Sortavala

Sortavala is a city of republican significance in the Republic of Karelia, Russian Federation, located in the Northern Ladoga region.

It is included in the list of historical cities of Russia.

Population: 18,831 (2020)

The earliest date of the formation of the city was called by the authors of the Encyclopedic Dictionary by F. Brockhaus and I. Efron, followed by K. B. Granhagen in Sputnik on Finland (1911). They said 1617. This year, according to the peace treaty concluded in the village of Stolbovo near Tikhvin between Sweden and Russia, the territory of the Karelian county was ceded to Sweden. The Swedish authorities gave two weeks to local residents, except for peasants and Orthodox parish priests, to leave. The creation of new settlements was out of the question, since more than 50 thousand people left the county. To stop the process of leaving residents, the new authorities granted tax exemption for five years.

The official date of foundation of the city is 1632. On June 17 this year, the Swedish king Gustav II Adolf proposed to create four new cities, of which two are in Karelia, one on the Karelian Isthmus and in Ingermanland (south of the Gulf of Finland). It was necessary to establish cities in places of “merchant people”, because cities are centers of trade and taxation. Finnish researcher, doctor of technical sciences Martti Jaatinen believes: “The year of Sortavala’s founding, repeated by many documents, is the result of a misreading of old documents.” The scientist can be trusted because he worked in Finnish and Swedish archives. How did things go next?

The following year, the viceroy of Kexholm Lena (the Swedish name for the Karelian county) Heinrich Spore reported on the laying of new cities in the Sortavalsky and Salminsky districts. It took more than a decade for the idea to come true. Important activities were carried out during this time. First, a place was chosen for the city. From the island of Riekkalansaari (Greek), it was moved to the northwestern part of the Lappäärvi Bay (lake-valve), where the houses of the village of Kellomaniami (cape of bells) have been preserved. Now on this place the pier, Komsomolskaya and Suvorov streets, Kirov Square. Secondly, the Swedish authorities invited the remaining residents of the county to settle in the new city, and also relocated Finnish residents who were temporarily exempt from military service. Thirdly, trade ties with Russia were gradually restored.

The compiler of the Guide to Finland (1915) L.K. Timofeev dates the foundation of the city in 1643. Nowadays, this date is considered correct by Martti Jaatinen. The Governor-General of Kexholm Lena, having received the order to found the city, went to evaluate the chosen place. He not only approved it, but under his leadership residential areas were broken up, streets were laid. In terms of urban planning, Sortavala was a city that from the very beginning was built on a quarterly system of development. 1643 is the year the city actually existed.

In 1644, Queen Christina, daughter of King Gustav II Adolf, ascended the Swedish throne. She also contributed to the development of the city. On December 16, 1646, in a letter to all those who settled in Sortavala, she reaffirmed her promise to “promote them and allow them, by their own persons, as well as the household and the part that brings income, to be exempted from the duties of the current year.”

In 1648, Swedish cartographers mapped the city. By the end of the XVII century, the city was almost built up. Its territory was divided into one hundred plots, six streets were laid, a port with a trading place was built, a Lutheran church was built from public buildings. Two streets have been preserved from the Swedish city.

Soviet authors P. Vlasov and B. Stafeev in the book "Sortavala" wrote: "In Finnish sources called later date (1632-1646 years)". They summarized data from foreign sources.

The third date is related to Russian history. In 1783, the Russian Empress Catherine II included Serdobol in the list of cities that received the rights of Russian county cities. Five years later, she returned Serdobol its coat of arms, which we inherited from Swedish time and since 1991 is the official coat of arms of the city.

Sortavala has three birth dates: 1632, 1643 and 1783. We, like previous residents, choose an older date, from which we consider the beginning of our 375-year history.

Residents of the Finnish city of Sortavala solemnly celebrated the 300th anniversary of the city in 1932. Rector of the Lyceum Uno Karttunen published a book "History of the city of Sortavala", in which he summarized his knowledge of the history of the city. It is available in the reading room of the central library. This year, the largest highway bridge in Finland was commissioned, connecting the banks along Karelska Street. In honor of the holiday, a festive gate was installed on the main street of Karelian, and an official reception was held in the Town Hall (central library).