SOLOVETSKY ISLAND: “I want to die here. I have lived here so long. This is holy ground,” said this 87-year old grandmother, who lives about 700 meters from the walls of the Solovetsky Monastery in the White Sea.
She has been living here more than 50 years and now spends her days watching the people pass by her home. Born in a village in the north of Russia in 1928, she recalled building a bomb shelter during WWII.
“Hunger, cold” was what came to her mind when I asked about the war days. She said she decided to move to Solovki in the 1960s after receiving a letter from her sister, asking her to come. Her sister has since passed away.
She worked 27 years at the Island’s school as a cleaner. Her daughter now lives in Ukraine and has asked her mother to join her. But she doesn’t want to leave Solovki.
