Depicted here is Solovetskiy Monastery, a Russian historical site since the 15th Century, famous for notable saints such as Zosim, Savati and Herman. After the revolution, the new authorities found it convenient to take advantage of this site and its climate and use it as a place to isolate dissidents. Inside the walls of the ancient monastery, the Solovetskiy camp was created to hold many thousands of prisoners, including hundreds of bishops, thousands of spiritual people and suffering Orthodox laymen.

Since this monastery has been depicted in icons for many centuries, two historical icons of saints Zosim and Savati were used as models for the Solovetskiy Islands. In this scene, we find two islands of the Solovetskiye Ostrova archipelago in the Artic Ocean where prisons were located: Large Solovetskiye and Anzer. Ancient icons normally make reference only to Large Solovetskiy, where monastic life used to be concentrated, and where the famous abodes worked. However, the need to depict Anzer here also forced iconographers to change the traditional graphical treatment of this island. In the center, we find the monastery itself with the Spaso-Preobrazhensky Cathedral-built in the 16th century-on the back. This cathedral was transformed into a prison/dungeon, and it's the reason why prisoners inside can be seen on this icon.

In the foreground, in front of the monastery, an execution is taking place-a common scene in this island. But the most terrible place on this island was Sekirky camp, a place where hardly anyone returned alive. Pious Voznesensky, the temple with the lighthouse standing at the peak of Serkirnoy Mountain, became the resting place for those who died from the intolerable life conditions. The stairs coming down from this lighthouse temple, 365 total, were used as an instrument of execution. The condemned were tied to logs and thrown down the stairs.

The camp's hospital was in Anzer Island, but its reputation was just as gloomy. The hospital was located in the Golgotha-Raspatsko monastery, built in the 18th century at the peak of a central mountain. One of the most famous martyrs to die here was Archbishop Peter (Zverev), who is portrayed here resting on the ground under the temple. Above, and next to the temple, a birch in the shape of a cross stands as a miracle of our times. The tree grew almost at the tip of the mountain long after Anzer was abandoned. The lower branches of the tree grow away from the trunk at a right angle, and its size is much higher that the surrounding trees dwarfed by the island's latitude. It is said that the Lord planted this tree to point out how neglected the martyrs of this island had been.