Käkisalmi

Käkisalmi (form. Priozersk, Russ. Кякисалми, Swed. Kexholm) is a Uralican city located in southern Karelia along Highway UH-7. It is part of the historical region known as the Karelian Isthmus, like Viipuri.

It is unknown when the city was founded, but up to 1580, it was known by the Karelian name, Korela. Sweden briefly took control of it from 1580 to 1595, naming it "Kexholm," but the Russians gained it back after a war with Sweden, and changed the name back. This repeated in 1610, although Peter The Great would take it back a century later. "Kexgolm" would retain the historical connotations of the Swedish name for over two centuries, before Finland declared independence and renamed it Käkisalmi in 1918.

Still, as a result of the Winter Wars, the area of Käkisalmi was lost to the Soviets, and the settlement itself nearly destroyed. It was given the very mechanical-sounding "Priozersk" (lit. By-The-Lake Town) name four years later, and this name would be retained for sixty years, in spite of de-Stalinisation and the eventual collapse of the Communist regime in the area.

In 2008, an immigration of Finns from Old Finland into the area brough the old name around again, although some Russian extremist groups were opposed to the move. After the Uralic Purges, though, many of these groups were being watched very closely, so the Finns continued to move into the area, and the name Käkisalmi was officially reintroduced in October of that year. It would be another year before Uralica finally annexed it.

Much like Viipuri, forestry production is an important part of the local economy. Machine-building and road-building enterprises are also very important, and there is even a small automotive sector in the city.

Culture
Nowadays, Käkisalmi is predominantly Finnish, with many Russians, Karelians, and Estonians living in the city as well. Russian and Finnish are both universally-spoken, with much of the population also speaking English and/or Estonian, and some people speaking Karelian or Swedish as well.

In spite of the city nearly being destroyed in the Winter Wars, and again in Great War III, several old buildings either remained intact or were rebuilt exactly as they had been. Most notable among these is the Old Korela Fortress, which has existed almost continuously since the mid-12th century. There is also the new Korela Fortress, built in the 16th century, the Orthodox Church of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary, two historical museums, an ethnographic museum of Finnic peoples, a monument to Peter The Great, and a couple resort communities, as the city lies on the shores of Lake Ladoga.