Kalmasaari (, also Kalmosaari, russian: Раясаари) is an

island An island (or isle) is an isolated piece of habitat that is surrounded by a dramatically different habitat, such as water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, skerries, cays or keys. An island ...

in the lake Vuokkijärvi in

Karelia Karelia ( Karelian and fi, Karjala, ; rus, Каре́лия, links=y, r=Karélija, p=kɐˈrʲelʲɪjə, historically ''Korjela''; sv, Karelen), the land of the Karelian people, is an area in Northern Europe of historical significance for ...

. It is divided by the border between

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

and

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

. The island is located in the areas of Suomussalmi (Finland) and Kostomuksha (Russia). On both sides, it is part of the border zone and is off-limits to the general public. Kalmasaari was used as a cemetery by the

Eastern Orthodox Eastern Orthodoxy, also known as Eastern Orthodox Christianity, is one of the three main branches of Chalcedonian Christianity, alongside Catholicism and Protestantism. Like the Pentarchy of the first millennium, the mainstream (or "canonical") ...

villages of Kuivajärvi, Hietajärvi and Vuokinsalmi until 1922 when the Finland–Russia border was determined. A new cemetery was established to the Kalmisaari island of lake Kuivajärvi, 4 kilometres west of Kalmasaari. The Russian name of Kalmasaari is ″Раясаари″, which is a transliterated version of Finnish word ″Rajasaari″ meaning ″Border Island″.

References

{{Russia-geo-stub Uninhabited islands of Finland Uninhabited islands of Russia International islands Finland–Russia border