Karelskaya Maselga is a village in the Chebinskoye rural settlement in Medvezhyegorsk District of the Republic of Karelia. A specific memorial site shapes the village’s history. The wider destination of the Republic of Karelia offers much more, with attractions ranging from waterfalls and forests to wooden architecture and rock carvings.

Mass grave and memorial in Karelskaya Maselga

The mass grave of Soviet soldiers is at the entrance to Karelskaya Maselga, on the road from Medvezhyegorsk to Padany. The remains of 754 soldiers and officers of the 32nd Army of the Karelian Front lie there. They fell during the Great Patriotic War in battles along the Maselga Front.

The memorial at the mass grave was erected in 1959. In 2010, the remains of 396 soldiers and officers of the 289th Rifle Division were buried to the right of the grave. Search teams from a united unit of the Estafeta pokoleniy Foundation had recovered them in the area around the village. The two dates mark different stages in the history of the memorial site: the erection of the memorial and the later burial of additional recovered remains.

More places to discover in the Republic of Karelia

In the wider destination of the Republic of Karelia, Kivach Nature Reserve combines visits to natural attractions and museums. The overview excursion includes an outdoor walk to Kivach Waterfall, as well as visits to the arboretum and the Natural History Museum. The waterfall is on the Suna River in the central part of the Republic of Karelia; it is 10.7 metres high. After the Rhine Falls, it is Europe’s second-largest lowland waterfall.

Near the excursion area, a 1,000-metre circular trail runs through a forest by the banks of the Suna. The excursion lasts 1 to 1.5 hours. Check the conditions and booking arrangements for the overview excursion with the operator in advance.

The Kizhi Museum Reserve in the Republic of Karelia offers a different focus. In the open air, it displays 89 monuments of traditional wooden architecture, including chapels and houses, mills, granaries, threshing barns and drying racks. Visitors can see inside the Church of the Intercession of the Mother of God and peasant houses; traditional rural crafts are demonstrated in the houses. The Kizhi Pogost is an architectural ensemble featuring the world’s only multi-domed wooden Church of the Transfiguration. Thus, the wider destination offers natural attractions and museum visits alongside a selection of wooden structures, interiors and craft demonstrations.

The Onega and White Sea Petroglyphs are also part of the cultural offerings of the Republic of Karelia: this World Heritage site includes 4,500 Neolithic rock carvings. The Onega Petroglyphs comprise more than 1,200 figures in Pudozhsky District, most of them located on the three central capes of Pery Nos, Besov Nos and Kladovets. The White Sea Petroglyphs mainly depict hunting and sailing scenes, together with related equipment, as well as animal and human footprints. The Belomorsk Petroglyphs are located in the lower reaches of the Vyg, near its mouth at the White Sea, 6 to 8 kilometres from Belomorsk, and include more than 2,000 different drawings. The region’s cultural attractions therefore vary considerably: wooden architecture and crafts at Kizhi, and prehistoric rock art on the shores of Lake Onega and the White Sea.

Discover more destinations: Padany.

See the wider travel overview: Medvezhyegorskiy District.