The medal primarily covered naval actions but it was also awarded to 100 men or the Royal Sappers and Miners for their work in the demolition of Russian fortifications at Bomarsund and Sveaborg.
Count van Heiden was born in Sveaborg, later renamed Suomenlinna, son of Dutch Lodewijk (Ludwig) Sigismund Gustavus van Heiden (b.September 6, 1772, Zuidlaren-d. November 5, Tallinn), who left Netherlands in 1795 during French invasion and settled in Livonia.
Vissarion Belinsky was born in Sveaborg, Helsinki and lived in the town of Chembar (now Belinsky in the Belinsky District of Penza Oblast) and in Penza, where he studied in gymnazia (1825—1829).
Walhalla-orden was hardly unique to its period in Sveaborg; quite the contrary, besides a masonic lodge and Walhalla-orden, there were a number of similar societies including a British-inspired secret society of kirvesmiehet called Saint Charles' Cabin and another unconnected society called Brothers of February the Seventeenth.