Vysotsk, town

Subject / Topography/Cities
VYSOTSK (Trongsund before 1948, Finnish Uuras; Petroostrov in 1948), a town in Vyborg District. Population: 1673 (one of the smallest towns in the RF.) Located in Vysotsky Island of the Vyborg Bay. It was founded by Peter I in the early 18th century as a fortress defending the approach to Vyborg. The name Trongsund originates from the Swedish name of the straits (literally “narrow straits”); the Finnish version of the name is Uuras (“diligent”, “industrious.”) According to some sources, the island had Swedish stone redoubts of the 17th c. Earth ramparts and stonework have survived up to this day. A. S. Popov made first experiments in wireless telegraphy on islands near Trongsund in 1897-1898 and 1902. In the early 20th century, the Trongsund area was included in the so-called “Peter the Great Fortification System” in the Gulf of Finland. Until 1918, it was in Vyborg Gubernia of the Grand Principality of Finland; in 1918-40, a part of Finland, in the administrative jurisdiction of Vyborg. In 1926 it was connected to the Primorsk (Koivisto) – Vyborg railway branch. From 1940, belonged to the USSR (in the Karelo-Finnish SSR before 1944, then in Leningrad Oblast.) In the winter of 1948 it was renamed, first Petroostrov, and on Oct. 1, 1948, Vysotsk, in memory of Hero of the Soviet Union machine-gunner K. D. Vysotsky (1911-40) who was killed near Pukinsaari Island during the Soviet-Finnish War. V. is an important commercial port (coal and oil terminals.) Currently, the port facilities are under reconstruction . In the late 20th century, film director S. I. Rostotsky, chairman of the Window To Europe cinema festival, lived in V. There are a secondary school named after Rostotsky (memorial plaque, 2002.) Chistyakov, Anton Yuryevich
Peter I, Emperor
Popov, Aleksandr Stepanovich
Rostotsky, Stanislav Iosifovich
Vysotsky, Kuzma Demidovich
Topographical landmarks/Gulf of Finland, the
Historical Toponyms/Trongzund Town
Topographical landmarks/Vyborg Bay, the
Leningrad Oblast, the/Vyborg District
Historical Toponyms/Grand Principality of Finland/Vyborg Province
Leningrad Oblast, the/Vyborg District/Vyborg Town
Topographical landmarks/Vysotsky Island
Балашов Е.А. Карельский перешеек. Земля неизведанная. Ч. 5-6: Западный сектор. Койвисто-Йоханнес (Приморск-Советский). СПб., 2003., 179-183
"Window to Europe", a film festival