Shyoltozero is a village (selo) in Prionezhsky District

Prionezhsky District

Prionezhsky District is an administrative district , one of the fifteen in the Republic of Karelia, Russia. Municipally, it is incorporated as Prionezhsky Municipal District. Its administrative center is the city of Petrozavodsk . District's population: 18,597 ;...

 of the Republic of Karelia

Republic of Karelia

The Republic of Karelia is a federal subject of Russia .-Geography:The republic is located in the northwestern part of Russia, taking intervening position between the basins of White and Baltic seas...

, Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

, located 84 km south of Petrozavodsk

Petrozavodsk

Petrozavodsk is the capital city of the Republic of Karelia, Russia. It stretches along the western shore of the Lake Onega for some . The city is served by Petrozavodsk Airport. Municipally, it is incorporated as Petrozavodsky Urban Okrug . Population:...

, close to the shore of Lake Onega

Lake Onega

Lake Onega is a lake in the north-west European part of Russia, located on the territory of Republic of Karelia, Leningrad Oblast and Vologda Oblast. It belongs to the basin of Baltic Sea, Atlantic Ocean, and is the second largest lake in Europe after Lake Ladoga...

.

Present-day Shyoltozero

Shyoltozero is the cultural centre of the north Veps people, and during 1994–2005 it was the territorial centre of the Veps National Volost

Veps National Volost

Veps National Volost was a municipal autonomy of North Vepses in Prionezhsky District of the Republic of Karelia, Russia. The autonomy was established on January 20, 1994, and it was discontinued in 2004. Its territorial centre was the village of Shyoltozero. Volost's population was 3,166 in...

. In the 2002 census it was reported that the population was 1039, but in a study conducted in the mid-1990s, it was found that the population was ca. 970, of which 61% were Veps or of Veps descent, 7% represented other Baltic Finnic

Baltic Finns

The Baltic Finns are a historical linguistic group of peoples of northern Europe whose modern descendants include the Finns proper, Karelians , Izhorians, Veps, Votes, Livonians and Estonians who speak Baltic-Finnic languages and have inhabited the Baltic Sea region for 3,000 years according to...

 nationalities, and 32% represented Russians

Russians

The Russian people are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Russia, speaking the Russian language and primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries....

 and other East Slavic

East Slavs

The East Slavs are Slavic peoples speaking East Slavic languages. Formerly the main population of the medieval state of Kievan Rus, by the seventeenth century they evolved into the Russian, Ukrainian, and Belarusian peoples.-Sources:...

 nationalities. With the general population decline in Russia and the still on-going tendency of the population to move to cities and towns, it is likely that the present-day population is somewhat below that which was recorded in the 1990s.

The present Shyoltozero was originally a group of separate villages (in Veps posad, which is an old Russian dialect word that survives e.g. in the name of Sergiev Posad). Shyoltozero consists of the following posads, with the museum and the House of Culture being points of reference:

• D’eremišt — from the museum to the main intersection, Ulica Pochtovaya
• Mel’kamättaz (‘the Mel’kin Hill’) — the museum vicinity, Ulica Pochtovaya
• Markimättaz (’Mark’s Hill’) — across the river, Ulica Goristaya (the farthest away houses in the southeast)
• Minamättaz — across the river, Ulica Goristaya (from Markimättas to the village)
• Hamamättaz — across the river, Ulica Goristaya, houses 14–35
• Pedroimättaz — across the river, Ulica Goristaya, houses 1–11
• Kukoinposad (‘Rooster’s Village’) — across the river, Ulica Zarechnaya, houses 24–40
• Alažagd’ (‘The Lower End’) — the first houses as one arrives from the north, Ulica Zarechnaya, along the road
• Ülizagd’ (‘The Upper End’) — the most southwestern part of the village, Ulica Zagorodnaya
• Dokuc’ — Ulica Lisicynoĭ
• Papinposad (‘Priest’s village’) — Ulica Pionerskaya
• Noumančug — Ulica Sovhoznaya, Ulica Molodyozhnaya; the small houses and the two-storey apartment buildings
• Mikroraion (apartment building neighbourhood) — Ulica Molodyozhnaya, the newer three-storey apartment building

In practice people have for several decades used only street names to identify most of these places, to the effect that in 1997 it was possible to find only one older resident, Anna Nikitina (b. 1922), who knew where the former posads were located and where their boundaries were. It was thanks to her that it was possible to establish that the former church (the present House of Culture) was not located in Papinposad (‘Priest’s village’), but in Dokuc’ instead.

