The Russo–Swedish War of 1741–1743, known as the Hats' Russian War in Sweden and the Hats' War in Finland, which resulted in the Lesser Wrath (Finnish: Pikkuviha, Swedish: Lilla ofreden), or the occupation of Finland, was instigated by the Hats, a Swedish political party that aspired to regain the territories lost to Russia during the Great Northern War, and by French diplomacy, which sought to divert Russia's attention from supporting its long-standing ally, the Habsburg monarchy, in the War of the Austrian Succession.
Finland, officially the Republic of Finland is a country in Northern Europe bordering the Baltic Sea, Gulf of Bothnia, and Gulf of Finland, between Norway to the north, Sweden to the northwest, and Russia to the east. Finland is a Nordic country and is situated in the geographical region of Fennoscandia. The capital and largest city is Helsinki. Other major cities are Espoo, Vantaa, Tampere, Oulu and Turku.
Finnish is a Finnic language spoken by the majority of the population in Finland and by ethnic Finns outside Finland. Finnish is one of the two official languages of Finland ; Finnish is also an official minority language in Sweden. In Sweden, both Standard Finnish and Meänkieli, a Finnish dialect, are spoken. The Kven language, a dialect of Finnish, is spoken in Northern Norway by a minority group of Finnish descent.
Swedish is a North Germanic language spoken natively by 9.6 million people, predominantly in Sweden, and in parts of Finland, where it has equal legal standing with Finnish. It is largely mutually intelligible with Norwegian and to some extent with Danish, although the degree of mutual intelligibility is largely dependent on the dialect and accent of the speaker. Both Norwegian and Danish are generally easier for Swedish speakers to read than to listen to because of difference in accent and tone when speaking. Swedish is a descendant of Old Norse, the common language of the Germanic peoples living in Scandinavia during the Viking Era. It has the most speakers of the North Germanic languages.
In the summer of 1740, the commander of Swedish forces in Finland, General Carl Cronstedt, was removed from his post due to his opposition to the planned war and Charles Emil Lewenhaupt was elevated to the vacant position. However, Finnish defenses had fallen into disrepair as most of the funds for their support were used elsewhere in the kingdom. Neither had any preparations been made as a result of what had taken place in the Great Northern War. In the end what funds that were allocated for Finland were used for preparations for offensive war instead of strengthening the defenses.[1]
Charles Emil Lewenhaupt the Elder was a Swedish general.
The Great Northern War (1700–1721) was a conflict in which a coalition led by the Tsardom of Russia successfully contested the supremacy of the Swedish Empire in Northern, Central and Eastern Europe. The initial leaders of the anti-Swedish alliance were Peter I of Russia, Frederick IV of Denmark–Norway and Augustus II the Strong of Saxony–Poland–Lithuania. Frederick IV and Augustus II were defeated by Sweden, under Charles XII, and forced out of the alliance in 1700 and 1706 respectively, but rejoined it in 1709 after the defeat of Charles XII at the Battle of Poltava. George I of Great Britain and of Brunswick-Lüneburg (Hanover) joined the coalition in 1714 for Hanover and in 1717 for Britain, and Frederick William I of Brandenburg-Prussia joined it in 1715.
The Swedish war plan was to first capture Vyborg and then advance further towards Saint Petersburg.[2] The objective of these maneuvers was to threaten Saint Petersburg and to set the stage for a coup d'état engineered by French and Swedish diplomats and aimed at toppling the pro-Austrian regime of Anna Leopoldovna. The coup did take place in December, but the new empress, Elizaveta Petrovna, reneged on her promises to return the Baltic provinces to Sweden and continued the vigorous prosecution of the war, under the guidance of her pro-Austrian chancellor, Aleksey Bestuzhev.
Vyborg is a town in, and the administrative center of, Vyborgsky District in Leningrad Oblast, Russia. It lies on the Karelian Isthmus near the head of the Vyborg Bay, 130 km to the northwest of St. Petersburg and 38 km south of Russia's border with Finland, where the Saimaa Canal enters the Gulf of Finland. The population of Vyborg has developed as follows: 79,962 (2010 Census); 79,224 (2002 Census); 80,924 (1989 Census)..
Saint Petersburg is Russia's second-largest city after Moscow, with 5 million inhabitants in 2012, part of the Saint Petersburg agglomeration with a population of 6.2 million (2015). An important Russian port on the Baltic Sea, it has a status of a federal subject.
A coup d'état, also known as a putsch, a golpe, or simply as a coup, means the overthrow of an existing government; typically, this refers to an illegal, unconstitutional seizure of power by a dictator, the military, or a political faction.
