Alakurti

Alakurti lies in a valley of low fells beside the Tuntsa River in southwestern Kola, between lakes and northern forest. The name may describe a rough lowland or refer to a Finnish landowner called Kurtti; either explanation belongs to a border country where Finnish, Karelian, Sámi and Russian names overlap.

Long before the later state border, a trade route connected the White Sea and Karelia with the northern interior. Sámi families used hunting grounds, lakes and winter pastures across this country, while Karelian and Russian travellers followed its rivers and portages. The linked lakes around the valley offered fish and winter ice roads as well as summer canoe routes.

Winter lasted most of the year, with deep snow, blizzards and short summers. In 1337 the valley belonged to this northern world of mobile hunters, fishers and traders rather than a fixed village bearing its present name. Alakurti’s later Finnish and Russian history grew from those older routes through mountain and forest.