There are many unusual things in Karelia. But today I propose to make a virtual journey through the mysterious islands, with which certain legends and amazing incidents are associated.

There are also many islands in Karelia - the country of rivers and lakes, and almost most of them are shrouded in a halo of mystery. I had to build a route for a long time in order to go through the least traveled tourist trails and introduce you to the most interesting corners of this amazing land.

About Kizhi and Valaam, which certainly hold the palm among the most beautiful and most legendary Karelian islands, I won’t talk here, I devoted separate articles to them. The real journey will pass through small islands unknown to the general public, whose historyand attractionsdeserving in my opinion yu t attention.

I plan to start my journey withBig Klimets Island.

You will meet him during your journey from Petrozavodsk to the island of Kizhi if you go there on the Meteor. LengthBig Klimetsky is 30 km and the width is 9 km. However, it is not its size that is of interest, but the events that took place on its territory.

At the very end of the 15th century, the Klimets monastery appeared on the southern tip of the island. The church building was founded by the Novgorod merchant John Klimentov. According to legend, in 1520 he sailed on a merchant ship from Novgorod to the White Sea, but on the way the merchant was caught by a strong storm, during which the ship was washed ashore by waves. The merchant survived, and in gratitude for his salvation, he decided to found a monastery on the picturesque island.

In the photo below: View of the monastery today.

Gradually, ordinary residents began to settle near the monastery. Remarkably, they were not simple fishermen and peasants, but very creative, talented people. They always knew many ancient legends and traditions, which they themselves composed and passed down from generation to generation. In the 19th century, several folklorists arrived on the island and recorded a huge number of Russian epics. Many of them later became widely known far beyond the borders of Russia.

However, not only the literary past of the island, but also the mysterious present is of interest to tourists and researchers. Secrets attract ufologists, local historians and lovers of everything unknown to Bolshoy Klimetsky. Since ancient times, local residents have noticed that sometimes strange events occur on the island, which are not so easy to explain. By the way, from the Karelian legends you can get information that in the Middle Ages there was a huge pagan temple here. Old-timers and guests of the island talk about unusual phenomena that are observed on the territory of the island. On the paths there are lights, unidentified flying objects, silhouettes of incomprehensible creatures and much more.

The secrets of a small piece of land in the middle of Lake Onega excite people's minds. Many come here with dowsing frames and other devices, and spend all their free time studying anomalies. Some find places with "huge energy potential" and are firmly convinced that space and time on the island can "fold".

What happens on the territory of the island, and why is it so interesting to numerous researchers? Even eyewitnesses or direct participants in incomprehensible incidents cannot answer this question. For example, in the early 70s of the last century, several workers from the capital's fish factory arrived at Bolshoi Klimetsky to go fishing on the weekends. After spending the night in a log cabin, one of the fishermen went ashore to fish, while the other decided to take a walk in the forest first. The walk was somewhat delayed, and the second fisherman managed to get out of the forest only after a month, during which rescuers and volunteers were looking for him. However, after returning to the civilized world, the lost worker of the fish factory was not able to tell about his adventures in detail, because, according to his feelings, only a few hours had passed. Local residents say that after his return, the special services became interested in him, but this is understandable.

In 2008, another fisherman was introduced to the mysterious nature of the island.

Here is his short recorded story. The fisherman's name was Alexander Efimov, and he lived in one of the villages near the island of Kizhi.

“Last summer (2008) I sailed to Bolshoi Klimetsky Island in the evening. Leaving the boat on the shore, not far from the sandy spit, I went for firewood to build a fire. From the lake, I walked very close and moved all the time directly in the direction opposite to my parking lot. I know these places well, I have been here several times, so I always felt calm and confident. Although he treated the stories about the "strangeness" of the island with respect, since people whom I know personally and who would never stoop to "invented nonsense" talked about it. Nothing like this has ever happened to me here, so there were no fears. So, imagine what my surprise was when, having gathered firewood, I suddenly saw my shore and a boat right in front of me. The impression was as if, having wandered through the forest, I made a circle and returned to my original place. But the point is that I did not make any “circle”. This puzzled me. I "forgot" about the fire and - again in the thicket, but again found myself on the shore. I "did" this five times, but with the same result. The most amazing thing is that the little compass on my watch strap kept pointing in the right direction. I made the last two attempts, specifically checking with him.

As a result, Efimov decided to stop the experiments and went home, away from the strange island.

In 2009, a company of young Petrozavodsk residents arrived on the same island, who planned to relax on the shore of the island and just have a good time. They failed to realize their idea, because after a few hours the soil under their feet began to vibrate a little, the outlines of the surrounding objects became fuzzy, and a strange and very unpleasant sound hung in the air. At first, the guys attributed what was happening to a sightseeing ship passing by, but after a while it disappeared from view, but the strange sensations remained. The young people decided to leave the island, and as soon as they got into the boat, strange sounds disappeared, and the contours of objects again became clearly distinguishable.

In the same year, another strange thing happened. On one of the summer days, a family arrived on Bolshoy Klimetsky to rest: father, mother and their six-year-old daughter Anya. Parents pitched a tent on the shore and started making a fire to cook fish soup. The child was constantly next to them, but at one point suddenly disappeared from sight. Father and mother immediately rushed to search for the missing daughter. For two hours they combed the bushes in the area, but found nothing. As a result, the girl was found sleeping peacefully in a tent. How did the child manage to climb into it, and why didn’t he hear the screams of his parents? How did the parents, who looked into the tent more than once, not see it? However, this is not the most interesting. In order to wake up their child, parents had to spend about ten minutes. Waking up, the girl was unable to explain what happened and how she got into the tent. According to her, it turned out that she ran away into the forest, started playing and went out to some clearing with a black stone in the middle, but then she began to fall asleep so much that she leaned against the stone and fell asleep. The girl didn't remember anything else. Her adventure had no consequences for Anya. True, the mother claims that after the incident, the girl's eyes darkened, becoming almost brown from gray, her hair stopped curling and the location of moles on her body changed.

The above cases are only a part of the incidents that have taken place on the island. You can believe in them or not, but the fact remains: from time to time people disappear on Bolshoi Klimetsky. Fortunately, they are always found - in a few hours or days. The missing themselves remember little about what happened, noting that they had to either walk in circles or go to an incomprehensible voice. It remains to be hoped that scientists will someday be able to unravel the secrets of the mysterious island.