While Swedish troops were being deployed at the Russian border, near Villmanstrand (Finnish: Lappeenranta) and Frederikshamn (Finnish: Hamina), Swedish naval forces consisting of 10 ships of the line and 4 frigates under Admiral Tomas von Rajalin and 20 galley strong rowing fleet under Admiral Abraham Falkengren moved on 20 May 1741 to the islands near the border. While standing idle an epidemic broke out in the fleet largely paralyzing it and claiming the life of Admiral von Rajalin. The Swedish declaration of war in late July had been intended to coincide with the invasion but now it failed to do so since the fleet was unable to take action and concentration of the ground forces had not yet been carried out. The situation was not improved by the fact that Lewenhaupt arrived in Finland two months after the declaration of war and command of the army fell to General Henrik Magnus von Buddenbrock.[2]
Lappeenranta is a city and municipality situated on the shore of the lake Saimaa in southeastern Finland, about 30 kilometres from the Russian border. It belongs to the region of South Karelia. With approximately 73,000 inhabitants Lappeenranta is the 13th largest city in Finland. The neighboring municipality of Joutseno was consolidated with Lappeenranta on January 1, 2009, and the neighboring municipality of Ylämaa on January 1, 2010. Lappeenranta is known as an international university city in Finland with Lappeenranta University of Technology and Saimaa University of Applied Sciences which together have approximately 13,000 students from 68 countries. Lappeenranta is also a commercial centre of South-East Finland and the meeting point of the EU and Russia, 215 km from both Helsinki and St. Petersburg. Location on the southern shore of Lake Saimaa makes the city the region's centre for tourism. Lappeenranta is the second most visited city by Russian tourists in Finland after Helsinki and it competes with Helsinki for the largest share of tax-free sales in Finland. Lappeenranta is a model for renewable energies and a clean living environment. Lappeenranta was the only Finnish city among the 14 finalists in the international Earth Hour City Challenge 2014, organized by WWF.
Hamina is a town and a municipality of Finland. It is located approximately 145 km (90 mi) east of the country's capital Helsinki, in the Kymenlaakso region, and formerly the province of Southern Finland. The municipality's population is 20,410 and covers an area of 1,155.14 square kilometres (446.00 sq mi), of which 545.66 km2 (210.68 sq mi) is water. The population density is 33.49 inhabitants per square kilometre (86.7/sq mi). The population of the central town is approximately 10,000. Hamina is unilingually Finnish speaking.
Henrik Magnus von Buddenbrock was a Swedish baron and Lieutenant General. He and Carl Emil Lewenhaupt were executed for negligence in the Russo-Swedish War, in the aftermath of the defeat at Villmanstrand.
First year of the war
Due to Swedish inaction, the Russians seized the initiative and struck first with an army of 16,000 men under Field-Marshal Peter Lacy advancing from Vyborg (Swedish: Viborg, Finnish: Viipuri) towards Villmanstrand (Finnish: Lappeenranta). Using nearly fourfold superiority in numbers, the Russians inflicted a major defeat on the Swedish garrison led by General Carl Henrik Wrangel. Blame for the defeat at Villmanstrand was placed on General von Buddenbrock who had not believed that the Russians were seriously attacking and did not move to aid Wrangel.[3]
Peter Graf von Lacy was an Irish military commander who served in the Imperial Russian army, he was one of the most successful Russian imperial commanders before Rumyantsev and Suvorov. During a military career that spanned half a century, he professed to have been present at a total of 31 campaigns, 18 battles, and 18 sieges. He died at Riga, of which he for many years served as governor.
The battle of Villmanstrand was fought during the Russo-Swedish War on September 3, 1741, when Russian forces of 20,000 men, under the command of General Peter von Lacy, assaulted Villmanstrand. Fighting began around 2 pm but the Swedes withdrew already at 5 pm. Swedish casualties amounted to 3,300 men killed and wounded with another 1,300 taken prisoner, among them General Carl Henrik Wrangel. Russia lost 2,400 men. Von Lacy did not continue his movement after the battle. Henrik Magnus Buddenbrock was executed for his perceived incompetency.
Carl Henrik Wrangel, friherre Wrangel af Adinal was an officer of the Swedish Army, eventually attaining the rank of Field Marshal.
