’s existence, only about 300 people were imprisoned there, and over the 20 years of SLON’s existence, several thousand prisoners passed through Solovki.

The first forced labor camp for 350 people along with guards was created on Solovki already in 1920. It was one of the first places of this type in the entire Soviet Russia. In 1923, the ELEPHANT appeared. The first prisoners were political opponents of the Soviet regime: Socialist Revolutionaries, Mensheviks, anarchists, and White Guards. In addition to the “political” ones, ordinary criminals and clergy were massively exiled to Solovki.

The chambers in the monastery towers and walls of the Solovetsky Monastery had the shape of a truncated cone about three meters long, two meters wide and high, and one meter at the narrow end. In the upper floors of the Golovlenkovskaya tower of the Solovetsky Monastery, the chambers were even tighter: 1.4 meters in length, 1 meter in width and height. The small window did not serve for lighting, but only for serving food. It was forbidden to lie down in the cell; the prisoner slept in a bent position.

In the tower of the Solovetsky Monastery, which bore the name Korozhnya, prison cells were arranged on each floor. These were small and dark closets with small holes instead of doors, through which the prisoner could hardly crawl inside.

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The main worship cross of Solovki in Blagopoluchiya harbor Big Island opposite the Solovetsky Monastery. At the beginning of the last century, there were three thousand wooden crosses of worship on the Solovetsky archipelago. We got here with great difficulty, with prayer. And these vows were embodied in crosses. And in the 20s, the fire in which crosses collected from all over the archipelago were burned burned for 4 days. Tradition to put worship crosses on Solovki was resumed in 1992.

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Bolshoi Zayatsky Island
Until the middle of the 16th century, apparently, there was only a camp on the islands for industrialists who caught sea animals and fish. Large-scale changes began under Abbot Philip, when“monastery people and abbot’s hirelings”a stone chamber, a cookhouse and a harbor were built here. Existence on an island“an excellent stone monastery house”noted by English travelers Thomas Southam and John Sparke, who visited here in 1566.According to the surviving information, next to the newly built harbor, Abbot Philip established worship cross , the inscription on which called for everyone coming to the island“due to their strength, the stones would be carried to the back side of the camp at the corner from the sea, so that they would not be washed away by the sea waves”

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Church of St. Andrew the First-Called. All around is the typical landscape of the island: rocky land overgrown with bushes.

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There are a lot of pilgrims and tourists here.

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The construction of St. Andrew's Church was completed on August 30, 1702. It was cut “in the corner”, from very tightly fitted logs with a diameter of 20-25 centimeters, without caulking the seams.

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Other interesting buildings of the monastery are a stone chamber, a kitchen, and the first stone harbor in the history of the White Sea, built under Abbot Philip. The hermitage buildings of the 19th century certainly deserve attention: a wooden bathhouse and a well, as well as a boulder cellar.

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St. Andrew's Skete is one of the monasteries of the Solovetsky Monastery, founded in the 16th century by Abbot Philip (the future Metropolitan of Moscow) on the Bolshoy Zayatsky Island of the Solovetsky Archipelago. Cookhouse and stone chamber (hotel).

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A hotel has been preserved here for fishermen who came to the island to wait out the storm at sea.

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There is tundra vegetation here.

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Sekirnaya Gora- a hill on Bolshoi Solovetsky Island. Height - 73.5 meters. The Ascension monastery of the Solovetsky Monastery is located on the mountain. A lighthouse church was built at the very top of Sekirnaya Gora.

In 1920-1930, a punishment cell, the 4th department of the Solovetsky special purpose camp, a kind of Solovetsky punishment cell, was located here. Patriarch Kirill recalled his grandfather, who lived through that time: “That same grandfather Vasily Stepanovich, who later became Father Vasily, told me, a child, about all this. He talked about how he never had fear in his heart, ever. That it was impossible to frighten him, although he was on the brink of death, being with St. Hilarion at the same time on Solovki and going through the terrible trials of the punishment cell on Sekirnaya Mountain. Few people survived this test; usually people died. But the grandfather remained alive. And, leaving these prisons, already in the year 55, almost 10 years after my father was ordained, he was ordained first as a deacon, and then as a priest, and served in a distant Bashkir village until he was ninety-one years old. I keep his covenants, his commandments. And for me it was a living experience and a living image of a person who knew what God’s love is.”

