The Imatra area has been inhabited since the Stone Age and there are several Stone Age settlements in the area. The first mention of Imatra is from the tax lists from 1541, which mention Vuok's salmon fishing and the taxes collected from it. There has been a more permanent settlement in the Imatra region as early as the 1500th century, and all the current villages in the Imatra region are mentioned in the village lists made in the early 1600th century. At the time, the banks of the Vuoksi river were mostly used for cask farming and fishing.
Finland's oldest tourist attraction
Imatrankoski is Finland's oldest tourist attraction. Imatra's tourism history can be said to have started in 1772, when the Russian empress Catherine the Great visited Imatra to admire the rapids. Tourism to Imatra was at its peak at the end of the 1800th century and the beginning of the 1900th century, when especially rich people from St. Petersburg traveled diligently to Imatra. It was only forty kilometers from St. Petersburg to the Finnish border, and border formalities did not limit travel, because the Grand Duchy of Finland was an autonomous part of Russia at the time. Already at that time, the people of St. Petersburg also enjoyed shopping trips to the Finnish side. The roads and other services here were in better condition than in Russia, and Finland was significantly closer than Central and Southern Europe. The arrival of the railway to Imatra in 1892 cut the travel time from St. Petersburg in half. In 1903, a new State Hotel was completed on the shore of the rapids, and the number of tourists was at its highest before the First World War. The war closed the border to Russia, but the Finns discovered Imatrankoski again in the 20th century, when the number of tourists increased again. After the damming of Imatrankoski in 1929, the rapid has roared only in organized rapids shows, which even now take place almost every day in the summer.
Industrialism
The industrialization of the Imatra area began in the 1880s, when Tornator Oy established a wood grinder, a paper mill and a wire reel mill in Tainionkoski. After the completion of the Imatra Power Plant in 1929, several new industrial plants were established in the Imatra region, in addition to the wood processing industry, the metal industry, e.g. Imatra Railway Factory 1936. Enso-Gutzeit Oy's Kaukopää factory was completed in 1935.
Setting up a store
The township of Imatra was founded after the Second World War in 1948 around three industrial agglomerations that had previously belonged to Ruokolahti, Joutseno and Jääske. Most of Jääske's inhabitants remained on the other side of the border, including the then settlement of Enso, the present-day city of Svetogorsk, which had e.g. a large wood processing plant. The factory is still in operation and the Swedish SCA and the American International Paper operate there. Imatra became a city in 1971. Over the years, Imatra has grown from a fragmented town with three centers into a vibrant city.
Settlement in Imatra before the 1600th century
Not much information about the settlement on Imatra has survived before the tax lists of the 1500th century. The birth of Vuoksi and Imatrankoski and the Stone Age development of South Saimaa are closely intertwined. Imatra has been verifiably inhabited in the Stone Age approx. 5000–6000 years ago, when the waters of Saimaa forced their way towards Laatokka, forming a new depression, Vuoksi. Saimaa's water level dropped, so the settlement that was previously on the shores moved further away from the shore. The earliest Stone Age finds in the Imatra region date to exactly that time, i.e. approx. 4000–3500 BC. However, the region has been inhabited even before that, much older settlements have been found nearby, and the site of the oldest network in the world, Antrea, is very close, now just across the border, in Russia.
The earliest discovery sites
The earliest discovery sites are in Lammassaari, where there are two different residences. Pieces of earthenware have been found in one place, and in another place sharp stone chips, shocks that occur when making stone objects. The residences are located at the mouth of Vuoksi. One residence was in use around the time Vuoksi broke out and the other after, because it is higher than the highest flood peak in Saimaa. In the vicinity of the same area is also Lempeenliette's residence, where, among other things, a scraper made of silicon has been found. There is also a Stone Age settlement in nearby Haapasaari.
The settlement of Ukonniemi in Immolanjärvi is exceptional for the Stone Age because it is located on a high rocky promontory by the lake. Material related to everyday life has been found at the site, pieces of earthenware, shocks, burnt bones, as well as stone chisels and scrapers, which were used, for example, to shape leather. The settlement of Ukonniemi dates back to the same comb pottery period approx. 6000 years ago as the other finds in the Imatra area. A few individual discoveries have also been made in the area of present-day Vuoksenniska, which also tell of the earliest settlement in that region. The first inhabitants have come after fishing and deer hunting and little by little settled down to live more permanently. Some of the objects found have used silicon, which was imported to Finland. It has been brought to Eastern Finland from western and northwestern Russia.
There are also other Stone Age settlements in the vicinity of Imatra, some of which have only recently been found. There are rock paintings on the shores of Saimaa, which also tell that there has been some kind of settlement in the area since the Stone Age. In addition to fishing and deer hunting, the earliest inhabitants practiced birding and seal hunting.
Settlement from the Iron Age to the 1500th century
There is not much information about settlement during the Iron Age (approx. 500 BC–1300 AD) in the Imatra region. In 1916, a round cup buckle, the so-called Imatra buckle, was found in Tainionkoski in the area of the current Tainionkoski school, which is dated to the Bronze Age around the 1000th century. The buckle is the only Iron Age find from the Imatra area. However, it is very likely that several trade routes to the east passed through South Karelia during the Iron Age, especially from the 1000th century.
In the Peace of Pähkinäsaari in 1323, the Imatra region, along with the rest of western Karelia, remained under Swedish rule. The first mentions of Imatra are in the tax lists of 1541, which mention the taxes collected from salmon fishing. Mentions can also be found in the years 1557 and 1558. In the copy of the 1595 border map of Täyssinä's peace, there is a drawing of the castle on the island of Vuoksi, and next to it is written: "Bullerborg in Vuoksi, the island where the army captured a large number of the inhabitants of Jääske in 1591." In the letters of Kustaa Vaasa, there are also mentions of that fortress in Vuuksi already considerably earlier, e.g. 1548 and 1555.
The formation of a permanent settlement
Due to fishing, a permanent settlement has formed in the region, and with it also farming. There are mentions of cask cultivation in the Joutseno region from the 1400th century, and it was probably also practiced in the Imatra region. In the tax lists of 1557, a large part of the villages in the Imatra region have already been mentioned, and in the lists of 1618, all the villages are found except for Imatra, i.e. Kruununpuisto. A permanent settlement was thus formed during the 1500th century at the latest and then became established and remained the same until these days.
From a breast pump
Imatrankoski is the most significant rapid in Finland and its name can be found in old poems of the Finnish people as well as in sayings collected from different parts of the country. However, these were recorded only in the 1800th century, so it is not possible to know whether the rapid was already known in prehistoric times. Various interpretations have also been attached to the word Imatra, one of which says it would be "Imandra" of Sámi origin. According to this theory, the settlement that existed in the area around 6000 years ago around the time of the birth of the island would have been Sámi, but it has not convinced nomenclature researchers. According to other theories, the settlement would already have been Finno-Ugric at that time.
For more information:
More information about prehistoric settlement Museum of South Karelian pages as well as Finnish Museum Agencyn's pages, which include the pages of the National Museum.
Also used as a source: Book of Imatra, ed. Anu Talka, Jyväskylä 1997.