If you are vacationing in Karelia, in the area of ​​Ladoga or the city of Sortavala, then I recommend including in your route a visit to the Ruskeala waterfalls, which were made famous by the film “The Dawns Here Are Quiet,” namely the scene where the heroine Zhenya died. It is convenient to combine an excursion to the Ruskeala waterfalls with a visit to the mountain park and marble quarries, about which I wrote a separate review.

"The Dawns Here Are Quiet" was filmed here

Stills from the film "The Dawns Here Are Quiet"

Ruskeala waterfalls are located a few kilometers from the village of Ruskeala, almost along the A130 highway connecting Sortavala and Finland. The waterfalls were formed due to the flood of the Tokhmajoki River; at this point it crosses the road four times, which is very clearly visible on the map.

The Tohmajoki River originates from the Finnish Lake Ruokojärvi and flows into Lake Ladoga. In the spring, many athletes raft along it in boats, passing the Ruskeala waterfalls.

In fact, these waterfalls are called Ahvenkoski, but complex Finnish names do not take root well here, so more often these waterfalls appear in guidebooks as Ruskeala.

We arrived at the waterfalls around 7 pm, the guide on the road said that 10 minutes of free time would be enough for us, but everyone started making noise, so we settled on half an hour. Getting off the bus, I realized that the guide was right, you can take a walk and take a couple of photos very quickly, since the area through which the river with waterfalls runs is quite small.

The waterfalls are also not distinguished by their majestic size, but this does not spoil them at all; in combination with the surrounding landscape they look very beautiful. The water from several waterfalls falls very quickly, so the resulting lake is covered with foam, as if it were a cup of carefully prepared cappuccino.

In addition to the waterfalls, there is a souvenir shop where I bought a book about Sortavala and a pillow stuffed with juniper. What surprised me most was the fact that the book costs almost the same as the magnet, which seems strange to me.

We were one of the first to finish our walk along the Ruskeala waterfalls and waited for the rest of the group near the minibus. After some time, a large tourist bus pulled into the parking lot, from which people were running out like ants. The guide shouted to them that no more than 10 minutes were allocated to explore the waterfalls, because by the time you collected them all, just half an hour would have passed.

If you come to the waterfalls on your own, you can relax in one of the wooden gazebos and grab a barbecue at the cafe, but we didn’t have time for that.

Another interesting object that independent tourists can visit is the waterfall at the small hydroelectric power station "Rymäkoski", which formerly belonged to the Finns. There are even abandoned buildings preserved here, which have long been wanted to be turned into a newly functioning station. You can get to this place on foot from the Ruskeala waterfalls; you need to walk along the road for about a kilometer, then turn onto the forest road and walk about 300 meters through wet and sticky terrain. The best way to demonstrate the location of this hydroelectric power station is a map - I gave a link to it above.

How to get to Ruskeala waterfalls

You need to get there by car along the A130 highway, everything is simple here: the waterfalls are located along the highway.

The most convenient way to get there is from the village of Ruskeala (which is convenient to come from the city of Sortavala for a walk through the mountain park) or by bus, which travels along the highway in the opposite direction from Finland. I think that it is best to check the numbers and schedule at the bus station.

Or call a taxi, which for a small amount will take you to the waterfalls and wait.

My review of traveling around Karelia as part of an organized group

All articles in the direction Karelia

Selection of hotels in Karelia

Flights to Karelia

We were taken to the filming location “And the dawns here are quiet” . It is near Ruskeala Park on the Tohmajoki River. These places are also called Ruskeala waterfalls or Akhvenkoski waterfall. A very picturesque place.

I’m sure every Soviet person watched the film “And the Dawns Here Are Quiet,” filmed in 1972 by director Stanislav Rostotsky. And here modern youth, teenagers don’t mind watching Soviet films, they are not interested in them. And therefore, when the guide told me on the bus about the location where some scenes from the film “The Dawns Here Are Quiet” were filmed, it didn’t arouse much interest or trepidation in my children that they would visit there, unlike me.

And here we are at the Ruskeala waterfalls.

Like the Ruskeala waterfalls, they are also flat, but much smaller. We see two waterfalls; they look more like large rapids. One waterfall is larger, the other is smaller. As I understand it, on the rocks the bed of the Tokhmajoki River split into two. Stormy streams Two waterfalls formed a small lake, from which the river calmly continues to carry its waters.

