General information
Located on the northern shore of Lake Saryjärvi.
Population
The population in 1905 was 368 people.
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Excerpt characterizing Zalesye (Karelia)
The chaise was full of people; doubted about where Pyotr Ilyich would sit.- He's on the goat. Are you a jerk, Petya? – Natasha shouted.
Sonya kept busy too; but the goal of her efforts was the opposite of Natasha’s goal. She put away those things that were supposed to remain; I wrote them down, at the countess’s request, and tried to take with me as many as possible.
In the second hour, the four Rostov carriages, loaded and stowed, stood at the entrance. The carts with the wounded rolled out of the yard one after another.
The carriage in which Prince Andrei was carried, passing by the porch, attracted the attention of Sonya, who, together with the girl, was arranging seats for the countess in her huge tall carriage, which stood at the entrance.
– Whose stroller is this? – Sonya asked, leaning out of the carriage window.
“Didn’t you know, young lady?” - answered the maid. - The prince is wounded: he spent the night with us and is also coming with us.
- Who is this? What's the last name?
– Our very former groom, Prince Bolkonsky! – sighing, answered the maid. - They say he is dying.
Sonya jumped out of the carriage and ran to the Countess. The countess, already dressed for the trip, in a shawl and hat, tired, walked around the living room, waiting for her family in order to sit with the doors closed and pray before leaving. Natasha was not in the room.
“Maman,” said Sonya, “Prince Andrei is here, wounded, near death.” He's coming with us.
The Countess opened her eyes in fear and, grabbing Sonya’s hand, looked around.
- Natasha? - she said.
For both Sonya and the Countess, this news had only one meaning at first. They knew their Natasha, and the horror of what would happen to her at this news drowned out for them all sympathy for the person they both loved.
– Natasha doesn’t know yet; but he’s coming with us,” said Sonya.
- Are you talking about death?
Sonya nodded her head.
The Countess hugged Sonya and began to cry.
"God works in mysterious ways!" - she thought, feeling that in everything that was done now, an omnipotent hand, previously hidden from people’s view, began to appear.
Our settlement is located in the south of Karelia. 100 km from Petrozavodsk and 6 km from Lake Onega. On the territory of the settlement there are the remains of 3 villages, the name of one of which gave the name to the settlement “Zalesie” (for some reason the emphasis is on the first syllable). No one spends the winter in the villages, but summer residents come in the summer. That's why there are roads, electricity and even a telephone line.
To get to the settlement from the highway you need to drive 8 km along a dirt road, of which 2 km are not cleared by local authorities in winter.
The nearest school and store (more precisely, 4 grocery stores, 2 hardware stores and one canteen) are located 8 km away if you go by car. And walking in a straight line is about 4 km.
About neighbors
We have no restrictions on accepting new neighbors. The desire of the person himself is enough. We welcome any person who has a desire to save a piece of the planet, create a space of love on it, and arrange a family estate.
And there are plenty of “filters” for entering the settlement even without us. The Karelian land itself is the main filter. To stay in Karelia, you need to love this region with its powerful nature, thousands of lakes and vast spaces.
You need to be able to see this land and your life on it in 10-20 years to understand how beautiful they will be.
Another filter is that we do not provide a registered plot of land to anyone who wants to settle nearby. You need to register the land you need yourself.
We are registering the land for peasant farming. This is the most convenient form in our region. It can be completed in about a year and construction can begin immediately.
Before going to Zalesye it is important to understand:
1. You can rent a guest house from the Romanov family.
2. Or come to visit the person who invited you.
If you come just like that, then it may turn out that right now there is no one to receive you, no one to answer your questions, no one to give you a tour.
The nearest lake is 400 meters from the settlement.
Lake Onega - 4 km on foot or 8 km by car.
There are many streams on the territory of the settlement.
About commercial projects that we are already implementing.
We have a measured, leisurely settlement.
The areas are very different in terms of landscape and vegetation. There are areas completely overgrown with pine and birch trees. There are areas in the field, some on the slopes of hills, some almost in the forest, some on the banks of streams. There is a small lake 500 meters from the main road of the settlement. There are forests and beaver dams around.
Today (January 2011) there are permanent settlers living in the settlement in 6 estates. 3 more houses have been built, but the owners come only for the summer.
Answers on questions - rodoposelenia.ru/faq.html
The settlement's website is rodoposelenia.ru/.
“Not a collective farm, not a sect, not a seasonal get-together” is the principle of one of the oldest eco-villages in Russia, Nevo-Ekovil. What, in this case, unites 11 families who settled on forty hectares near Sortavala, Russian Planet correspondents found out.
