YURY BRODSKY sees the far northern Solovki Archipelago as a kaleidoscopic microcosm of Russia – its history, culture, nature, and spirit all brought together in one remote and windswept corner of a vast country. “The most varied people come here and they all need Solovki,” says Brodsky. “It can change your world view. I’m trying to say that Solovki is a reflection of our entire world, of our entire history.”

Recently, his latest book about Solovki was reviewed on an Orthodox website. While the reviewer notes the author’s “feeling of love for Solovki”, he charges that it also demonstrates “a dislike, a surprising dislike, of the centuries-long history of the Solovetsky Monastery and Orthodox Russia.”  Solovki’s transformation, of which Brodsky today warns, began in 2012. After a visit by Kirill, the Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church, the head of the monastery Archimandrite Porfiry was appointed director of the State Solovki Museum and Reserve. (Porfiry’s birth name is Vladimir Shutov.) …

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