Second mysterious island on our route bears the nameRadkolye.

He is also in Onega lake near Kizhi. The island is about 500 meters long and almost 160 meters wide. Despite its rather small size, this landmass, surrounded on all sides, boasts unique history and monuments located on its territory.

The name of the island consists of two words: "kallio" (rock) and "raato" (dead animal). Translated into Russian, this means "rock of the dead animal." Most of the island is covered with forests and shrubs. In the pre-Christian era, there were many pagan sanctuaries on the island, some of which have survived to this day. The pagan temples of Radkolye are figures made of stone in the form of spirals and ovals, but there are also more complex forms of such objects. It is known that they were part of an ancient pagan cult, common in the territory of modern Karelia.

(In the photo on the left - a temple, below on the right - a restored labyrinth)

One of the most famous monuments of the island is the Radkol Idol, with which the locals had many traditions..(pictured below)

Until the beginning of the 20th century, local residents once a year on the last Sunday before Ivanov's Day (a week before Kupala) celebrated "Radkol Sunday". On this day, residents of nearby settlements gathered on the island. On a relatively flat area in the central part of Radkolye there was a large stone, the height of which was about two meters. This boulder was the very idol worshiped by the ancient inhabitants of Karelia. During the holiday, people sang and danced, and the youth who took part in the celebration of “Radkol Sunday” united their efforts and every year tried to push a stone into the water. Despite all the efforts spent, the stone remained standing in its original place. Where this tradition came from and what it meant for the ancient Karelians remains unclear.

In addition to the mysterious idol, there are other sights on the island that attracted not only local residents. The island had a so-called "owner", which the locals considered a rocky fault, where a face was imprinted, shaped like the head of a man with a beard. (see right)

The drawing created by nature was treated with respect, since, according to legend, the bearded owner of the island could send diseases and other troubles to a person who showed disrespect to him.

Even old-timers from nearby villages talk about the sacred Radkol pine, which was only miraculously not cut down when harvesting logs for the construction of the Klimenetsky Monastery.

Today Radkolje Island is of interest to archaeologists and scientists. Unorganized tourists can view Radkolje only from the water or from a specially created trail, but in the future it is planned to create a museum complex on the island.

To visit the next island, let's mentally move from Onega to Lake Ladoga.

So, now in front of you- Divny Island (part of the Valaam archipelago).

In general, it should be noted that information about the islands of the Valaam archipelago is more than scarce and contradictory. In particular, this also applies to Divny Island, which since ancient times in the Valaam monastery chronicles has been mentioned “as a pagan temple”. In some sources about. Divny is called Devichy, which is hardly justified, since the name of the island comes from the “wonderful, wonderful phenomena” often observed here both in the past and in the present, and that, according to legend, “Divy people” lived on the island in ancient times.
In Russian folk legends, the memory of the "wild peoples" living underground is very stable. The same applies to the Saami, Finnish, Karelian ethnographic tradition.
The island itself, undoubtedly, can even be called a landscape sanctuary - almost impregnable cliffs go vertically into the depths of Ladoga, the flat top of the island is overgrown with lush vegetation. It was at the top of the millennium ago that the cromlech was laid out - the main attraction of the island, in the middle of which, in the 15th century, the monks Valaam Monastery put up a cross. Apparently thanks to ancient sanctuary this place has always been considered reserved and mysterious. It is believed that it also has its own mysterious "keeper".

Some people who are in different time on about. Marvelous, I even managed to "get acquainted" with the custodian of the cromlech. Their descriptions are similar in many respects, therefore, we will give as an example only one, recorded from the words of a physical education teacher of one of the Petrozavodsk schools Ekimova M.F. Marvelous.

“In mid-August 1990, while with friends on about. Marvelous (our camp was set up near the cromlech), I saw how a small man, a dwarf, approached me imperceptibly. He was dressed in a light jacket and trousers of the same color, and there was something on his head. The face is dark, the eyes are bulging, the lips are thick, the nose is wide. When I asked where he came from, he somehow vaguely waved his hand: they say, from there. He did not immediately answer my every question, apparently, it was difficult for him to speak, he seemed to be looking for suitable words, and his speech was inarticulate. I turned to call one of my own, and when I turned again it was gone. How it evaporated in the air, although there is simply nowhere to hide in this place. After this meeting, I had a very unpleasant feeling, and the whole team hurried away from that place. It felt like we invaded "someone" without an invitation."

UFO sightings are also associated with Divny Island. Here is one of them, from which the veil of “secrecy” fell not so long ago, since this event was once mistaken for “military testing of new weapons”, but then they admitted that the military had nothing to do with this incident (in the photo on the right below, as you know, just a picture)

“In the summer of 1992, tourists who made a boat trip along the islands of the Valaam archipelago, in the direction of about. Divny suddenly saw some kind of "rocket" about three meters long, which flew out of the water. Then, three smaller "rockets" separated from this "rocket" and flew in different directions. And after a couple of minutes everything was gone.
The rise from the water was very slow, then - hovering, and suddenly three small "rockets" went off from the sides at the same time. There was no flame to be seen below. After they took off, large waves went through the water. The color of the rockets was grey, obviously metallic. "Rockets" suddenly picked up speed and disappeared - only dots flickered in the distance.

