CEE/Newsletter/May 2019/Contents/Russia report

Russian Northwestern wiki-historians made their next wiki-ramble to Priozersk

Translated from the Russian Wikinews article Вики-краеведы Северо-Запада России провели экскурсию по Приозерску

On Sunday May 26, 2019, the 4th wiki-ramble of Russian Northwestern wikimedians took place. 3 people participated, the active "ramblers" user:Красный (Krasny) and user:Екатерина Борисова (Ekaterina Borisova) among them. The participants travelled to the town of Priozersk and walked around it. They had visited the old Russian fortress called Korela, fulfilling in the meantime their main goal: making free-license photographs of Priozersk's cultural heritage objects (according to the list on Russian Wikivoyage). The ramble was marked with unusually active picturing of local fauna: cats, dogs and birds.

Priozersk (earlier Korela, Kexholm, Käkisalmi) is the ancient Russian town founded in 1294 as a fortress for protecting north-western boundaries of Novgorod principality. Despite the famed and complex history, big number of historic and architectural landmarks, and touristic popularity, Commons/Wikivoyage photo coverage of Proizersk historical buildings amounted only about 15%—mostly the core fortress and some churches. Meanwhile, the center of Priozersk is filled with buildings from the 1930s built in the Functionalism architectural style by famous Finnish architects like Uno Ullberg and Jalmari Lankinen. Usually their works are remarked in Finland, and in Vyborg town in Russia, while the Priozersk funkis seem to be underestimated and barely noticed.

The wiki-ramblers / local historians (they plan to form a Wikimedia User Group) have significantly improved the situation, raising amount of free-licensed Commons/Wikivoyage images to 80%.

The stops on the path