Story from Ivan
The only pointer to “Nevo-Ekovil” is a handwritten sign “Seedlings for your home” in the Ladoga village of Reuskula. All curious people who reach this place will definitely be directed to the founding father of the settlement, Ivan Goncharov. And he will say:
– No eco-villages. This, my dears, is all vegetable oil bullshit.
We expected to see a guru, but Ivan looks more like a merchant. Imposing, with a beard. He invites you to a table in the courtyard of his house. At hand, pot-bellied, like the owner, are teapots and a sugar bowl, painted in Khokhloma. Ivan drinks mug after mug of tea, snacking on thick circles of heavily sugared lemon.
– Oh... Well, then tell me what’s going on here.
- We need to make a preface. It will explain how the Russian “Ecoville” differs from the European one. And is it ecoville (eco-village - “RP”) at all... However, I will return to this topic, but in later chapters of this novel. What is the novel about? The life of a small society has its own laws and its own stages of development. Whether you want it or not, you will go through these stages. We have a lot of experience here. Not because we are so cool, but it just so happened that we rushed into it earlier. Four years ago I collected this experience and systematized it...
Ivan Goncharov is a very thorough person. It tells the story of the settlement from Adam and Eve. Or he builds a story from the foundation, because he is an architect by profession.
– Every culture has an archetype of heaven - a righteous land, a righteous existence. And if in Orthodoxy the construction of the Kingdom of Heaven on earth is impossible by definition, then in the communist tradition it is possible. But, my God, we were all October pioneers. This is the first, basic idea. And then... If you ask the Russian intelligentsia how they would like to live, you will hear: their own house, and by the lake, by the river, a bathhouse, a garden, that means, with a vegetable garden - without fanaticism, an apiary. Perhaps goats or birds - also without fanaticism. How do we, that is, this intelligentsia, see ourselves? In linen shirts, barefoot, on the grass, at sunrise... To heal, to teach... Ninety percent of the sets will be from this figurative palette. Then there are layers of different traditions, as in Napoleon. For us, this is the eastern wave with a small admixture of the western wave in the form of theosophy and anthroposophy, Western occultism. We read all this, and even in the eighties, when it was just beginning: amateur yogis, all sorts of revelations from the constellation Orion - such crap was going on. But we didn’t just read, we practiced everything: exits to the astral planes, contacts with extraterrestrial civilizations, everything in full,” Ivan looks to see if the youth understand the seriousness of their previous experiences and its current irony. – I wanted to get away from this sinful world, it is illusory, it is vile and defiles the soul. We dreamed of building a new world, in a clean place, away from this... And so we, architects, gathered and said: “We are sitting in the kitchen, talking, talking... Damn, why don’t we build this world?” Plus, the everyday situation put pressure on me... I had two small children, and I lived with my wife.
- That is, with my mother-in-law...
- Yes! – Ivan laughs. – In 1986, our group left St. Petersburg, several families.
– How did your relatives react to this?
– It varies: some have micro-infarctions, some have micro-strokes. Everyone chose their own form of lectures for our departure. What was it like to leave St. Petersburg in 1986? When registration was tough, like this watchdog’s chain. Almost no return. Everything was cut off to make it fair. They didn’t rent out apartments, they didn’t live on it, as is fashionable these days. We decided not to jump, excuse the expression, with a pillow under your ass, when this pillow may not allow you to jump. We decided to jump lightly as high as possible. And they jumped with a running start...
Ivan pauses and insinuatingly says:
- We didn’t make it.
Having gotten rid of the Leningrad registration, the architects found a remote place. The nearest village is ten kilometers away. No electricity, no road. Ivan got a job as a labor teacher. Over time, they planned to create their own art school. But the main thing was to establish a community, or, as they called it, an ashram. They designed a common house: cruciform, with an observatory with a dome in the center. In the meantime, we had to live in a house from a state farm - decommissioned, still Finnish. Three pairs of adults with five children from two to seven years old endured a severe winter in it with frosts of up to 42 degrees.
- Master, good afternoon! - one of the neighbors looks into the yard.
- Ah, Igor. You see, I’m sitting on a perch, telling a heroic epic. Kantele is also missing a suit. It's time to buy some decent chlamys. Are you scratching the seagull?
- Nope. Where is your landlady?
- The housewife is in the garden, all in work. I'm afraid to even touch her, I'll hit her on the head with a hoe. I even sat down so that I couldn’t be seen.
The smoke from the fire pit actually spreads between Goncharov and the garden.
