History has not preserved the exact date of construction of the Guzhovskaya mill on Levusozero. Presumably the ensemble appeared at the beginning of the 20th century. In those days, the basis of the life of Lekshmozero people was agriculture. Lands around the villages Morshikhinskaya, Maselga, Dumino were allotted for arable land and meadows. Peasants plowed, sowed, raised, milled rye, wheat, barley and oats. To obtain the final product - flour and cereal, it was necessary to build a mill. Here are the memories of the Levusozero mill by Lidia Ivanovna Popova: “I was little then, but I remember well how my father and I rode on horses to Levusozero to mill grain. Then, after all, the whole family went to the mill - it was a real holiday, the holiday of labor! ”
Historians have revealed the existence of several water mills in Lekshmozero, but no traces have survived from them, today you can see the current mill ensemble only at Levusozero. The uniqueness of this mill also lies in the fact that it was built on a lake. According to the researchers, the high water level in local lakes and rivers supported by the dam made it possible to produce selected wood alloys at a shipyard on the shores of Lake Onega and the Baltic Sea.
Guzhovskaya water mill belongs to the mills of the water-wheel type, here the pressure of the water is created by a ground dam two and a half meters high. For a long time the mill played a significant role in the life of nearby villages, however, with the formation of the Soviet Union, farming in the North was replaced by animal farming, the mill in Levusozero was abandoned, rapidly felt in disrepair.
In the mid-1990s the dam was surveyed by the specialists of the Lengiprovodkhoz Institute. In 2002 the administration of Kenozero National Park proposed the inclusion of the Guzhovskaya Mill into the Russian-Norwegian program for the preservation of cultural heritage. Funds for the reconstruction of the mill were allocated by the Government of Norway, and the restoration was carried out by specialists from the Pomorye Carpentry School. With the financial support of the Government of Norway and thanks to the specialists of the Pomorye Carpentry School and the residents of Lekshmozero, the mill was revived and opened in 2006. For the first time in the North-West of Russia, an complex of hydraulic structures (a dam, a water supply path, a water mill building with a mill mechanism, and a miller’s building) was not just restored, but a functioning water mill of the 19th century model appeared. A unique phenomenon in domestic restoration practice was the reconstruction of the mill mechanism: a water wheel, pestles, and millstones.
