This was a Thriving Finnish Town. Then the Soviets Came. 🇫🇮 🇷🇺

Join me on a trip from Moscow to the border with Finland as I intend to explore the town of Vyborg, a place with strong historical significance.

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Vyborg was founded by the Swedes in 1403 as Wyborg, and throughout the course of its history it has been under control of various administrations. The most recent change in the sovereignty of Vyborg occurred in 1944, when following the Winter War between the USSR and Finland, the whole region was transferred back to the Soviet Union.

The Finnish name for Vyborg was, and still is, Viipuri. However, very little is left of the Finnish identity of the town: during the war, the entire Finnish population of Viipuri/Vyborg was relocated to other regions of Finland, to better accommodate the Finnish military fighting on the battlefront. Even after the conclusion of the war, the town was repopulated by bringing entire Russian families from other regions of the Soviet Union. This is also the reason why Finland is not too interested in the Viipuri/Vyborg question and realizes that asking for the region to be transferred back under Finnish control would be highly unfeasible. Even when not taking diplomacy into account, even if Vyborg was indeed to become Finnish overnight all Finland would gain would be a town full of Russians who don't speak Finnish and who don't have any interest in assimilating.

Also, the town of Vyborg is far from being the prosperous town that Viipuri once was. Viipuri was at one point the second largest city in the whole of Finland, second only to Helsinki. And it was a nice town full of Finnish elements, when it came to its architecture. However, the urban elements that are familiar and reminiscent of many other Finnish towns are visibly decaying, and they are combined with newer Soviet architecture. Most Finns are sad when visiting the town as they believe that after 70 years of Russian care, the town looks visibly unkempt.

That is essentially why I decided to jump on an early morning flight from Moscow to Saint Petersburg and then continue further towards the border with Finland. I wanted to see with my own eyes how Vyborg, formerly known as Viipuri, looks nowadays.

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Here's where I stand as of now:

Moscow ✔️
Moscow Oblast' ✔️
Saint Petersburg ✔️
Leningradskaya Oblast' ✔️
Vladimirskaya Oblast' ✔️
Yaroslavskaya Oblast' ✔️
Ivanovskaya Oblast' ✔️
Krasnodarskij Kraj ✔️
Tulskaya Oblast' ✔️
Tatarstan Republic ✔️
Tverskaya Oblast' ✔️
Nizhegorodskaya Oblast' ✔️
Kaluzhskaya Oblast' ✔️
Murmanskaya Oblast' ✔️
Ryazanskaya Oblast' ✔️
Astrakhanskaya Oblast' ✔️
Kalmykia Republic ✔️
Volgogradskaya Oblast' ✔️
Bryanskaya Oblast' ✔️
Udmurtia Rebublic ✔️
Yekaterinburgskaya Oblast' ✔️
Tyumenskaya Oblast' ✔️

Which means I'm at 22/85. Still 63 to go! Hopefully a lifetime will be enough ⚠️

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