Serdobol county

The county was created in the territory of the abolished Kexholm province as a result of the provincial reform of Catherine II ^[1] . By the beginning of the 19th century, it was subdivided into kirkhshpili ( parishes , pogosts ) headed by Lensmans : Serdobol, Uguniemi, Ruskeala ^[2] . In accordance with the “Institutions for Governance of Provinces” adopted in 1775, Kexholm Province was abolished, and Serdobolsky County, established under the decree of 1783 “On the drafting of the Vyborg governorship from six counties, and on renaming the town of Serdobolya as a city” ^[3] became administrative -the territorial unit of the Vyborg governorship , transformed in 1796 into the Vyborg gubernia, which, in turn, was renamed the Finnish gubernia in 1802 ^[4] . With reference to the county in the “Atlas of the Finnish province” of 1803 ^[5] , the name “North Kexholm” is used. After joining the Grand Duchy of Finland, on the basis of a decree of 1811, the province of Finland was again called Vyborg; the county with the center in Serdobol had the Swedish name Kexholms Norra härad, that is, North Kexholm (Verkhnekskolmsky), but since 1848 it was divided into Serdobolsky and Salmis ^[6] . Since 1918, after the proclamation of independence of Finland , the Russian version of the name of the county has been superseded by the Finnish Sortavalan kihlakunta.

By 1940, the county was subdivided into 4 volosts (communities) :

• Sortavala rural community
• Ruskeala
• Uguniemi
• Harlu

As of January 1, 1938, the county area was 1879.00 km², and the population (as of December 31, 1939) was 42,387 people.

Under the terms of the Moscow Peace Treaty, a large part of the Vyborg province was relegated from Finland to the USSR , as a result of which the county was abolished.