(Left: Divny Island. Painting by Alexander Afonin)

However, staying on the island does not always end psychologically painlessly for a person. There are enough messages in the personal archives of the authors that testify that Divny Island is not a place for recreational walks, but, like any other "place of power", it imposes certain obligations on a person. Here is one such message:

“We arrived at Valaam and, after seeing all the sights, went to about. Divny - told Petrozavodsk resident Sergei Belokozenko . - There were four of us (two young married couples) and we wanted to take a break from the hustle and bustle, from people, to join something unusual, mysterious, so we decided to go to about. Marvelous, to live there in tents for several days. Summer was in full swing, the weather was excellent, the mood was good. It was easy and fun. One day, literally before our departure, we all simultaneously had a strange feeling: either anxiety, or fear. This feeling was very vague and it was impossible to understand why it was happening. Gradually, it intensified until it turned into horror. I wanted to run somewhere. The state bordered on panic. It perfectly corresponded to the words of the great Jung: “The oldest, most powerful emotion felt by a living being is fear. And the strongest feeling of fear is the fear of the unknown.”
In this state, we went to bed. It was at two o'clock in the morning, but no one could sleep. Silence reigned in the tents, no one wanted to speak.
At about two o'clock I left the tent - I wanted to distract myself from heavy thoughts - when suddenly, right in front of me, I saw something that in shape was an ideal "flying saucer". This object was about fifteen meters long. It glowed with a red-yellow light and had a halo of the same color around it. It is interesting that four structures departed from the object, representing a straight rod, which ended in a triangular shape. The impression was that this "triangle" was viewed as if through a prism, because it was "turned out". The object moved vertically up and down. I got the impression that he sometimes touched the ground with these "constructions".
I called everyone, and we all observed this strange phenomenon together. In the end, our interest in the object weakened, although the feeling of fear did not go away, and we went to bed. As soon as we settled down (in the tent with my wife) a man suddenly appeared in the tent. It was an old man with a thick, white beard. His figure was covered with something that looked like a black overalls. He came up to us, stood a little and leaned towards us. We've seen it both. They saw it quite clearly and were frightened. The most interesting thing is that our friends, in the second tent, saw, at the same time as us, a completely similar vision. It even seemed to us that the “old man” appeared to us against the backdrop of some kind of pyramid with letters or frescoes carved on it. All this lasted seconds, but it seemed to us an eternity.
The vision of the "old man" suddenly disappeared. We, in the end, completely exhausted, fell asleep, and left in the morning. I think we will have enough of this adventure for the rest of our lives.”

WITH The next island we will get to know is Kilpola island in Lake Ladoga.

The island with an area of ​​6 by 8 km (literally "kilpi" - Shield, la - the place where the Kilpi family lived) is known for the fact that settlements of ancient Karelians were discovered on it.

Before the war 1939 od on the island, a stone Novgorod cross was found, which is currently in National Museum Finland (city X Helsinki).

The island and surrounding areas are very ancient history, in the area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe village of Tiurulu, sites of Stone Age people from the 4th-5th millennium BC were discovered.Karelian settlements, one of the most ancient agricultural settlements in the Northern Ladoga region.

Until the 40s of the last century, dozens of families lived on Kilpol, roads were laid between farms, and bridges were thrown over the canals. On the island there was a courtyard of the Konevsky monastery and even several villages belonging to the monastery. All this was burned by the fire of the Soviet-Finnish wars.The last families left the island already in the 50s, during the period of forced collectivization and the then policy of consolidation of collective farms and the destruction of farms. People with property were relocated from the island to the nearest villages. Everything that could not be taken with them was simply burned. Now only the old foundations, thickets of raspberries, rare currant bushes and still fruitful apple trees remind of the former presence of people on the island.

In our time, archaeological excavations were carried out on Kilpol. Although they cannot be called full-scale, they also gave scientists an idea about the life and way of life of the ancient Karelians who lived on the island.

At the southern end north of the cape Sakhaniemi, in the area of ​​Cape Karmelammenniemi, in 1941-44, there was a guard observation post (see photo on the right).

However, a huge number of legends and traditions are also associated with the island.

The book of the outstanding Finnish ethnographer and archaeologist Theodor Schvindt “Folk legends of the northwestern Ladoga region, collected in the summer of 1879” provides unique information about the “giants ancient land Korelskaya.

« On the Ladoga coast, - writes T. Schwindt, - there is a legend that once lived in these places huge people, the so-called metelilainens, or munkkilainens, who were gradually driven out of here by the Laplanders and Finns ". Metelylainens were distinguished by their enormous growth and the incredible noise that they made during their movement through the forest, from which, in fact, their name comes from (from the word “meteli” - noise).

"Legends of Metelylainens, - T. Schwindt points out further, -preserved almost everywhere, but especially a lot of them in the so-called "Kilpol necklace" - on the islands located around the island of Kilpola. Probably because in such places there is a lot of real evidence of the activities of giant people: these are fields cleared of forests, and from time to time huge human bones that come across in the ground, and plows abandoned by the metelylainen, as well as huge ramparts in the mountains and on islands.

In particular, in the village of Sookua there is a mountain Kesakallimäki, which was almost all once occupied by a cemetery, but now houses have been built there. I dug in that area and found under a flat stone at a considerable depth the skeleton of a large man: his skull lay a little to the side, and the bone of his right forearm was near his nose. One old man told me that the Metelylainens were buried here.”

In addition to the above evidence, ancient stone masonry-shafts and other remains of stone structures have been preserved on Kilpola, which cannot be called fortifications, but they are nevertheless considered fortresses. And x is also attributed to the metelilainens - how heavy and weighty stones lie at the base of buildings, an ordinary person cannot lift.

“Stones in places the size of a cubic cubit and even more (The elbow is an old Russian measure of length, equal to 38-46 cm. Accordingly, a cubic cubit is approximately 0.25-0.5 cubic meters). Therefore, it is believed that such a structure could only be done by the metelylainen. ” Schwindt wrote.

In the channel between the island Montossaari and the island of Kilpola is a place where only uninformed lovers of "wild" recreation and fishing risk coming.

From the northern part of the island of Kilpola, a long-abandoned village is visible: a rickety log bell tower and black log cabins. People left it at the very beginning of the last century, and since then no one has lived there anymore. Here are just some of the legends that have survived to this day, explaining their act.

The following is a quote from the book of the Karelian local historian A. Popov:

“The grandson of one of the inhabitants of the “cursed” village, Alexander Ermakov, said that miracles began here back in the 19th century, after one day in this place, contrary to all the laws of nature, night did not come. Exactly three days here it was bright as day. No, the sun did not shine, rather the whole village was shrouded in a light fog, now thickening, then, on the contrary, dissipating. Frightened to death, people could not sleep all this time, feeling some exhausting feeling of anxiety in their souls. Then the "miracles" suddenly stopped, and everything went on as usual. However, from that moment on, events began to occur in this place, the explanations for which are still impossible to find.

On certain days of the week, any sharp objects suddenly became blunt: scissors, knives, needles, sickles, scythes, axes, and attempts to somehow sharpen them were never crowned with success. Women here stopped getting pregnant, and the village slowly but surely began to "age". However, the childbearing function of the village women was restored as soon as they moved to live in another place.