In addition to Shyoltozero itself, the villages under the Shyoltozero Selsoviet

Selsoviet

Selsoviet is a shortened name for a rural council. The full names for the term are, in , , . Selsoviets were the lowest level of administrative division in rural areas in the Soviet Union...

 are the following:

• Vekhrucheĭ (Veps: Vehkoi)
• Ishanino (Veps: Išan’)
• Matveyeva Sel’ga, (Veps: Matfejansel’g (‘Matthew’s Ridge’))
• Gornoye Shyoltozero (Veps: Mägi (‘slight prominence in the terrain’))
• Kalinansar’ (no permanent residents)
• Sürd’ (‘edge, outskirt’) (no permanent residents)
• Zales’ye (Veps: Mecantaga ‘beyond the woods’) (no permanent residents)

History

The archbishop of Novgorod mentioned the village of Shyoltozero for the first time in 1453.

The original Shyoltozero was located 6 km to the southwest of the present village, near the villages of Kalinansar’ and Sürd’, by the lake Kodijär’v. The name of this lake in older Russian maps is Shyoltozero. The inhabitants of the original Shyoltozero had at some point moved to the site of the present village, and the original village and lake had been given the name Kodijär’v (Veps for ‘home lake’). Kodijär’v can be seen in the Yandex

Yandex

Yandex is a Russian IT company which operates the largest search engine in Russia and develops a number of Internet-based services and products. Yandex is ranked as 5-th world largest search engine...

 maps as Кодьярви.

In the place name Šoutar’v one can see the sound change *l > u, which has occurred in Veps throughout (cf. Finn.

Finnish language

Finnish is the language spoken by the majority of the population in Finland Primarily for use by restaurant menus and by ethnic Finns outside Finland. It is one of the two official languages of Finland and an official minority language in Sweden. In Sweden, both standard Finnish and Meänkieli, a...

 kolme ~ Veps koum ‘three’). When considered together with the testimony of old Russian maps, it is clear that the earlier Veps name has been *Šoltjärvi. Thus this place name has nothing to do with the Finnish word soutaa (‘to row’), and the frequently used Finnish form Soutjärvi is based on an incorrect etymology.

Before the 1920s

1920s

File:1920s decade montage.png|From left, clockwise: Third Tipperary Brigade Flying Column No. 2 under Sean Hogan during the Irish Civil War; Prohibition agents destroying barrels of alcohol in accordance to the 18th amendment, which made alcoholic beverages illegal throughout the entire decade; In...

 Shyoltozero and its neighbouring villages (roughly the territory of the former Veps National Volost

Veps National Volost

Veps National Volost was a municipal autonomy of North Vepses in Prionezhsky District of the Republic of Karelia, Russia. The autonomy was established on January 20, 1994, and it was discontinued in 2004. Its territorial centre was the village of Shyoltozero. Volost's population was 3,166 in...

) formed the Shyoltozero pogost

Pogost

Pogost is a historical term with several meanings in the Russian language. It has also been borrowed into Latvian and Finnish , with specific meanings....

, which was part of the Petrozavodsk uyezd. With the advent of the Soviet state, the pogost became the Shyoltozero District, which was dissolved in 1957 and made part of the Prionezhsky District

Prionezhsky District

Prionezhsky District is an administrative district , one of the fifteen in the Republic of Karelia, Russia. Municipally, it is incorporated as Prionezhsky Municipal District. Its administrative center is the city of Petrozavodsk . District's population: 18,597 ;...