“I won’t tell you,” Ivan, smacking his lips, eats a candied lemon, “about all the heroism shown by the participants in the first project.” “He deserves,” the owner sips his tea, “a separate story.” The image and reality always fly apart to one degree or another, depending on the clarity of the image and the power of the implementers. Both were not enough. Yes, even now there is little of it everywhere, if we speak honestly about the most intimate places... We survived the year. They thought they were cool, and they worked their butts off. Yes, our friends helped us. There was no Internet, so it was a little more difficult to sympathize. Compassion back then was usually face-to-face, not online. But we took on too much. For example, they felled a forest and skidded it. From midnight to four in the morning the state farm gave us a sawmill. We sawed, rolled logs, and the girls cut the boards on machines. We returned home, recovered until eight, and then went to work. Well, how long can you stand this? Plus living in a small house, a shared kitchen, socialization of resources - all in one pot. Tension began to build within the team. And she was torn apart. We parted as friends, the relationship was still like between family, but we could no longer be together, we could not agree on the simplest things.
– Families separated, or within families too...
“Families also poured in.” In all of these social experiments, the ultimate burden fell on families. The family received all the benefits from the failed experiment inside themselves. This is the first currency you pay with. A woman, as a rule, follows her husband and sees him as a support. If she loses this support, a complete breakdown begins. And men periodically weaken, especially during periods of this molting. I myself am structured in such a way that my family has always relied on unquestioning male decision-making. And responsibility, of course. That is, the structure of my family is quite patriarchal...
We got carried away and didn’t notice how a woman appeared behind us and made some signs. But Ivan noticed. His intonation changes to sweet:
“Natasha, honey, would you like some tea?.. These are guests, neighbors on the planet... Sunshine, I’m sharing my experience... It would be better if you shared there, I understand,” he says, as if on the phone, in complete silence. - I certainly will. I’ll just recover and I’ll run and do the poop right away. No, no, Natasha, I’ll really run to work like you. I can still do it, I'm useful.
Curiosity fills us:
– Is this your second wife?
- Certainly. My wife looks so good: could she really give birth to five children and survive like that? Now... you need to understand that all these experiments can be very expensive. If you are ready to pay this price, you are welcome. If you're not ready, guys, it's better to go to the auditorium.
(We did visit the auditorium - the boy Martin gave us a concert)
Let's get comfortable, because the story is just beginning.
- So here it is. Just at that moment, friends said that it was possible to work on Valaam: there are not enough hands there, they provide housing. I arrived at Valaam having been killed. Why, the world you built collapsed. What's left inside of you? Nothing. The funnel is like this: mmmmmm! - Ivan smacks it with relish, - deep, black. This is one of the mistakes of the magic of life. Under no circumstances should you become attached to the model of a bright future that you created. That makes you more vulnerable if it collapses, and it will collapse and change forever. And she changes, and you change. Ten years ago you were alone, twenty years ago you were different. Either we were tough yogis, then we were Taoists, then, you know, Orthodox, then we became pagans, then, excuse the expression... ahem... whoever. There were people on Valaam in those days, 1987. It wasn't a monastery yet. The guys were not all on friendly terms. Our people, astronauts! And since no one had ever taken my soldering iron out of one place in my life, as soon as the voltage was applied again, I began to fidget. I think: “Shouldn’t we build an island of the sun, shouldn’t we make a community within the island, our own borders, an entire country?” We spent two years trying to figure it out, but it didn’t work out.
The new idea was not to escape from civilization, but to use existing social institutions. Thanks to Gorbachev’s law on the election of leadership, Ivan’s comrades wanted to take the posts of chairman of the village council, directors of forestry and restoration workshops on Valaam. The elections were lost.
– And what new idea did the soldering iron spark?
– The third idea is that they won’t let us land anywhere as a community, and that’s fine. When we built the house, we actually perceived it as a community. Let's build a house and there will be a community. But we already had a community, in this small house, where the floor is at ground level, where the toilet is on the street, where in winter these stalactites of manure rose... It was necessary to preserve this community, this snail, not a shell. A house is a shell, an external form. It seems to us that we are cool guys, we will be able to live with each other in love and harmony, we just need to build a house in the right place and at the right time. This creates a trap from which it is very difficult to get out. Even more difficult than at the start. Localized paradise should not be the goal. Then the next question arises: why a place at all? Let's make a nomadic community like the hippies did in their time. We have already registered a restoration cooperative. We take a monastery for restoration, move into it, spend eight years restoring it, and then the next monastery. We had a blacksmith shop, a ceramic workshop, landscapers, and I had a design group. But then the monastery came and began to curtail all secular projects. We began to resist, but writing against the wind was more expensive for ourselves. They gave us a kick, and we jumped to the mainland. Then we tried to go through the old schemes: community house, back and forth. These options were quickly discarded as non-working. In 1994 we began to take the first land here, near the village of Reuskula.