In the side aisle of the temple there is now a museum of a punishment cell.

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The building of the monastic bath, made of large boulders. Next to it there is a well from which the monks drew water and carried it upstairs.

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The Church of the Ascension of the Lord (in the 20-30s of the 20th century it was turned into a punishment cell for the ELEPHANT for guilty prisoners) and the cell wooden building in front of it. A lighthouse church was built at the very top of Sekirnaya Gora. It was built in 1862. In sad times Soviet years this place was a punishment cell for Solovki prisoners. And those sent here on a “business trip” had a hard time here. To get to Sekirka then meant to go to the next world. From here, few people returned back to the camp alive and well.

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The only lighthouse on the island is located on Mount Sekirnaya.

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In 1920-1930, a punishment cell, the 4th department of the Solovetsky special purpose camp, a kind of Solovetsky punishment cell, was located here.

The white stone one-domed temple is visible from afar, from the most unexpected points, around the next bend in the road, from some forest lake and from the sea. It was built according to the design of the architect Shakhlarev, a pillar-shaped temple with two altars: in the first tier there is a chapel in honor of the Archangel Michael of the miracle in Khoneh, in the second there is a church in honor of the Ascension of the Lord. On the third tier there was a belfry. The building was crowned by the turret of the tallest lighthouse on the White Sea, the light of which is still visible at night from a distance of up to sixty kilometers. The unusual appearance of this structure involuntarily attracted the attention of pilgrims, and they did not see anything seditious in it. The light coming from the cross and showing wanderers the right path to the Solovetsky monastery acquired a special symbolic meaning for them.

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According to the stories of the guides, the corpses were taken to a certain place. However, it was not known for certain where the “cemetery” was located. The first burial was discovered in 2005, now about 10 have been discovered. mass graves. Excavations are underway and the number of people is being determined. There is no way to establish identities. The Lord alone knows the names of the sufferers.
They said that when digging up graves, they often found relics... It’s not scary there, but it takes your breath away and your heart quivers - you’re ashamed of your former compatriots - those who executed and tortured people. Ashamed is not quite the right word, for the first time I wanted to repent for the sins of others as if for my own, and ask forgiveness from all relatives who had lost their loved ones.

P.S.
From a letter - October 30, 2016 For free access to the archives of the Cheka-NKVD-KGB.

my grandfather, Stepan Ivanovich Kuznetsov, spent 15 years in Soviet camps on charges of spying for Japan. A month and a half after serving his sentence, he was rehabilitated.

We know little about the fate of the victims of terror: those who did not return from prisons and camps were shot or committed suicide or died during interrogation. The details of their death are hidden in the basements of Lubyanka. This is where the archives of the Soviet state security agencies are located.

In March 2014, the period for classifying documents from the archives of Soviet state security agencies for the years 1917-1991 was extended until 2044.

This means that for at least another 30 years we will not be able to learn anything about those terrible years of our history, about the details of the death of our parents, grandparents, about those who tortured, interrogated and shot.

I have been studying the history of Soviet repressions for more than 7 years, including researching the affairs of those whose names my grandfather indicated in his memoirs. But without access to the archives, I cannot reveal the full truth about the NKVD officers who were responsible for participating in the repressions.

Today, on the Day of Remembrance for Victims of Political Repression, I ask you to sign a petition to cancel the decision to extend the period of classification of the archives of the Cheka-NKVD-KGB. Help preserve the memory of my grandfather and the millions of victims of repression.

Thank you,
Sergey Prudovsky

PHOTO REPORTS ABOUT THE TRIP

Announcement. To the Far North through “Leviathan” places. And not only...

Ferapontov Monastery. Painting by Dionysius. Vologda Region

The Far North has been conquered. Homecoming

View of Sekirnaya Mountain. At the top of it stands Orthodox church. There are no other high mountains on Solovki

The highest mountain of the Solovetsky archipelago is Sekirnaya (its second name is Chudova Gora). The name “Sekirnaya” is associated with the legend of a miracle that happened here: two angels at the foot of the mountain flogged the wife of a Pomor, who was fishing and cutting hay on the Solovetsky Islands, but did not allow the monks to do this. The name supposedly comes from the word “flogged”.