The path along the rocks to the larger waterfall is designed as a mini-park.

There are many stairs and bridges with carved railings; here and there we notice very interesting wooden sculptures of animals and forest evil spirits. Apparently, in this way the interest of the children's audience is aroused, and adults also look at these sculptures with pleasure.

The goblin is eavesdropping on someone.

Baba Yaga attracts tourists. Look how dressed up you are.

Forest family. I don’t even know what to call these characters.

Looking ahead, I will say that this picturesque place on the Tohmajoki River was very interesting to my children and they really wanted to see Soviet film“And the dawns here are quiet.” So in the evening, when we returned to our room, we had a family viewing legendary film. We watched a movie and recognized these places: rocks, waterfalls, a river with that lake near the waterfalls. There was a complete immersion in the film “The Dawns Here Are Quiet”; there was no need for 3D glasses.

This is the waterfall from the movie. It is to him that lines of tourists go.

And here is the second waterfall, which is smaller. We saw very few tourists there, probably because to get to it, you need to cross a larger waterfall and go through a small forest. Or maybe there is another way around, a simpler one.

The same waterfall from the film “The Dawns Here Are Quiet.” Do you recognize?

Remember the scene when Zhenya Komelkova, in order to scare off the Germans, staged a performance with swimming in the lake in front of the waterfall.

This is the same rock-island on which she took off her clothes. Now a beaver has settled here.

And another shot from that bathing scene.

The exact same landscape appeared in one of the photographs I took at the Akhvenkoski waterfall. It’s an amazing feeling, really, as if you were present at those events.

There is now a house, or rather decoration, on the rock near the waterfall. I was still surprised, because in the film “The Dawns Here Are Quiet” there was no house near the waterfall. From another scene, or was it moved here for some reason?

It turned out to be much simpler. Scenes for the film “The Dark World” were filmed here in 2010. The house is just the scenery for “The Dark World”, they were left here just like that. But I didn’t watch “The Dark World,” so I recognized and compared the landscapes of the Ruskeala waterfalls only from the film “And the Dawns Here Are Quiet.”

Look, it seems to me that the girls fought near these rocks.

Nastya chose a pine tree bent like a bow on a rock for the photo shoot.

We recognized this pine tree in the film. Here she is in the foreground.

There are quite a lot of tourists here; everyone is fussing around the waterfall, wanting to take pictures against its background. Maybe this only happens on weekends, but on weekdays less people, Don't know. Oh, how I wanted to be here at dawn, when no one was there, to listen to the pre-dawn silence, broken only by the sound of waterfalls.

There is a shooting range in front of the entrance to the mini-park. How could his son pass him by? I shot and earned a reward - a magnet.

In addition to the shooting range, the military theme is reinforced by the military field kitchen, and in the souvenir shop you can see soldiers’ things: a tunic, a sapper shovel, a flask, a bowler hat and, for some reason, deer antlers. But in my opinion, these things are displayed here not for sale (there were no price tags on them), but for the surroundings.

We weren’t at the Ruskeala waterfalls for long, probably about forty minutes. And we went back. On the way, the guide continued the story about the history of Karelia, about Russian-Swedish and Russian-Finnish relations in our history. She also told about the Soviet-Finnish (or Soviet-Finnish) war of 1939-1940, about the “Valley of Death” and about the “Mannerheim Line”. About how much Soviet soldiers died during this short winter war.

And so our tour bus stopped in the middle of the forest, the guide invited us to go to the memorial Cross of Sorrow . It is located next to the fork of the A131 Pitkäranta - Suoyarvi and P21 Pryazha - Sortavala highways.

View of the fork in the road from the parking lot opposite the Cross of Sorrow memorial.

“The fighting in the area of ​​the city of Pitkäranta was extremely fierce and units of the Red Army suffered heavy losses in this direction. The 18th Rifle Division was almost completely destroyed, being surrounded (out of 15 thousand, about 1,300 people survived). During the winter war, this was the only formation of the Red Army that was completely defeated.