The bank of the canal began to rapidly overgrow: huge burdocks, undersized trees with abnormally long branches, creeping along the ground for many meters, a strange grass - one and a half to two times taller than human growth. In addition, three even "cauldrons" of about 6-9 meters in diameter suddenly appeared at the very edge of the water, lined from the inside with a layer of an unknown material similar to emery. They were very warm even in winter, and local boys liked to play in them. Over time, these cauldrons were sucked into the unsteady soil, and then nothing reminded of their existence.

Strange mirages that usually appear in these places on the eve of the full moon are already told in completely fantastic stories. According to eyewitnesses, when the sun rises, palaces and city walls are visible above the lake. This "city" (some call it a temple) is a dome surrounded by openwork turrets. His environment changes - some see him on the shore of a body of water, others - on the edge of a cliff, others - on a hillside. Here is how one of the eyewitnesses describes the mirage: “A city rose from the fog. It glowed in various colors, as if engulfed in a multi-colored fire. Walls and towers rose above the night lake, the shadows of people who lived an ordinary worldly life appeared. From time to time there were sounds reminiscent of the hum of the crowd in the market, the crying of children, enchanting music. And all this wonderful vision gave rise to some kind of unaccountable fear in the soul, a desire to run away from the beautiful picture, to forget it.

A few years later, the "city" disappeared as suddenly as it appeared. But over the area, with enviable frequency, a huge red ball began to be observed in a circle as red as fire. And there was always a luminous object nearby. After some time, the ball darkened, and voluminous greenish images appeared against its background - either people in a wild dance, or mysterious hieroglyphs.

From time to time some strange white creatures appeared in the village: people - not people, animals - not animals. Meeting with them did not bode well: those who did not have time to hide in their houses and who, by a fatal accident, were touched by “people in white”, suddenly fell ill with an unknown disease and soon died in agony.

In the thicket of the forest, which the locals tried to bypass, there were places, stepping on which people simply disappeared. However, at first, someone "confused" them for a long time, forcing them to wander along small ponds, which quite unexpectedly met in the forest thicket. According to the stories of the survivors, when they went deep into the forest, strictly guided by the sun, there were three such ponds, and when it was time to return home, there were already seven of them! Only rare lucky ones who wandered among the ponds for more than one day managed to return. The rest disappeared without a trace. Surprisingly, however, the same number of pseudo-moons appeared over these pseudo-ponds at night! Small, mobile, glowing with all the colors of the rainbow, they blinked with multi-colored lights, as if laughing at the unlucky travelers, and stretched tentacles glowing in silver to the ground.

The exhausted villagers, unable to endure such a life, decided to leave the village and settle away from these cursed places, as they believed, by God. It was decided to keep the location of the village a secret, but all the same legends about local miracles leaked into folklore and passed from mouth to mouth, acquiring more and more monstrous details.

Over time, the "zone" gradually calmed down, and now there are fewer and fewer deaths: people, as if sensing something was wrong, try not to linger in these parts for a long time. Out of the ordinary things happen here, but with a different, positive sign: in certain places, if you stay in them for at least a day, chronic diseases are cured, the body seems to be “recharged” with energy. They also say that somewhere in these parts there are transitional "gates" between the worlds. Perhaps it was on a journey to parallel worlds that the people who disappeared here over the last hundred years went?

Now let's fast forward on our journey to the north of the republic - to Trinity Island.

Troitsky Island (Trinity Island, Shuya Island -so it was called at different times) is located on Lake Muezero, which in turn is located in the Belomorsky region of Karelia. The lake measures 8.7 by 4.7 km. On shore there are two settlements Afonino and Ushkovo, in which no one has lived for a long time. To get to the island, you must firstto get to these abandoned villages, you can’t get there by SUV - everything is overgrown, you can walk 3 km on foot from the highway, and then by boat 3 km on the water. (In the photo on the right - the abandoned village of Ushakovo, on the left - the roads of Karelia, sometimes it happens)

Muezero comes from the Karelian word "mue" - vendace. And on this lake in the 15-16th century there was a Muezersky prison. This was the only defensive structure at that time, in the Rugozero volost, which protected a small monastery, and somewhat later, the church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker (1602-1605) built on the island. monastery was founded in the middle of the 15th century by the Monk Cassian of Muezersky, who arrived here from the Solovetsky Monastery, but in 1764, by decree of Catherine, the second monastery was already abolished, and the buildings have since gradually collapsed.

(In the photo on the left - the Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker)

In the descriptive book of the Kem volost, compiled in 1591 by centurion Semyon Yurenev, this monastery was described as follows:“on Maslozerskaya land on Muezer on the island of monasteries, and in it is the temple of the Life-Giving Trinity, a hermitage, and in it are five brothers; and they feed on their labors with a goblin, and they catch fish on the lake. There are two bows of onions, 5 yards of Bobyl's.(In the photo below: the interior of the church from Trinity Island)

Only the church, built in 1602-1605 and very unkemptly restored in Soviet times, and two chapels have survived to this day. According to the northern tradition, neither the temple nor the chapel are locked - they are only propped up with a stick from wild animals.

(In the photo on the right - the chapel of the Savior not made by hands)

In the first chapel, you can see a three-meter wooden cross made by Elder Alexei in 1672, which is confirmed by the inscription on it. (in the photo below - the entrance to the chapel and the cross inside)

Next to the church and the chapel is another chapel-tomb. The second, unofficial name of the island is associated with it -"White death". (pictured below right)

They say that earlier on the site of this chapel there was a boulder, on which the righteous lay down to accept the so-called White Death from God. Subsequently, a largea wooden coffin, the boards of which shimmer in the dark, as if made of bone.The last body, whose soul presented itself here to the divine throne, is considered to lie in this coffin and does not decompose. She waits until the next one who wants to part with earthly life comes here. This desiring one must first bury the mortal shell of the predecessor before lying there himself. (in the photo below - the same white coffin. Empty)

This island is also known for the fact that huge fir trees planted in the 14th century grow here. This is due to the legend that it was here that the World Tree once grew (also a spruce according to Karelian ideas).

