Scientists studying the possibility of the existence of parallel forms of life on our planet have come to paradoxical conclusions. According to them, the most ordinary-looking cobblestones and boulders can be old and young, breathe in and out for several weeks, and even move independently.

It is possible that in the coming years scientists will be able to declare that stones also have their own consciousness. After all, stories about “walking stones” have long filled the pages of popular science publications around the world.

A truly amazing discovery was made during a scientific expedition by researchers from Karelia; they discovered not just a “walking” or “wish-fulfilling” boulder, but... a “singing” one. Head of the expedition, Vice-President of KRO "Raseya" Alexey Popov kindly shared the materials of his discovery with the National Geographic Society.

Karelia – a land of wonders

In the mass consciousness of the average Russian, the Republic of Karelia is gradually becoming every year what Lapland was once for the inhabitants of Europe - a distant, semi-fairy-tale country, on whose territory any miracles are possible. Therefore, for the residents of Russia, this region is full of truly mystical charm. First of all, this is due to the uniqueness of the historical development of Karelia, associated with its “Hyperborean past”.

The inhabitants of the republic inherited ancient Knowledge, encoded in numerous megalithic monuments with which the Karelian land is literally filled. It should also be noted that very little serious, in-depth research has been carried out on Karelia. The uniqueness of Karelia also lies in the fact that, unlike most Russian regions, the sights of which today are well studied, described, numbered and catalogued, this region can still present researchers with new discoveries and finds. And the most unexpected ones!

Thus, fragments of ancient traditions and legends about certain “idol stones”, placed by who knows who in such remote places where even local residents had difficulty finding their way, are still preserved in people’s memory. A large collection of these legends was once collected by the famous journalist of Karelian radio Nikolai Isaev, but, unfortunately, he is no longer among us. Among the legends he collected, one stood out: “somewhere in the Karelian wilderness there is a large boulder, as old as the earth itself.

And that boulder stands on a rock in the middle of the swamps. And our ancestors placed that boulder in such a way that day and night it “sings” only melodies that he understands, but a person with good thoughts and a bright heart will come to him, and the stone will help him and tell him what to do, and relieve pain and fatigue, and will give him protection from the beasts of the forest and the fears of the night.”

Legend or reality?

This legend was told to Nikolai Isaev by one of the old-timers of the small village of Ushkovo, which stood on the banks of the Karelian Okhta River. At first, Alexei Popov decided that this was just a beautiful fairy tale, especially since looking for a lonely boulder in the middle of endless swamps was, frankly, not a rewarding task. But, in the end, the researcher decided to try his luck and after a long search, the members of the expedition came to a small rocky hill, having climbed it, at the very top they saw a seid stone mounted on a kind of flat stone support.

Although it would be more accurate to say not “saw”, but rather “heard” - the stone really “sang”! True, it was, of course, not a human voice. A strong wind broke through the narrow gap between the flat top of the rock and the lower part of the stone thanks to the same stone support that the travelers saw as soon as they came closer. The feeling was unforgettable.

The sounds turned out to be very melodic; sometimes they resembled the marching polyphony of an orchestra, and sometimes they resembled the soulful melody of a pipe played by a lonely traveler somewhere high in the mountains. Everything depended on the strength of the wind and, most incredibly, on the position of the stone, which sometimes changed its position, swaying back and forth, left and right.

In other words, a flat stone stand was necessary not only to create a special “gap” between the top of the rock and the stone, due to which, in fact, sounds arose, but also acted as a kind of “hinge.” The stone seemed to be balanced on this stand, which was observed even with the naked eye. This also happened in moments of complete absence of wind, although Alexey Popov understood perfectly well that no wind could shake a monolith of such size.

When studying the stone, the researchers got a very definite impression of the “man-made” nature of this “composition.” Trees and bushes towered around the stone, and only in one direction was a natural passage open, not overgrown with trees, which allowed the wind to move freely.

