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Introduction. The Shchuchiy Bay is located in the western part of the skerry area of Lake Ladoga near the town of Priozersk. For almost 20 years, the bay has experienced an anthropogenic impact from the ingress of untreated wastewater from the Priozersk Pulp and Paper Mill (PPM). Systematic microbiological studies of the Shchuchiy Bay ecosystem were started in the middle of the 1970s by the Institute of Limnology of the Russian Academy of Sciences and continued after the PPM closure in 1986. Materials and methods. The ecosystem of the bay was studied in detail during the growing season of 2013–2014; periodic studies were carried out in 2015–2018. Retrospective data were also used for the analysis. Water samples were taken at four stations from the surface horizon. The following microbiological indicators were determined: the abundance of bacterioplankton and the percentages of various morphological types of bacterial cells. Results and discussion. A comparison of the quantitative level of development of the bacterial community in the bay in different periods showed a gradual decrease in the abundance of bacterioplankton as the anthropogenic impact weakened after the closure of the Priozersky PPM from 12.40 million cells ml–1 in 1987 to an average value of 2.62±1.03 million cells ml–1 in 2013–2018. A positive correlation was found between the concentration of bacteria and water temperature. The percentage of rod-shaped microorganisms in the water of the bay also decreased as the anthropogenic impact weakened from 73.4 % in 1987 to 53.1±7.6 % in 2013–2018, which indicated an improvement in water quality. Conclusion. A stable decrease in the abundance of bacteria from the level characteristic of highly polluted and eutrophic water bodies to the level characteristic of mesotrophic and mesotrophic-eutrophic water bodies is a reliable criterion for the restoration of the ecosystem of the Shchuchiy Bay to the state characteristic of similar bays of Lake Ladoga.