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Vyborg (; , ; , ;Wuorinen, John H. (1948), ed., Finland and World War II, 1939-1944, New York: Roland Press, p. 172. , ) is a town and the administrative center of Vyborgsky District in Leningrad Oblast, Russia. It lies on the Karelian Isthmus near the head of Vyborg Bay, northwest of Saint Petersburg, east of the Finnish capital Helsinki, and south of Russia's border with Finland, where the Saimaa Canal enters the Gulf of Finland. The most recent census population of Vyborg is
Vyborg was founded as a medieval fortress in Finland under Swedish rule during the Third Swedish Crusade. After numerous wars between the Russians and Swedes, the Treaty of Nöteborg in 1323 defined the border of eastern Finland, and would separate the two cultures. Life & Society: Tracing Finland's Eastern Border – This Is Finland Vyborg remained under Swedish rule until it was captured by the Russians during the Great Northern War (1700–1721). Under Russian rule, Vyborg was the seat of Vyborg Governorate until it was incorporated into the newly established Grand Duchy of Finland, an autonomous part of the Russian Empire. Finland declared its independence from Russia in 1917, after which Vyborg became its second-most significant city after Helsinki,Chloe Wells: "Vyborg is ours": remembering a 'lost town' in Finland. Paper presented at the European Association for Urban History 13th International Conference, Helsinki, Finland August 24–27, 2016. and represented internationally as its most multicultural city.Owen Hatherley: "Vyborg looks like Helsinki might after a long, drawn-out war" — DezeenGöran Lindgren: Viipuri sodan jaloissa, p. 6. Helsingin Reservin Sanomat, no. 2/2013, March 12, 2013. Pimeä historia: Verinen Viipuri – historioitsija Teemu Keskisarja jäljittää kohtalonhetkiä — YLE During World War II, Vyborg's population was evacuated and the town was ceded to the Soviet Union. In 2010, Vyborg was conferred the status of "City of Military Glory" by Russian president Dmitry Medvedev. HS: Venäjän presidentti nimitti Viipurin "Sotilaskunnian kaupungiksi"
The city hosts the Russian end of the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline, laid in 2011 and operated by a consortium led by Russia's Gazprom state hydrocarbons enterprise to pump of natural gas a year under the Baltic Sea to Lubmin, Germany. Operations - Nord Stream AG, Nord Stream AG official website, Undated. Accessed: 2 October 2022.
Vyborg Castle was founded during the Third Swedish Crusade in 1293 by marsk Torkel Knutsson Vyborg Castle, Vyborg, Russia - Spotting History on the site of an older Karelians fort which was burned. The castle, which was the first centre for the spread of Christianity in Karelia, was fought over for decades between Sweden and the Republic of Novgorod. As a result of the Treaty of Nöteborg in 1323 between the Novgorod Republic and Sweden, Vyborg was finally recognized as a part of Sweden. The town's trade privileges were royal charter by the Kalmar Union King Eric of Pomerania in 1403. It withstood a prolonged siege by Daniil Shchenya during the Russo-Swedish War of 1496–1497.
Under Swedish rule, Vyborg was closely associated with the noble family of Bååt, originally from Småland. The late-medieval commanders and fief holders of Vyborg were (almost always) descended from or married to the Bååt family. In practice, though not having this as their formal title, they functioned as , had feudal privileges, and kept all the crown's incomes from the fief to use for the defense of the realm's eastern border.
In 1744, Vyborg became the seat of the Vyborg Governorate. In 1783, the governorate was transformed into the Vyborg Viceroyalty; in 1801, it reverted to Vyborg Governorate. In 1802, the Vyborg Governorate was renamed the Finland Governorate.
One of the largest naval battles in history, the Battle of Vyborg Bay, was fought in Vyborg Bay on 4 July 1790.
After the rest of Finland was ceded to Russia in 1809, Emperor Alexander I incorporated the town and the governorate into the newly created Grand Duchy of Finland in 1811 (1812 NS).
Over the course of the 19th century, the town developed as the centre of administration and trade for eastern Finland. The inauguration of the Saimaa Canal in 1856 benefited the local economy, as it opened the vast waterways of Eastern Finland to the sea. Vyborg was never a major industrial center and lacked large production facilities, but its location made it serve as a focal point of transports of all industries on the Karelian Isthmus, Ladoga Karelia and southeastern Finland. Trams in Vyborg started in 1912.
The Bolshevik revolutionary Vladimir Lenin lived in the town for a period between the February Revolution and October Revolution of 1917.
Vyborg served as the seat of Viipuri Province. In the 1930 census, the administrative area of the city of Vyborg had 52,253 inhabitants. There were a total of 19,986 inhabitants in the rural areas of Vyborg and in Uura, which was located outside the borders of Vyborg but was included in the census, and so the total population of the census area was 72,239.Viipurin väestölaskenta 1930, sivut 2–3, sarake 13 Of the total inhabitants in the census area, 67,609 spoke Finnish, 2,103 Swedish, 1,807 Russian and 439 German.Viipurin väestölaskenta 1930, sivut 24–25, sarake 40 In 1939, the population was slightly less than 75,000 and was Finland's second-largest (Population Register) or fourth-largest (Church and Civil Register) city, depending on the census data. Vyborg had sizable minorities of Swedes, Germans, Russians, Finnish Kale, Finnish Tatars and Jews. During that time, Alvar Aalto built the Vyborg Library, an icon of functionalist architecture.