The stone was oriented in this direction. Around the stone, members of the expedition saw a perfectly trampled area, although they did not find any fresh traces. Apparently, someone came to this stone since ancient times. But why? One could only guess what ritual and magical rites were performed here.

Moreover, despite the fact that each ritual boulder is unique, the “singing boulder” of Karelia has “relatives”. Back in 1972, an expedition of the Karelian Branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences, led by archaeologist A.P. Zhuravlev, a stone-boulder was found on Kolgostrov in Lake Onega, which also had the original property of emitting a melodic sound, but not from a blow of wind, but when hit by a small cobblestone on its upper part.

This boulder, by the way, is still known in local tradition as the “Ringing” stone. When scientists examined this stone, which is a natural boulder measuring 1.5 x 0.75 x 0.67 meters, they found that its upper part had clear traces of numerous impacts. And such an unusual acoustic effect is given to the stone by a crack on the top, forming a resonating cavity. Later, even specialists from the Petrozavodsk Conservatory became interested in the stone.

Having studied the melodic properties of the “Sounding” stone, the musicians hypothesized that it could well be used as a self-sounding lithophone instrument. Moreover, the “Sounding” stone in the local tradition still retains its cult purpose. It is believed that the sound made by the stone relieves a person’s pain and balances his mental and spiritual powers. And fragments of asbestos ceramics discovered in the cleft of the “Zvonky” stone suggest that it was used as a cult object in the late Eneolithic - late 3rd - early 2nd millennium BC. ancient Sami population living in these areas.

Trying to understand the origin of worship of cult stones, including singing stones, among the local population, Alexey Popov found out that, due to their crystalline structure, boulders have the properties of a battery. If you heat a stone, heat accumulates in it: it stores it and then slowly releases it. But it can accumulate not only heat, but also natural magnetism and vibrations.

Northern peoples, including the ancient Sami and Koreli, had a strong belief that stones absorb energy from the environment and return it to those who worship them. The Sami beliefs still contain echoes of ancient knowledge about the vitality of stones. This tradition of venerating stones, regardless of the change in religious forms, is still alive today, especially in the Karelian outback.

It is rich in its own varieties of minerals. Deposits of more than 30 species have been found in the region.

Iron

There are 3 groups of iron ores (ferruginous quartzites) in Karelia:

Swamp and lake - accumulation of ores occurs at the bottom of reservoirs.
- hematite ores – formed in Yatu-Li deposits.
- ferruginous quartzites – located among the Lopian deposits.
One of the richest iron ore deposits is Kostomuksha.

Titanium is almost 1.5 times lighter than steel, 3 times stronger than aluminum. At a temperature of 537° it retains its mechanical properties. In the territory of Karelia there are several deposits of titanium-magnetite and one deposit of ilmenite with magnetite. The metal is used in aircraft, ship, and rocket construction.
Ore deposits have been explored in the Pudozhsky, Kondopoga, Loukhsky districts.

Mica-muscovite

This deposit is located in northern Karelia in the Louhi region.
Back in the mid-14th century, on the territory of Karelia, Novgorod merchants discovered a layered stone in the rocks of the Karelian coast of the White Sea. From the fact that the stone exfoliated, it received the name “sluda”. Moscow has always been actively involved in the supply of this raw material, which is why this stone material was later called muscovite, in honor of Muscovy.
Mica is actively used in the electrical and radio engineering industries.

Quartz-feldspar raw materials

This raw material is widely used in Karelia and throughout Russia. Most of the quartz-feldspathic raw materials for Russia are mined in Karelia.
Used in porcelain, electroporcelain, abrasive and glass industries. Quartz and feldspar are obtained from pegmatites.
Kyanite is a mineral from which aluminum and its alloys are obtained, as well as highly refractory products.
Sulfur pyrite is used in the pulp and paper industry and in the production of sulfuric acid. The largest deposits are Hautavaara and Parandovskoye.

