Smithsonian magazine's 22nd Annual Photo Contest | Made possible through the support of MPB.com

21st Annual Smithsonian Magazine Photo Contest Travel
Orthodox Church in Siberia on the site of a former Soviet concentration camp

One of the holy places in Siberia, Novosibirsk region, Lozhok. In Soviet times, a concentration death camp stood on this site, where people were sent to certain death. There were many clergymen among the prisoners. People lived in cold, drafty barracks, and during the day they worked in lime quarries nearby. They died every day - from cold, hunger, diseases caused by overwork. Those who violated the regime were shot. At such an execution site in the middle of the last century, a spring with ice water gushed out. The authorities blew up the spring, but it reappeared a few tens of meters from its original location.

Photo Detail
Date Taken: 08.2022
Date Uploaded: 11.2023
Photo Location: Iskitim, Russia
Copyright: © Ernest Vursta