- You are a supporter of the version of the artificial origin of Sekirnaya Mountain. Why?

The islands of the Solovetsky archipelago are flat, as if ironed by a glacier. High mountains look like artificial formations on them. On Bolshoi Solovetsky Island, Mount Sekirnaya (or Sekirka) is the highest, its height is almost 100 meters. The huge sand and stone mounds of the Solovetsky Mountains were first described by local historians in the 30s of the twentieth century.

But scientists could not explain where such a high mountain could have appeared on the flat islands. It has been suggested that Sekirka was partly created by a glacier and partly a pyramid of boulders, which was built several thousand years ago by ancient people who inhabited the shores of the Arctic Ocean and the White Sea.

If the ancient Solovetsky Mountain is a pyramid, where did it get its original Russian name? Why did the monks need such a strange legend about angels?

There are doubts that the name of the mountain was originally Slavic. After all, the word “Nightingales,” although consonant with “nightingales,” has nothing to do with them: nightingales have never been found in the Arctic Circle. The monks used the legend of the angels as “proof” that Solovetsky Island should belong to the monastery, and not to the indigenous inhabitants.

In fact, archaeologists have confirmed that the Solovetsky archipelago belonged to the inhabitants of the White Sea region thousands of years before the arrival of the first monks. The Novgorodians called these White Sea tribes “Chudyu”, and the local peoples, the Nenets, called them “Sikirtya”.

- What does the name of the people “Sikhirtya” mean, what did it have to do with the pyramid mounds?

But a stack can be made not only of hay, so a version arose that “shrt” is a form of primitive bulk prehistoric dwelling, like a giant stack of grass, moss and branches in which our ancient ancestors lived. The same ancient root stem "skrt" is in the word "hide". After all, the main function of a home is to hide from the cold and wild animals. People who lived in such primitive dwellings were called hermits, and in the north - sikirtya.

The first chronicles of the Novgorodians about the Donenets cave population of the north (the Nenets came to the territory of the Pechora tundra from behind the Ural Range only in the 13th-14th centuries) confirm that the tribes who lived there did not know iron and lived in caves.

But in the flat Pechora tundra there are practically no mountains in which such caves can be found today, and even for cavemen to live in them...

Such “mountains” of the ancient cave people could only be artificial mounds-dwellings - huge stack houses made of peat and moss. Then it is clear why, after a thousand years, practically nothing remained of them - they turned into ordinary small hills among the flat landscape of the tundra. From time to time, archaeologists find traces of Donetsk civilization in the tundra - bronze and stone tools, jewelry.

-Are there any traces of the dwellings of the Sikitrya people?

Remained: back in the 19th century, Academician Lepekhin wrote: “the entire Samoyed land in the current Mezen district is filled with desolate dwellings of a certain people. They are found in many places, near lakes on the tundra and in forests near rivers, made in the mountains and hills like caves with similar holes beast.

In these caves they find ovens and find fragments of iron, copper and clay household items." And as for the stone bulk mountains, like Sekirnaya, these are no longer houses made of peat and moss for living people, but houses of the dead, pyramids made of stones .

Thus, the stone mountains on Solovki are nothing more than monuments of ancient civilization. Our researchers have a lot of work to do to study the history hidden in the ground.

Anatoly RUKSHA

"Belomorye Courier" 19(166)

Solovetsky Islands and their area

Bolshoi Solovetsky Island is the largest triangular island in the archipelago. Its southern part is narrower than the northern one and ends with a sharp cape. On the western, eastern and northern shores there are bays that extend deeply into the territory. Distance between the most distant southern and northern points of the island is 24.7, and western and eastern - 15.8 km. Bolshoi Solovetsky Island (246.9 sq. km) is larger than the other five islands of the archipelago: the area of Anzer Island is 24 sq. km. km, Bolshaya Muksalma - 17.6, Bolshoy Zayatsky - 1.25, Maly Zayatsky - 1.02, Malaya Muksalma - 0.57 sq. km. ( Boguslavsky Gustav. Solovetsky Islands: Essays. )

Bolshoi Solovetsky Island

"The formation of the modern relief of the Big Solovetsky Island occurred under the influence of a glacier and the subsequent processes of weathering and erosion. The area of the archipelago was subjected to glaciation twice. The first period of glaciation (Dnieper) and the second period (Valdai or otherwise Wurm) are separated by a time interval when the glacier retreated, causing significant climate changes.