Garnet is a hard mineral from which polished powder is made for the wood, leather and glass industries.

Shungite rocks

Unique rocks containing black carbonaceous material shungite and other minerals of metamorphic origin. Shungite was named after a deposit that was discovered in the 19th century in the village of Shunga.
Large deposits are also located on the northwestern coast of Lake Onega, in Zaonezhye, and in the territory from Kondopoga to Medvezhyegorsk. Shungite is used as an ornamental stone, in the production of black paint in the paint and varnish industry, in the production of concrete products in construction, in life and painting.

Stone building materials
These include granites, quartzites, marbles, diabases and others - one of the main riches of Karelia. Karelia is considered a natural storehouse of stone and building materials.
Granite has become widely used as a building and facing stone.
Quartzite has the same function as granite. Artistic and decorative stone
Marble is widely used in construction as an artistic and decorative stone; waste is actively used in metallurgy.
Diabase is a valuable facing material for buildings, monuments and a valuable material for the stone foundry industry.
In Karelia there are also precious, semi-precious and ornamental stones: amethyst, almandine garnet, chalcedony, moonstone, sunstone.

Talc-chlorite shales
They are used as fillers in the production of pesticides. Potted stones can successfully replace relatively expensive talc in the production of dusts.

Common mineral resources in the Republic of Karelia:

Siltstones, mudstones
- igneous and metamorphic rocks
pebbles, gravel, boulders
- clays
- diatomite, tripolite, opoka
- dolomites
- limestones
- quartzite
- facing stones
- sands
- sandstones
- sand-gravel, gravel-sand, boulder-gravel-sand, boulder-block rocks
- sapropel
- slates

Loams
- peat
- granite
- marble
- shungite
- Shoksha porphyry

The whole variety of Karelian minerals suggests that Karelia is a very rich region. Proper use of natural resources will ensure a stable economic position of the republic on the world stage.

Why am I returning to this topic? A friend asked me to work on the issue of where I could go for a walk in search of gold over the winter. This year he had a desire to take a walk around Transbaikalia. He directed me to his place of residence. I offered him a route. He came to visit his friends. Naturally, at the table, in a conversation, he shows the route. The owner starts laughing. Where he goes and returns with documents. He unfolds them and shows them to the guest. The route I laid out lies exactly along the deposit that the owner has just acquired. The route coincided, but sitting at the computer you don’t know at what depth the gold lies. And the gold in this deposit lies under a six-meter layer of peat. Although it was beautifully drawn by me, I had no idea at what depth the gold lay. So the same thing may happen in this article. I’ll show you the places, but I won’t indicate the depth. So sorry. I’m just speculating where it might be, and those who will look must make a decision on their own.
First, let's look at the cut.

This picture clearly shows that Quaternary deposits cover earlier deposits with a layer of 50-100 meters. Moreover, the layers are completely different. Marine and aeolian deposits can be seen. Here they are overlapped by alluvial ones, which in turn are covered by glacial-lacustrine deposits and are already covered by some modern technogenic deposits such as logging. The lowest wide band is pre-Quaternary sediments, i.e. actually a raft. It’s almost impossible to look for something in such a vinaigrette. Or?
And then on social networks the other day they asked - Is it possible to find gold in Karelia? The answer is of course possible. How to approach this issue? More precisely to his answer. If someone lives in Karelia, they simply go to the nearest stream or river. And there testing is done in the usual way. All those streams that need to be bypassed side by side with a flume and an exploration sluice. It is quite possible that a glacier unloaded a gold mine somewhere, and water flows washed it away. There is no systematicity in such layering of Quaternary deposits. You will have to search according to the search principle in the Moscow region. For good luck. Nugget gold with a total weight of 700 grams was found in the center of Moscow. They just dug a hole and there they were, pieces of quartz with gold. Just for luck. The other option is unlikely. I don't mean geological research. Their methods and capabilities are different. The prospector can only rely on himself and his own hands.
The first ice age began 600,000 years ago. Then, for the first time, sliding ice broke rocks and dragged blocky material down south along the slope of a huge mountain. The maximum height of the ice mountain was 4 km. Naturally, such a bulldozer and roller broke and destroyed everything in its path, and then rolled it up like an asphalt paver. And it was not the winter we are used to now - six months. Ice ages lasted for thousands of years. And there were only four of them. The last one ended 10,000 years ago. At present, we are actually still living in the spring of the last glaciation.
To at least somehow imagine what was happening during the ice movement, let’s look at the picture of the ice movement during the last glaciation.