Live broth
We'll see what happened here and ask others. And Ivan still has a few questions left to ask.
– Many city residents react negatively to the idea of eco-villages. We have an assumption that, in addition to the stated reasons, there is also a fear of spending all the time with your family. Is it hard compared to the city lifestyle?
– You are on the right path, but you have only found one puzzle in the picture, and that’s just on the periphery. Firstly, for urban people the natural environment is stressful. He doesn't know how to live in it. Something is rustling here, something is growing, something is croaking, something is moving under your feet, something is digging with a hoe... and you yourself must become part of this giant living broth. Secondly, the social aspect. In the city we have a lot of identities that give us the opportunity to adapt to different environments. Often people behave not as they behave on their own, but as they generally behave. And where you actually are among these masks is unknown. It’s like the consciousness of a modern person, which, unfortunately, is comic book. The urban lifestyle is like the life of a comic book hero. There, if you are not successful in one environment, you can leave it and change the environment. But here you won’t be able to get away from your neighbors on the subway. Thirdly, not only you personally, but also your family are the hero of the comic book. Take this away, be left alone with your family, and the internal structures on which your family is built will begin to crack. With the change in lifestyle, you will pay with your family. Next, there is the question of professional fulfillment. Now the trend is professional self-realization of women. We say: guys, family is the fulfillment for a woman! Where else is higher than being realized as a mother? This is actually God's apprentice! There is this, I believe, satanic scheme of desecration of these information codes. It's like a viral program changes a righteous program.
– That is, on earth people naturally return to the patriarchal way of life. But you talk about family all the time. The units you operate with are families. Can a single person move to an eco-village?
– A lonely person has nothing to do on earth. As soon as you return to earth, to the living, the family program is activated, or something. Homo Sapiens is both male and female. Humanity as a species manifests itself only in the family. When this scrap of humanity comes to the eco-village, it begins to look for the other half. It's even more difficult with women. If a man is a seeker by nature, then a lonely woman with such ideas is a complete cosmonautics, it’s better to stay away from her.
– So often any eco-settlers are treated as “cosmonauts”, sectarians, from whom it is better to stay away. In Russia, the most famous eco-villages are those of the Vissarionites, who live with their prophet on Lake Tiberkul, and the Anastasievites, who believe in the taiga hermit and the ringing cedar.
– Unfortunately, we do not have the correct image of the village. Just as there is no image of the future of Russia. I spoke earlier about the disadvantages, that you should not get attached to images, but there are also advantages. They provide very powerful motivation. There is no image, but it is in demand, and now surrogate images appear, like those of Maigret (the founder of the cult of Anastasia - “RP”). This is an electric light bulb that insects fly towards. Sad and sad.
– So, does your settlement have some kind of common ideology?
– We have taken the ideology beyond the perimeter of the settlement project. Each family has its own. Seryozhka, for example, is an Old Believer, but at the same time he has been practicing yoga for twenty years. Nothing, this is the Russian version, it passes. I - it’s unclear what, I’m also an ordinary Russian vinaigrette. Lenka and Andryukha had hard yoga and practiced qigong. Now Lenka is terribly Orthodox. We have communists - Vovka Berezin, who grows seedlings. He is an atheist, but when there is a service in our chapel, he is the first to stand with a candle. We have Dimka the blacksmith - he was generally a strict Orthodox Christian, from the Cossacks. But recently I began to study Slavic traditions, embroidery, costumes, and got stuck there. I feel that Orthodoxy is creeping, another year or two - and it will slide.
(Orthodox chapel in an ecovillage)
– Is it possible for people with such different views to coexist without conflicts?
– If I come to Seryozhka, Seryozhka comes to me, Dimka comes, we want to interact with each other - thank God. I don’t care who he is – a Buddhist, a nudist, a communist. The main thing is that the person is good. We had a family of the same Anastasievites, they couldn’t do that. They immediately begin to preach. If you think that you are the most correct, then build your own world, show that it is truly brighter and more beautiful than mine. If so, I'll take a look and probably be your follower. These Anastasievites and I said like children: “The squirrel didn’t come? Didn't you bring a nut? And the bear didn’t bring any honey... Did you hold a cedar seed in your mouth? Didn't come up? Listen, I drooled badly...” We have had many such cosmonauts, we know that today he is radical like a teenager, and tomorrow he is a normal, adapted person. Or even a cynical layman.
