The highlight of your day in Svirstroy is being invited into a local resident’s home. Warm and welcoming Svirstroy villagers will offer tea with jam and “pirozhki” (local pies). They will enthusiastically tell you all about Russian tradition, lifestyle and the attractions of Svirstroy village while proudly showing off their homes and kitchen gardens. After tea hop on a bus for a tour of the nearby town to see the monument of WWII and visit a local primary school.
In 1927, a large-scale construction of the Lower Svir Hydroelectric Station started, and subsequently in 1931, the concentration camp of Svirlag was established. The settlement which hosted the headquarters of Svirlag became known as Svirstroy. In the same year, Svirstroy was granted urban-type settlement status. On May 13, 1963, during the abortive Khrushhyov administrative reform, Svirstroy was subordinated to the town of Podporozhye, but on January 13, 1965 it was transferred back to Lodeynopolsky District.