Svirlag

Svirlag, SvirLAG (Svirskiy Lager' - Svir Concentration-Camp, Russian: Свирлаг, also Свирьлаг / СвирЛАГ - Свирский концентрационно трудовой лагерь) was a Soviet forced labour camp run by NKVD's GULAG Directorate. It was located on the river Svir (hence the name Svirskiy in Russian) in the forests by the town Lodeynoye Pole, 244 km north-east of Saint Petersburg, in Leningrad oblast, Vepsland - the land of the Vepses, operated in the 1930s (Joseph Stalin's time) and onwards. SvirLAG concentration camp was supplier of wood to Moscow and Saint Petersburg.

The camp was established on November 17, 1931.

The number of those who died or were killed in Svirlag in 1930s (the times of the most numerous and heavy executions that took place in SvirLAG seem to be 1931–1937) is measured in thousands of victims. In 1935, 36.500 inmates were kept in this camp.

The camp was located in the medieval buildings of once Alexander-Svirsky Monastery (after 16-th century Saint Alexander Svirsky who being one of two only with Abraham who had a vision of Trinity, died in 1533). Bolsheviks closed and vandalized the monastery in 1918 (it finally ceased in 1925). The holy relics were removed, monks partly executed and partly expelled. The chief of the monastery archimandrite Evgeniy Trofimov was executed on October 23, 1918 along with 5 monks behind the monastery walls. The monastery buildings were turned into prisons, barracks, and mental asylum. On September 22, 1998 Ministry of Culture of Russia and Russian Ministry of State Property signed decree about delivery of monastery back to Saint Petersburg parish of Russian Orthodox Church.

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