The story
History
In the Middle Ages, the Kouvola region were borderlands between the provinces of Uusimaa, Häme and Karelia. The Kymijoki River served as the border river between Swedish Empire and the Russian Empire from 1743 to 1809.
The village of Kouvola has been inhabited since the Middle Ages, and it has belonged alternately to the parishes of Hollola, Iitti and Valkeala. However, the actual development did not start until the 1870s when the Riihimäki–Saint Petersburg railway line was built and Kouvola became a railway junction. In the next decade, the Savonia railway was built from Kouvola to the north and the Kotka line to the south, resulting in Kouvola becoming one of the busiest railway junctions in Finland. Over time, Kouvola developed into an important pulp-producing, paper-milling and printing centre and even had a leading industrial engineering sector.
In 1918, conflict between the Red and White factions raged heavily during the Finnish Civil War. More than 200 people were killed in the area during the fighting.
As a result of the railway, Kouvola was heavily built. In 1922 it was separated from the municipality of Valkeala and gained commercial rights immediately the following year. The city of Kouvola was established in 1960. Kouvola was annexed to Viipuri Province in 1922–1945 but in 1940 and 1944, most of Viipuri County was ceded to the Soviet Union, and the remaining areas were formed into Kymi Province in 1945. Kouvola had also become an administrative center; As the capital of Kymen County, it operated from 1955 until the 1997 county reform.
In January 2009, the six municipalities of Kouvola, Kuusankoski, Elimäki, Anjalankoski, Valkeala and Jaala were consolidated, forming the new municipality of Kouvola. Kouvola has also assumed the slogan Kymijoen kaupunki (the town of Kymijoki) previously used by Anjalankoski.
In March 2026, two Ukrainian drones fell in Kouvola. Prime Minister Petteri Orpo told the media that the drones likely came from Ukraine, which has been conducting attacks on Russian territory along the border with Finland.
Province History of Kouvola
Viipuri Province (1922–1945)
Kymi Province (1945–1997)
Read the full text
Southern Finland Province (1997–2009)
Kymenlaakso (2009–)
From Wikipedia’s article on Kouvola, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.5