2 • 2000

Panozero/Paanajärvi church today. During the Soviet era, the church served in a secular capacity as a clubhouse. Panozero/Paanajärvi church in 1933, photographed from the island side just before the destruction of the bell tower and church spires. Copied by photographing in the village, Martti Jokinen If the hydropower project goes ahead, the waters of the Kem River will rise several metres where the village of Panozero/Paanajärvi stands.

The vanishing village culture of Paanajärvi We are on the borderland between Karelian and Russian culture, by the Kem River that leads down to the White Sea. An extraordinary feature of Panozero (known in Finnish as Paanajärvi) is that the village has retained its character as a traditional Karelian village, whereas the better-known villages in this region of Karelia, renowned in folklore, have been abandoned or redeveloped. Panozero village came under threat during Soviet times when a power plant was planned at Valkeakoski on the Kem River. Panozero has been included on the World Monuments Watch List as one of the hundred most endangered cultural sites in the world. The Panozero site has been inhabited for 800 years. Alathough the oldest standing dwellings are from the early 20th century, the log-built village stands for a centuries-old tradition. As recently as the 1960s, the structural solutions and layout of the Panozero house followed the old customs. Logs are still used for building today, and the view of the village reveals not a single strikingly modern-style building. There were once some hundreds of villagers. Today only forty or so houses are inhabited, and less than a hundred people live in the village year-round - and their average age is high. The villagers have a subsistence economy, a fact which profoundly affects the village ambience. Many of the deserted buildings are close to collapse, and even those which are still occupied are in bad shape. The hydropower scheme has now been mothballed, but no decision to preserve the village has been taken in spite of the unanimity of both Finnish and Russian experts on the importance of the village. Antti Pihkala Hannu Puurunen Excerpt from the article on the pages 80-83, ark 2/2000