The evacuees from Finnish Karelia came to be a vociferous political force, and their wish to return to their homes was an important motive when Finland sought support from Nazi Germany against the Soviet Union. As a result, Finland fought with Nazi Germany as a co-belligerent during the Second World War.
On 29 August 1941, Vyborg was captured by Finnish troops. At first, the Finnish Army did not allow civilians into the town. Of the 6,287 buildings, 3,807 had been destroyed. The first civilians started to arrive in late September, and by the end of the year, Vyborg had a population of about 9,700. In December 1941, the Finnish government formally annexed the town, along with the other areas that had been lost in the Moscow Peace Treaty. By 1942, the population had risen to 16,000. About 70% of the evacuees from Finnish Karelia returned after the reconquest to rebuild their looted homes but were again evacuated after the Red Army's Vyborg–Petrozavodsk Offensive, timed to coincide with the Battle of Normandy. By the time of the Soviet offensive, the town had a population of nearly 28,000. The town was captured by the Red Army on 20 June 1944, but the Finnish forces, using war material provided by Germany, managed to halt the Soviet offensive at the Battle of Tali-Ihantala, the largest battle fought by any of the Nordic countries, in Viipuri Rural Municipality, which surrounded the town, during which the town was seriously damaged.
In the subsequent Moscow Armistice on 19 September 1944, Finland returned to the borders set by the Moscow Peace Treaty and ceded more land than the treaty originally demanded. In the Paris Peace Treaties (1947), Finland relinquished all claims to Vyborg.
In 1940s and the 1950s, new factories were built: shipbuilding (1948), instrumentational (1953). In 1960, a local history museum was opened.
An HVDC back-to-back facility for the exchange of electricity between the Russian and Finnish power grids was completed near Vyborg in 1982. It consists of three bipolar HVDC back-to-back schemes with an operating voltage of 85 kV and a maximum transmission rate of 355 MW. The entire maximum transmission rate amounts to 1,420 MW.
The Nord Stream 1 offshore pipeline runs from Vyborg compressor station at Portovaya Bay along the bottom of the Baltic Sea to Lubmin in Germany. It started operating in September 2011, enabling Russia to export gas directly to Western Europe. The feeding pipeline in Russia (Gryazovets–Vyborg gas pipeline) is operated by Gazprom and is a part of the integrated gas transport network of Russia connecting existing grid in Gryazovets with the coastal compressor station at Vyborg.
Local self-government is carried out on the basis of the charter, which was adopted by the decision of the Council of Deputies of Vyborg dated 16 June 2010 No. 63.
The representative body of local self-government is the Council of Deputies, consisting of 20 deputies elected in municipal elections in single-member constituenciesПункт 1 статьи 22 Устава МО «Город Выборг» for a period of five years. Per the results of the elections on 11 October 2009, all 20 seats were occupied by members of the United Russia party. The Council of Deputies is headed by the head of the municipality, who is elected by deputies from among its members, also for a period of five years. On 20 October 2009, Gennady Alekseyevich Orlov was elected as head of the municipality. Since September 2014, the position of head of the Vyborg District Municipal District of the Leningrad Oblast has been occupied by Alexander Petrovich Lysov. Also in September 2014, Gennady Alekseyevich Orlov assumed the position of head of the administration of the municipal formation "Vyborg District" of the Leningrad Oblast.
The executive and administrative body of local self-government is the administration. It is formed and headed by the head of the administration, who is appointed under a contract concluded based on the results of a competition for a period of five years.Пункт 1 статьи 49 From 2 August 2011, the head of the administration was Alexander Aleksandrovich Buyanov. On 24 September 2014, the post of head of the Municipal Municipality "City of Vyborg" was taken by Alexander Petrovich Lysov. His candidacy was supported unanimously.
The Vyborg Library by Finnish architect Alvar Aalto and the Hermitage-Vyborg Center are a reference point in the history of modern architecture. There are also Russian fortifications of Annenkrone, completed by 1740, as well as the monuments to Peter the Great (1910) and Torkel Knutsson. Tourists can also visit the house where the founder of the Soviet state Vladimir Lenin prepared the Bolshevik revolution during his stay in Vyborg from 24 September to 7 October 1917. The main street in Vyborg is called Prospekt Lenina (; literally "Lenin Avenue"), formerly also known as Torkkelinkatu,Viktor Dmitriew: Viipurin Suomalaisen Kirjallisuusseuran toimitteita 10, 1992. and along it, there is popular .
Sprawling along the heights adjacent to the Gulf of Finland is Monrepos Park, one of the most spacious English landscape gardens in Eastern Europe. The garden was laid out on behest of its owner, Baron Ludwig Heinrich von Nicolay, at the turn of the 19th century. Most of its structures were designed by the architect Giuseppe Antonio Martinelli. Previously, the estate belonged to the future king Frederick I (Maria Fyodorovna's brother), who called it Charlottendahl in honor of his second wife.
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