Petrozavodsk

Capital city of Karelia, in the far northwestern Russian Federation; population (2002) 266,200. Petrozavodsk lies on the western shore of Lake Onega, 325 km/202 mi northeast of St Petersburg. It has engineering and metalworking industries, and produces tractors for the local timber industry.

Petrozavodsk was founded in 1703 as an armaments works for Peter (I) the Great under the name Petrovskaya Sloboda. It gained its present name in 1777, and was used as a place of internal exile in both the Tsarist and the Soviet periods. The city is now a tourist centre for trips to the island of Kizhi, with its ancient wooden buildings, on Lake Onega.