Until recently, a patriarch stood here with a trunk diameter of 4 meters, but now it has fallen. But his younger neighbors remained (diameter 2 and a half meters, but the girth along the outer perimeter is also at least 3.5 meters).

On the island there is a chain of seids that leads to a small lambin (for some reason it is called Karma - see the photo on the right ). Among amateur explorers, there are rumors that time dips occur on the island, you can hear someone's beautiful singing or see the ancient Magi performing their rituals.

Spruces and seids are interconnected, because according to ancient Sami and Karelian legends, it is the “Tree” that is the original beginning of the “initiatory journey” through milestone signs (“seids”) to Lake Karma.

In the photo - an idol from Lake Karma and seid

Well, the last point of our journey -Anzer Island Solovetsky archipelago.

In 2001, an expedition of specialists from the Russian Geographical Society discovered a strange "sea pyramid" off Anzer Island, rising to a height of about ten meters above the water level, which has also not received an intelligible explanation to date.(pictured below)

In the summer of 2003, a second expedition conducted research inthose edges. Specialists wrote down the legends preserved in the memory of local residents aboutthat in ancient times on the shore of one of local lakes there was an ancient pagan temple, built of numerous stones and very revered.Researchers still found this temple. But, unfortunately, toto date, the monument has been completely destroyed; stones are scattered over a large area or simply destroyed. Many of them have gone into the ground, and finding them is quite difficult. (pictured below left)

Legends also say that this temple was built from "marked" stones, i.e. from stones with runic signs carved on them, which, along with semantic and magical functions, also carried a protective function. Interestingly, the very word "rune" does not mean "letter or sign", but "secret, secret", that is, withword "rune" is an analogue of the Greek "mysterion" (mystery).

(The photo below is a labyrinth from the island of Anzer)

Here our journey ends. But I hope it's not the last. And we will continue to discover hard-to-reach, but such beautiful corners of our northern ancestral home.

In the photo: Chapel on the island of Anzer

THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION!

Karelia has amazing place, namely Mount Vottovaara, which is not included in the tourist routes.

This place is full of secrets, bizarre trees grow here, there is a stone pool, dead silence and a special atmosphere.

Since the discovery (more than 30 years ago) S.M. Simonyan, the mountain managed to acquire all sorts of legends, most of them related to UFOs that the locals saw. Superstitious people consider it a place of concentration of dark forces and a bridge to other worlds. And it attracts ordinary tourists with fabulous landscapes and unusual landscape.

Vottovaara is not so accessible - on the way there are difficult sections of the road, flooded bridges, and sometimes the rivers themselves block the way. To overcome some of the obstacles on the way to the mountain, you will need a four-wheel drive vehicle.

But in order to visit this amazing mystical place, it is worth overcoming all these difficulties.

At the foot of the mountain there is a small lake:

Already at the entrance to the top, we are met by numerous boulders, as if cut into pieces with a sword - the cut is absolutely even:

The higher we climb, the less vegetation we see - only dry twisted trees and mosses. There is a feeling of a "dead" place.

At the top, you begin to feel the mystical atmosphere. The view of the landscape is mesmerizing.

One of the most important secrets of this mountain is the Seids, which are structures made of stones, sacred objects of the North European peoples. At the top of the mountain, an area of ​​​​about 6 square meters. km, according to various sources there are about 1500 of them.

The size of the stones is different - from small cobblestones to huge boulders, the weight of which, according to estimates, is several tons. But the most interesting thing is that these boulders are placed on a kind of "stands" consisting of 3-4 small stones.

It is not known who, when and for what purposes created numerous stone structures. It is possible that this is a creation of the ancient inhabitants of Karelia - the Saami, who knew about the unusual properties of the mountain, and used this place for religious rites.

At the top of the plateau is a swamp. Large stones next to the swamp are called an amphitheater:

Here you can also find a stone pool of regular rectangular shape nearby:

Strange Stories sometimes you can hear in the deaf, taiga corners of Karelia. They are told by both individuals and entire villages. Many eyewitnesses of these events are still alive and tell their children and grandchildren about it. These are stories about sorcerers and werewolves who, it turns out, live with us and are our contemporaries.

In general, probably, in Russia there are now few corners (even remote ones), like the Karelian hinterland, in which folk belief in various forms of magic and numerous beliefs are so strong. It carefully preserves the diverse experience of the older generations, associated with an original and deep view of the world, which is in many respects different from the modern "civilized" worldview.

Christianity brought humanity to a new qualitative level of God - and self-knowledge, however, it is not a secret that the pagan world is forever imprinted in the human soul; the world for many is much more real and vital, having an undying magic-practical tradition of cognition and interaction with the forces of Nature. Paganism is a direct, open "conversation" that allows you to live a single life with Nature at the everyday, practical level. Therefore, it is not surprising that in the Karelian hinterland, along with the Bible, one can find literature on witchcraft, witchcraft ... It is not surprising that these incompatible religions coexist in the souls of many people.

However, it is possible that it is this amazing combination of outwardly incompatible beliefs that creates a specifically unique aura of a remote Karelian village, behind which often lies a completely unexplored spiritual world, a world full of originality and mystery.

In the small village of Suisar, a few dozen kilometers from Petrozavodsk, in the 90s of the last century, there lived a very strong witch, revered not only in the village itself, but throughout the entire district. At that time, she was already in advanced years, rarely left the house, receiving visitors in her small mountain. She knew and knew how to do everything. Penetrating eyes with a steely sheen pierced through, seeing your most secret. “Who comes to me with a lie, he immediately starts to beat and shake. I can’t lie, ”the old woman used to say more than once. That's why few came to her.

Icon of the 16th century from the church of Elijah the Prophet in the village of Suisar

She had amazing "power" over nature and animals. It was said that when a connecting rod bear unexpectedly raided the village in winter, she, coming close to the roaring beast, asked him to go back to the forest and not come again. The ashamed giant murmured apologetically and hastily trotted into the taiga, and she returned to the house, previously low to the ground, bowing only to the forces and gods known to her alone.

Her help was unselfish. “My life is my song. Whoever wants to listen, let him listen. I don’t take anything for it,” she laughed.