This is what scientists saw on the surface now. No one can say how the ice moved during previous glaciations. Even if we know where the gold mine came out, we will never guess where it was brought and in what condition. What water streams washed it away and where was the demolition?
Let's look at a map of Quaternary deposits.

We see a buried river valley marked on the map. It is covered by fluvioglacial deposits up to 20 meters thick. A miner's shovel cannot reach the raft. Although there is definitely gold on the raft. In what quantity? Don't know. You can walk along the modern riverbed, but I don’t think there is anything at the top. Everything sank. The water, and not a little at that, flowed for many years. Note the top of the buried riverbed. I outlined two purple spots with an orange oval. The purple spots are pre-Quaternary deposits, i.e. simply a rock climbing shoe. These protruding rocks worked during the melting of the glacier as boulders in modern streams. And if we read textbooks on gold prospecting, we will see that gold is concentrated in front of and behind boulders. And since in our example these are not boulders, but rock, you can imagine what could have been dragged there over four ice ages or 600,000 years.
Let's look at a modern map.

I drew pre-Quaternary deposits in purple. The red oval is the thresholds. Rapids that were not broken by the glacier. What will Yandex maps show?

There should be sediment just before the rapids. And this entire peninsula is like an ordinary river spit. Let us remember that in ancient times the flow of water flowed here was many times greater than today.
I draw your attention once again. I'm not saying there's gold here. I'm just wondering where it might be.

VOTTOVAARA

A complex of paleo-seismic dislocations of post-glacial age in bedrock, glacial scars and blocks - outliers, seids and seid-shaped boulders, the highest peak (417.2 m) of the West Karelian Upland.
Location. Muezersky district, 18 km southeast of the village. Sukkozero. Geographic coordinates: 63°04"N, 32°37"E.
Mount Vottovaara is the highest peak of the Western Karelian Upland. The absolute height above sea level is 417.2 m, above the surrounding plains up to 235 m. It is located in the northwestern part of the Yangozero synclinorium and is composed mainly of Yatulian quartzites and quartzite-sandstones of the Lower Proterozoic. The top of the mountain is practically devoid of Quaternary deposits, or they are represented by an intermittent cover of moraine, up to 1-1.5 m thick. The abundance of boulders and blocks of local quartzite, reaching a diameter of 3-4 m, is striking. Some of the blocks are split, some stand on small boulders and are identified specialists like seids.

Mount Vottovaara

There are many interesting and beautiful places in Karelia, but none of them are surrounded by so many mysteries, myths, secrets and mystical stories as Mount Vottovaara - the highest point of the Western Karelian Upland - 417.1 m. Vottovaara is located 350 kilometers from Petrozavodsk in Muezersky district. These places are remote, sparsely populated, abounding in wild animals; getting there is not easy. Vottovaara is famous for the abundance of various single stones (including those standing on smaller stones), which are called seids, as well as clusters of boulders, stone stairs and a peculiar form of vegetation: the trees here are twisted around their axis and stretch to the ground. Researchers and scientists have been debating the mysteries of Vottovaara for many years; some are inclined to believe that everything we see on the mountain is a play of nature, others that it is an ancient cult complex and a “place of power.” There are also those who consider Vottovaara a “portal to other worlds.” Ufologists talk about squadrons of UFOs allegedly visiting the mountain.

