Priozersk

Priozersk (Приозе́рск; Käkisalmi; Kexholm) is a town and the administrative center of Priozersky District in Leningrad Oblast, Russia, located at the northwestern shore of Lake Ladoga, at the estuary of the northern armlet of the Vuoksi River on the Karelian Isthmus. It is served by a station of the same name on the St. Petersburg—Khiytola railway. Population: The main landmark of Priozersk, the Korela Fortress, has historically been the center for the Karelians of the Karelian Isthmus and from time to time the northwestern outpost of the realm of the Russians or the eastern outpost of the realm of the Swedes. From the Middle Ages, Priozersk was known as Korela to Russians and Käkisalmi to Karelians and Finns. The town was a part of Vodskaya pyatina of the Novgorod Republic. Novgorod taxation documents from 1500 list 183 houses in Korela, suggesting an estimated population of 1,500–2,000. The Swedes captured Korela twice: in 1578 for seventeen years and in 1611 for a hundred years. In the Swedish Empire, the fortress was called Kexholm and the whole region became known as the County of Kexholm. Russia definitively secured the area during the Great Northern War; the town's Swedish name was retained, however, as Keksgolm (Кексгольм). Unfortunately, wars and devastating fires in 1300, 1580, 1634, and 1679 took their toll on the civilian population. Consequently, when the town gained its first court house in 1800, the population was only 400. In 1812, as the Grand Duchy of Finland three years earlier had been formed within the Russian Empire, Tsar Alexander I incorporated Keksgolm with the rest of Old Finland (Vyborg Governorate) into an autonomous region. Keksgolm was the smallest city in the governorate. Since 1812, Vyborg Governorate was known as the Viipuri Province. In 1917, Finland became independent. The town's growth was boosted by the construction of the St. Petersburg–Hiitola railway in 1917 and by establishing two big saw mills and a big Ab Waldhof Oy's wood pulp mill in 1929. In 1939, Käkisalmi had a population of 5083.