The irretrievable losses of the Red Army (killed, died from wounds, cold and hunger, missing) in the Pitkyaranta direction as a whole amounted to at least 35 thousand people from November 30, 1939 to March 13, 1940. These are the greatest losses suffered by the Armed Forces of the USSR during the entire period of the Second World War on the front from Svir to the Barents Sea.”

And in this place, in the “Valley of Death”, 19 kilometers from the city of Pitkäranta, in 2000 a memorial dedicated to the memory of those killed during the Soviet-Finnish war of 1939-1940 was opened. The monument is a cross 5-6 meters high, on both sides of which two mothers, a Russian and a Finnish, were pressed with their arms outstretched on the cross. The Cross of Sorrow is installed on a small mound, and around the slopes of the hill there are large stones symbolizing the fallen Soviet and Finnish soldiers.

(click on these photos to enlarge)

The Cross of Sorrow monument was designed by Petrozavodsk sculptor Leo Lankinen.

Behind the monument there is a path leading into the forest to the second part of the memorial complex.

Here, on a large boulder, there is a memorial plaque with these words in Russian and Finnish.

Russia and Finland are two sisters.

Finland and Russia are two mothers.

They were embodied in this Cross of Sorrow.

By ourselves.

Their heads merged together

their hands joined in Hope.

For love to win.

And it depends on us.

From everyone.

In the forest next to memorial complex Cross of Sorrow, the ground is still uneven, full of holes - and the wounds on the ground from the explosions have not healed.

Forest in the “Valley of Death” near the Cross of Sorrow.

This is a map that shows the attractions that we visited during one excursion trip.

This is how during our sightseeing trip we remembered two wars. Great Patriotic War, having visited the filming site “And the dawns here are quiet” and the unknown Soviet-Finnish war to many, having visited the monument Cross of Sorrow . I honestly admit that I knew practically nothing about the Soviet-Finnish war, because not a word was mentioned about it in Soviet history textbooks. My children, on the contrary, knew very well about Soviet-Finnish war 1939-1940, daughter with school curriculum, and my son is from the Zvezda TV channel. So it was in vain that at the very beginning of the story I complained that children are not interested, they are interested in the history of their country, and they also wiped my nose with their knowledge.

Everyone remembers the magnificent film about the war “The Dawns Here Are Quiet...” and the picturesque nature against which the action of the film unfolds. The film was shot in Karelia. Remember how Zhenya swam at the waterfalls? These are waterfalls on the river. Tokhmajoki near the village of Ruskeala. Shall we visit there?

A short overview video gives you the opportunity to see what this place looks like today. There you will also find some interesting facts about the filming of other films in Karelia, known not only to Russian-speaking viewers.

You will also find out where the name of one of our banks - "Sampo" - came from. You will watch the fairy tale "Sampo", which many of us have not seen. But it was based on the Karelian-Finnish epic “Kalevala”. It was from him that the Estonian writer and doctor Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzwald took an example when he wrote Estonian heroic epic"Kalevipoeg".

In Karelia not only beautiful nature And a large number of historical and cultural monuments and objects. The republic gained some of its fame back in Soviet time- well-known and beloved films were filmed here: “The Dawns Here Are Quiet”, “Love and Doves”, “Cold Summer of ’53”...

The film “Cold Summer of ’53,” beloved by many, was filmed near the village of Lakhta on Syamozero and in the village of Suisari on Lake Onega. A. Proshkin recalls:

“We filmed on location in Karelia, one hundred and eighty kilometers from Petrozavodsk, in a rather remote village located on a peninsula. We worked normally for a week. The residents helped us as best they could. And no surprises were foreseen, since the village is isolated on three sides by water. A week later A.D. Papanov’s first day of shooting begins (it was June 30 on the calendar). He arrived on time, we start filming and... I can’t understand anything: wherever we point the camera, there are a lot of boats coming into the viewfinder and everyone is moving. in our direction. And what kind of motor boats can there be in 1953? We shoot from a rocket launcher, shout into the wind into a bullhorn - it’s useless: motor boats are rushing towards us from all sides, mooring, and we see: in each boat there are two or three. a child with a grandfather or grandmother, for some reason each child was holding a book or a notebook. And everyone, it turns out, came to meet “Grandfather Wolf.” pressing "all over the field", but Anatoly Dmitrievich intervened: "What are you, what are you! Let's better get together somehow!" We got together and seated the children. He wrote something for everyone, found his own words for each. I watched this scene, forgetting about the high cost of a disrupted shooting day. I saw from the faces of these kids that they were all life will remember meeting a person endlessly kind heart. And, most importantly, I saw this man’s face. Don't forget until my last hour...

