Press Release, 24.11.2022

On 22 November 22, Yabloko held in its Moscow office a screening and discussion of Marina Goldovskaya’s 1988 documentary film “The Solovki Power. Evidence and Documents” devoted to the prisoners of the Solovki concentration camp, the archipelago where political prisoners – “enemies of the people” – were exiled to forced labour camps and a prison during Stalin’s Great Terror period in 1920-1930s. Yuri Brodsky, a Russian photographer and writer, author of the book “Solovki. The Labyrinth of Transformations, spoke about the creation of the film. The moderator of the discussion was Nadezhda Azhgikhina, journalist, writer, and director of PEN Moscow.

In her opening remarks, Nadezhda Azhgikhina noted that Yabloko formed a space for free discussion which is needed like air now. “We are expanding the boundaries of freedom, learning more about our country, our like-minded people, and  learning more about ourselves. The discussions that we did not have time to finish are going on. It seems to me, that many things that make our lives a misery and oppress us result from the fact that we failed to come to agreement then. But we have a chance to do it. For many, this film opened a whole era of learning a lot of new about ourselves. This is not just a talented film, it is a sign of our learning about ourselves. We did not have much time to accomplish it all, when we started. But we go on, and this gives us hope,” Nadezhda Azhgikhina said.

Photo: Nadezhda Azhgikhina

Yuri Brodsky was a consultant of the film “The Solovki Power”. At the meeting, he spoke about the team of the film, the history and the idea of ​​the film and the obstacles on its way to the viewers. The film was made covertly, there were no archives of information, and it was very difficult to collect the material for the film. We know now that there are mistakes in the film. But the film is still valuable.

Photo: Yuri Brodsky

“This film is very true in essence. And there is no strain. There is no naturalism. And that’s great. I found drawings of a KGB officer whose colleagues told him about what was happening in the camps. There are about 50 drawings of torture. I thought I would use them. But then I realised that I would not use them in any case, because this is naturalism, but there should be an image. And in this film has just images, but there is no anger. Because anger is bad too. The devil begins with froth on the lips of an angel entering into battle for a holy and just cause. Revenge is useless, they have all died already. But we need to tell how it was, what it was and why it was so… The most important question of history is not “how?”, but “why?”. And we have not found an answer so far,” Yuri Brodsky concluded.

Do not harbor malice. But we should remember what happened, and spare no effort so that it does not happen again.

Photo: Nikolai Rybakov