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Vyborg, town


Subject / Topography/Cities
Subject / Ethnic culture//

VYBORG (Swedish Wiborg; Finnish Viipuri, until 1948), town, adm. center of Vyborg District. Population: 79,200. The toponym Vyborg originates from the Old Norse Wiborg = “sacred fortress.” It was founded in 1293 at the place of the Vuoksa River’s flowing into the Gulf of Finland by Swedish military leader T. Knutsson as a Swedish outpost in the Karelian Isthmus. The rights of a city were granted to V. in 1403 by Swedish king Erik XIII of Pomerania. In 1527 it became a berth city (entitled to receiving foreign ships.) It went to Russia in 1710 (formally in 1721, under the Nystad Peace Treaty.) For one hundred years it remained a Russian city, the adm. center of Vyborg Gubernia. In 1811 V. was attached to the autonomous Grand Principality of Finland as part of Russia. In 1917 it became a part of the independent Finland, and developed to become its second largest city. In the 1920s-1930s, V. was the center of the Russian diasporas in Eastern Finland (by the end of the 1930s, abt. 4,500 of 86,000 of its residents were Russian-speaking.). After the Soviet-Finnish war of 1939-40, it went to the USSR. The local population was evacuated to the inland Finland, and V. was re-populated by migrants from various regions of Russia. In 1940-44, a district center of the Karelo-Finnish SSR, and from 1944, in Leningrad Oblast. V. has retained numerous fortification works of the 13th-18th cc.: Vyborg Castle (see Vyborg Castle, State Museum), Anna Fortifications, Panzerlax Basion, Round Tower. Examples of medieval architecture are the Clock Tower (15th c.), and the city hall tower. Some residential houses of the 16th-17th cc. have survived, among which the most known are “the merchant’s house” (7a Progonnaya St.), “the townsman’s house” (13a Krepostnaya St.), the house of the former merchant guild (8 Vyborgskaya St.), “the house on a cliff” (5 Progonnaya St.) In the Russian period of the history of V., the governor general’s palace (1779-84) and the presidential court building (1845-47, arch. E. Lormann.) Rapid growth of the economy of V. started after the opening of the Saimaa Canal (1856) and the Rihimaki-St. Petersburg railroad (1870). In the 1860s, the fortifications were partially dismantled, and boulevards were built. The buildings of the Nordic Countries United Bank (1900, arch. V. Aspelin; 1901, arch. K. G. Nyström) belong to the early 20th century, the period of the most active construction in V. The architectural points of interest dated 1920s–1930s are the buildings of the Alvara Aalto Vyborg central town library, Leningrad Oblast State Archive (former Vyborg Provincial Archive), building of the School of Painting and Picture Gallery (1931, arch. U. Uhlberg), building of the former Merchant Marine School (1938, arch. R. Upuya.) In the Soviet period, a new building of the railway station (1953; arch. D. S. Goldgor, S. B. Speransky) and the Druzhba hotel (1982, arch. V. N. Scherbin) were erected. In 1967, the Vyborg movie theater, first wide-frame movie theater in Leningrad Oblast, was opened in the reconstructed building of the former city hall. Installed in V. are monuments to T. Knutsson (1908, sculptor V. Valgren), Peter I (1910, sculptor L. A. Bernshtam), V. I. Lenin (1957, sculptor S. V. Mikatadze); the sculpture “Elk” in the town park (1924, by J. Mäntynen; author copies in Lahti and Helsinki.) The Monrepos Park is situated at the outskirts of V. In 1970, by the resolution of the RSFSR government, V. was included on the list of Russia’s historic cities. Many figures of Finnish culture lived and worked in V.: musician E. Sivori (see E. Sivori Cultural Society of Vyborg) and authors J. Juteini, A. Rahkonen, K. Vala; Finnish ethnographer I. Manninen was born there. The town has two schools of music, a school of arts, and ten branches of universities. There are Vyborg central district library, district children’s library, Palace of Culture, town culture house, The Sacred Fortress Drama and Puppet theater, Veresk Russian folklore center, The Elves center for children’s variety art, V. I. Lenin museum home, and Military Glory Museum. Many festivals are held in the town: Window To Europe cinema festival, (since 1992), Knight Castle interregional military history festival, Evenings At Monrepos international chamber music festival, Baltic Rune international folklore festival, The Sails Of Vyborg marine festival, Flowers Of Russia circus art festival, Vyborg Castle Serenades jazz festival, Planet’s Flowers children’s festival, puppet theaters international festivals, and many others. Over 10 magazines and over 20 newspapers are published, incl. “Vyborg”, “Vyborgskiye Vedomosti” and “Novaya Vyborgskaya Gazeta.” “Radio Vyborg” , “Vyborg TV” and STS-Vyborg” TV are working in town . From the late 13th c., V. was the center of Christianization of Eastern Finland (Catholicism; from the 16th c., Lutheranism.) From 1554, center of the independent Vyborg Lutheran diocese. The life and activity of M. Agricola are related to V. Among the sacred architecture monuments are the Transfiguration Cathedral, Vyborg Cathedral, Dominican Monastery, Lutheran church of St. Peter and St. Paul, Franciscan Monastery , Roman Catholic Church of St. Hyacinth (aka House of Knights.) Currently, Both Orthodox parishes and parishes of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Ingria function in V.