Lewenhaupt, who arrived ten days after the defeat, at Villmanstrand tried to organize a joint operation by both land and naval forces towards Vyborg but Admiral Aron Sjöstierna, who took von Rajalin's position, made it clear that the fleet would not be able to do it. The Russian fleet had also fallen into disrepair and was unable to take part in the fighting in 1741. Sjöstierna sailed home on 22 September and the commander of the remaining Swedish vessels ignored Lewenhaupt's attempts to persuade him to sail to Beryozovye Islands (Swedish: Björkö, Finnish: Koivisto) and instead sailed back to Sweden on 27 October. Operations on the land front also came to a halt when an armistice was agreed to with Russia in early December.[3]
Beryozovye Islands, alternatively spelled Berezovye Islands, is an island group in Leningrad Oblast, Russia. The islands are situated at the head of the Gulf of Finland, just outside the town of Primorsk on the Karelian Isthmus.
Second year of the war
The Russians reneged on their ceasefire agreement early in March 1742 but a harsh winter made it impossible for the main armies to operate. Light Russian cavalry forces (cossacks and hussars) raided the Swedish side of the border but were often repulsed by local populations. In March, the Russians also attempted, under the command of Woldemar Lowendal, to raid the Swedish anchorage near Frederikshamn over ice, but the harsh weather made it impossible. Swedish General Lewenhaupt planned to renew the attack against Vyborg in the spring of 1742. Swedish naval units required to support the attack started to arrive in mid May. However, since the naval commanders had been ordered to patrol between Reval and Helsingfors they refused to follow Lewenhaupt's orders.[4]
The main Swedish fleet arrived on 3 June from Sweden under Admiral Sjöstierna and consisted of 15 ships of the line and 5 frigates. The fleet sailed to Äspö (Finnish: Haapasaaret) (25km SSE from modern day Kotka). A week later, a galley fleet commanded by Admiral Falkengren joined the main fleet, bringing 25 galleys and some support ships. However, unlike in the previous year, the Russian fleet was also active with a galley fleet of 45 galleys under General Vasily Yakovlevich Levashov and an open sea fleet of at least 12 ships of the line under Admiral Zahar Danilovich Mishukov. Regardless, Lewenhaupt held a council of war on 5 June in an attempt to get naval units to sail to the Beryozovye Islands (Swedish: Björkö, Finnish: Koivisto) but the naval commanders judged the risk for the fleet to be too great and Lewenhaupt was forced to back down from his plan.[4]
Since the Swedish army remained inactive, the Russians again seized the initiative and moved onto the offensive. With the support of the Russian galley fleet, a 30,000 men strong Russian army under the command of Field-Marshal Lacy marched from Vyborg. It crossed the border on 13 June and then continued advancing towards Frederikshamn. The Swedes had prepared a strong defensive position outside of Frederikshamn, at Mäntlahti. The Swedish colonel defending the position had become aware of the Russian approach and withdrew all his forces from the fortified positions to Frederikshamn a day before the Russian attack, which was to take place on 25 June. However, the abandoned position was critical for the town's defense and by 28 June, the Swedish army under Lewenhaupt set the town on fire and started withdrawing.[5]
Co-operation with Swedish naval and land forces didn't go smoothly and instead of supporting the army, the bulk of the fleet sailed directly to Hangö when the army started its withdrawal. Galleys sailed to Pellinge (Finnish: Pellinki). This in turn cut off the army from its supply lines and Lewenhaupt started withdrawing further towards the army's supply depots at Borgå. Russians followed the withdrawing Swedes but no real action between the armies, apart from skirmishes between the Swedish rearguard and Russian cavalry patrols, took place. On 18 July after learning that Swedish garrisons further inland had left their posts, Lewenhaupt and the army council judged it to be best to withdraw to Helsingfors to prepare its defenses.[5]
The Swedes started to dismantle and transport away the food and supply stores concentrated in Borgå. On 27 July Russians arrived in the vicinity and moved into Borgå on 30 July, which the Swedish army had abandoned one day earlier. The Swedish withdrawal, which had lasted nearly two months, finally ended in Helsingfors on 11 August. A couple of days later, the Russians had managed to completely surround the town on land. The Swedish galley fleet was stationed east of Helsingfors but judged its position to be untenable and withdraw into the town as well, allowing the Russian galley fleet to complete encirclement of the town after 20 August.[6]