Many tourists who go rafting to Karelia during the May holidays on the Tokhmajoki River will walk along the rapids where the footage for the film “The Dawns Here Are Quiet” was filmed. These are the Ruskeala waterfalls in which Zhenya swam. You can get to them not only by catamarans, kayaks or rafts, but also along the highway leading to Sortavala.

These art films are brands of Karelia: they are known and loved by the residents of our country. But the magnificent landscapes of the region attracted, as it turned out, quite a large number of directors. So back in 1958, the fairy tale film “Sampo” (based on the famous Karelian-Finnish epic “Kalevala”) was shot in these places. By the way, the film was simultaneously shot in both Russian and Finnish (each scene was first in one language, then in the other). Thanks to this fairy tale famous mountain Kalevala runes - Mount Sampo - "settled" very close to Petrozavodsk (37 km). This is a rocky hill on the western shore of Lake Konchezero. This place is amazing. From the mountain, everyone can admire the magnificent panorama of the forests and islands of Konchezer (the lake stretches for about 30 km).

Also, Mount Sampo is considered a place of power; you can make your most cherished wish on it, and it will come true. There is also a pine tree growing on the mountain itself, and on it, after making a wish, you need to hang a piece of clothing.

Another film that was filmed in Karelia is the 1984 feature film “Rest Time from Saturday to Monday.” And he was filmed not just in its wild forests, ancient villages, but in one of the most famous places- Valaam island. The film narrative centers on two generations of a Leningrad family spending their weekends on an excursion boat. During an excursion on the island of Valaam, the couple quarrel, and Anna goes to a monastery where disabled people live. In one of these disabled people, a legless boatman, Anna, unexpectedly for herself, recognizes a friend of her youth, Pavel, who went missing during the war, and persuades him to return with her to Leningrad. The film reveals not only the problem of fathers and children, the drama of the main character, but also the history of the island of Valaam itself in Soviet times: the creation there of a boarding school for war invalids, where there were people whose destinies were broken not only by the war, but also by reality. And until today soviet history Valaam is inextricably linked with the history of the boarding house and the village coexisting with the monastery.

More recently (in 2010) the filming of the film " Dark world"(also known under other names "West of the Sun", "Ghosts"). The picture was filmed, or rather the scenes where main character ends up with the lake witches, on the Marble Canyon of Ruskeala - one of the famous attractions of Karelia. These are magnificent views of nature, majestic rocks and emerald-colored water in the lake... If you watch the film, you will definitely want to see everything live and go to Karelia yourself.

It is worth mentioning one more film, shot in 2009 famous actress and directed by Vera Glagoleva, which is called “One War”. In general, films dedicated to the Great Patriotic War were often shot in Karelia. Patriotic War. The film is based on real historical events, which took place precisely on Ladoga in May 1945: on one of the islands, women with their children born to the occupying Germans are serving their sentences. And an order came to the island to send women to camps and their children to orphanages. So for them, Victory Day becomes grief and joy at the same time. The film was shot on a small island in Lake Ladoga.

The shores of Onega and Ladoga attract tourists from all over northern Russia. And Karelian pine forests, blue lakes and majestic rocks - famous directors. And after they visited our region, many artistic films appeared: “And trees grow on the stones”, “The third height”, “Cloud-paradise”, “Two days of anxiety”, “Late berry”, “Autumn”, “ Piranha Hunt", "Platinum 2", "Blind 2", "Island"...

Sampo (fairy tale)

Fairy tale film based on the Karelian-Finnish epic “Kalevala”. The people of Kalevala dream of the magical Sampo mill, which without grain produces flour, honey, salt, and even gold. But Great master, the eternal blacksmith Ilmarinen, cannot make Sampo without the heavenly fire stolen by Louhi, the mistress of the land of sorcerers. The insidious Louhi herself dreams of getting a magic mill. To force Ilmarinen to make it for himself, she kidnaps the master’s sister...

