Valaam

Valaam archipelago is located in the northern part of Ladoga Lake. The territory of archipelago has received the status of a national park in 1999. The area of the park is 24,7 thousand hectares, only 3600 hectares of which account for islands. Valaam Island (2800 hectares) is especially notable among them. The island gave its name to both the archipelago and the monastery. For its centuries-old history, dating back to the 10th -11th centuries, the monastery has created an outstanding architectural complex, which received world fame. In 1992 by the decree of the President of the Russian Federation Valaam was announced to become the common property of the people of Russia.

The Valaam Monastery, or Valamo Monastery is the Orthodox monastery in Karelia, which used to be a part of territory contended between the Soviet Union and Finland.

It is not clear when they founded a monastery on Valaam, the largest island in Lake Ladoga, itself being the largest lake in Europe. As the cloister is not mentioned in documents before the 16th century, different dates - from 10th to 15th centuries - have been expounded. Whatever the truth may be, the Valaam monastery was a western outpost of Eastern Orthodoxy against the heathens and, later, against the Catholic Christianity of Tavastia, Savonia and (Swedish) Karelia.

The power struggle between Russians and Swedes pushed the border eastwards in the 16th century; in 1578 monks and novices were beaten to death by the (then) Lutheran Swedes. The monastery was desolate between 1611 and 1715 after another attack, the buildings being burnt to the ground and the Karelian border between Russia and Sweden being drawn through the Lake. In the 18th century the monastery was magnificently restored, and in 1812 it came under the Russian Grand Duchy of Finland.

In 1917 Finland became independent, and the Finnish Orthodox Church became autonomous under the Orthodox Church of Constantinople, as previously it had been a part of the Russian Orthodox Church. Valaam was the most important monastery of the Finnish Orthodox Church. The liturgic language was changed from Church Slavonic to Finnish, and the liturgic calendar from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar. These changes led to bitter decade-long disputes in the monastic community of Valaam.

The monastery was again evacuated in 1940, due to the Winter War, and settled in Heinдvesi in Finland later the same year. New Valamo Monastery, the only monastery of the Finnish Orthodox church, is still at the same site today. From 1941 to 1944, during the Continuation War, an attempt was made to restore the monastery buildings at Old Valaam, but it was not until 1989 that monastic life was resumed there.

In the late 1990s, the Valaam Monastery, having gained significant legal power over the island under the Patriarch Alexey II, in a push to return to a state of spiritual seclusion and enticed by the prospect of monopolized profits from the vast tourism industry on the Valaam island, has forced many longtime residents to move out to the mainland, often employing illegal actions in the process, ranging from denying residents vital services to forcible eviction from their homes. After years of fruitless legal proceedings, many residents of the island chose to leave, rather than continue the fight, though a few still remain.

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