King of the Hill

The name of Sergei Simonyan from the Karelian village of Sukkozero is known to many tourists: for 35 years now he has been single-handedly guarding one of the most beautiful sights of the republic - Mount Vottovaara.

Vottovaara is located in the central part of Karelia, just 20 kilometers from the village of Sukkozero, where Sergei Simonyan grew up. In guidebooks, the mountain is often called the “Russian Stonehenge” by analogy with the iconic stone structure in England. On Vottovaara there are a huge number of seids - giant boulders that stand on small stones, like on steps.

Former driver Simonyan discovered seids 35 years ago, when, together with like-minded people, he was looking for the remains of partisans who died in 1942.

“We spent a very long time exploring the mountain, constantly expanding the search area,” he recalls. “We were amazed by everything: the vegetation, the rocks, the magnificent view from the mountain, and the huge stones.

Simonyan told scientists and journalists about the discovery. Tourists flocked to the mountain, and along with them, vandals. They destroyed seids, burned grass, and left heaps of garbage. A person was needed to protect the mountain. And Sergei Simonyan became such a keeper. He constantly came to the mountain, walked around the territory, talked with those who were disturbing the order. There were no clashes, but I heard plenty of insults.

Several years ago, Simonyan realized that he himself would not be able to protect Vottovaara, and turned to officials with a request to declare the mountain a natural monument and protected area.

“It turned out that officials did not need either Vottovaara or studying the history of their places,” Simonyan recalls bitterly. “But I still managed to have the mountain officially recognized as a unique object.”

Today, Sergei Mikhailovich is still in service - he looks after the mountain, together with search engines he continues to search for the dead partisans, disappearing for weeks in the vicinity of the mountain.

“I grew up in these places,” he says. “And this mountain is a holy place for me.”