Solovki (Monastery) to be restored

 The Solovki 

Interfax reports today that "Russia's government plans to start restoring the Solovki Monastery."

Not sure that's really news though as such "restoration" would seem to be either 1.) ongoing (thus, redundant) or 2.) irrelevant in the ultimate sense of that.

A thought occurs: Can God be raised from the dead or even hell??

The blog post of Aussiegirl (Helen) from September 18, 2006 tells much more regarding this monastery no more:

While we are on the subject of gulags, here's another one, located on the site of an ancient monastery in Solovki. The Monastery has become a UNESCO World Heritage site. Included is a link to experiences of Ukrainians in this notorious camp. (Note: site is in Ukrainian.)

Solovki - UNESCO On-line

The Solovetsky Monastery was founded six decades before Columbus
discovered America and is located on some islands in the White Sea
near the Arctic Circle. It became a UNESCO World Heritage site.
http://www.solovki.museum.ru/default_eng.asp

In the 1920s the monastery was converted into one of the first GULAG
concentration camps. Also know as "Silovki" GULAG. According to
Solzhenitsyn, it spread like a cancer becoming the model for the
GULAG system for the USSR. The following website includes sections
about Ukrainians in Silovki.

Books and articles
Solovki

The Silovki GULAG has become synonymous for political terror, repression and spiritual genocide according to one author.
posted by Aussiegirl @ 3:50 PM

And who's Helen?

"I am a naturalized Ukrainian-American, fortunate enough to have been admitted to this great land as an immigrant. My personal history is the spur for this blog. My parents lived through the Ukrainian Genocidal Famine of 1933, survived years of Communist persecution, fled to the West, endured forced labor in Nazi Germany, and following liberation, ended up in Allied internment camps fighting forced repatriation to the Soviet Union under the Yalta Agreement. Their courageous struggle to bring our family to freedom, first to Australia, then to America, and their example of unflinching faithfulness to truth and honor, have left an indelible impression on me. My parents did not save me from Communism and Nazism for me to go gently into dhimmitude or slavery. Hence my passion and my mission to expose threats to freedom and democracy wherever they are found. This blog is a testament to their courage and my small gift to their heroism."

And then, if one is paying attention, one finds:

***ADDENDUM*** Aussiegirl, my wife, Helen, passed away on January 13, 2007. I shall continue her blog to allow access to her archives.***David

What a fitting and essential tribute.
(not knowing more of Helen, how can I say "moving"?)

And David's last post seems to have been on Monday, December 31, 2007. [Sadness upon sadness??? or the eternal bliss of an Ultima Thule reunion?]


******************************


Back to being more reporter, less the romantic . . .

A link within a comment of Helen's story regarding The Solovki leads one to a Library of Congress online exhibit of "The Prokudin-Gorskii Photographic Record Recreated" (check them out here ).

Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii (1863-1944) seems to have been something of the Russian version of a cross between Lewis and Clark and Ansel Adams.

His photographic subjects ranged from the medieval churches and monasteries of old Russia, to the railroads and factories of an emerging industrial power, to the daily life and work of Russia's diverse population.

In the early 1900s Prokudin-Gorskii formulated an ambitious plan for a photographic survey of the Russian Empire that won the support of Tsar Nicholas II. Between 1909-1912, and again in 1915, he completed surveys of eleven regions, traveling in a specially equipped railroad car provided by the Ministry of Transportation.