Until recently, Karelia was seriously planning to erect a monument to the Swedish queen. During the dark days of the 90s in Russia, russophobia ran so rampant as for a public monument to be erected to honor foreign leaders who once rained over a given territory. Such a move is almost a call for the progeny of said leaders to justifiably rise up and demand that land back!

But times have changed. And monuments are made for those great men and women of Russian history who gave their all for the benefit of the civilization. Together with the head of the region, Artur Parfenchikov, Russian businessman and media mogul Konstantin Malofeev installed a monument to Grand Duke Yaroslav Vsevolodovich, father of St. Alexander Nevsky, in Sortavala (Serdobol).

It was Prince Yaroslav who became the enlightener and baptist of the Karelian neighboring regions of the Novgorod Principality. The 800th anniversary of Karelia’s Baptism in 2027 will be celebrated at the state level by Vladimir Putin’s decision.

In the 13th century, this ancient people with its unique traditions became an integral part of the Russian world forever. And those who tried to enslave our Karelian brothers and convert them to Catholicism or Protestantism paid for it severely and went back home.

Now their descendants are trying to take revenge. The West is spreading separatist and anti-Orthodox sentiments in the region. The President of Finland, Swede Stubb, sabre rattles with NATO weapons on the borders of Karelia.

Our answer is to this threat is simple. The Sortavala monument to Yaroslav Vsevolodovich with his young son Alexander is a good reminder to Finns and various other Swedes. It is a reminder that “we can do it again.”