Tourism features on the Solovetsky Islands: Russian Athos or prison

The paper demonstrates how the chronology of the prison functioning in the Solovetsky Ilands, the Solovetsky Monastery and the subsequent tourist infrastructure development depend on many factors, including the political situation, economic development, social changes and local culture peculiarities. It is specially noticed how the memory of the prison past is preserved or, conversely, rewritten, transformed within the framework of new narratives. In some cases, the traces of the prison past are carefully hidden, in others, on the contrary, they are integrated into the tourist history, becoming the attractive narrative part to tourists. Perhaps, in some cases, the fact of the prison’s existence on the island is a sort of highlight which gives a special, somewhat gloomy, but certainly memorable atmosphere to the tourist destination. The analysis of tourism trends and the visitor flows makes it possible to trace the complex relationship between the past, associated with the prison period of island use, and the present, marked by the rapid development of pilgrimage activities, historical and cultural heritage, and natural (ecological) tourism. This study also addresses the question of how various stakeholders (representatives of the Russian Orthodox Church, travel companies) influence the tourist image formation of the former penal islands, analyze which historical narratives dominate the stories about the past, and how they affect the tourists’ perception of the island. The purpose of the study is to consider the phenomenon of a possible transition from “prison to paradise” in the tourism sector using such an illustrative example as the Solovetsky Islands. The main methods used in writing the paper are description with information fixation, observation, comparison, as well as the general scientific method – the method of analysis – in order to detailed research of the prison heritage impact on tourist history, and as a result, the possibility of organizing combined tourism as religious, historical, cultural, natural and prison one. Due to the fact that the stated problem is multidirectional, journalistic and scientific materials in the field of tourism, archival documentary sources on the formation and development of the Solovetsky State Historical, Architectural and Natural Museum-Reserve are analyzed.