Lost borderland city: Finnish-Swedish-Russian Vyborg.

Wait what?! Finnish-Swedish town in Russia?

Viipuri had changed names and territories too many times: first it was Swedish, then Russian, in 1917 Finnish and then, in 1944 became a Russian city again. Once it was a cosmopolitain city: Germans, Russians, Swedes, Finns living peacefully together.
Then many wars and conflicts took place..and at the end the city became part of USSR. As some describe, this turned the Finnish dream into Soviet ruin.
Is it in such a bad condition as represented in the media? Do Russian people feel like at home there and do they care about the Scandinavian past? Let’s find out!
-----------------------------
-----------------------------
Credits:
Music: Unelmissain oot mun
Artist : Ramblers-orkesteri, Licensed to YouTube by WMG, 1938
------------------------------

[laxlife]

Saying that Russians care about the city is wrong. For Finland Viipuri was top3 cities. If it would still be on the Finnish side it would be fully restored or would've been already years ago. To me it's ruined and that's why we don't really even feel like it's apart of Finland anymore. It's forgotten history that was ruined by an opressing nation. Saying russians respect the heritage is a overstatement.

[johunihuni]

My family lived there hundreds of years before russians destoyed everything they had built

[mikaveekoo]

It is strange to think that the present citizens of Viipuri have no real roots there because they are all descendants of the people that were transferred there after the Finns had abandoned the city in 1944. Ghost city!

[kallesyld]

Viipuri is an Finnish town occupied by Russian Empire

[timoterava]

What the Russians in general don't seem to understand is, that Viipuri was always Finnish/Karelian - except for the years 1940-41, 1944-.

Before 1809 Finland was an original and integral part of Sweden. The Finns were Swedes too. Most of the "Swedes" the Russians ever met in commerce or in war spoke Finnish. Therefore the "Swedish time" was in reality Finnish as well.

The majority of the population was always Finnish/Karelian. Although the population of Viipuri itself was kind of cosmopolitan before the time of the Autonomous Grand Duchy of Finland, it didn't matter much, because the population of the city was miniscule - e.g. only 2, 746 in 1815. People didn't live in cities or towns but in the countryside, which was totally Finnish/Karelian.

During the autonomy and the independence Viipuri grew and it became even more Finnish. In 1930 93.6% spoke Finnish, 2.9% Swedish, 2.5% Russian and 0.6% German in Viipuri. Practically everybody spoke Finnish outside Viipuri.

In the video I heard a naive comment of "people learning to live in peace" - or something like that. We Finns never had a problem with living in peace with the Russians - if only the Russians would have let us.

First you Russians attack us, murder us and rob our lands. Then you wish that we would live in peace and harmony with you, while you continue to occupy our city, our towns and our lands - and while you attack and bully one neighbouring country after another.

It doesn't work that way.

[gyderian]

Nice video but I would correct the history part that instead of being swedish then russian then finnish that it was actually first finnish and then russian after ww2 when the finnish population had to flee. Before that the population has always been mostly finnish. Finns and swedes are really close to each other and often confused as the same, since many finns had a swedish name and spoke swedish.

[hurri]

I would agree the the town is getting better. I was there about 40 years ago and since then it's a lot better. Also I think people who live there now live quite well and some seem to relate to the history. The viking part being the more interesting. One building also fairly well restored is the art museum/school.
PS. Viborg or Viipuri or Vyborg has nothing to do with the word View in English.
Something they have not yet been able to fix is the tap water, don't drink it.
And yes had I grown up there, living there, I would too hate to see what happened to my town, the house I lived in, my flat.
I have know many like that, and it was not hard to understand the pain. But to day somebody aged 10 in 1940 in Viipuri would be about 90 and there is not many left today.

[johunihuni]

In the history it wasn't russian... It was part of autonomous Finland and after 1917 part of independent Finland.

[laakssim]

Nice video of my favourite Finnish town, thanks!
And great that you know the history. Only I would correct that in 1944 it became a Soviet town, not Russian. In 1991 it became Russian.

[msotil]

When Russia (then called USSR) attacked Finland without any provocation, other than Finland's refusal to give the USSR part of its territory, no western nation lifted a finger in protest. Viipuri and about 10% of Finland were annexed. Russia had already attacked Romania and taken Bessarabia and all three of the Baltic countries had been forcefully annexed. Russia also had ravaged the neighboring part of Poland, sending hundreds of thousands of its citizens to Siberia, annexed the Polish lands it had invaded and made the inhabitants soviet citizens. All of this without the western powers raising any objections.

[samgold]

HELLO FROM FROM RUSSIA WITH NICE ВСЕМ ПРИВЕТ ИЗ ВЫБОРГА

[proycs]

Vyborg has been part of autonomous Grand Duchy of Finland from 1812 to 1917 before Finland got its independence.

[arvopohja]

Citisens of Viipuri requested to be joined republic of Finland.

[tarikabaraka]

Víborg es una ciudad portuaria rusa sobre el mar Báltico situada al interior de la bahía de Víborg, en el istmo de Carelia, a 138 km al noroeste de San Petersburgo y a 38 kilómetros de la frontera con Finlandia. Depende administrativamente del óblast de Leningrado.

[reinokarvinen]

one faous finn from vyborg is lauri törni

[RockerFinland]

It used to be one of the wealthiest and cleanest Finnish cities until Stalin stole it. It seems like Russians don't take good care of it because now it's full of poverty, dirtiness and the place is in very bad shape..

[badgerpa]

On the chair thing did you mean the rest of the world should donate a chair to a Russian? lol

[husnejahan]

Hello, Dear friends how are you? New subscriber from Bangladesh 🇧🇩 Wish onetime I will this place ♥️

[meetup]

Because finland alliance with nazi german in ww2, soviet take it back again after nazi lose war this finland fault🤔