Villages in Karelia

The article was written by Christian Schwarz from Austria (September, 2009)

Villages in Karelia are very beautiful. You can see that more often houses are made from wood. And it is so different from western European countries, where houses are made from brick.

However many people in Karelia live in cities. According to population census of 1989 80% of people from Karelia lived in cities. Comparing with the rest territory of Russia the majority of people in Karelia live in cities. For example in 1959 63% of people in Karelia had already lived in cities, and in the whole Russia 52% of people were citizens. Near 50% of population in the Leningrad Region also lived in cities. Therefore the percent of urban population in Karelia is above the average. This is negative for native speakers such as Karelians and Veps, because they had to speak Russian in cities. Consequently these languages (Karelian and Veps) became smaller.

Besides Karelian villages are very beautiful, because there are a lot of lakes and many of the villages are situated on the lakesides.

Moreover almost in every Karelian village one can see banyas. It is a very old and important custom to go to banya. Banyas are heated by wood not by electricity.

Roads are usually very bad in Karelia, but it is good for nature, because it is impossible to go by car at great speed. Sometimes you can see animals such as cows and goats near the roads.

Finally, Karelian villages are worth seeing, as they are looked very romantic and such wooden houses you can’t see in Austria.

by Christian Schwarz