The Solovki Archipelago - echo of Gulag

Day

Itinerary

Day 1

MOW

Arrival in MOW. Meet with guide. Transfer to the hotel. Check in. Dinner in the hotel (on request).

Day 2

MOW

Breakfast. Meet with guide. Moscow city tour (3-3,5 hrs).

Lunch in a city restaurant

Kremlin (Territory+ 1 Cathedral).

Free time for shopping

Dinner in a city restaurant.

Transfer to the railway station. Departure to Belomorsk

Overnight in the train

Day 3

Belomorsk

BELOMORSK PETROGLYPHS ARCHAEOLOGICAL COMPLEX

Arrival in Belomorsk. Meeting with the guide at the railway station.

Accommodation at the Gandvik Hotel https://www.hotel-gandvik.ru/en/

in rooms of the selected category.

Excursion to the Petroglyphs of the White Sea . The Karelian petroglyphs are outstanding, world-renowned monuments. Researchers have called them the Stone Chronicle and the Stone Age Bible. Petroglyphs usually represent animals, birds, fish, boats, and people, but sometimes the symbols are of unfamiliar objects. The Belomorsk Petroglyphs Archaeological Complex includes not only rock drawings (engravings), but also over 30 ancient settlements dated between the 3rd and 2nd millenium B.C.The Belomorsk petroglyphs were created around six thousand years ago, and they are one of the outstanding monuments of primitive art in Northern Europe.

 Evening at Leisure time.

Day 4

Solovetsky Islands

The harsh story of Solovki Island.  THE SOLOVKI CAMP (GULAG)

Early Breakfast at hotel (open buffet). Check-out time.

Transfer to the village Rabocheostrovsk (110 km)

07.30 am  Boarding of the ship

08.00 cruise departure. During the 2 hours journey you may admire the picturesque islands of The Kuzova archipelago, watch the sea ducks and polar terns, feed the seagulls, and if you're lucky - see the White Sea seals and beluga whales.

Arrival. Lunch at local cafe. Luggage will be transferred separately to hotel luggage locker

Excursion  "Solovki  as a place of prison and exile". On this thematic excursion you will learn about Solovki as a place of exile and conclusion of famous politicians, representatives of the clergy, Old Believers, intellectuals, starting with the monastery prison of the 16th century

Excursion "The History of the Solovki Prison and Camp 1923-1939". in 1937 Stalin reorganized Soviet forced-labor camp into the one of the severest Gulags in his empire. Prisoners lived and worked in intolerable conditions, with officers torturing or killing them at will. Over a million prisoners are estimated to have died here, many of whom were priests, artists and writers. The prison was closed in 1939.

End of the Tour.  Accommodation in hotel

Leisure time.

Day 5

Solovetsky Islands

Holy Anzer Island (Meal option: Breakfast, Lunch - Lunch box, Please do not forget to get them during breakfast)

Breakfast.

Boat tour to the Anzersky (Anzer) Island.

The Anzer Island is the second largest island of the Solovki where in the XVII - XVIII centuries were founded the first sketes of the Solovetsky monastery - the strict Holy-Trinity and Golgotha-Crucifixion sketes. You will see many kind of landscapes of the island, learn the history of the monastic, prison camp and modern period of the Anzer island.

Tour duration - 12 hour. Boat tour- 2.5 hour.  The length of the walking tour is 12 km.

The tour is conducted with the blessing of the vicar of the monastery, pilgrims are required to comply with the requirements of the skete's Charter and be properly dressed

Boat Tour can be cancelled in case of storm warning

Return to the Bolshoy Solovetsky Island.

Leisure time

Day 6

Solovetsky Islands-Kem

Journey to the sketes and monasteries of the Bolshoy Solovetsky Island

(Meal option: Breakfast + Lunch)

Breakfast.

Check-out time.  Luggage has to be delivered to Hotel luggage locker and it will be delivered later onboard the boat.

Author's tour to the sketes and monasteries of the Bolshoy Solovetsky Island:

Sekirnaya Hill. St. Ascension Skete. You will visit one of the highest points of the Big Solovetsky Island - Sekirnaya Hill, from which top is an unforgettable view to the Northern part of the Solovki and the White Sea opens up. The monastic cells appeared on the Sekirnaya mountain as early as in the 15 century when the monks began to come to the Solovki after the Sts. Herman and Savvatiy. You will be told about the history of the functional St. Ascension skete. You will see the unique Church which is the lighthouse at the same time.Sekirnaya mountain may be the most tragic place not only on the Solovki but in the entire Russia. In the course of several centuries there was located one of the skits of the Solovetsky Monastery, and after the revolution of 1917 there was opened a punishment isolation cell - the site of mass executions of the prisoners of the Solovki prison camp.

Savvatievskyi monastery. Savvatievsky skete  is one of the skits of the Solovetsky monastery, founded in the XV century by Savvatiy and Herman Solovetsky in the Northern part of the Big Solovetsky island .For long time only monks lived here. The comparatively big  construction started here at the end of the XIX century a stone church was built in honor of the Smolensk Icon of the Mother of God "Hodegetria" according to the project of architect Shakhlarev.

Isaac's monastery. Isaac's skete. Isaac's monasteryis one of the oldest on the Big Solovetsky Island

Alley of Solovetsky Jungs.

Dam of the Red(White) Lake - the deepest Lake in the Solovetsky Islands. Until the middle of the twentieth century, there were no indigenous peoples on the islands, and toponymic traditions did not take shape. People changed, times, the past was forgotten, new names appeared. Here, for example, how the names of the Solovetsky lakes changed after the revolution in the 1920s: Lake Beloe (White) was renamed Krasnoe(Red).

Leisure time.

03.30 p.m. Boarding  the boat, Arrival to settlement  Rabocheostrovsk

06.00 p.m. Dinner at  the "Prichal" tourist complex cafeteria

07.00 p,m. Transfer to the Kem railway station to the Train. Departure to Moscow.

Day 7

MOW

Arrival in Moscow. Meet with guide. Transfer to the airport. Lunch (On request)