The discovery of unusual objects on Vottovaara occurred in 1978 by Sergei Simonyan, a resident of the village of Sukkozero located 20 kilometers from the mountain. At that time, he was searching for dead partisans from I.A. Grigoriev’s brigade. As S. Simonyan writes in his memoirs, “we began our first trips to search for traces of the brigade from lakes Ekonlampi and Kei-Votto,” located five kilometers north of Vottovaara. According to him, the “meeting” with the first seid was completely accidental and happened as follows: “not far from Lambin we encountered the first seid.” Naturally, then we knew nothing about “seids”, especially since it was small, and on its top there was a pyramid of small flat stones. At first I thought that this was a partisan “lighthouse”, especially since, as we soon learned, it was indeed located not far from the partisan path. But a little further we discovered another such stone, then a third, and it became clear that this was something else, but definitely related to human activity.” That year, S. Simonyan and like-minded people explored Vottovaara until late autumn in search of traces of the brigade, but to no avail. “But with each hike the search area expanded,” writes S. Simonyan. “I was amazed by the place, the vegetation, the rocks, the most beautiful view from the mountain and more and more “seids”: some are huge “giants”, others are flat “frogs”, “ bear" etc. Then we found a “staircase”. Having been to Karelia more than once, I, one way or another, heard about Vottovaara: in these stories there were a huge number of facts and fables that were woven into legends. Every year, my desire to visit this unusual place grew stronger, to see everything with my own eyes and experience the personal sensations of being on the mysterious mountain.

Since last year, the “discoverer” of Vottovaara S. Simonyan began making excursions to the mountain, although it would be more correct to say “author’s tours”. It would be a sin not to take advantage of this - to visit the mountain in the company of a person who knows the area like the back of his hand and has been exploring the mountain for almost as long as I have been living in this world. It took us more than ten hours to get to Vottovaara by minibus; the asphalt ended at the 150-kilometer mark, then the dirt road began, dissolving into logging mustaches, dotted with deep puddles and streams, over which half-decayed wooden bridges were thrown. Of course we are tired. However, the mood immediately improved upon meeting Sergei; he turned out to be a smiling, energetic and active person; by the time we arrived, the camp had already been set up - tents, and something aromatic and tasty was bubbling in a pot on the fire. Anticipating tomorrow's meeting with the mountain, we bombarded the guide with questions about Vottovaara.

Sergei himself began to study Vottovaara, having experienced disappointment from communicating with scientists who occasionally visited the mountain, and even conducted a kind of toponymic research. The name of the mountain, in his opinion, can be translated as “mountain of meetings, expectations.” It is logical to suggest that the tribes that once inhabited the surrounding area of ​​the mountain used Vottovaara as a place of general meetings. As for the second meaning, then with its awareness Sergei suggested not to rush and wait until meeting the mountain. Of course we were intrigued.

The next day early in the morning we went to the mountain. The day was warm and fine, the sun was shining brightly. Sergei chose a comfortable pace of movement; after each small climb he made stops so that the group did not stretch out through the forest. During one of these breaks, Sergei, leaning his back against a large stone, suddenly asked us: “Don’t you notice anything?” Looking around, we did not see anything suspicious. Sergei even laughed. “I have a seid behind me, next to there is another one, between them there is an altar fenced with stones, go around the stones on the other side...” The boulders standing on a rock slab turned out to have a “secret”: as if someone had placed small pebbles under them for stability, thus slightly lifting them.

It is traditionally believed that seids had cult significance and sacrifices were made to them. They are often attributed to dowsing and magnetic anomalies. Not to mention the Sami legends, according to which seids are not just sacred stones, they are stones that “can fly.” There is another hypothesis, according to which seids are a kind of “technical devices” that enhance and direct flows of earthly energy to a certain place, where a person is able to recover from an illness. Scientists adhere to the version that the origin of the seids is a glacier, which, when melting, gently and deftly placed the boulders on “stone legs.”

