The training began with an introduction about the project «Ordinary Man in a Great War» of the Karelia Cross-border Cooperation Programme, where Karelian Research Centre RAS is the lead partner. An output of the project will be a historical route of the same name, which will connect some districts in Russian Karelia and Finland. Project Manager, Head of the KarRC RAS Department for International Cooperation Pavel Petrov and Assistant Project Manager Alexandra Efimova recapitulated on the results of the project’s first year.
Sergey Verigin, Dr.Sci. (Hist.), Professor, Director of the Institute of History, Political and Social Sciences of the Petrozavodsk State University told the story of cooperation between PetrSU and Suomussalmi Municipality in the study of the Winter War history in the Kalevalsky District of Karelia.
Another speaker at the training was Marina Dubova, Head of the Department for Publicity, Projects and Programmes in Cultural Heritage Conservation at the Republican Centre for State Protection of Cultural Heritage. She shared information about war history destinations in Karelia to be included in the new tourist route “Ordinary Man in a Great War”.
Gottfried Effe, Vice Chairman of Euroregion ry (Oulu), recounted the experience of previous projects in culture and history. The discussion after his presentation especially addressed the cross-border nature of the new tourist route and the ways to promote it on both sides of the border.
Project expert Elena Kuznetsova familiarized the participants with the personalized approach to organizing and implementing war-history tours.
In addition to the lectures, participants of the training were asked to answer questions about the target audience, format and interesting ideas for promoting the tourist route/tour/excursion. Another interactive element was a small master class on writing a ‘field letter’.
The potential of using biographies in museum exhibitions was presented by Svetlana Yalovitsyna, project expert, Deputy Director for Science at the Institute of Linguistics, Literature and History KarRC RAS. Training participants were told about fragments of war recollections recorded by Svetlana Erkkievna during a series of interviews with residents of the Kalevalsky District.
Sergey Koriganov, Director of a Branch of the Karelian Front Museum (Belomorsk), related the history of establishment of the institution. It was decided during the following discussion that the project would start cooperating with the museum, since its experience can be useful for the experts, in particular when creating exhibitions in Kalevala and Voknavolok.
The training was concluded by an open discussion, where the participants discussed the possibilities of designing and promoting the new route, attracting tourist companies and organizing press tours. Special attention was given to the online platform and apps for the “Ordinary Man in a Great War” route. Speaking about future plans, experts suggested organizing a specialized training session for tour guides.
As part of the training, the participants also visited the nature and history museum “Gora Filina” in the Lahdenpohsky District, where part of the exhibition is a collection of minerals and rocks provided by KarRC RAS.
In November, the project working group visited the Kalevalsky and Kostomukshsky Districts. The experts examined the existing memorial destinations and decided on locations for new exhibitions.