Breeds. The islands rest on a solid foundation of gneiss-granite bedrock. The rocks almost never come to the surface. The glacier covered the bedrock of the Solovetsky Islands with a significant layer of crystalline “moraine” deposits. There are many boulders on the islands, gneisses predominate, there are few granites and shales, and there are almost no sedimentary rocks. Often boulders lie in thick ridges on hillsides. Among moraine deposits there are moraine clays, "ram's foreheads". There is a lot of sand on the islands - a product of mechanical destruction of crystalline rocks.

The soil of the islands has a sandy base and lacks nutrients. There are few outcrops of moraine rock on the islands and the soil layer is insignificant in thickness (average value 0.2-0.25 m, often 0.05 m and extremely rarely 0.4-0.6 m). The main soil complexes on the islands are podzolic, transitional from podzolic to semi-swamp, semi-swamp, transitional from semi-swamp to swamp, swamp and peat.

The relief of the islands is uneven with slight ups and downs and numerous lake basins. There are no significant elevations. There are three relief zones on Bolshoi Solovetsky Island:

The central zone of the island has a hilly, elevated landscape and a system of lakes;
the southern zone is a depression surrounded by hills with peat bogs and overgrown lakes and
coastal zone.

The relief of Solovetsky Island (the direction of the hills and lake basins) will coincide with the direction of movement of the glacier (from north-northwest to south-southeast). The entire island stretches in this direction.

Mountains. The highest point of the archipelago is Mount Golgotha on Anzer Island (200 m). The highest point on Bolshoi Solovetsky Island is Mount Sekirnaya (its absolute height is 95.5 m; relative height is 71 m). Sekirnaya Mountain, Golgotha and the mountains on the islands were formed by glacial sediments. On the Great Solovetsky Island there are hills and ridges (25-60 m), traditionally called “mountains”. They stretch in ridges of hills with gentle slopes. All the mountains are located in the central part of the island: to the east of the monastery there are the sloping Khlebnye Mountains, to the north-west - the Valdai Mountains, further to the north the chain of Setny, Gremyachi and Volchi mountains. There are elevations on the way to the village of Rebolde and on the northwestern tip of the island, near the village of Treshchanki. Mount Tabor rises in the southeastern part of Muksalma Island.

The swamps (forest and meadow, “upland”) of Solovki are lakes in the later stage of overgrowth. Swamps occupy a significant part of the area of Anzersky Island (20% or 630 hectares) and 460 hectares of Bolshaya Muksalma (almost the entire eastern part of the island is swampy). There are no swamps on the Zayatsky Islands. On the Bolshoy Solovetsky swamps are located in the southern (Pechakskoye and Berezovo-Topskoye), northeastern (Filimonovskoye and Gorodokskoye) and eastern parts of the island. In the central and western part of the island lies the Kulikovo swamp and a few small “raised swamps” near lakes, fed by precipitation.

Peat swamps are located in the eastern and southern parts of the Greater Solovetsky Island (near Gryaznaya Bay, in the area of the Big and Small Kamenny and Bolshoi Peat lakes on the road to Muksalma, in the area of the Lop Lakes along the Berezovskaya road, near Cape Pechak and on Bolshaya Muksalma in the area of Mt. Favor). Estimated peat reserves are more than 80 million tons. There is no industrial extraction of peat.

The coastal strip represents a special physical-geographical zone. The open coastal strip stretches along the entire perimeter of the islands of the Solovetsky archipelago. The area of the coastal zone is comparable to the area of the islands: for example, on Anzer it reaches 926 hectares or 38% of the area. The circumference of the Big Solovetsky Island is 110 km, but due to the heavily indented coasts, capes, bays and peninsula the length coastline twice as much ~ 200 km. The banks are made of loose sandy rocks, strewn with boulders with sparsely growing grass. The coastal strip is limited by forest, approaching almost the water itself or receding by 0.1-0.2 km.

