Gogland

Gogland or Hogland (Гогланд, transliteration from original Hogland; Suursaari) is an island in the Gulf of Finland in the eastern Baltic Sea, about 180 km west from Saint Petersburg and 35 km from the coast of Finland (near Kotka). Hogland has an area of approximately ; its highest point is . It belongs to Russia's Kingiseppsky District in the Leningrad Oblast. Gogland's tourist industry is growing in importance, with most tourists coming from St. Petersburg, and some from Finland. In 2006, however, Russian authorities declared Gogland a "border area", which means that foreign nationals are not allowed to travel to the island without special permits. This limits tourism from abroad to small groups, admitted one at a time, and adds extensive bureaucracy to applications for permission to visit the island. Different transliterations of the name from the Russian language have been used. In older transliterations, the Russian Г is transliterated as "G", but in contemporary usage, it is rendered as "H". Since being ceded to Russia, the latter form is often used in western languages. Hogland Series Gogland has been inhabited by ethnic Finns since at least the 16th century, but it has changed hands several times. Throughout much of its history the island was part of the Kingdom of Sweden, which controlled Finland; however, after the Great Northern War (as part of which, the action of 22 July 1713 took place near the island), the Russian Empire, under Tsar Peter I, claimed the island. Peter then had the island's first lighthouse built in 1723. During the Russo-Swedish War (1788–1790) the Battle of Hogland, between the Russian and Swedish fleets, took place offshore, in July 1788. During the Crimean War, four vessels of the Royal Navy—Arrogant, Cossack, Magicienne, and Ruby—silenced the Russian batteries at a fort on the island, while the Anglo-French fleet went on to attack Sveaborg before returning home. Offshore there have been several notable shipwrecks. The crew of the three-mast clipper Amerika, which sank near the shore in October 1856, lie buried in an old Finnish cemetery.