Il primo gulag: Le isole Solovki

The Solovki islands are located in the middle of the White Sea, one hundred miles away from the Arctic Circle. For centuries they were uninhabited, with only fishermen approaching them during the summer, until in the XV century the orthodox monks built there an important monastery. In 1923, with a decree signed by Lenin, the convent was confiscated by the State and transformed in the first soviet concentration camp, the gulag which can be considered the first step of a great extermination project.