My latest regional visit in the North West Federal District of Russia took me to the city of Petrozavodsk in the Republic of Karelia. Petrozavodsk is 430 km north of St Petersburg. There is a good train connection between the cities. The Republic of Karelia is a beautiful part of Russia, full of forests, lakes and rivers. It has strong cultural and linguistic connections with neighbouring Finland.
I met the regional administration, Petrozavodsk State University, the chamber of commerce/business incubator and visited timber and shipbuilding enterprises. Timber processing is the mainstay of the Karelia economy with 20% of all paper for newspapers/magazines in Russia produced in the region. I visited a wood processing plant, which had been founded back in 1874. The plant is Rainforest Alliance certified. Extractive industries are also important with 25% of all iron ore pellets in Russia produced in Karelia. The global economic downturn has also affected Karelia but the region is keen to diversify its economy by developing industrial parks, fish farming and making better use of Karelia’s extensive rail and river network.
The Republic of Karelia is also a popular tourist destination. There were 755,000 registered visitors to Karelia in 2015 and many more who enjoyed camping or day trips from St Petersburg. The most famous attraction is the Kizhi open air museum, which is located on Kizhi Island on Lake Onego, some 68 km from Petrozavodsk. The museum contains almost 100 wooden structures. This includes the Kizhi Pogost, which contains two churches and a bell tower. The Pogost was included in the UNESO World Heritage list in 1990.
I spoke about plans for the UK/Russia Year of Language and Literature in 2016 and heard how Karelia was keen to become an international culture centre for young people. They plan to hold a Shakespeare reading competition in Petrozavodsk at the end of March. Petrozavodsk State University hosts British students every year who enjoy studying Russian language and culture at the university.
Ice on the rivers is melting and the end of the long winter in North West Russia is in sight. Karelia is preparing for its tourist season and hopes to see many visitors to Kizhi and those who simply enjoy the outdoors in a beautiful region of Russia. I’ll be making my own plans to visit!