– What else, besides imposing your views, is unacceptable in Ecoville?
- Idleness. If you have a big income and you live here with your legs dangling. Then you are in the audience, you are not our person. Sit, for God's sake, but you will never become one of your own. They will never come to you, and you will not come to anyone, because you are not welcome. When you come here as a guest, they will warm you and feed you. But as soon as you come here just like everyone else, the situation changes. When such people are caught in the apparent comfort of the environment, but when they come here they don’t get it, they lose interest, sell these plots and leave.
Ivan's closest neighbor is Sergei. He raises birds and rabbits, and a homemade sign “Domestic Quail Egg” leads to his house. Sergei also takes the teapot out into the yard. Previously there was a village dump here, now there is a pond, a bench, lilies.
- How did you get here?
- From Valaam. They wanted to save the world, they were young.
– And what is your goal now, if not to save the world?
– Ivan tells this beautifully... If you speak loudly, then live your life in order to be holy. And the potatoes here are good,” Sergei smiles. – Everyone wants to live in a good society and with good people. So that I have a good neighbor on the left, on the right, in front and behind. This is how builders from Ukraine came to me and said: “Your geese are walking freely, your bicycle is standing, your scythe is hanging. And we can’t leave anything at all. As soon as I turned away, they pulled the bucket out from under my ass.” We don't like it that way. When you come to Finland, everyone there lives like that. Degradation…
– Does the proximity of the village bother you?
- Sometimes they stole. But still, many people live here permanently, this is a bear corner.
– Do you have any entertainment in the bear corner?
– For example, the bathhouse, our political club. General holidays. In general, it is important that they exist. You just can’t get it together. Walking to that end of the village is incredible. You need to take an hour or two off, and all the time you’re stuck in the park. We urgently need to dry the hay today, there is no rain. I quickly went to mow, dry and stir. When you come running, you have to weed. Then we need to go to the city. And so on all the time. It’s cool, of course, to sit with a good guy, but he also has no time.
On the other side of the Goncharovs’ house, already without any sign, is a stylish building with floor-length windows.
This is the Ecoville Hall, where local holidays are held: Christmas, Maslenitsa, Easter, Victory Day, Ivan Kupala, Autumn. There's no one inside now, but the door is open.
You can also enter the neighboring house. There is equipment for preparing leaf and granulated fireweed tea.
You yourself are a summer resident!
The house closest to the club is just under construction. We spoke to the hostess:
– Are you also from an eco-village?
– Yes, people here still can’t decide whether this is a village or an eco-village. We think that we just live in the village. We have 2 hectares of land that needs to be cultivated. To do this, you need to build and move. For now there is only a vegetable garden. My husband does carpentry and makes log houses. I work as a trainer in the city.
– But do you have contact with those who consider themselves part of the eco-village?
– We are all in contact here, we are still a community. But I believe that an ecovillage is when people live on the land, work and eat from it. And here half of them live like summer residents. And Vanya Goncharov does not spend the winter here. What is this, this “Nevo-Ekovil” of his? In fact, another name for the same village club.
Nikolai and Olga come out onto the porch of the neighboring house:
– There must be a leader everywhere. What is the difference between a commissar and a political officer? The commissioner says “do as I do,” and the political officer says “do as I say.” We have a political officer, but no commissar. We have only recently lived here, but this is one of our first impressions.
– Don’t you consider yourself to be an eco-village?
– Probably, the ecovillage is made up of those who immediately came with Goncharov. Yes, we know these people, we are in contact with them, we participate in common events. Although even among the old-timers, the vectors went in different directions. An ecovillage should be distinguished by an organization, a written idea, why people came to this settlement. And here is a group of like-minded people, but like-minded people only in that they chose this place.
The house of Alexey and Oksana is hidden in a small forest near Lake Varanen.
– I can’t say almost anything about the settlement. Ivan now has his own tasks, something at the federal level. I believe that you can change the world only within your family. Therefore, I can only say about our family. We know a Finnish woman who lived on this lake. She was six years old when they were asked from here. Una, that’s her name, talked about life here. Essentially, a clan lived here, a large family. The child did not grow up alone with his mother. And we live like pioneers, like discoverers of this way of life. Not entirely harmonious, to be honest. Therefore, we chose this model for ourselves: we live here most of the year, from spring to winter. Not quite like summer residents. We have workshops, Leshkin’s carpentry and my ceramics, both here and in Sortavala. There is also a house there, with outbuildings.
