Channel One, first among Russia’s countrywide TV channels, produced a documentary short for the July 10 St. Petersburg issue of its Dobroye utro (“Good Morning!”) morning program, about the Kaukola Lutheran Church: “New Sights of the Karelian Isthmus: the Kaukola Lutheran Church Restored from Ruins.”
The Kaukola Lutheran Church in the Priozersky District lay in ruins only a few years ago. In the Soviet era, it housed the biggest poultry farm in the Leningrad Oblast. Today, it’s the only functioning Lutheran congregation on the route from St. Petersburg to Sortavala and a popular tourist attraction. Here’s the story about how enthusiasts, in particular Rev. Viktor Ruzhinski who made it his life’s cause, brought the church in the village of Sevastyanovo back to life. (Only in Russian)