July 9, 2009, Sortvala (Karelian)

Sortvala (Karelian)

Three “birth dates” of Sortvala

The earliest date of the city’s foundation was named by the authors of the Encyclopedia of Brockhaus and Efron; after them, it was done by K. Greyhagen in his “Tourist’s Guide to Finland” (1911). They mentioned the year of 1617. In that year, according to a truce signed in the village of Stolbovo near Tikhvin by Sweden and Russia, the territory of Karelian district was ceded to Sweden. The Swedish authorities gave the local dwellers two weeks, except for peasants and orthodox priests, to leave their settlements if they wished to do so. Founding new settlements was out of question, since more than fifty thousand people left the district. To stop the process of the dwellers’ exodus, the new authorities made the territory exempt from taxes for five years.

The official date of the foundation of the city is believed to be 1632. On June 17 of that year, Swedish king Gustav II Adolf proposed to create four new cities – two in Karelia, one on the Karelian Isthmus and one in Ingermanland (south of the Finland Gulf). The cities were supposed to be founded in places of: “busy traffic of commercial people,” since cities are centers of commerce and taxation. A Finnish researcher, Doctor of engineering Martti Jaatinen believes, “the year 1632 as the year of Sortavala’s foundation repeated in many documents is a result of the wrong reading of the old documents.” The scientist can be fully trusted, since he worked in Finnish and Swedish archives. So what was the true course of events then?

In the next year the governor of Kexholm County (the Swedish name of the Karelian district) Henry Spore reported about founding of some new cities in Sortavala and Salmina dioceses. It took more than ten years to implement the idea. During this time important actions were undertaken. First, a place for a new city was selected. From Riekkalansaari (Greek Island) it was transferred to the north-western part of Lappajärvi (Valve Lake) Gulf where houses of Kellomaniemi (cape of bells) village were preserved. Now there is a wharf, Komsomolskaya and Suvorov streets, Kirov square. Secondly, Swedish authorities invited the remaining dwellers of the district to settle in the newly formed city and moved there Finnish residents who were for a time freed from military service. Thirdly, commercial ties with Russia were gradually restored.

The author of the “Tourist’s Guide to Finland” (1915) L. Timofeev dates the foundation of the city as 1643. Nowadays, Martti Jaatinen believes this date to be correct. The Governor General of the Kexholm County received an order to found a city and went to evaluate the chosen site. He not only confirmed it, but under his headship living quarters were planned and streets were paved. In terms of town planning, Sortavala was a city that from the beginning was built according to a block type of building up. 1643 can be considered a year when the city actually existed.

In 1644, Queen Christina, King Gustav II Adolf’s daughter, ascended to the Swedish throne. She also took part in the city’s establishing. On December 16 of 1646, in a letter to all those who settled in Sortavala she confirmed the promise “to assist them and allow their own persons as well as their households and their trades that gave profit to be exempt from taxation of the current year.”

In 1648, Swedish map-makers marked the territory of the city on the map. By the end of XVII century, the city was basically built up. Its territory was divided up into one hundred lots; six streets were paved; a port with a market place was built; among public buildings there was a Lutheran church. Two streets remain from the Swedish city today.

Soviet authors P. Vlasov and B. Stafeev in the book “Sortavala” wrote, “In the Finnish sources, however, a later date is mentioned, – 1632-1646.” They summed up the information from the foreign sources.

The third date has to do with Russian history. In 1783, Russian Empress Catherine the Great included Serdobol into the list of the cities that received the rights of Russian administrative district cities. Five years later, she returned to Serdobol its coat of arms, which was passed down to us from Swedish time and since 1991 has been the official coat of arms of the city.

So, it turns out, that Sortavala has three dates of birth: 1632, 1643 and 1783. The dwellers of Sortavala, just like the former dwellers, choose the latest date, from which they count the 377-year history of the city.

The dwellers of the Finnish city of Sortavala solemnly celebrated the three hundred anniversary of the city in 1932. The lyceum principal Uno Carttunen published a book “The History of Sortavala,” in which summed up the knowledge of the city’s history. One can find this book in the reading hall of the central library. In that same year, the then biggest highway bridge of Finland connecting the banks along Karelskaya Street was commissioned. In honor of the festival on the Main Karelskaya Street festive gates were set up, and in the City Hall (the central library) an official reception was held.