Oksana is glad that they live on the outskirts and doubts the need for ecotourism. She points to a path going up the mountain, which should lead us to the traces of the last seminar for lovers of Karelian nature. We arrived at the “place of power” and started a fire. The entire eco-village was extinguished.
Old timers
There are always a lot of people visiting the old residents of the settlement, Andrey and Elena Obrucha. This is not the first time Petersburg resident Egor has been here.
– Are you thinking about moving closer to nature?
– My wife is not very... earthy. Loves apartments. To shower every day, all that. So she's not particularly eager to move.
Yegor has two sons. The youngest eats strawberries from the garden for the first time and swims in the lake. We are also offered to swim and pick currants along the way. They immediately talk about the quirks of guests from the city, who refused to eat both garden and wild berries unwashed. The children ran ahead, and we go with the owners. Elena once did yoga, and now she has a bracelet with icons on her wrist. As she enters the water, she crosses herself. There is no beach with sand here - the coast is rocky. Jumping from boulders has homegrown names: “Bomb”, “Drunkard”, “Pike”, “Cog”, “Fish”, “Kolobok”.
– Dad makes a “Bomb”, and that’s it. We need to work, clean the guest house, collect herbs.
But on the way to the house you still can’t pass the playground:
The Hoops family ceases to have many children. There were five of our own and three adopted ones, but the eldest are already studying at institutes, the son is leaving for the army - that leaves Polyana and Peresvet (by the way, the neighbor’s children’s names are Martha, Martin and Ragnar). The younger ones are taken to the city school, although at one time the parents were staunch supporters of homeschooling and other ideas. For ideological reasons, the Hoops even had to leave another eco-village, Kitezh, about 20 years ago:
“We were so frantic then - both about vaccinations and vegetarians... Now I think that it was more about us than about them,” says Elena. – There is still an organization there, the children are adopted. It was more necessary to obey than to download your rights.
Polyana is late for dinner today - she and the guys are in the city, buying food for a kayaking trip on Ladoga. Running into the kitchen, the first thing he does is reach into the refrigerator for sausage. Mom doesn't allow it. The girl gets even with the borscht, pouring mayonnaise on it thickly. Between the stove and the curtained passage to the next room, a monitor with Elena’s VKontakte page is on. We were given beds upstairs. Andrei is lying on a mattress near the stairs with a laptop on his chest, in the room the boys are watching a movie on the computer, and there is someone’s tablet right there. For a long time we cannot sleep on our homemade wooden beds. By midnight, the house falls silent, and only the telephone flickers for a long time from under Peresvet’s blanket.
Prospects
The settlement has existed for 20 years, but the grown children have not yet returned here. In this respect, Ecoville is no different from the surrounding villages. Some parents say that it is difficult to find a job, others say that their soulmate is willing to move to the village. And Ivan Goncharov, speaking about children, even forgets about the patriarchal way of life:
– We are building a world for ourselves, for children this world is different. We came from there, from the outside world, and they need to go from here to there.
Nevertheless, the ecovillage continues to be replenished with urban romantics.
– Go and see Zhenya and Lisa. They are from St. Petersburg, absolutely city people, a programmer and designer. They thought it was their way of pampering. And now they are here all year round. They live alone on a farm.
- How far is it to go to them?
- It’s a long way... we have to walk for about five minutes.
The hosts will be surprised by our visit. Rarely does anyone visit them; even Ivan Goncharov has never been. And in vain. A beautiful two-story house is built on a rock, surrounded by a terrace that looks more like a deck: tanned children climb beams and ropes, not afraid of heights, and a green sea of meadows spreads below. Of course, we are noticed from afar. The girl runs off to put on a dress over her swimsuit. When we meet, it turns out that Lisa already has four children. All were born at home, and the youngest was born right here, even without a midwife. Home births are practiced in Ecoville, although some settlers are opposed to them.
– Why did you move here?
“We’ve been coming here for a long time, almost ten years,” Zhenya begins. – We found out through Oruchey that there is an eco-village here. The first time we came, went kayaking and lived in a tent. We really liked this place. When our second child was born, our two-room apartment became cramped. When we had a third, we took it seriously and sold the apartment.
“I was then in my eighth month, then for another two and a half years I toiled around in rented apartments.
“And I ordered a frame, a roof, came here and began to finish everything. I still do it. For a year I sat on all sorts of online construction forums, studying how it all was done. When we got to the finishing, I realized that I couldn’t trust it to the builders. Now this is my main occupation; I have no time to do farming. I make money by making graphics for toys. Of course, this is not a city, but we consciously exchanged earnings for a good life. I think it's a good exchange.
