Fortress The city was founded in 1323 with a wooden fortress named Oreshek (), which was built by Prince
Yury of Moscow (in his capacity as
Prince of Novgorod) on behalf of the
Novgorod Republic in 1323. After a series of
conflicts, a
peace treaty was signed at Oreshek on August 12, 1323, between
Sweden and Grand Prince Yury and the Novgorod Republic. In 1348, King
Magnus Eriksson attacked and briefly took the fortress during his crusade in the region from 1348 to c. 1351. It was largely ruined by the time the Novgorodians retook the fortress in 1351. In 1478, the
Novgorod Republic was absorbed by the
Muscovy who immediately started to strengthen their border with Sweden. The existing small citadel was demolished and a new stone fortress with seven towers was constructed, which occupied almost the entirety of
Orekhovy Island. In 1554–1555, during the
Russo-Swedish war, the Swedes laid siege to the fortress, with no success. In response, Muscovites besieged Vyborg, with no success either. Peter renamed the fortress to
Shlisselburg, a transliteration into the Cyrillic alphabet of Schlüsselburg. The name, meaning "Key-fortress" in
German, refers to Peter's perception of the fortress as the "key to
Ingria". During the
Imperial period the fortress lost its military role and was used as a notorious political prison. Immediately after the
Russian Revolution of 1917 the prisoners, both political and criminal, were released, and set the prison on fire. The war completely devastated the fortress. Of the original ten towers, the fortress retains only six (five Russian and one Swedish). Renovation of the walls and towers has been slow, although it is still underway. A stone monument in memory of the first Russo-Swedish peace treaty (1323) has been placed inside the fortress. Tourists can reach the island from May to October via Shlisselburg or from the Northern bank of Neva, via Petrokrepost railway station with regular ferries that run every 10–15 minutes.
Town A predecessor of the town was a
posad that first appeared around the citadel on the island and in the late 15th–early 16th century shifted to both banks of the Neva. Once Muscovites rebuilt the old citadel into a powerful stronghold leaving no place for residential purposes, residents and merchants were only allowed to the island to seek shelter from advancing Swedish troops. A posad on the southern bank was more convenient for its population, unlike for those living on the northern coast, it was easier to flee the enemies to the southeast, into the Russian mainland. The southern posad of Oreshek was turned into a town in 1702 by
Peter the Great. In the course of Peter's
administrative reform, Shlisselburg was included in Ingermanland Governorate (known since 1710 as
St. Petersburg Governorate). In 1727, it became a part of
Sankt-Petersburgsky Uyezd, and in 1755
Shlisselburgsky Uyezd was established. In 1914, Sankt-Peterburgsky Uyezd was renamed Petrogradsky Uyezd. The
Old Ladoga Channel that divides the town into two parts was constructed from 1719 to 1731 to ensure the safety of the vessel traffic along the southern coast of the dangerously turbulent Lake Ladoga. The plan of the channel was worked out by Emperor Peter I himself. In 1826 the channel became too shallow, so numerous locks, including those in the town, were built to maintain the depth of the channel. In 1861 construction of the new channel was begun, which runs between the old one and the lake. The old channel was finally abandoned in 1940, and what remains of it may still be seen in Shlisselburg. One of the most notorious political prisoners of Shlisselburg fortress was
Iustin Zhuk (1887–1919),
anarcho-syndicalist rebel from the
Kiev Governorate. During the
Russian Revolution he was released from prison and found a job on the gunpowder works of Shlisselburg, where he joined and then headed a commune of pro-Bolshevik workers. Zhuk supported the revolutionary forces in Petrograd and arranged day care for the children of workers as well as sourced food from Ukraine, where he was born. He led a group of Red Guards from Shlisselburg that were dispatched to the Russian-Finnish borderland to halt an
intrusion of White Finns towards Petrograd and died in an ambush near Gruzino railway station in 1919. One of the streets in downtown Shlisselburg is named in memory of
Zhuk. On February 14, 1923, Shlisselburgsky Uyezd was merged into Petrogradsky Uyezd. In January 1924, the uyezd was renamed Leningradsky. On August 19, 1936, the district was abolished and Shlisselburg became the town of oblast significance. On 18 January 1943 in the course of
Operation Iskra Shlisselburg was retaken by the Red Army. Shlisselburg regained its former name in 1992. and Shlisselburg became a town of district significance, subordinated to Kirovsky District. ==Administrative and municipal status==