Suojärvi

Suojärvi takes its name from the lake beside which the Shuya begins its journey towards Onega. A settlement known as the Shuyezersky pogost existed here in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. In 1589 it was recorded as a church community under the Orthodox parish of Sortavala; in 1630 it became an independent community. Its inhabitants spoke Karelian varieties, and the surrounding region was a country of lakes, swamps and forest between Ladoga and Onega.