In 2006, however, Russian authorities declared Gogland a "border area", which means that foreign nationals are not allowed to travel to the island without special permits.

This limits tourism from abroad to small groups, admitted one at a time, and adds extensive bureaucracy to applications for permission to visit the island.

During the Crimean War, four vessels of the Royal Navy—Arrogant, Cossack, Magicienne, and Ruby—silenced the Russian batteries at a fort on the island, while the Anglo-French fleet went on to attack Sveaborg before returning home.

After the Finnish War (1808–1809), Gogland officially passed to the Russian Empire, although it was made part of the newly created Grand Duchy of Finland which gained independence from Russia in 1917.

In return, the Soviet Union would show its good faith by offering a large slice of empty and unofficially disputed Karelian borderland in exchange.

Gogland and nearby islands became strategically important during World War II, as German and Finnish forces used them to observe and maintain the massive belts of sea mines that kept the Soviet fleet bottled up in the eastern Gulf of Finland throughout the conflict.

Later, in September 1944—Finland having ceased hostilities with the Soviet Union—the Germans attempted to take the island from their Finnish former allies but were repulsed with heavy losses in Operation Tanne Ost.

[3] During the war years, both Soviet and Finnish troops built extensive fortifications, which are still found all over the island, along with discarded military equipment.

The log village of Suurkylä (Russian: Суркюля, Surkyulya) has been levelled and replaced with a few modern dwellings, possibly for a Soviet fishing collective farm, as well as some military facilities.