However, when looking at the entire composition, the thought that such a lucky coincidence fits into the theory of probability for some reason did not occur. Puzzled, we continued on our way. After a short time, we approached a staircase that looked like a fragment of a Roman amphitheater: steps going up, ending with a four-meter cliff. Sergei Simonyan believes that the origin of the stairs is natural: the steps were formed through weathering and the action of precipitation. However, the steps are quite level and approximately the same height. Truly a miracle of nature... or is it still the result of the work of ancient builders?

Thinking about the purpose of the stairs, we didn’t even notice how we came to a magnificent vantage point. It must be said that Vottovaara has several peaks and various interesting objects are located on an area of ​​​​about 6 square kilometers. From the place from where we admired the surroundings, a “bald” (after the fire) height with a scattering of stones and a huge stone towering above it all was clearly visible. We headed towards it, having descended from the observation deck. For some time something squelched, gurgled and slurped under our feet, then a long climb began, and finally we came to the “dead forest”. The burnt trees looked strange, to say the least. In old Soviet fairy tale films, such a forest is typical of Baba Yaga’s place of residence. Sergei explained what was happening with strong winds and an abundance of heavy snow cover, which crippled the trees. According to him, when he first came out here many years ago, a ring of smaller stones with radiating rays was laid out around the stone. Now there is no geometry observed in the surrounding landscape, whatever it may be. Sergei blames the “wild” holiday in Karelia for this.

We went to the mountain for several days, at different times. In the evening at the camp around the fire they shared their impressions. This is absolutely surprising, but on Vottovaara a person experiences exactly those sensations that he expected to experience when meeting the mountain; some feel a charge of vivacity, and some even feel fear. Truly a mountain of expectations. Come and check it out!

Returning home from Karelia, I specifically looked at how many people visit the Stonehenge megaliths. As the Association of Leading Visitor Attractions calculated in 2008, this number was 883 thousand. Vottovaaru, which is often called the Karelian Stonehenge, is at most several hundred. The Karelian authorities do not see any prospects for the development of tourism in Vottovaara. But they see prospects in the development of stone. It is difficult to say how long the mountain will last in its current state. A quarry is already gathering dust not far away; Vottovaara still does not have a protected status. And yet I would like to believe that the Vottovaara phenomenon will continue to attract people seeking discoveries for a long time to come.

I would like to finish my story about the trip to Vottovaara with the words of Sergei Simonyan: “It is, of course, worth visiting Vottovaara. I am sure that most of you will experience what I experience... It is best to visit the mountain during the white nights. From the western slope of the mountain you will have a beautiful view of the surrounding area. When you look at this action of nature, you involuntarily think how little a person needs. Centuries ago, at the cost of enormous efforts, our ancestors created this unique cult monument. Will we save it? And what will we leave behind for future generations?”


Karelian stone. History of its use.

Since we are talking about the stones of Karelia, I would like to say that among the indigenous peoples, stone cutting is widespread, for example, among the Vepsians.

The development of stone deposits in the Vepsian territory in the Onega region began several hundred years ago. The Brusnenskoye deposit of grindstone was the first to be developed. They were engaged in breaking down the Brusno slab, from which they made grinders and bars for turning axes, scythes, knives and other tools. While conducting subsistence agriculture, the peasants also made stone millstones.

The transfer of the capital of the Russian Empire with all government institutions to St. Petersburg in 1712 became the main incentive for the development of the new territory. All activities related to this were accompanied by intensive construction of roads, temples, palaces, public and private houses.

In 1714, Peter I issued a decree: “Besides, here (i.e. in St. Petersburg) a stone building is being built very slowly due to the fact that masons of this work are difficult and for a reasonable price, for this reason, in the entire state, for several years, any stone building, no matter what the name, is prohibited whole estate and exile." The implementation of such a decree allowed the king to concentrate the main materials and labor resources to solve the enormous task of building a new capital.

