Directions of 683 faults located in the southeastern part of the Fennoscandian (Baltic) shield were statistically analyzed, and three orthogonal associations of fault systems were identified in the study area. According to the dynamic analysis of the fault systems and their associations, the main NW-striking faults belong to the fault network originating mainly from the early Paleoproterozoic. These faults functioned in the Paleoproterozoic during four main deformation stages: D1 – sinistral shear transtension and asymmetric rift genesis (2.1–1.9 Ga); D2 – sinistral shear transpression under oblique accretion and convergence (1.9 Ga); D3 – sinistral shear transpression under oblique collision (1.89–1.80 Ga); D4 – dextral strike-slip displacements at the background of complex escape tectonics of the late collision stage (1.80–1.78 Ga). The regional stress field changed as follows: D1 – northeast- or east-trending extension; D2 – northeast compression; D3 – sub-latitudinal compression; D4 – sub-meridian compression. Changes in dynamic loading conditions led to multiple kinematic inversions of the fault networks. Widespread transtension and transpression settings in the southeastern parts of the Baltic Shield give evidence of asymmetric rifting, oblique accretion and collision in the Paleoproterozoic, which must be taken in to account in geodynamic reconstructions.

General features of the basement tectonics of the East European platform (EEP) have been considered. The important role of the long-lived Paleoproterozoic tectonic zones has been noted. They were formed due to the cyclic processes of rifting and compression combined with the strike-sleep shearing. They include different structures often superimposed in space: systems of rifts and collisional orogenic belts, transtensional and transpressional zones, ensembles associated with tectonic-plate processes. A special role belongs to the non-linear structures: different scaled rotational structures, concentric and spiral shaped shears, the arcuate orocline belts and horizontal protrusions. Long-lived Proterozoic zones form a giant vortex structure twirled in a clockwise direction, the pole of which is located in the center of the Upper-Volga geodynamic node. The rotational processes of this giant structure can explain many tectonic features of the EEP development.

Research subject. The Riphean paleorift system of the White Sea, most of which is overlain by the waters of the White and Barents Seas and the platform cover of the East European Platform. This allowed numerous researchers to classify it as an aulacogen. The system was revealed by geophysical methods in the relief of the crystalline basement of the platform in the form of a frame of deep extended trenches of northwestern strike, subparallel to the edge of the East European platform.Materials and methods. Personal observations of the authors within the Onega-Kandalakcha paleorift, Baikal rift zone; a detailed study of seismostratigraphic sections of these zones; extensive literature data on the structure of modern rift zones. A comparative analysis of the structure of the most studied and currently active Baikal and East African rift systems, as well as the Karoo rift system of the Late Paleozoic origin with the paleorift system of the White Sea.Results. The following types of structural parageneses, which are characteristic of both modern rift systems and ancient paleorift systems, were identified. 1. Genetic relationship (inheritance?) of riftogenic structures with more ancient basement structures. 2. Structural paragenesis of concentric complexes in rift propagation zones. 3. Comparability of the area of horizontal extension of the lithosphere of the White Sea paleorift system with extension zones of modern continental rifts. 4. The fundamental similarity of the structure: the complex of paleorifts of the White Sea with modern continental rift systems: the presence of long deep trough segmentation of grabens and semi-grabens separated by bridges, which were accommodation zones with polarity reversal along the strike of the rift zone, displacement of the rift relative to the mantle ledge, the existence of a gently dipping normal fault (detachment), etc.Conclusion. The riftogenic nature of the aulacogens in the northeastern segment of the East European Platform has been confirmed.

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