Historical and memorial complex Kollasjarvi description and photos - Russia - Karelia: Suoyarvi district (Topic)

Historical and memorial complex Kollasjarvi description and photos - Russia - Karelia: Suoyarvsky district. Detailed information about the attraction. Description, photos and a map showing the nearest significant objects.

Photo and description

Suoyarvi district was the site of battles during the Soviet-Finnish and Great Patriotic Wars. Fierce battles took place on the heights of Kollasjarvi. Now this is the site of the Kollasjarvi military memorial complex, located 30 kilometers from Suojarvi on the way to the Loimola village.

The area near Loimola (Lake Kollasjarvi region) has become the object of hostilities. Three times, bloody battles unfolded in this place: in the winter of 1939 - 1940, in the summer of 1941 with the offensive of the German-Finnish troops and in June 1944 during the operation of the Soviet troops to liberate Karelia. These places are witnesses of the steadfast courage of the Soviet and Finnish troops, who fought to the death and were not inferior to each other in terms of onslaught and resistance. Significant in size are the Soviet and Finnish defenses erected in the area of Lake Kollasjarvi.

Today only a part of the traces of those battles remain: trenches, trenches, bunkers, dugouts, dugouts. Evidence of fierce battles of opponents - many graves and their signs. On the territory there are, according to some data, 15 burials where the ashes of the dead Finnish and Soviet soldiers rest, according to others, up to 60 burials. Some of them are complex burials, consisting of several graves (military mass graves).

The formation of this complex began in 1942. An initiative of the Finnish Forestry Authority decided to open access to the memorial sites of the Winter Battle. Among them was Kollasjarvi, on the heights of which stubborn battles were fought.

In the pristine and harsh landscape, there are deep trenches where soldiers took shelter from bullets; dots - from where they fired at the enemy; ditches - blocking the way for tanks. The remains of these structures vividly recreate the fierce battles of that time.

Finnish, German and Russian soldiers have found their final refuge on the Karelian land. Now there are memorial signs in different languages. There is a place for flowers nearby and you can light a candle. During the work, a special commission carried out the reburial of Finnish soldiers and installed a sign of memory of the fallen soldiers - the 18-meter Koll cross, nicknamed the Mannerheim Cross.

Kollasjarvi is a sacred place for the Finns today. Loimola is visited by former combatants and relatives of the fallen soldiers of Finland on Kolla. Combat actions are recreated today in battle scenes by war history lovers and members of military history clubs. Having been at such a performance, you involuntarily plunge into the atmosphere of those years and start looking at the course of the war differently. Communication with war veterans gives an extraordinary experience.

Local search units are active in finding the remains of dead soldiers and their burial, collecting wartime evidence and archival materials.

Festival of History " Karelian Borders ”is held annually in March and is a good tradition of the residents of the republic and guests from abroad. Every year a lot of people come to see the reconstruction of the battles of the Winter War.

Nowadays, the results of many years of work of search engines and researchers are available for both residents of Russia, and for foreign guests. The fraternal union established contacts of the fighting soldiers in Finland. Loimola youth are involved in the work of the search team. All finds of the detachment are kept in the school museum. It is planned to create a museum exposition of the finds of the volunteers of the Loimola search detachment.

The entire territory of the Complex occupies 3.1 thousand hectares, and to preserve the natural landscape in its vicinity, a protected environment zone has been created, which includes lands of historical and cultural significance. A number of activities are planned and implemented to ensure comfortable visits to the historical sites of Loimola by tourists. One of them is to ensure the safety of places of hostilities. Also, to ensure visits to the Complex with organized excursions, bus stops are arranged, paths for pedestrians are cleared and laid, as well as bridges across the river and trenches.

Information support is also important - direction signs to the objects of inspection, road signs for pedestrians, information boards and a terrain diagram with the location of historical military structures. The complex, as an object of the history of war, needs scientific support, and the historical objects of war that form it require reconstruction and improvement.

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Topic: Historical and memorial complex Kollasjarvi description and photos - Russia - Karelia: Suoyarvi district.