The Museum - Reserve "Yalkala" is situated on Karelian Isthmus, 50 km away from St.-Petersburg and 12 km away from town of Zelenogorsk, in Ilyichevo village between two lakes (Dolgoe and Krasavitsa). The Museum- Reserve of surface area of 10 ha features wellpreserved since the end of 19 th century the wooden house of Finnish family of Parviainen. In Yuli - August 1917 the family hosted the October Revolution leader V.I. Lenin. In 1940 the Memorial Museum of V.I. Lenin was founded here. In 1993 the Museum was transformed; the objectives for the newly established museum were to study and to preserve the historical heritage of Karelia native population, whose history had been uninvestigated and unsystematized by Soviet-Russian Historiography. Karelian native population had lived for 5000 years here before it was forced to abandon its native land following two Soviet-Finnish wars in the middle of 20 th century.

    New exhibition tells about the history of this ethnic group since ancient times. For the first time in Russia, the exhibition displays the documents and material artifacts pertaining to the "final page" of history of the Finnish on Karelian Isthmus, i.e."Winter War" of 1939 - 1940.

    Bus tours to nearby historical sites are organized by the Museum. For individuals and for tourist groups of up to 50 persons the bus tours to Mannerheim Line (50km) and to historical sites of South - Western Karelian Isthmus (20-25 km) are organized by the Museum (Note: transportation to and from above historical sites to be provided by the customer). Apart from guided tours, the Museum - Reserve benefits from its unique natural landscape and continuously organizes public enterainment programs such as Christmas/ New Year/ Pancake Week (Maslenitsa) /folk culture festivals. The memorial Chapel dedicated to All Deceased during wars and calamities on Karelian Isthmus will be open soon