Village on shore of lake Peipsi

This village is located on an island in lake Peipsi, technically this part of the lake is called lake Pihkva (Pskov). The picture was taken from the Estonian side of the lake, the village itself, named Medele, is located in Russia. Before the war this village was part of Estonia, but Russia unilaterally changed the border between Russia and Estonia during the Russian occupation of Estonia from 1944 to 1991 and these lands were never returned.

Notice the border guard tower in the village! Surprisingly there was a soldier on duty!

Village across the border

This photo was taken in 1997 and placed on my website in 1999, at the time I wrote: "Soon this will become the border between the European Union and Russia, between east and west..." Now of course it is the border between the EU and Russia. In 2008 I had the negatives digitized which resulted in a higher quality photo which you now see here.

In 2012 revisiting the same shoreline, there is now a public observation tower just south of the village of Lüübnitsa from which one can look out over the lake as in the photo below.

Panoramic view over the border lake