One day they turned to her for help: a cow disappeared. We searched all evening, but it was all in vain. They ran to her. “The nurse is alive,” she consoled, after listening to the request, she left the house and went outside the village. When she reached the crossroads, she stopped and stood in silence for a long time. Then, with a prayerful request with a low bow, she turned “to the forest of the northern side” to give the cow, not to leave it with her. In complete calm, the tops of the trees swayed from side to side, the leaves rustled, roadside dust swept up like a snake. “She is not there,” she only said. She then turned to the "forest of the eastern side", but the same answer came. And only the "forest of the south side" unanimously "nods" with its spruce mane. “Your nurse is alive,” she repeated once again to those who were taken aback and not believing her own eyes. “Wait!” And without looking back, she went home.

Grandfather-brownie in the views of ancient korels

A little time passed, the ringing of a bell was heard, and everyone saw a cow running (!) towards them from the “forest on the south side”.

The witch's death was silent; she passed on her skills and knowledge by inheritance. But they still remember her, remember her deeply, how deeply the human heart can love and remember.

In the same 90s, in the Pudozh region of Karelia, “tales” were passed from mouth to mouth about a certain strange man, whom popular rumor dubbed a “werewolf”. This man - Fyodor Ivanovich Dutov - was a hereditary sorcerer who enjoyed a bad reputation because of his absolutely unsociable and grumpy character. It was said that he possessed a kind of "knowledge", thanks to which he could turn into any animal. There were rumors that from time to time from his house, located on the edge of the village (the village is given without a name, based on ethical considerations), inhuman cries were heard, turning into a wolf howl. These days (more precisely, nights) the village was literally flooded with wolves, causing the locals to tremble. The wolves were shot, and in the morning their corpses disappeared; Dutov took them to the forest and buried them. They were afraid of him, bypassed him, spat on the trail, but ... did not touch him. They believed in his witchcraft power, that he could send damage, the evil eye, any incurable disease.

Once an event occurred that finally secured the nickname "werewolf" for Dutov. Dutov suddenly disappeared from the village. Day after day passed, but he did not return, but they noticed that at that time a pack of wolves appeared in the vicinity of the village, haunting day and night. We decided to make a round-up, set traps, and went out in groups to shoot. The results were deplorable when suddenly at night the village woke up from a heart-rending howl, a howl of pain and suffering, picked up by a wolf's polyphony. And in the morning they saw Dutov returning with a pale, haggard face and a somehow bandaged hand, bleeding. They rushed to the place where a terrible, ominous cry of pain was heard at night, and in one of the traps they saw a gnawed wolf paw and numerous traces of wolves. No one even touched the trap; horror drove people from this place. And since then, Dutov has appeared only in a mitten on his right hand, regardless of the time of year. His brush remained in that trap forever.

Terrible was the life of this man, terrible was his death. It came two years after the events described above. Dutov at that time was about sixty years old. Apparently, he felt the approach of death. It is not known what he experienced in those moments. It was said that he screamed terribly during the day, and in the evening appeared on the porch of his house, looked at the village, at the people and ... cried. And then he rushed into the forest, deafening the silence with either a heartbreaking human cry or a wolf howl.

How to relate to stories about supernatural forces that supposedly live in the house? Science considers them simply as fiction, which has nothing but a purely human desire to BELIEVE in these forces. For example, legends about brownie. They are passed down from generation to generation and for us are just a fabulous myth that has been preserved since ancient times. But the fact that “meetings” with brownies are still taking place and have some real basis, science is silent about this. There is confusion due to the unwillingness to understand, to somehow differentiate the facts. But there are a huge number of them.

This article is based on the personal impressions of one of the authors of this material, Alexei Popov, received during the teaching practice in 1983 in the village of Gridino, Kemsky district of the Karelian ASSR, where we witnessed very interesting and curious events, which we find it difficult to give any or the usual explanation.

Village Gridino

But first, a little historical and mythological information about the origin of brownies.

During the Babylonian pandemonium, God punished the people who dared to penetrate the mystery of His greatness by mixing languages, and depriving the main of them of their image and likeness, determined for eternity to guard waters, forests, mountains ... Who at the time of punishment was at home - became a brownie, in mountains - a mountain spirit, in the forest - a forester. Belief adds that, despite the power of sin, repentance can turn them into a primitive state, so the people see fallen people in these incorporeal beings and give them human features and properties.

According to general concepts, a brownie is a spirit without a body, without wings and without horns, which lives in every house and in every family. He differs from Satan in that he does not do evil, but only plays pranks, jokes sometimes, but often renders services if he falls in love with the owner or mistress.

In the common people, they respect the brownie, are afraid of offending anything, and are even wary of pronouncing his name without a purpose. In conversations, they do not call him a brownie, but Grandfather, the Boss.

And now about our adventures in the village of Gridino.

It all started with a curiosity. Alexander Starosvetsky, who came with me for teaching practice, and I were settled in a house on the very shore of the bay White Sea. The first thing we saw upon entering the house was a large eye painted on the wall. Without having the slightest idea what this symbol means, we would have forgotten about it if the next day the chairman of the collective farm, Ivan Ipatievich Mekhnin, had not explained to us its meaning. It turns out that two interns lived in this house shortly before our arrival, who had to turn to the chairman with a request to relocate them, because they constantly heard some strange sounds in the house, incomprehensible muttering, hitting the wall, heavy steps in the attic and lived therefore, in a state of constant fear, unable to explain what is happening. Turning to the local residents for clarification, they did not calm down, because they were told that “these are the tricks of the“ Boss ”and you should not pay attention to them. However, the girls could not get used to this state of affairs and were forced to leave before the official deadline for the end of teaching practice.

Wooden sculpture of a brownie. 13th century

Somewhat later, we became convinced that the “eye” symbol most accurately conveyed our psychological state: we constantly felt someone’s invisible presence, there was a feeling that someone was constantly watching us, although there was no “clear” evidence in favor of this assumption. did not have. Everything was based (YET) only on our subjective perception and it should be noted that this is an unpleasant sensation. We just as often, especially at night or in the evening, heard a dull muttering coming from behind the wall, someone's measured steps, crying, sometimes clear blows to the wall. It seemed that we had neighbors, although we were alone in the whole house. We were also about to turn to the locals for help when an event occurred that prompted us to take these phenomena more seriously.

