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RussiaAutonomous Republic of Karelia |
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Atlas
Karelia The Largest Cities
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Karelia is characterized by its many forests and lakes. Forests occupy more than 50% of the territory and wetlands and swamps another 20%. Two of the largest lakes in Europe, Lake Ladoga and Lake Onega, are found in Karelia as well as some additional 61,000 smaller lakes in total accounting for about 20% of the territory. The northern part of the area, with harsh winters and few people, belong to the Arctic and drains into the White Sea. The southern half of the area drains into the Baltic Sea through the water system of Lake Onega, the river Svir, Lake Ladoga and river Neva, which connects Onega and Ladoga with the Gulf of Finland. Karelia is rich in wild life. About 1% of the country is protected as national parks.
Petrozavodsk, the capital of Karelia, is the only large city. Karelia is otherwise sparsely populated and has a population density of only 4.6 inhabitants per km2. Russians are in the majority with about 70%, while the original Karelians account for about 10% of the population. Karelian and Finnish are closely related languages that are widely spoken and street signs in both languages are commonplace.
The economy is based on forestry. There are 12 major pulp and paper industries and some metallurgic industry. Major productions during 199? was:
Deterioration of forests and lakes by acid rain is rather serious for some parts of Karelia, partly due to low buffering capacity in the soil. Major environmental threats are the aluminum factory in Nadvoyci, the pulp and paper factories in Segega, Pitkijaranta and Kondopoga. Read more: |
 The Karelian coat of arms
The Kizhi summer church is part of a larger collection of Karelian houses in in open air museum on an island in lake Onega
The second largest lake in Europe is connected with Lake Ladoga through the river Svir.
One of the many smaller lakes in Karelia.
Other names for this old town are Keksholm and KÄkisalmi reflecting its past as a border town between (Sweden) Finland and Russia.
Founded in 1632 on the northern shores of Lake Ladoga it has been and still is a port from which one may reach the Valamo monastry.
A small Karelian village. |
