The district of Sortavala was first recorded in Swedish documents dating to 1468. Russian documents first mention it as
Serdovol or
Serdobol in 1500. It was ceded to
Sweden after the
Ingrian War. With the 1721
Treaty of Nystad, the settlement was joined to Russia along with the rest of
Old Finland and was given the Russian name Serdobol. It became known for its marble and granite quarries which provided materials necessary for construction of imperial palaces in
St. Petersburg and its
neighborhood. In 1812, along with the rest of
Viipuri Province, it was joined to the newly formed
Grand Duchy of Finland. In 1917, the town remained a part of independent
Finland. It suffered extensively from mass Soviet bombardment during the
Winter War, and through the
Moscow Peace Treaty Finland was forced to cede the town to the
Soviet Union. All of the population of the town was evacuated for the first time. Like the rest of
Finnish Karelia, Sortavala was retaken by Finland during 1941–1944 (the period of the
Continuation War) and most evacuees returned to rebuild their homes. However, after the armistice of 1944, the Finns were evacuated again and the town was ceded back empty of population. After the war, the town was resettled by the Russian and Karelian population. Until 1940, the Ladoga shore southwest of Sortavala had been one of the very few relatively densely populated areas north of the
Karelian Isthmus populated by
Karelians. ==Geography==