Finnish landscapes

The first thing we do is to visit the village of Ogonyki in the Vyborg district. Until 1948 this former Finnish village was called Lintula (in Finnish it means "bird's place").
The village was known for the first women's Orthodox monastery in the Finnish diocese. At the end of the XIX century it was founded by Privy Councillor Fyodor Neronov. He built the Holy Trinity Church in his estate and invited the nun Smaragda and several sisters from Penza Province.
During the war, almost all the buildings burned down, the nuns fled deep into Finland, to a place called Palokki. In 2007, the revival of the church began: it was assigned as a subordinate to the St. Konstantin and Heleninsky nunnery. They started to make procession to the ruins of the monastery, and soon it was possible to reconstruct the building. Today it is permanently inhabited by Nun Maria.

The peasants of Roschino had to work hard to win back a place for plowing from the forests. Maybe that's why the village used to be called Raivola: in Finnish raivata means "to clear, to shovel".
With the advent of the railway station Raivola became a popular holiday destination for high-ranking people. Of course: the village is surrounded by the Lindulov larch grove, a UNESCO-protected nature reserve. The tradition of resting from the urban noise in these parts has been preserved: today in Roshchino there are many cottages, hotels, and recreation centers.