Coastal shoals and stone dams extend towards the sea for considerable distances. Coastal depths are small: to the west and east the sea reaches a depth of 10 m only 1.8 - 2.0 km from the coast, and in the northern and southern directions - 4 km; further the depths increase in the northern eastern directions 5-6 km from the coast they reach 30 - 50 m.

The “growth” of the Solovetsky Islands was first estimated in 1889 at 120 centimeters per century; more accurate data indicate a growth of approximately 17 centimeters per century.

Ebbs and flows. Twice a day, waters come to the shores of the islands, approaching the forest itself. The tide lays a continuous ribbon of seaweed on the shore. Twice low tide reveals thousands of orange-red boulders lying in the sea at shallow depths. High and low tide lasts 6 hours 12 minutes (the daily cycle - two high tides and two low tides - is equal to 24 hours 47 minutes), while the period of low water is usually close to noon and midnight. The difference between low and high water in the area of the islands is on average 0.4 and 1.8 m, respectively (extreme values 0.3 and 2.0 m). The difference between high and low water in Glubaya Bay is 1.25 m, and up to 700 tons of water per second passes through the Iron Gate Strait, which connects the lip to the sea, during high and low tides.

Sea bays (lips) are diverse: Glubokaya Bay juts into the shore of the Great Solovetsky Island from the east. Its area is 12.8 square meters. km.; The depth in some places reaches 150 meters. There are many islands in the bay, its shores are heavily indented. Deep Bay is a one-of-a-kind sea bay with a cold-water zone and arctic fauna at depths of 12-14 m.

Harbor "Bay of Prosperity". The main bay of the Archipelago is Blagopoluchiya Bay, on the shore of which stands the Solovetsky Kremlin. It extends 2 km into the shore, forming a harbor with an area of about 6.4 square meters. km. Blagopoluchiya Bay is the best harbor in this area of the White Sea. The harbor is sheltered from most winds and is exposed to westerly and southwesterly winds. The depth of the harbor is 11-45 m in the roadstead between Pesya Luda and Senny Luda. In the harbor itself 2.0-2.5 m (southern part), 4.0-5.5 m ( Northern part) right up to the pier (in low water). The bottom is sandy, with small stones, suitable for large ships.

The shore of the bay is heavily indented with small lips and a dozen capes. The bay is dotted with ludas and corgis. Islands in the bay – Parusny; Sennaya (four), Petropavlovsky, Krestovy, Igumensky, Beluzhiy, Bolshoi and Maly Topa, Travyanoy; Pesya, Voronya and Babya luds; Aleksandrovsky, Ershov, Voroni, Nameless corgis. The water of the bay is clean and transparent, visibility up to 5 m. ( Boguslavsky Gustav. Solovetsky Islands: Essays. 3rd ed. Arkhangelsk; North-West book publishing house, 1978. - 173 pp.: ill.)

Anzersky Island (Anzer)

The length of the island is about 17 kilometers, width - 7.5 km in the western part, narrowing towards the east. Area - 35 square kilometers. The lips are numerous, the narrowest are large - Troitskaya and Kaporskaya, Kirillovskaya - wide with sandy shore and dunes. The landscape is very reminiscent of the Big Solovetsky Island: many hills covered with dense forest, which alternate with deep lake basins.

The island of Anzer under the name "Wanzer" was mentioned in the middle of the 15th century, in the first Novgorod charters to the Solovetsky Monastery. In the first quarter of the 17th century, the Monk Eleazar of Anzersky founded a small monastery - the Anzersky monastery. In 1634, priest Nikita, the future Patriarch Nikon, who played a significant role in the history of Russia, took monastic vows on Anzer. Reverend Job, the former confessor of Emperor Peter the Great, founded a small monastery in 1712 with monstrously strict rules.