Ruskeala or, as they are also called, are a cascade of small flat waterfalls near the village of Ruskeala, on the Tokhmajoki River. The largest of the waterfalls, Akhvenkoski, reaches a height of 4 meters. If you go on an excursion to the famous one, you will definitely look at them along the way. Those who like to travel on their own will also find them without difficulty: the waterfalls can be seen from the highway.

Why do these places attract tourists so much? Because it was here that the scene from the film “The Dawns Here Are Quiet” was filmed, the one where Zhenya died. And more recently, in 2010, the waterfalls served as a “scenery” for another film - “The Dark World”, after the filming of which a chopped hut remained at the top of one of the waterfalls.

Fans of extreme sports also do not bypass the waterfalls: in the spring and summer they go kayaking along them.

Nature

Although the waterfalls are not impressive in size, they look very beautiful against the backdrop of the surrounding landscape. The water flows in them quite quickly and noisily, but you can even see small fish. The red color of the ledges, which amazes some tourists, is explained by the presence of iron salts. You can climb up along a small path winding along boulders and pine trees. Be careful: in some areas you can fall down!

Photos

How to get to the waterfalls in the vicinity of Ruskeala?

There is parking for cars and tourist buses near the waterfalls. It also houses wooden gazebos for relaxation and a souvenir shop.

What to buy

The store offers a traditional set of souvenirs - magnets with views of Karelia, jewelry made of Karelian birch and shungite, amulets figurines and much more. On the opposite side local residents They offer tourists preserves and jams made from seasonal berries. Thus, a seven hundred gram jar of cloudberry jam in 2014 was sold for 1,500 rubles. Such high prices were explained by the end of the season (the first ten days of August). Therefore, if you want to enjoy Karelian berries, you need to arrive early. Otherwise, prices for souvenirs are approximately the same everywhere.

How to relax

If you come with a tourist group, then most likely you will be given a maximum of 10 minutes to explore the waterfalls. During this time, you can easily climb two rapids and take memorable photos. If you are traveling on your own, you can go higher - there will be sand beach. However, most vacationers, after a walk in the surrounding areas, prefer to swim below.

Boris Vasiliev, the author of the book of the same name on which the film was based, does not name exact location where the events described took place. But the Kirov Railway mentioned in the story and a number of other points allow us to conclude that we're talking about about Karelia. That's where the picture is. Filming took place near the Ruskeala waterfalls on the Tokhmajoki River, in the village of Syargilakhta, Pryazhinsky district, as well as in the Mosfilm pavilions.

Swimming in Tohmajoki

On the Tokhmajoki River, a few kilometers from the village of Ruskeala, there are three flat waterfalls. The most beautiful of them is Ahvenkoski, which means “perch rapid” in Finnish. It was there that the bathing scene of the beautiful Zhenya Kamelkova, the heroine of Olga Ostroumova, was filmed.

Tohmajoki is translated from Finnish as “Mad River”. It originates in Finland, flows through the Sortavala region of Karelia and flows into Lake Ladoga.

Filming took place in May, when the water was still icy. According to the plot of the film, German saboteurs, who secretly penetrated the Karelian forests, tried to cross the river to reach railway and blow it up. Sergeant Major Vaskov, together with five female anti-aircraft gunners, tracked down the enemy. They began to cut down trees in order to convince them that a large team of lumberjacks was working there, and to force the saboteurs to take a longer route. But they still decided to cross the riverbed unnoticed, and then the brave Zhenya rushed into the water with a cheerful cry, scaring the scouts.

Quiet dawns in Syargilakht

The ancient Karelian Syargilakhta is part of the Essoil Pryazha national region of Karelia. Its name translated from Karelian means “bay with roaches”. This picturesque place is famous not only because the film crew of the famous war drama “The Dawns Here Are Quiet” lived here.

Later, in the nineties, another film was shot here, this time Finnish. The documentary film “The Last Karelians” is dedicated to the old-timers of the village of Syargilakhta.

The small village is a complex monument. Houses, barns, baths have been preserved in it, and in the middle of Syargilakhty there is an ancient chapel of the Savior, built in the second half of the 18th century. Now there are few permanent residents left in the village, it is gradually becoming a place for country and tourist recreation.