It happened on the fifth day of our stay in Gridino. It was about 23:00. Starosvetsky was preparing tea, and I went into the hallway to collect kerosene for the lamp. Unexpectedly, muffled blows were heard coming from above, followed by Starosvetsky's frightened exclamation. I returned to the kitchen, but he could not answer my question intelligibly, but at the same moment heavy measured steps were heard (steps, undoubtedly, "human") in the attic. But what were those steps! It is difficult even to imagine the weight of this "creature", because the heavy ceiling beams sagged under the weight of these "steps" and sawdust fell on us from the cracks formed. This lasted for about a minute. "Someone" did not just mark time, but walked around the attic, which we clearly heard and saw, and the sawdust that fell down only proved that these were not hallucinations. "He" took eight or ten "steps" and everything stopped as suddenly as it began. I had a desire to go up to the attic, but the purely physical fear was so strong that I could not overcome myself.

It wasn't until the next morning that we went upstairs. The attic was littered to the last degree: everything was covered with dust and overgrown with cobwebs. It was evident that no one had been here for a long time, we did not find any traces, which struck me even more than the night event. If even the most fantastic traces had been found, it would not have surprised to such an extent, since it would have received at least some logical explanation.

Meanwhile, events were unfolding... On the evening of December 11, at about 7 pm, when A. Starosvetsky was attending extracurricular classes at school, a neighbor boy from the opposite house ran up to me and told the following:

“Literally half an hour ago, when I was lighting the stove, my dog, who had hitherto been dozing peacefully in the corner, grumbled, became alert, and suddenly, with a loud bark, jumped out of the kitchen into the hallway. Confused, I followed her out. We didn't close the lid to the attic, and now she was barking, looking into this opening. I thought maybe a cat had gone in, although there was no sound coming from there. The dog became more and more inflamed, stood with its front paws on the stairs leading to the attic, and barked louder and louder. I felt uneasy, but the desire to understand what was happening was stronger. I started to help the dog up the stairs, and so, little by little, he got to the very edge of the attic, when the unthinkable happened. She continued to bark furiously, when she suddenly flew down. She didn't just fall. There was an impression that she was simply “thrown out” from there, moreover, with such force that she flew past me and hit the front door. Then, whining plaintively, she huddled in a corner.

We examined the attic together, but found no traces that could give at least some hint of a clue.

And now let's dwell on another phenomenon that we have witnessed - the most complex and interesting in terms of its dynamics.

This happened shortly before our departure - on December 19th. It was about 20:00. We had just had supper, and I went into the room to kindle the stove, but Starosvetsky immediately called me. I returned to the kitchen, and my woolen socks, hitherto peacefully drying on a line above the stove, immediately caught my eye. Now they slowly swayed in a strictly vertical direction, and the amplitude of the oscillations increased. In the end, they swayed so hard that they fell off the rope and fell to the floor. The rope continued to make the same movements up and down until, finally, it “calmed down”. Before we had time to come to our senses and somehow analyze what happened, all the dishes that were there suddenly flew to the floor from the kitchen shelf. Moreover, the shelf itself remained completely motionless. It seemed that "SOMEONE" or "SOMETHING" with a huge "hand" brushed everything down. It all ended as suddenly as it began. There was a ringing silence in my ears, and complete discord in my soul: not a single definite feeling.

This is how, in general terms, "looked" a strange force, which is called the "Gridin's Master". All this, in our general subjective opinion, looked like a well-prepared "performance", in which we turned out to be "spectators".

The conclusion that followed directly from our observations was the following. Apparently, in all these phenomena there is a much more complex causal relationship. The difficulty of solving the problem lies in the fact that, on the one hand, it is real, and on the other hand, it does not lend itself to a trivial logical explanation and often goes against the physical laws known to us.

It's definitely time for Agents Mulder and Scully to pack up and go to work in Karelia. For some reason, aliens, flying saucers and meteorites do not bypass our lands and periodically excite Russian ufologists. The so-called "Onega or Petrozavodsk miracle" gave impetus to talk about UFOs in the Soviet Union.
On Ufologist's Day, our portal has collected the five most striking anomalous incidents that have occurred on the territory of Karelia. What were they looking for and what did they find in the area of ​​the mysterious in the northern land?

1. UFO over the embankment
A bright flash of light approaching Petrozavodsk gave impetus to start a discussion about unidentified flying objects in the Soviet Union. According to eyewitnesses, at 4:00 am on September 20, 1977, a huge star appeared in the sky and began to send "sheaves of light" to the earth, similar to heavy rain. If in those days people had the necessary gadgets in their pockets, then the newspapers would have been full of pictures of the traces of a mysterious phenomenon: for 10-12 minutes something was approaching Onega and suddenly disappeared, leaving in the gray clouds "a gullet of bright red color in the middle and a white one along the edges".
Even in the absence of any photos (the image above is either a copy of the photograph, the original of which has been lost, or a drawing - opinions differ) or video evidence, this story got into the Leninskaya Pravda and Izvestia newspapers.
Today, we can only find numerous verbal testimonies from Petrozavodsk residents, who convince them that during the strange phenomenon they were overtaken by a feeling of "discomfort and dissatisfaction", and after the glass of the houses they were found to be dotted with through holes 50-70 centimeters in diameter. This story was called "Petrozavodsk Miracle". What was it? There are those who explain everything by the laws of nature. But someone is sure that the "jellyfish" over the Karelian sky is nothing more than an alien greeting to humanity.
2. Mysterious Vygozero
This lake has attracted and attracted ufologists and sympathizers more than once. A few years ago, one of the Internet portals added it to the list of anomalous lakes in Russia. Local residents claim that back in 1928 a UFO fell into the waters of Vygozero, after which a creature "with a large head and thin legs" periodically looks out of the reservoir. True, according to ufologist Vyacheslav Kiselev, the 1989 expedition did not confirm the version of the plate that fell to the bottom. But according to a resident of the village of Shchuknavolok, when he was 9 years old, he clearly saw how a huge cylinder appeared from behind the forest, which fell into the lake and broke through the ice, scattering fragments in a circle.
It is interesting that in 2014 similar consequences agitated Karelia. On December 1, an unknown object fell into Vygozero. It was reported that the object at an angle cut off part of the coast of the island. A group of rescuers worked at the scene, and both the explosion of an aerial bomb and the consequences of fishing were put forward as versions.
Within a week, a group of ufologists from the Kosmopoisk association arrived at Vygozero, which, together with divers, was able to sink to the bottom and take measurements. They managed to fix a certain dense body at a depth of 7 meters and a distortion of the magnetic field in the area of ​​​​the funnel, which was formed from the fall. The main version then announced the fall of a meteorite. Ufologists even suggested that the icy body in Vygozero could become one of the heaviest in the world.
True, both representatives of the Karelian Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences and their colleagues in the laboratory of meteoritics at the Vernadsky Institute of Geochemistry and Analytical Chemistry did not find any extraterrestrial particles in sand samples brought from the bottom of Vygozero.
Nevertheless, no one could explain what exactly happened at the beginning of winter on the Karelian lake.
3. UFO, Karelia and Yuri Gagarin
Immediately before the first manned flight into space, Karelia distinguished itself by another anomalous phenomenon on the water. In the Korbozero area, local residents talked about an incomprehensible celestial body. A huge mass of frozen earth with a volume of about a thousand cubic meters turned out to be hidden. A giant crater arose, 27 meters long, 15 meters wide and 3 meters deep. A black scorched polynya appeared on the ice. Witnesses said that the picture left the impression that something had hit the shore and bounced into the lake.
There were local residents who claimed to have seen an unidentified object hit the ground, after which it rapidly took off and disappeared over the horizon. Someone tried to find traces of another life, but only a "strange greenish powder" was found.
Scuba divers were on site. After diving, they assumed that the object that fell into the lake broke through the ice, dragged tons of frozen soil across the ground, and then took off into the sky again. Nothing more is known about this incident.
4. Ice circles on the water
It seems that aliens like to fly to Karelia in winter. In 2011, a local resident saw a flying saucer through the window. While he ran home for the camera, of course, she flew away.