Thanks to this decree, many craftsmen, including masons and stonemasons, came to St. Petersburg. There was a lot of work - there were not enough materials. Therefore, on October 24, 1714, Peter issued a new decree on a tax in kind levied on all ships and carts arriving in St. Petersburg, obliging them to bring a certain number of cobblestones depending on their size. This tax existed for more than 60 years and only under Catherine II, on June 1, 1776, was it abolished.

The Vepsian region and Vepsian stonemasons gained great fame from a deposit that was unique in its artistic and decorative properties. marble - crimson-red quartzite-sandstone, located near the village of Shoksha. Because of its exceptional decorative qualities, in ancient times it was called “shohan”, “noble stone”, « Shoksha porphyry", last time - Shoksha quartzite.

Vepsian peasants, working as stonemasons and masons, built houses in St. Petersburg, Moscow, Riga and Revel, participated in the construction of the fortifications of Kronstadt, the stone embankments of the Neva, Fontanka and other rivers in the capital, in the construction of the Great Siberian Road, the Chinese Eastern Railway and Port Arthur . In the 19th century, stone mining and stone processing became practically the main occupation of Vepsian men. In the first decades of the 19th century, in Sheltozersko-Berezhnaya, Shokshinskaya, Ryboretskaya, Gimoretskaya and other volosts, contractors hired stonemasons to work in Kronstadt - “to pave a canal with stones”, etc., “to build the Moika River” and other work in St. Petersburg

In the 17th and 18th centuries, deposits were discovered that are known as Vyborg granites rapakivi. Deposits were discovered along the northern coast of Lake Ladoga in the area of ​​Serdobol (now Sortavala). Serdobol granite. Nowadays they are little known.

There is an opinion that Peter I already knew about the deposit Tivdian marbles, located near the Marcial Waters, where the king underwent treatment several times (now the Kondopoga region of Karelia).

Russia did not want to lag behind Europe, where different styles in architecture were developing. At this time, pomp and pomp in life led to that the stone began to represent status, wealth and luxury.

In the period from 1740 to 1760, stone began to be actively used for interior decoration, as well as for the manufacture of columns, pediments and sculptures.

In 1737, Jacob Stein discovered and began to develop deposits on the shores of Lake Ladoga in the Serdobol region. Juven marbles.

At the beginning of the second half of the 18th century, they became known Tivdian marble scraps. In 1757, Ivan Grippiev, a resident of the village of Lychny Island, and the Novgorod merchant Ivan Maryanov discovered and began to develop a deposit of Belogorsk Tivdi marble, not far from Lake Sandal.

Serdobol pastor Samuil Alopeus discovered the Ruskeala marble deposit 35 km north of Serdobol in 1765. The removal of marble began in 1769.

The deposit in Ruskeala mainly produced 5 types of marble:

gray-bluish; Zelenogorsk gray marble; Zelenogorsk cracked, used for small crafts; coastal striped, composed of white and gray stripes; with white and bluish stripes.

It is known that in Ruskeala there were pure white and even black marbles.

Large-scale construction required the organization of extraction and processing of marble in all deposits of the Olonets province, the installation of grinding mills, which was done. On January 19, 1768, a decree was issued “On the production of marble from wild stone for the building of St. Isaac’s Church.”

A well-known collection collected by Tivdi masters and numbering 32 stone numbers, or, as they were called, “numbers” (currently stored in the local history museum of the city of Petrozavodsk). It was believed that 32 types of Belogorod marble were mined in the Olonets province. However, a more detailed study of this collection shows that other rocks were also included, such as Shokshinsky quartzite, Matyukovsky gabbrodiabase and others.

St. Isaac's Cathedral can rightfully be called a museum of stone. Begun in 1768 according to the design of the architect Rinaldi, it was built in 1802... and completely dismantled in 1819 in order to build a new, more modern cathedral in its place, designed by Auguste Montferrand. He also supervised its construction until 1859. This is how we see this cathedral in St. Petersburg today.

