(Source: http://www.vokrugsveta.ru/photo/image/22866)

The first mention of this Pomorye settlement relates to 1563 - the winter path to Murman once passed here, and a crossing from the Karelian to the Tersky shore of the White Sea began. As it turns out, Chernaya Rechka is much older than Petrozavodsk and St. Petersburg.

The locals have earned their living since old days, in addition to the obvious hunting and fishing, by salt production: the salt was sold even beyond the limits of Pomorye. Then the village was really large - up to eighty yards. But gradually, with the discovery of more accessible salt deposits, the need for salt from Chernaya Rechka disappeared. The consequences of this can be found in the notes of the collector from the Karelian-Finnish epos (“Kalevala”) Elias Lönnrot.

“Having passed 22 versts from Kovda, we arrived at Chernaya Rechka or Mustajoki – the village consisting of about thirty houses” - he wrote in his diary in winter of the years 1841-42 while traveling from Keret to Kovda by ski along the shore of the White Sea. Even fewer houses remained in the twentieth century. According to the locals, a children'’s home for orphans was located here during the war, and later Chernaya Rechka survived mainly due to the White Sea Biological Station.

It is difficult to reach the ancient Pomorye village in the wilderness of Loukhsky District on the shores of the White Sea even by dogs: no normal roads leading here exist. However, many residents of Moscow and St. Petersburg consider Chernaya Rechka the best place in the world - its isolation and inaccessibility is very attractive in our age of machines and fast travels. The village stands near the border between the Republic of Karelia and Murmansk Oblast, at the mouth of the river of the same name – Chernaya (“Black”), with dark water, looking like a bread juice with turbulent rapids and even a small waterfall.

The residents of the village, which are not numerous, earn their living with traditional crafts or help to the beginners from Moscow equip their gardens – for a modest fee. The number of vacationers having rest here is constantly growing, despite the isolation of Chernaya Rechka from the rest of the world. The village may have remained obscure, except for the White Sea Biological Station of Moscow State University which is located at a distance of 8 kilometers from the village. Students come to the biological station every year, and one of the scientific bases is located in the village.

The scientists believe that the local environment is a “reference ecosystem”, because it has remained almost intact, in its natural state, for many years (the Biological Station itself cannot boast of this). Numerous marine and terrestrial studies are held here each year, as well as works carried out on the littoral (foreshore). All in all, the village stands almost on the Polar Circle, so even raising tomatoes at this latitude is an achievement.

The house taken by the scientific base is one of the sights of Chernaya Rechka. It is the oldest of all preserved houses in the North Karelia - it is more than 250 years old. As far as Chernaya Rechka is called a village, a church is present here – wooden one, with an appearance very typical for the region. However, in the spring of 2013 the rural church was closed - the local priest, Father Pavel (by the way, the resident of Moscow), does not serve due to some disagreements with the clerical management, so you cannot get inside the church. But the little wooden chapel built by the Father Pavel located at the local cemetery, in the woods, is open. You can take any icon as a memento from this chapel - or bring your own icon there.