Wandering Lizard
Russia

A Trip to Russia - Cruising the Inland Waterways - Spring

The further north that we traveled the more important timber became. Homes were more frequently constructed of logs and the timber industry made its presence known with large log piles positioned alongside the canal and ships loading the logs for milling in one or another urban area further along the way. When we finally arrived in Khizi we saw spectacular evidence of what Russia had done with logs in times past - among other structures a twenty-two dome log church.

For those of us who have visited the old growth forests of the Pacific Northwest in the United States these logs do not look particularly impressive, but the timber industry in this part of Russia has long played an important part in the economy of the country. Back in the days of wooden ships and iron men, Russian timber provided masts and spars for many a merchant ship or man-of-war. Access to the open oceans of the world for the timber trade was one of the imperatives that drove Peter the Great to war with Sweden and the Baltic States and led to the founding of St. Petersburg.

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