Vyborg is a town in, and the administrative center of, Vyborgsky District in Leningrad Oblast, Russia. It lies on the Karelian Isthmus near the head of the Vyborg Bay, 130 km to the northwest of St. Petersburg, 245 km east of the Finnish capital Helsinki, and 38 km south of Russia's border with Finland, where the Saimaa Canal enters the Gulf of Finland. The population of Vyborg is as follows: 79,962; 79,224; 80,924.
Located in the boundary zone between the East Slavic/Russian and Finnish worlds, formerly well known as one of the few medieval towns in Finland, Vyborg has changed hands several times in history, most recently in 1944 when the Soviet Union captured it from Finland during World War II. Finland evacuated the whole population of the city and resettled them within the rest of Finland. On March 25, 2010, Dmitry Medvedev named Vyborg the "City of Military Glory"; in Russia, a city can be awarded such a title if there have been fierce battles in or near the city and where, in the Russian view, the defenders of the homeland have shown bravery, perseverance, and general heroism.