Suoyarvi is located in Olonets Karelia. The city is located 130 km
northwest of Petrozavodsk on the shore of the lake of the same name. The
population is just over 10 thousand people.
The administrative
center of the Suoyarvi district of the republic.
Cinema center "Cosmos", Suoyarvskoe highway, 2.
Landscape reserve
"Tolvoyarvi"
By train
The section of the Oktyabrskaya Railway ends in the city:
Kuznechnoye-Suoyarvi, then the tracks go to Kostomuksha. From St.
Petersburg or Kostomuksha by train No. 350 St. Petersburg-Kostomuksha on
a special schedule every other day, or in trailer cars from
Petrozavodsk.
By car
Several regional roads converge in
Suojärvi:
A131, connects the city with settlements to the southwest
of the city, including the cities of Pitkyaranta and Lakhdenpokhya, then
exits to St. Petersburg;
A132, connects the city with settlements
north of the city;
A133, connects the city with settlements to the
southeast of the city, ends in Petrozavodsk, where it has access to P21
(E105) "Kola" and A215.
By bus
In addition to bus service
between the settlements of the region, there are external bus routes
connecting the city with Petrozavodsk, Sortavala and Porosozero. The bus
station is located at: st. Lenina, 32.
Karelia Hotel, str. Shelshakova, d.1.
Guesthouse "Tamara", str.
Mira, d.1.
Prophylaxis "Lesnaya Polyana", str. Shelshakova, d.23. ☎
(81457) 21182. edit
The name of the city is based on its location on Lake Suoyarvi. Hydronym from the Karelian words suо “swamp”, järvi “lake”, that is, “swamp lake”.
The city is located in the southern part of the Republic of Karelia,
132 km from Petrozavodsk along the Petrozavodsk - Suoyarvi highway, on
the southern shore of Lake Suoyarvi. Suoyarvi I railway junction.
The city of Suoyarvi has a moderately cold climate with short (from
late June to early August) cool summers and constant humidity throughout
the year. High rainfall, even in the dry months. According to the Köppen
climate classification, it is transitional from a humid continental (Dfb
index) to a subarctic (Dfc index) climate.
According to the scribe book of 1499/1500, the villages of Suyarva
Minor, Suyarva Big and the village of Yalgalaksha were located on the
territory of the modern city.
Archival documents from 1500
mention the settlement of Kaipaa with 20 courtyards on the southern
shore of a swampy lake (suojärvi) - where the city blocks are now
located. In the 16th-17th centuries, the settlement was part of the
Vodskaya Pyatina of the Novgorod land as the Shuezersky churchyard.
According to the Stolbovo Peace Treaty in 1617, the territory of
the settlement was included in the Kingdom of Sweden. Since 1618, the
Suojärvi churchyard of Kexholm County with its center in the village of
Varpakylä has been mentioned, and in 1621 the Shuezer exhibition
(Suojärv parish).
During the reign of Peter I, as a result of the Northern War,
according to the Treaty of Nystadt in 1721, all of Old Finland,
including the territory of the settlement, ceded to the Russian Kingdom.
On the conquered territory, the Vyborg province of St. Petersburg
province was formed.
In 1799, the assigned peasants of the
Shuezerskaya volost supplied 215,924 pounds of lake ore to the
Aleksandrovsky plant. The best iron ore in the entire Vyborg province
was mined in the Suoyarvi church.
In 1804, Count A.G.
Orlov-Chesmensky bought the lands of the Shuezerskaya volost from the
treasury and built the Karatsalma iron smelting plant.
In 1811,
the Vyborg province became part of the Grand Duchy of Finland (which
became part of the Russian Empire in 1809). In 1812, the territory was
included in the Suojärvi volost.
In 1859, one part of the
kirchspiel (parish) of Suojärvi was part of the Iloman district of the
Kuopios province, the other (with the Korpiselk chaplaincy) was part of
the Salmis district of the Vyborg province.
In 1917, the
Principality of Finland became an independent state.
In 1926, a timber mill and a cardboard factory were built.
On November 30, 1939, the war began, the defense in the area between
lakes Suojärvi and Varpajärvi was led by the 12th Infantry Division (12.
divisioona).
In December 1939, the advancing formations of the
8th Army of the Red Army (commander - division commander I.N. Khabarov)
advanced 86 km and captured Suoyarvi, Loimola and Pitkäranta. During the
December battles of 1939, the Soviet command decided that to supply its
group of Soviet troops, the existing dirt roads were not enough:
Petrozavodsk - Veshkelitsa - Chalna and Spasskaya Guba - Vokhtozero -
Chalna (not connected to the road network of Finland) and the
construction of a railway was necessary for the further offensive of the
Red Army.
In Suoyarvi, the evacuation of the civilian population
was not carried out and the residents of the volost villages remained in
place. On February 2, 1940, in accordance with the directive of the
Headquarters of the Supreme High Command of the USSR “On measures to
combat espionage,” the eviction of the remaining Finnish population from
the occupied territories to the rear of the Karelian Autonomous Soviet
Socialist Republic into special camps began. Residents of Suojärvi
parish from 37 villages and hamlets (1,329 people) were evicted to
Intersettlement.
Between January and April 1940, Soviet railway
troops built a railway from Petrozavodsk to Suojärvi. The length of the
road was 132 kilometers. Its construction ended after the peace treaty
of 1940. The first train ran on the new line on March 15, 1940. On March
20, 1940, the headquarters of the 56th Rifle Corps was withdrawn to
Suoyarvi. On November 23 of the same year, it was transformed into the
headquarters of the 7th Army.
In 1940, after the end of the
Winter War, according to the peace treaty, most of the Vyborg province
was transferred to the USSR. Since 1940, Suoyarvi has been part of the
Karelian Autonomous SSR.
Suojärvi was occupied by the Finnish army on July 13, 1941.
The Red Army occupied Suoyarvi on July 11, 1944.
In 1949, in accordance with the resolution of the Council of
Ministers of the USSR “On measures for the restoration and development
of logging in the Karelo-Finnish SSR,” it was allowed to attract Ingrian
Finns to Karelia. However, they were still prohibited from living in the
areas bordering Finland, including Suoyarvi.
On September 30,
1956, the railway was opened on the Suoyarvi - Porosozero section. The
section of the railway line took 6 years to build.
The Suojärvi
timber industry enterprise, a poultry farm, a concrete plant, a printing
house, and the Maysionvara airbase operated, and a border detachment was
stationed.