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Where do normal humans eat in Moscow?

Экскурсии по Москве и Подмосковью для детей и взрослых

Living History
by By Lyubov Korotetskaya
source: http://mnweekly.rian.ru/feature/20070628/55259660.html

Today, the Solovetsky Islands are largely forgotten bits of land at the ends of the earth. For those who do pay a visit to these parts usually go to see the 16th century Transfiguration Monastery. Other interesting sites include the Northern Special Purpose Camps, where "class enemies" and criminals were confined during the 1920s, the Sea Cadet School, and the Solovetsky Museum. The islands are a place where history and centuries-old cultural traditions intertwine.

Following a two-hour boat ride from Kemi (where, incidentally, the famous film The Island was shot) will get you to Bolshoi Solovetsky Island, the largest and best known among the Solovetsky Archipelago.

After Putin's 2001 visit to the islands, they gained wide media coverage, and became the target of a struggle amongst representatives of the state, church and army. But these remote islands are unlikely to become the site for a military base, for example, or a monastery, because they are home to so many.

The archipelago's sole settlement is located here, and its 954 inhabitants earn their livelihood by serving tourists during the short season. Besides that, the people of Bolshoi Solovetsky Island attract little attention from visitors. The whole island is a picture of poverty and ignorance. When the last launch carries away the last tourists in late August, the island returns to its unobstructed ways. However, it seems that the Russian authorities have forgotten that Solovetsky Islands enjoy "the status of Russia's historical preserve and precious cultural heritage," and that people must make a living here.

In winter, the White Sea freezes and no vessel can set sail. Russian-built An-24 planes make trips between the islands and Arkhangelsk only twice a week - providing the weather is fit for flying, which rarely happens. Flights deliver products and frozen meat to the islands (Food is expensive: a kilo of cabbage costs 9 rubles in Arkhangelsk and 45 rubles on Solovetsky).

Nina Fyodorovna Postoyeva, an energetic elderly woman who heads the local Union of Veterans, recounted: "All our woes are due to the fact that we live on islands. If we did not live on islands, everything would be fine as before." By "before" she means before the winter of 2006, when Bolshoi Solovetsky Island was deprived of its municipal status and was designated as "a settlement." This decision was made in Arkhangelsk, and seemed logical: district status for Solovetsky creates obligations that are difficult to fulfill. It was therefore decided to simplify matters, making life easier for the authorities.

For the islanders, however, life has become harder. There is no longer an independent funding source, and only a small sum is provided from the federal budget. In 2005, the Solovetsky Islands received 43 million rubles; over the last two years, they received only seven million rubles a year from Primorsky Region, of which they are administratively connected. The islands are not supposed to receive money for construction, compensation for increased utility tariffs, emergency situations, and fire safety - it's as if they have no housing at all. People say that the local hospital's head doctor is about to quit because the hospital is to be turned into a dispensary; if this happens, any person needing serious treatment, or a medical certificate of any sort, will have to go to Arkhangelsk.

This presents the elderly islanders - who fought in World War II and spent long years working here in Russia's North, where climatic and working conditions are harsh - a great challenge. "There's a way out, though," says Nina Fyodorovna of the Union of Veterans. "There's a law that states if a veteran wants to go on a ‘cultural holiday' in Arkhangelsk once a year, the government will pay for the accommodation and return fare. That's why when a babushka (old woman) goes for treatment in Arkhangelsk, she buys tickets to a museum and some other ‘place of culture.' The tickets are proof that she has had a ‘cultural holiday,' so she attaches them to her compensation application, which is given according to the letter of the law. So don't think that things are so bad here."

The settlement on Bolshoi Solovetsky Island have no bus service. Children must go to school on foot; in the winter, snowdrifts are sometimes over 2 meters high. This discourages some children from going to school.

Dmitry Lugovoi, head of the Solovetsky Administration, shrugs off these problems, saying it was not he who passed the decision to downgrade the status of the island. All he can do is maneuver between a rock and a hard place - the offended islanders and the governor of the Primorsky Region. "What can I do?" Lugovoi says in his own defense. "Formerly, we were allocated 50 percent of the region's income tax take. Now that we're merely a settlement, we get only 10 percent. That 50 percent used to form the backbone of our budget."

Moreover, the islanders receive no direct income from the tourist services they provide: all the big tourist firms operating are registered in Arkhangelsk, Moscow or St. Petersburg. Thus, tax money flows out to the big cities from under the noses of the islanders. These firms are not breaking the law: they engage in tourist activities on the islands for less than 100 days out of the year, which means they are not obliged to pay anything to anybody. There are no violations, whether conspicuous or otherwise.

No wonder foreign tourists see - side by side with the majestic monastery and the museum with its wealth of exquisite exhibits - garbage heaps and dilapidated shack houses with broken, useless sewage pipes. That's why the inhabitants of Norwegian towns actually collect donations for the Solovetsky islanders. It seems that the Solovetskiye Islands are the disgrace, as opposed to the pride, of Russia.

The islanders seem to have been forgotten. Few people realize that thousands are lost in the White Sea archipelago, dubbed "the pearl of Russia and the rest of the world." So the question arises: who is capitalizing on the new settlement status of the Solovetsky Islands? This issue has yet to be sorted out.

Whatever the answer, the islands must not be left to perish as a forgotten corner of the Primorsky Region. The federal rehabilitation program that the islanders badly need has been shelved for the last decade. The federal center must awake to the needs of the islanders, who have written letters of complaint to the authorities in Arkhangelsk and to President Putin himself. Their desperate letters, signed by half of the islanders, have been mysteriously lost, without a trace. Why bother the top leadership about some far-away islands?

Anyway, the problems of the Solovetsky Islands will soon resolve themselves, it seems: the islands will become increasingly deserted as their population dwindles and eventuallyvanishes.