Later plans were put on hold because of other ongoing conflicts but, after the Russian success at the Battle of Poltava in June 1709, the men and resources were available to capture the town.

In April, Peter the Great managed to bring through a fleet of 250 ships to deliver guns and supplies, and to help perform a final assault on Swedish positions.

In 1710, the Russian army undertook an offensive in two directions: on the Baltic coast (where, in the fall in 1710, Riga was besieged) and in Finland, with attacks on Viborg and Kexholm.

[2] The selection of the command staff destined for the siege of Viborg led to the main authority being given to General-Admiral Fyodor Apraksin, while his subordinates were Major-Generals Robert Bruce [ru] and Wilhelm Bergholtz.

They were chosen because, at that time, the commanders most experienced in siege warfare (including Boris Sheremetev, Jacob Bruce, and Anikita Repnin) were concentrated around Riga.

Consequently, it was considered a possibility that Peter the Great himself would command forces at Viborg, so that he would not have to reassign the experienced generals and thus jeopardize the attacks on Riga.

[4] By this time, the fortifications had fallen into disrepair because the Swedish command did not pay much attention to these territories, and funds that were allotted for renovation were insignificant.

For that reason, in February 1710, Colonel Magnus Stiernstråle officially replaced him; he had de facto headed the efforts to fortify the city.

[6] Russia had made a previous attempt to capture Viborg; in October 1706, a siege corps was sent there under the command of Robert (Roman) Bruce.

After the bombardment, Russian forces retreated to Saint Petersburg after commanders realized that a siege could not be carried out without naval support and larger cannon.

The idea to reattempt a capture of Viborg was first proposed by Peter the Great in 1708, but rejected by the military due to the recent Swedish offensive.

The Swedes had attempted to burn down the part of the town outside of the stone walls to prevent it from falling into Russian hands, but failed to do so before they were driven into their fortifications.

[16] On that same day, as Apraksin reported to the czar: "We neared the fort itself in approaches, which took a great effort, since at that time there was great cold, and in addition to that the situation around the fort is rocky, which caused significant upturn; however, despite the difficulty, the approaches have brought us to the sea strait, which is right under the city itself, at the distance of a musket's shot, with which bags full of fur were very helpful, where there were bare rocks.

Furthermore, Aleksander Myshlayevsky published a "List of how many shots were fired from mortars and cannon at Viborg from 21 March to 9 April, and how many of them hit the city."

In the end he left the decision up to General Apraksin who, not wanting to bear the responsibility for a failure, decided to wait for reinforcements to arrive by sea once the ice had opened up.

[34] Russian forces also formed defenses to Trångsund (ru: Vysotsk, fi: Uuras) to blockade the town from sea.

It was also ordered that 140 light mortars be placed to knock enemy troops from walls during a final assault and to perform nighttime bombardments.

[39] However, other sources do not mention the truce-bearer or the naval battle; Fyodor Apraksin even wrote to the czar saying that he "could not imagine" how a Swedish fleet could be sent to Viborg, although he did take precautions.

[40] During this time, Ivan Botsis was sent out with a fleet of galleys to block access to the bay, thus completely blockading the town and fort of Viborg.

[36] In his letters announcing the capture of Viborg, Peter the Great wrote that from now on the "final security of Saint Petersburg has been achieved."

The Russian Empire now had vastly improved access to the Baltic Sea, from which they could launch further attacks against Finland, and a powerful fort that would defend the new capital of Saint Petersburg.

[50] The new Swedish Governor-General of Finland, Carl Nieroth, led an attempt to recapture the town with an army of 10,000 men with naval support.

Governor-General Nieroth, who had invigorated Swedish operations in Finland, died suddenly on 25 January 1712, and was succeeded by weak Georg Henrik Lybecker.

[51] With the loss of Viborg, the Swedes lost an important naval and land base, and their activities in the Gulf of Finland were restricted.

Russia's occupation of Viborg allowed the creation of a base to supply troops and build ships, and expanded the zone of action of the Baltic Fleet.

Viborg demonstrated this importance as a key military base from 1712 to 1714, when full-scale Russian land operations began in Finland.

Thus, in effect, the capture of Viborg and a portion of Karelia served to determine the outcome of the Great Northern War by establishing a staging area for further military actions.