Toksovo

Toksovo lies among the lakes and forested hills of the Karelian Isthmus. First recorded in 1500, it belonged to the Vodskaya district of the Novgorod lands, a country inhabited by Finnic peoples as well as Russians. After the Livonian War the settlement came under Swedish rule in 1583. Russia regained the area during the Great Northern War, and in 1708 Toksovo was included in the province centred on the new city of Saint Petersburg. Its wooded lake country remained distinct from the growing capital to the south.