– Was there any philosophical background for such an exchange?
– This is Ivan, Andrey – they have ideas, articles on this topic. But when faced with ordinary life, all this is leveled out, and you get... ordinary life. We just live, we just feel good.
But Ivan Goncharov is not the kind of person who will settle for “it’s just good for us”:
– For ten years we were in quiet stagnation, the village mostly sat in its own little world. And then something clicked. We gathered with the men. As expected, they poured it into a glass. I say: “We will keep the advice. Everyone is sitting in their own hole now, we do not have a model of our future. Let's be honest. Either we take the banners of our dreams out of mothball chests, or we honestly scrap them.”
There was no free land left for new settlers to come to. But the local state farm recently went bankrupt, and now the surrounding fields will go under construction. Until a dacha hell with two-meter fences is built there, Goncharov is trying to come to an agreement with the authorities. The Promised Land in his new grandiose plan is called a “Model Territory for Sustainable Innovative Development,” and even the neighboring island is called an “eco-technopark” and “information generator.” All that remains is to find ideological followers.
Roman and Daria Nureyevs,
Karelia loves the strong – that’s what the locals say, and they are right. Karelia is an amazing land with powerful nature, thousands of lakes and vast spaces that captivate with their beauty and purity. It is here – in general, just 100 km from Petrozavodsk – that one of the oldest eco-settlements with the beautiful name “Zalesye” is located (when pronouncing this name, the locals for some reason emphasize the first syllable).
The name of the eco-settlement is somewhat historical - there used to be a village of the same name here, but then the residents abandoned their homes and moved to... It was here, on a tract that, in addition to the territory of the former “Zalesye”, also included the territories of two other villages, the settlement was located. If earlier villagers flocked to the city, now the situation has changed dramatically - not only residents of St. Petersburg, but also residents of St. Petersburg, Muscovites, and residents of other large cities and even residents of Europe and the CIS countries are ready to abandon the bustle of the metropolis, quit their well-paid jobs and move here - closer to nature. However, there are those who maintain a balance: they come only for the summer, and spend the cold season in the city. 
“Zalesye” fascinates from the first minutes: there is a traditional Karelian pine forest, where in summer and autumn you can visit for mushrooms and berries, and lakes full of fish, and amazing air! And the proximity to the city gives its own comfort - there are roads, electricity and a telephone line! In relative proximity (just 8 kilometers by car or 4 kilometers through the forest) there are shops (food and hardware). They built their own school here! 
Local residents are always happy to have new neighbors - they say that the most important thing for moving to Zalesye is a person’s desire to save a piece of the planet, create a space of love on it, and develop a family estate. But there are also plenty of unique “filters” for newcomers here: the main one is Karelian itself, because in order to stay in Karelia, you need to truly love this region, you need to be able to see this land and your life on it in 10-20 years, to understand how wonderful life can be here! 
The territory of “Zalesye” is not small! Anyone who dreams of living in a forest can choose a plot completely overgrown with pine and birch trees; for those who love space and the smell of flowering herbs, there are plots in the field. You can set up on a hillside or on the edge of a forest! You can choose a site with a stream flowing through it or on the shore of a lake, with a small river blocked by beaver dams. 
Before moving here for permanent residence, you can rent a guest house from local old-timers or simply come to visit the person who invited you! Local residents say that it is simply impossible to remain indifferent to the beauty of Karelian nature!
Here, each family sets up its own family estate, and people are driven by the ideas described in the books of Vladimir Megre. All the people here are creative! Films are made about “Zalesye”, seminars are held here telling how to build a house with your own hands, and new neighbors are helped with the construction! There is a wonderful apiary and incredibly tasty honey, and its sale and work with bees is one of the income sources for the residents of the eco-village. In “Zalesye” they also like to work with stone - they make crafts and sell works from shungite - this is a healing stone, the deposit of which is in Karelia. Local residents are developing their own media - the Internet newsletter: “On the way to the Family Estate,” which is read by 280,000 like-minded people and a constantly updated group in contact. 
- We have a measured, leisurely settlement, we strive for a quiet life in harmony with nature, enjoy harmony with the surrounding world and develop our land. We raise cattle, horses, sheep! - say local residents. 
They are all happy and smiling people, satisfied with life, smiling and ready to ride a horse-drawn sleigh even to the nearest village to buy groceries. Those who meet them on the way are no longer surprised - almost all the surrounding people have already visited the residents of “Zalesye”. And they are welcome - talented people and those who love nature are always welcome here! 
