Vetka Island is an island in the Sozh River near the Belarus town of Vetka. The island is known for a large Old Believers community which lived there for a long time in the 18th and 19th centuries. After that time the community was destroyed by the Russian state, however, and the Old Believers had to move further to the West, into Moldova, Romania and Austria, to avoid interference from the Russian authorities.
Coordinates: 52°13′40″N 32°22′36″E / 52.22778°N 32.37667°E / 52.22778; 32.37667
Famous quotes containing the word island:
“When the inhabitants of some sequestered island first descry the “big canoe” of the European rolling through the blue waters towards their shores, they rush down to the beach in crowds, and with open arms stand ready to embrace the strangers. Fatal embrace! They fold to their bosoms the vipers whose sting is destined to poison all their joys; and the instinctive feeling of love within their breasts is soon converted into the bitterest hate.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)