.

During the post-Soviet era, Shyoltozero functioned as the administrative centre of the Veps National Volost

Veps National Volost

Veps National Volost was a municipal autonomy of North Vepses in Prionezhsky District of the Republic of Karelia, Russia. The autonomy was established on January 20, 1994, and it was discontinued in 2004. Its territorial centre was the village of Shyoltozero. Volost's population was 3,166 in...

 that existed during the years 1994–2005. Besides Shyoltozero, the volost included two other villages with their own selsoviet

Selsoviet

Selsoviet is a shortened name for a rural council. The full names for the term are, in , , . Selsoviets were the lowest level of administrative division in rural areas in the Soviet Union...

s, Shoksha and Rybreka. The office of the volost was located in Shyoltozero, and the Shyoltozero Selsoviet was located near the post office, and the other selsoviets were Rybreka (in Čuur) and Shoksha (in Kvarcitnyĭ).

As of 1 January 2006 the volost was dissolved and the three main villages of which it had consisted now became “rural municipalities”, of which one is the Shyoltozero Rural Municipality .

The Museum

Shyoltozero has a local museum, the name of which has been, as of May 2010, The Rjurik Lonin Veps Ethnographic Museum in Šoutar’v (Shyoltozero)

The Rjurik Lonin Veps Ethnographic Museum in Šoutar’v (Shyoltozero)

The Rjurik Lonin Museum of Veps Ethnography in Sholtozero is a museum located in Sholtozero in the Republic of Karelia in the Prionezhskiĭ District, located 84 km south of Petrozavodsk, the capital of the republic.-History of the museum:...

 . It was founded in 1967 by a resident of Shyoltozero, sovkhoz

Sovkhoz

A sovkhoz , typically translated as state farm, is a state-owned farm. The term originated in the Soviet Union, hence the name. The term is still in use in some post-Soviet states, e.g., Russia and Belarus. It is usually contrasted with kolkhoz, which is a collective-owned farm...

 worker Rjurik Lonin

Rjurik Lonin

Rjurik Petrovič Lonin — this is the Veps spelling of his name — was a Veps student of the local lore and collector of Veps folklore, founder of The Rjurik Lonin Veps Ethnographic Museum in Šoutar’v , and an author in the Veps and Russian languages...

 (1930–2009), who was originally from the village of Kaskez’. The first premises of the museum were in the village library house in the Dokuc’ neighbourhood, opposite of the House of Culture (former church). Later the museum was given its own house in the Hamamättaz neighbourhood. In the 1980s the museum was given the so-called Mel’kin House as its premises, where it is now located. According to the home pages of the museum, the building “was built in the mid-19th century, and it is a monument of Karelian wooden architechture.

The museum also includes the Tuchin House that is located behind the Mel’kin House. The Tuchin House was originally located in the village of Kalinansar’, along the road from Shyoltozero to Matfejansel’g. During World War II

Continuation War

The Continuation War was the second of two wars fought between Finland and the Soviet Union during World War II.At the time of the war, the Finnish side used the name to make clear its perceived relationship to the preceding Winter War...

 it was the home of Dmitriĭ Yegorovich Tuchin and his wife Maria Mihailovna Tuchina, who accommodated Soviet partisans

Soviet partisans

The Soviet partisans were members of a resistance movement which fought a guerrilla war against the Axis occupation of the Soviet Union during World War II....

 in their house. Also a woman of Finnish extraction, Sylvi Paaso, lived in this house for eight months and radioed information on the movements of the Finnish troops to the Soviet military

Red Army

The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...

. The novel The Operation in the Vacuum Zone by Oleg Tikhonov tells about this period. An excerpt of the novel has been published in Finnish in the journal Punalippu (‘The Red Flag’).

The director of the museum is Ms. Natal’ya Ankhimova, originally from the Ogerišt village of Vehkoi.

External links

• Veps National Volost www.gov.karelia.ru — Official server of the republic’s administration.
• Official statistics