The Sisters Of Moscow

During the period from the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 through to perestroika, most Russian orthodox churches, convents and monasteries in the USSR were closed. For decades, the KGB abused the holy walls, using them as prisons. It was not until 2000 that a change came and the nuns of Moscow’s Ivanov convent were allowed to once again enter the old buildings. Nonetheless it has taken nearly ten years for the small cohort of nuns to become established in their home not 500 m away from the Kremlin because of the court records that were stacked up into the peak of the dome. Still today there is a statue of Lenin next to the convent walls. The nuns, who stroll around inside the walls in their veils, wearing their black robes with typical head covering that leaves only the face visible and looks a little like a Muslim burka, are eyed distrustfully by many Muscovites. They have been suspected of being Chechen terrorists when travelling on the underground and subjected to body searches. Their purpose is peaceful though because they only want to revive the old traditions of their predecessors, which were desecrated during the Soviet Era.

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