Sacred Springs in the Camps

Gulag Memory, Legend, and Place

By: Jeanmarie Rouhier-Willoughby

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Hardcover | 10 February 2026

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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 existence of sacred springs at 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 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.

Industry Reviews

"A completely original, fascinating study about the social work of Gulag memory in contemporary Siberia. The research is beyond complete, the book's reasoning is sound, and its ethnography is vivid." - Benjamin Gatling, author of Migration Stories: Connecting Activism, Policy, and Scholarship "A marvelous entwinement of memory studies with vernacular religiosity; environmentalism with the sacred; and the Stalinist legacy of the Gulag with nature's beauty. This one-of-a-kind book is a must-read for anyone interested in how attitudes toward religion, the environment, and history coalesce in contemporary Russia." - Catherine Wanner, author of Everyday Religiosity and the Politics of Belonging in Ukraine

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