Flying saucer! The real one!! And some two capsules go down from it ... Thank God, not on the head, but a little to the side, above the river, - the eyewitness said.
The next morning, at a local reservoir, a man discovered such an interesting natural phenomenon.
5. Racing with foreign forces
For a change, let's take a case that happened not on the water. In 1985, the drivers of train No. 1702 were driving along regular route from Petrozavodsk to Kostomuksha. At half past eight in the evening, the railroad workers noticed that their train overtook a translucent body that looked like a soccer ball. Sphere led the train, consisting of a two-section diesel locomotive and 70 wagons, and took control of the train.
Unknown to the drivers, the force began to either accelerate or slow down the train. Moreover, the mysterious forces, apparently, were good-natured towards humanity that day: when the drivers had to let another train pass, the ball gave control of the mechanisms back into the hands of people. As reported by the media, this incident is one of the most likely encounters with extraterrestrial life. The indicators of the instruments also made up the fog, according to which, during the “game of catch-up,” the diesel locomotive did not waste fuel and overcame climbs that it could not previously pass even due to inertia after acceleration. By the end station, the drivers saved about 300 kilograms of fuel. What it was, science, again, could not explain.

We are not talking about the tree of desires on the embankment in Petrozavodsk, but about those places that (rightly or not - everyone decides for themselves) are considered places of power. We don’t know if it’s possible to really hear the voice of the earth, the whisper of spirits, or refuel with sacred knowledge there. One thing we can say for sure - in those places that will be discussed, goosebumps are found. And they love to attack people.

In general, a trip to all the "places of power" in Karelia can take a whole month. Valaam, Solovki, Kizhi, almost all major reservoirs... "Petrozavodsk Speaks" tells about the strangest and not the most famous places.

The abandoned village of Kochkomozero near Nadvoitsy.

The village has been deserted for a long time. Once there were about 50 strong houses here, now there are less than a dozen left. Some owners come to some in the summer, some are not inhabited, rickety, blown by the winds and blackened. Winds here blow almost constantly. Esotericists say that Kochkomozero is a good place for self-identification. There are some special energy flows. Many say that the village stands at the place of power. And that the feeling of someone else's presence does not leave. Moreover, it is as if the doors and shutters in the houses close and open by themselves.

Radkolye Island

It is located in Lake Onega, not far from the island of Kizhi. Its name is translated from Finnish as "Rock of the Dead Animal". Here, they say, until the 30s of the last century, those whose gods did not live in churches, but in trees, gathered. The island has its owner, whose incarnation is the Radkol idol created by nature. Neither the island nor its mysterious owner did anything particularly bad to anyone, but many who have been there speak of an all-encompassing feeling of humility and apathy that cannot be shaken off. And this is frightening. As well as the heavy stone look of the “owner”, as if nailing to the ground. By the way, the “owner” was credited with the gift of rewarding with something not good man behaving inappropriately.

Segozero in the Segezha district

This place has a bad reputation. Stories are passed down from generation to generation that the reservoir is very self-willed. In 1928, the old-timers said, all the water suddenly left the Bald Bay of the lake. And after a short (very short, surprisingly, there were no casualties) time, it rushed back with force. But it's already warm. Such terrible waves appeared on the lake often. The year after the warm water incident, a wave killed the rafters. They say that in the 17th century, some mysterious pyramidal object descended into Segozero, after which the anomalies began.

alder wilderness

This is the place of female power. Eyewitnesses say that the wind always blows here, and also that a real witch, the mistress of the winds, lived in a house on a hill nearby. Tourists claim that this slide itself is very musically “buzzing”.

The wilderness is located somewhere in the vicinity of the village of Lyappesyurya. It is known for the fact that it often takes on lightning strikes, so there are a lot of charred trees around. Esotericists believe that this is a place of female power, helping to realize oneself. Old sources indicate that once there really was sacred grove. And later - an Orthodox chapel, which was devoured by a fire.

Vottovaara.

Well, of course, one cannot fail to mention Vottovaara, a mountain in the Muezersky district. We will not describe its "architectural" features. But the energy of the place is really strange. You can lie down for a minute on a flat boulder and fall into the deepest sleep. You can wander half a day between stones and seids, and then find out that you have been walking around your own tent all this time. And the mountain is humming. The air hums, the stone hums. And draws in a strange stupor. In a word - goosebumps are provided.

Shamans, sorcerers and esoterics of all colors and stripes go to the mountain to either try to wake up the ancient Sami spirits, or to beg some of their strength from the stones.