Bolshaya Muksalma Island

Bolshaya Muksalma Island measures 6.2 by 3.7 kilometers. The surface is uneven, but there are no significant depressions. There are no lakes. In the southeastern part of the island, the main part of which is swampy, there are two mountains (the higher one is called “Favor”). The soil is sandy and rocky. There are no forests like those covering Solovetsky Island and Anzer. Most of the island is low forest. Extensive pastures with fine grass. Here, in the area of the Sergius monastery, there was a cattle yard. V. Nemirovich-Danchenko, who visited Solovki in 1872, wrote with enthusiastic surprise about the local barnyard, poultry house, stables and dairy farm: he spoke about the “Dutch cleanliness” of all premises, about the reserves of first-class dairy products stored in the glacier, about the rational production of the entire dairy industry. During the existence of SLON (1923), a livestock farming enterprise was organized on Muksalma, which threw all the monastic labors into the wind and successfully destroyed the former premises of the monastery farm, including the legendary stable with a hayloft (1906) and designed for 27 horses.

Currently, the Muksalm village is a group of ruins scattered in a meadow. Here are the remains of a two-story stone house, a wooden house, a barnyard building and the remains of several other old buildings. Previously, in Muksalma there was a wooden chapel and a one-story stone St. Sergius Church. After the communist invasion, only ruins remained.

From the village the road goes to eastern part islands through small forests to Mount Tabor.

Big and Small Zayatsky Islands (Hares)

Bolshoy Zayatsky, Maly Zayatsky Islands or Hares, Zaichiki (local). Located from Cape Pechak 2.5 km to the northwest; from Blagopoluchiya Bay 30-50 minutes by boat to the south. Area: B. Zayatsky - 1.25 sq. km, M. Zayatsky - 1.02 sq. km. km. A low strip of land with slight rises. Forests occupy 65-70% and 55-60% of the land (small forests, almost no or small conifers). Open coast– up to 30% of the islands’ area (about 40 hectares on B. Zayatsky Island). The landscape is subpolar, closer to tundra (moss litter, bushes, weak forest, rocky soil). There are no lakes or swamps. There may have once been lakes or bogs, but now only three oval-shaped peat bogs are visible. The main element of the landscape is stone in the form of boulders of various shapes and sizes. The coastline is heavily indented, up to 15 km near the island. B. Zayatsky. The shore is flat, with terraces in places. The coastal strip is bushy, but there are good grassy areas in the northeast and east of the island. Central part O. B. Zayatsky occupies the remnant of a powerful glacial moraine - Mount Sopka. The mountain is devoid of vegetation, the top is rocky. Near the shore (1 km south of Sopka) is Mount Signalnaya, along the ridge of which a moraine ridge is clearly visible. Structures: ancient labyrinths or Babylons, an artificial harbor closed from the sea by a masonry of large boulders, Church of St. Andrew the Apostle, worship crosses.

Malaya Muksalma Island

Malaya Muksalma is the smallest of the six largest islands Solovetsky archipelago. Seasonal residents - dredgers, algae miners - kelp, call their island differently. "Little Mu, as it is written on the local store... or gloomily - Island of Man-Eaters. The history of Muksalma really leans more towards the latter... -." ( Alexey Sheptunov. Who are draggers? " Vedomosti Pomorye", 08/25/2004). The women were shot right there, right from the pier, from which today dredgers go out to extract kelp...

Multiple Locations

Serial ID Number	Name & Location	Coordinates	Area	Date Inscribed
632-001	Solovetsky Island. Solovetsky District, Arkhangelsky, Russian Federation	N65 05 E35 40	21872 Ha	1992
632-002	Anzer Island Solovetsky District, Arkhangelsky, Russian Federation	N65 08 43 E36 05 47	4711 Ha	1992
632-003	Big Mucksalma Island	N65 02 33 E035 57 31	1896 Ha	1992
632-004	Small Mucksalma Island Solovetsky District, Arkhangelsky, Russian Federation	N65 01 00 E036 01 00	120 Ha	1992
632-005	Small Zayatsky Solovetsky District, Arkhangelsky, Russian Federation	N64 57 00 E035 40 00	110 Ha	1992
632-006	Big Zayatski Island Solovetsky District, Arkhangelsky, Russian Federation	N64 58 00 E035 39 00	125 Ha	1992
Anonymous author. Source: Cultural and Historical Ensemble of the Solovetsky Islands. whc.unesco.org