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The vegetation history of the White Sea islands is an example of a large-scale primary succession. The islands are located on the Baltic Shield, which is experiencing an isostatic uplift over the last 12000 years. There have been several attempts of reconstructing the vegetation history of the rising islands using floristic and geobotanical methods. Paleoecological methods were not applied for this purpose until now. We analyzed 45 modern surface pollen spectra from different islands and 2 columns of peat from one of the oldest islands (Bear Island). The statistical analysis showed that local plant communities can be distinguished reliably by the pollen spectra; the main factors that determine the uniqueness of spectra are the openness to the wind and the moisture regime. Comparison of modern and fossil pollen spectra allowed us to reconstruct two possible successional series on the Bear Island over the past 4000 years. On the open rocky terrace, the vegetation developed by "sea type": coastal meadow - herbal marsh - dry dwarf shrubs - fire - sedge-sphagnum bog, surrounded by a woodland. In the inner part of the island, the following stages were revealed ("coastal" type): the edge of sea bay - salt march - inner sedge fen - sedge-moss bog, overgrown by pine. Pollen analysis revealed two periods of local anthropogenic activity on the island. Statistical analysis showed also that the fossil spectra do not always have analogs among modern spectra. One possible reason for this is the overrepresentation of Pinus pollen in the modern spectra. The study is an original multidisciplinary research, which doesn't have any analogues in Russian science and which includes pollen and macrofossil analyses, done by Olesya, floristic, geobotanic and isotope studies of soils and vegetation of islands in the White Sea. The results of this study will interest researchers of vegetation dynamics and regional biogeography specialists.