Viipuri Province

Viipuri Province Viipurin lääni Viborgs län
Province of Finland
← 1812–1945 →   →   →
Coat of arms
Capital		Viipuri
History
•	Established	1812
•	Disestablished	1945
Area
•	1939¹	32,134 km2(12,407 sq mi)
Population
•	1939¹	620,838
	Density	19.3 /km2  (50 /sq mi)
¹ About 43 thousand km² with the surface of the Finnish part of Lake Ladoga.

Coat of arms

The Viipuri Province (Finnish: Viipurin lääni, commonly abbreviated Vpl, Swedish: Viborgs län or Wiborgs län) was a province of Finland from 1812 to 1945.

The predecessor of the province was Vyborg Governorate, which was established in 1744 from territories ceded by the Swedish Empire to Russia in 1721 (Treaty of Nystad) and in 1743 (Treaty of Åbo). These territories originated as parts of the County of Viborg and Nyslott and Kexholm County in 1721, and parts of the County of Savolax and Kymmenegård in 1743. The governorate was also known as Old Finland.

During the Napoleonic Wars, the Kingdom of Sweden had allied itself with the Russian Empire, United Kingdom and other parties against Napoleonic France. However, following the Treaty of Tilsit in 1807, Russia made peace with France. In 1808, supported by France, Russia successfully challenged Swedish control over Finland in the Finnish War. In the Treaty of Fredrikshamn on September 17, 1809, Sweden was obliged to cede all its territory in Finland east of the Torne River to Russia. The ceded territories became a part of the Russian Empire and were reconstituted into the autonomic Grand Duchy of Finland, with the Russian Tsar as Grand Duke.

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Wikipedia