KARELIA IN WINTER, part II. Ruskeala mountain park, Belomorkanal, Russian stove. Slow russian vlog

00:06 - We came here with the idea of ​​seeing the northern lights. Of course, in these places, the northern lights are a huge rarity in December. My friend found some information in a special application: with what probability we will see the northern lights today, and this is only one percent.

00:27 - I guess we wanted to leave Petrozavodsk, where we spent two wonderful days. If you haven’t watched the video about Petrozavodsk yet, the link will appear in the corner of the screen. Today is our third day in Karelia, it was a very eventful and even a bit extreme day. We are in a wooden house. This house was built by the owner’s grandfather in 1955. After the grandchildren received this house as an inheritance, they decided to rent it out to tourists like us, so that they could feel the real northern flavor of these places, enjoy the scent of the forest that permeates the walls of this house.

Why are these places interesting? This is the place where the Osudarev road of Peter the Great passed, and now the White Sea-Baltic Canal originates. We arrived at Povenets. Now there is a very beautiful light - a beautiful sunset. Here is the Nikolskaya Church and the Belomorkanal. There is a monument, it is written: “Osudareva road in 1702 In 1702, Tsar Peter the Great dragged two vessels from the White Sea to Lake Onega Since the track, built through the taiga and swamps, became known as the Osudareva road.

02:07 - Petersburg was built after that, in 1703. The Belomorkanal celebrated its 87th anniversary in 2020.

02:18 - This is the first Soviet building in which prison labor was used, and the conditions were truly slave. According to official figures, 12,300 people died during the construction of the Belomorkanal , but historians say that it could be up to 50,000 lost lives. Stalin needed the canal to create the Northern Fleet in order to transfer ships of small and medium displacement to the White Sea. Belomorkanal, 227 kilometers long, connects the White Sea and Lake Onega, thereby shortening the route from Arkhangelsk to St.

Petersburg (4 times shorter). The Belomorkanal was built in a record 20 months. The prisoners had to dig 37 kilometers and build 19 locks, 15 weirs and 49 dams. All work was done by hand - there was no equipment, the main tool was a shovel. As historians write, it was very easy to get to the White Sea Canal, and the living conditions were truly terrible. People received very little food, if they worked little, the amount of food they received was cut, and thus people were simply deprived of energy.

If you want to read more about this place, I will leave the link to the article in the description of this video. Another terrible place is one of the largest burial places of victims of mass repressions in the USSR. Most of the people lying here were killed in 1937 and 1938. The Great Terror is the general name for a series of repressive operations by the NKVD that were carried out throughout the entire Soviet Union. The main orders for operations were given by Nikolai Yezhov, but the main initiator was Joseph Stalin.

The list of the victims of the Great Terror, executed in Sandarmokh, now includes 6241 people. We arrived at this place, it was twilight, the road went through the forest. From the highway we had to drive almost 1 kilometer through the forest, and, you know, I had a thought that I want to visit that place, I want to see memorial plaques and monuments.

04:53 - Halfway it became scary, we parked, got out of the car, had to walk 50 more meters, and realized that we were simply afraid. We probably needed to bring some flowers with us, or maybe some kind of wreath. We realized that we were really scared to be there alone, and we did not reach the burial place - we turned around and left. I hope that someday I will come back here again. Good morning. Yes, I look a little rumpled.

05:36 - We had a very good night in this lovely wooden house. Now we are going back to Petrozavodsk. You see steam - it’s because it’s -15C degrees now. See you soon.

06:21 - Before we said goodbye to Medvezhyegorsk, we stopped at the train station to see its building. It was built in 1916.

06:53 - We arrived at the third place - this is the “Vremena Goda” guest complex, now we will have a rest, have dinner, and tomorrow we will go to the Ruskeala mountain park.

07:35 - Good morning! Today is the fourth day in Karelia. We arrived at the Ruskeala mountain park. This is the place where marble was quarried earlier. Here is such a marble canyon. A very beautiful place, I was here in 2016, and a lot has changed since then. Construction is underway here now , and perhaps soon there will be cottages, I think, that can be rented.

08:18 - You will be able to stay here for the night. How cool it would be to skate! It’s just… so smooth! If you were in St. Petersburg, then you have 100% seen St. Isaac’s Cathedral. Marble was mined here. Usually there are a lot of tourists here , but today is Monday morning, so… so far we are practically alone.

09:35 - The perfect photophone. Our four day trip is coming to an end. We visited Sortavala, had lunch, bought souvenirs.

10:40 - I bought lingonberry tincture and cloudberry jam, as well as some marble souvenirs. Now we are going back to St. Petersburg. Anything else to say? I really enjoyed it!.