During the construction of the cathedral, Finnish granites were used on the base, and marbles of various types were used for the exterior and interior decoration of the building. On the facades for columns, pilasters and friezes - Juvenian; for bases, capitals, platbands and cornices - Ruskeala; for wall cladding, platbands - Tivdian.

One can name many more buildings, monuments, etc., where stones from Karelian deposits were used. This is the Oryol Obelisk in Gatchina, the Chesme Column in Pushkin was built from Tivdian marble (the ship's bows are made of whitish Ruskeala marble, and the base is from Yuven). Milestones of Peterhof and Pulkovo, Oryol Gate in Pushkin, in the Kazan Cathedral, in the Winter Palace. The list is very long.

During this period, on the Pudozh shore of Lake Onega, from Unasskaya Bay to Besovo Nos, deposits of red and dark green granite began to be developed.

It is a known fact that when Nicholas 1 ordered the construction of the Anichkov Bridge in St. Petersburg in the summer of 1841, only Mark Pimenov took on it with an artel of Vepsian craftsmen. In the 40s, Mark Pimenov’s artels built “casemate” batteries in Kronstadt. At the end of the 40s, peasant contractors Ivan Vlasov and Ivan Vasiliev from the Sheltozerskaya Gorny volost hired their fellow countrymen to rebuild the granite embankment of the Fontanka River from Izmailovsky to Kalinkin bridge. Vepsian stonemasons were entrusted with particularly responsible work. In 1847, by the hands of Vepsian craftsmen, Napoleon’s sarcophagus in Paris was cut, hewn and polished from Shoksha crimson quartzite. This was the first time crimson quartzite was exported abroad.

With the development of railway transport, it becomes possible to use stone from other regions - Sweden, Norway, Germany and Poland. The use of Karelian stone is decreasing year by year. However, at the same time, on the island of St. Herman in Lake Ladoga, a deposit of a new type of granite was discovered - fine-grained red (today known under the name “Syuskyujansaari”).

Red granite begins to be actively used from these breaks. For example, during the construction of the royal pavilion at the Vitebsk station, the monument to the 1000th anniversary of Russia in Novgorod, etc.

The last time Tivdian marble was used in large quantities was in 1902 during the construction of the Ethnographic Museum in St. Petersburg.

Due to its uniqueness and limited reserves, Shoksha quartzite began to be used in rare cases and in small quantities, mainly in the manufacture of monuments. It was also used to line fireplaces, and to make countertops, bowls, vases, candlesticks, etc. A special store was opened in St. Petersburg to sell these products.

After the revolution, there was also an active study of objects located on the territory of Karelia that were suitable for the production of building materials from granites, quartzites and marbles. As a result, at the end of 1924, gabbrodiabase development was organized in the village of Rybreka, which was tasked with ensuring road construction in Moscow and Leningrad. Red Square paving stones from these places.

The development of soap chloride also began in Lisya Gora.

V.M. Timofeev (professor, geologist-petrographer) created a map of stone building materials in the Onega region.

In the post-war period, the Kondopoga stone processing plant processed stone from different places in Russia and abroad. The marble and granite processed here were used in the construction of the metro, including in Prague (Czech Republic), the Ho She Minh Memorial (Vietnam), the airport in the cities of Ulaanbaatar (Mongolia), Sochi, Moscow, the Palace of Congresses, the House of Soviets, and the Cathedral of Christ Savior, Manezhnaya Square, Poklonnaya Gora, reconstruction of Kremlin facilities and many others.

At the end of the 20th century, the stone mining industry of Karelia fell into decay and only recently, in the 21st century, it begins to gradually revive.

In Karelia, an unimaginable amount of different minerals are found, which, when processed, show us visible beauty, but at the same time also have useful properties.