Beryozovye Islands

Designations
Ramsar Wetland
Official name	Berezovye Islands, Gulf of Finland, Baltic Sea
Designated	13 September 1994
Reference no.	691

Beryozovye Islands (Russian: Берёзовые острова; Finnish: Koivisto; Swedish: Björkö; literally: "Birch Island"), alternatively spelled Berezovye Islands, is an island group in Leningrad Oblast, Russia.

Geography

The islands are situated at the head of the Gulf of Finland, just outside the town of Primorsk on the Karelian Isthmus. The total area of the group, stretching along the coast for 200 km, is 92 km². There are 15 islands in the group, the largest of which is Bolshoy Beryozovy (Large Berezovy, Finnish: Koivistonsaari). Other islands include Zapadny Beryozovy (West Beryozovy, Finnish: Tiurinsaari) and Severny Beryozovy (North Beryozovy, Finnish: Piisaari).

Environment

The archipelago is protected by the state as a seabird sanctuary and is one of the Russia's Ramsar sites. It has been designated an Important Bird Area (IBA) by BirdLife International because it supports populations of many species of waterfowl and gulls on passage.

History

Before the Third Swedish Crusade (1293–1295), the islands paid tax to Novgorod; after the crusade they became Swedish. In 1721 they became part of Russia, and in 1812 they were restored to the Grand Duchy of Finland with the province of Vyborg. In independent Finland they belonged to the parish then called Koivisto (Swedish: Björkö). The main settlement on the islands was then called Saarenpää (Krasnoostrovskiy). The islands gave their name to the Treaty of Björkö (1905). After World War II, they were ceded by Finland to the Soviet Union. The whole historical Finnish population was expelled and replaced by a population of Soviet origin from September 1944 onwards. Place names were russified after 1947 concurrently with the rest of the formerly Finnish Karelian Isthmus occupied in 1944.

See also

• Björkö (disambiguation)
• Keskisaari