Authors
Chistyakov, Anton Yuryevich

Persons
Agricola, Mikael
Aspelin, Waldemar
Bernstam, Leopold - Berngard (Leopold Adolfovich)
Erik XII of Pomerania
Goldgor, David Semyonovich
Juteini, Jaakko
Knutsson, Torkil
Lenin, Vladimir Ilyich (the real name was Ulyanov)
Lohrmann, Ernst Bernhard
Manninen, Ilmari Justus Andreas
Mantynen, Jussi
Mikatadze, Shota Vladimirovich
Nystrom, Karl Gustav
Peter I, Emperor
Rakhkonen, Aleksandr
Shcherbin, Vladimir Nikolayevich
Sivori, Emil
Speransky, Sergey Borisovich
Ulberg, Uno Werner
Vala, Katri
Valgren, Ville
Ypya, Ragnar Amandus

Geography
Neighbouring Territories/Finland
Historical Toponyms/Grand Principality of Finland
Topographical landmarks/Gulf of Finland, the
Historical Toponyms/Karelian Finland SSR (Soviet Socialist Republic)
Topographical landmarks/Karelian Isthmus, the
Leningrad Oblast, the/Vyborg District/Vyborg Town/Krepostnaya Street
Leningrad Oblast, the/Vyborg District/Vyborg Town/Progonnaya Street
Leningrad Oblast, the/Vyborg District/Vyborg Town/Progonnaya Street
Topographical landmarks/Saymensky Canal, the
Topographical landmarks/Vuoksa River, the
Historical Toponyms/Vyborg Gubernia
Leningrad Oblast, the/Vyborg District/Vyborg Town/Vyborgskaya Street

Bibliography
Золочевская Н.И., Кепп Е.Е., Новоселова З.А. Выборг. Л.: Лениздат, 1980
Выборг / фото Ю.Ф. Березовский, сост. Е.Е. Кепп. Л., 1986
Страницы Выборгской истории: Краеведческие записки // Сост. С.А.Абдуллина. Выборг, 2004.
Kauppi, U.-R., Milcik M. I. Viipuri: Vanhan Suomen paakaupunki. Helsinki, 1993
viipuri2000. URL: http://www.viipuri2000.vbg.ru

Subject Index
Annensky fortifications (Vyborg Town)
Cinema "Vyborg" (Vyborg Town)
Clock Tower (Vyborg Town)
"Elfs", children variety-music theatre-studio
Evangelical-Lutheran Church of Ingria
"Flowers of Russia", a circus art festival
"Flowers of the planet", a children festival
"Heather", Russian folk centre
"Khight Castle", a military- historical festival
Knutsson, monument to
Kostel of St.Hyacinthe (Vyborg Town)
"Mon Repos Park", a state museum-reserve
"Night journey", a rock-festival
"Novaya Vyborgskaya Gazeta" ("The New Vyborg Newspaper"), a newspaper
Pantserlaks, a bastion (Vyborg Town)
Peter I, monument to
Railway Station (Vyborg Town)
Round Tower (Vyborg Town), the
"Rune of Baltic", a children folklore festival
"Sails of Vyborg", a maritime festival
"Saint Fortress", the Drama and Puppet Theatre
"Serenade of the Vyborg Castle", an jazz festival
The Transfiguration Cathedral (Vyborg Town)
The Transfiguration Cathedral (Vyborg Town)
The Church of Apostle Peter and Apostle Paul (Vyborg Town)
The Church of the Prophet Elijah (Vyborg City)
The Dominican Monastery
"The Door into Summer", an youth music festival
The Franciscan Monastery (Vyborg Town)
The Leningrad Oblast State Archive in Vyborg
The Lutheran Church of Sts. Peter and Paul (Vyborg Town)
"The May Tree", a festival
The Vyborg Carhedral
"V.I. Lenin House", a museum (Vyborg Town)
V.I. Lenin, monument to
Vyborg Palace of Culture
"Vyborg Castle", the State Museum
Vyborg Central District Library, the
Vyborg Central Town Library named after A. Aalto
Vyborg children art school
Vyborg City House of Culture
Vyborg District Children Library, the
"Vyborg", a newspaper
"Vyborgskiye vedomosti" ("Vyborg Gazette"), a newspaper
"Window to Europe", a film festival