This weekend we finally went to the eco-village "Zalesye" (they say that the emphasis should be on the first syllable). The most important and best experience is the people! Stunning, simple, eye-opening, down to earth (in every way) and with a GREAT SENSE OF HUMOR! :)
The eco-village is located in Karelia on the territory of a former village (3-4 houses there are still quite old), 100 km from Petrozavodsk and only 5 km from Lake Onega. The journey there took about 550 km from St. Petersburg. The road to get there is generally normal (Murmansk federal highway). But in Len. The roads in the region are still worse than anywhere else (after 100 km from the city) :)
Well, let's get back to the people. On the territory of the settlement, 5 houses live permanently (one house is not always one family); in the summer, about 10-12 houses live. People live differently - there is a teacher, there is also a pediatrician, there is one former sailor, one fire paratrooper, a builder, a stove maker, a beekeeper, and so on. In general, a very different audience, and several children also live permanently. They go to school - 6 km one way. the nearest school is on foot in summer and 5 km on skis in winter. From this we can conclude that according to physical Children will give anyone a head start in preparation (and not only in physical fitness) :)
By the way, when the first settlers arrived, on these lands there were (and are) several houses with local (village) summer residents who came from Petrozavodsk for the summer. For locals, the arrival of strangers who do not smoke, do not drink and generally lead an “incorrect” lifestyle was a serious shock. Someone began to take advantage of this and stole some things from the settlers (no one locks their houses here), but after a while someone stopped drinking alcohol. In general, different people and different destinies. Very soon there will be a Gathering of all residents and the administration, which, by the way, is on the side of the eco-settlers (they will resolve current issues).
The children walk on their own from early morning until late evening (they have already swam in the local pond and lake!). In general, complete freedom and discord! For parents, this is security and freedom, which is necessary for the development of their children; this is probably the main factor for which they moved here to live.
Residents are slowly developing their plots and building houses (by the way, everyone has more than 1-2 hectares of land and the neighborhood is very pleasant in such conditions, since everyone lives on their own land). They make honey for sale, conduct seminars on construction, rent out guest houses to tourists, some are actively engaged in permalculture according to Sepp Holzer, but there are no serious results yet, including commercial ones. But this is not particularly important, since many live on their own farms, some buy food in the city (when they are there on business). One man admitted that 1,500 rubles a month was enough for him, his daughter and wife (!), but now they spend about 3,000 rubles on average. I found only one family who eats meat products; the rest, as a rule, prefer plant-based foods. This is largely due to the fact that, due to an unstable power grid, many refrigerators cannot withstand, and voltage stabilizers (both expensive and cheap) cannot withstand more than a year.
Some houses and plots are connected to electricity, but many specifically choose plots without electricity.
Judge for yourself:
5-6 liters of bezine are needed for a chainsaw to prepare firewood for 1 year (!)
1 gas cylinder is used for 1 year for cooking (refilling costs about 400 rubles)
Mobile charging (MTS and Megafon can be heard here) is carried out through neighbors (who have electricity) or through solar panels
Solar batteries are also used to illuminate houses (in winter they are said to be of little use)
turn on the generator - in winter and as needed (mainly for power tools) (consumption 0.6 liters per hour)
In general, not as many resources are actually needed as it seems at first glance to the average person. And in general, there is little that a person needs to be happy - here on Karelian soil you understand this well, but only personally, only if you come here yourself.
By the way, in the settlement itself there are no charters or rules (the main and natural filter is “Karelian land”). There are big plans for developing an eco-village (well, what would we do without them?), but to implement them, more settlers are needed (more hands - less difficulties). Although the foundation of a common house (aka school) has already been laid. But no one is in a hurry (and there is no need!) because people choose to live in any eco-village, so that their life flows calmly and measuredly (like a river).
A video about the settlement can be viewed here:
http://rodoposelenia.ru/video3.html
If you decide to come, you can (and should!) stop here:
http://www.rodoposelenia.ru/tovary_romanova.html - the guest houses are very comfortable!
The settlement has its own website, newsletter and even Twitter (!) :)))
http://rodoposelenia.ru/zalesie.html
P.S.
There are mosquitoes there, but fewer than in the Leningrad region, and for some reason they mostly bite only visitors. I think it’s a matter of clogged pores on the skin of a city person, which mosquitoes clean out in this way for us in kind service) So the tick decided to cure me)) I went to an infectious disease specialist to find out the results of the study. Good day everyone!