Eco House

Vadim Anisimov is a typical Russian. For only a Russian would build a boat in his 42 square meter apartment, lowering it down from the window when it was completed. And who but a Russian would quit a prestigious job and leave behind a cozy, quiet life to live in a shambles of a village?

Anisimov lives in Berezhnoye, in a wooden house on top of which he built a special observatory to watch the stars. His path to Berezhnoye village began in the 1970s. He was a promising young scientist at the Karelian Pedagogical Institute and a member of the Scythians Tourist Club. This social movement explored a new route in Karelia called “In the Footsteps of the Spellbinders”—the magicians who created the handmade wooden monuments of architecture in Karelia. The Scythians’s goal was not simply to discover creations of wooden architecture, but also to help protect them from lightning. They installed lightning rods on dozens of chapels and churches, saving them for future generations.

This was when Anisimov became addicted to Karelian nature and wildlife. Back then, he noticed the little village of Berezhnoye and dreamed “of living the rest of his life there.” So, when a turn-of-the century peasant’s house went on sale there, Anisimov bought it without even thinking (plus the price was very low).

His house is the definition of peasant lodging—everything is made by the khozyain. During long autumn nights, when the potato crop is stored in the house together with stocks of local mushrooms, salted fish and berries, Vadim Leonidovich does his favorite work, carpentry. The crisp sound of a cozy fire in the Russian pechka (oven), the tantalizing smell of a freshly made soup with fish caught in Lake Onega, the fresh aroma of shavings ... What else do you need to feel happy?

Anisimov takes good care of Berezhnoye (located on Lake Onega, about 100 km from Medvezhegorsk). He repairs the local church and chapel and dreams of sharing this beauty with people. A trip with Anisimov over his “properties” (places he cares for, not places he owns) is an experience. There are green fields, thick forests, fields of cowberries ...

An inveterate optimist, Anisimov passes by a decaying lake harbor with a rotten pier and says, “Mark my words, ships will come back ... For it’s paradise here..” And he lists the names of local birds, fish and wild animals.

Recently, Anisimov built a wooden chapel here. His dream is to turn all of Karelia into an EcoHouse where people would come to be one with nature and restore a moral and physical well-being that has been damaged by the “fruits” of modern civilization. It is a dream worthy of a typical Russian.