Sacred springs in the camps : Gulag memory, legend, and place / Jeanmarie Rouhier-Willoughby.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Rouhier-Willoughby, Jeanmarie, 1961- Author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Springs--Russia (Federation)--Siberia--Religious aspects.

Springs.

Sacred space--Russia (Federation)--Siberia.

Sacred space.

Legends--Russia (Federation)--Siberia.

Legends.

Internment camps--Russia (Federation)--Siberia--History.

Internment camps.

Siberia (Russia)--Religious life and customs.

Siberia (Russia).

Physical Description:

1 online resource

Place of Publication:

Madison, Wisconsin : University of Wisconsin Press, 2026.

Summary:

"Former Gulag sites—operating theaters of terror during the Stalinist period—are scattered across western Siberia, where memories of the purges run deep. The camps represent some of the most horrific events of the Soviet past, and yet their current role is complicated. Focusing on three former prison camps, folklorist Jeanmarie Rouhier-Willoughby untangles a surprising nexus of memory, legend, and vernacular religious practice afforded by the sacred springs located at each of these sites. Grounded by detailed ethnography, Sacred Springs in the Camps explores how legend creates, negotiates, and challenges collective memory; how lived religious practices intersect with the current revival of the Russian Orthodox Church; how politics intertwine with belief; and how the social construction of sacred places affects folk narratives, faith, and local identity. These unlikely holy waters thus reflect important facets of contemporary Russian religion, politics, and society, refracting and reframing memories of the socialist past even as they offer important lessons for the present moment."-- From JSTOR.

Contents:

Introduction: The holy spring landscape

Negotiating religious and secular memory

Ritual, pilgrimage, and tourism at the holy springs

Legends of the holy springs

Politics of the holy springs

Healing and medicine

Ecology of the holy springs

Conclusion: Haunted by the past.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Online resource; title from PDF title page (JSTOR, viewed February 26, 2026).

Other Format:

Print version: Rouhier-Willoughby, Jeanmarie. Sacred springs in the camps

ISBN:

9780299354732

0299354733

OCLC:

1571370053

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license