Before the town was completely cut off, on 19 August General Lewenhaupt and General Buddenbrock were summoned to proceed immediately to Stockholm for an inquiry into their actions. Both generals were imprisoned on their arrival and they were placed on trial. The deputy commander of Swedish forces, General Jean Louis Bousquet, signed a surrender document on 24 August. According to the terms of the document, the Finnish men were released from the army while the Swedish men were allowed to sail back home. All guns, supplies, and even fodder stores were to be given over to the Russians. All Swedish naval forces returned to Sweden in early September 1742. The Russians advanced all the way to Åland and cut Finland off from the rest of the Sweden. All of Finland fell under Russian occupation which became later known as the Lesser Wrath (Finnish: Pikkuviha). [7]
Third year of the war
The Swedish army retook Åland in March 1743 and at the start of May, a fleet of 16 ships of the line and 5 frigates under Admiral Jean von Utfall arrived to block the coastal sea route past Hangö. Admiral Falkengren's galley fleet was sent to Åland. The task of these naval forces was to prevent Russian forces from reaching Sweden. However, before the Swedish forces arrived, a Russian galley fleet under General James Francis Edward Keith passed Hangö. The Swedish galley fleet attacked the Russian galley fleet at the narrows of Korpoström, just south of the island of Korpo, where the Swedish attack was repulsed. Falkengren returned to Åland.[8]
The Swedish open sea fleet at Hangö still blocked the passage of Field-Marshal Peter Lacy's 50 galley strong coastal fleet. However, on 7 June, a Russian fleet led by Admiral Nikolai Fedorovich Golovin managed to draw the Swedish fleet out of its anchorage while not actually engaging in a fight. This allowed the Russian galley fleet to safely pass the cape. The result was overwhelming Russian naval superiority in south-western Finland and areas near Åland, which forced the Swedish fleet to move to the west of Åland and hastened the peace negotiations.[8] Admiral Golovin later faced a military tribunal for his refusal to engage the Swedish squadron of equal strength but was cleared when he referred to an edict from Peter the Great which stated that a Russian fleet should not engage in battle unless having 3:2 superiority or better. Swedish generals Lewenhaupt and Buddenbrock were both beheaded primarily as scapegoats for the failed war-policy of the ruling "Hat" faction.[9]
As soon as hostilities ceased and the Russian army entered Turku (Swedish: Åbo), the statesmen Alexander Rumyantsev and Ernst Nolken arrived at the city in order to discuss a peace settlement. The Tsarina promised to evacuate her army from Finland on the condition that Adolf Frederick of Holstein-Gottorp—that is, the uncle of her own heir apparent—was named as the heir to the throne of Sweden. (The latter had been offered the crown of Finland by the local lantdag). The Hats acquiesced in her proposal in the hope that Adolf Frederick would be able to obtain better terms from her. Elizabeth also wanted Russian forces to occupy Sweden in order to ensure Adolf Frederick's peaceful election, but this plan aroused the vehement opposition of the Swedish representatives and was abandoned.
While peace negotiations lumbered on Lacy—who had distinguished himself in similar operations during the Great Northern War—embarked from Kronstadt in order to effect a landing in Sweden proper. When the Baltic Fleet was approaching Umeå, news came that the Treaty of Åbo (Finnish: Turku) had been finalized, with Sweden ceding to Russia the towns of Lappeenranta and Hamina and a strip of Finland to the northwest of Saint Petersburg. The Kymi River was to form part of the border between the two powers. The treaty marked the further decline of Sweden as a great power in Northern Europe.
Suomenlinna, or Sveaborg (Swedish), literal translation in Finnish is Castle of Finland and in Swedish Castle of Sweden is an inhabited sea fortress built on six islands and which now forms part of the city of Helsinki, the capital of Finland.
The Finnish War was fought between the Kingdom of Sweden and the Russian Empire from February 1808 to September 1809. As a result of the war, the eastern third of Sweden was established as the autonomous Grand Duchy of Finland within the Russian Empire. Other notable effects were the Swedish parliament's adoption of a new constitution and the establishment of the House of Bernadotte, the new Swedish royal house, in 1818.
The Russo-Swedish War of 1788–90, known as Gustav III's Russian War in Sweden, Gustav III's War in Finland and Catherine II's Swedish War in Russia, was fought between Sweden and Russia from June 1788 to August 1790.
The Battle of Svensksund was a naval battle fought in the Gulf of Finland outside the present day city of Kotka on 9 and 10 July 1790. The Swedish naval forces dealt the Russian fleet a devastating defeat that brought an end to the Russo-Swedish War of 1788–90. The battle is the biggest Swedish naval victory and the largest naval battle ever in the Baltic Sea.
Finland during the Great Northern War was dominated by the Russian invasion and subsequent military occupation of Finland, then part of Sweden, from 1714 until the treaty of Nystad 1721, which ended the Great Northern War. The period is also referred to as den stora ofreden in Swedish or isoviha in Finnish. It was previously also called venäläisen ylivallan aika in Finnish.
The Battle of Gangut took place on 27 JulyJul./ 7 August 1714Greg. during the Great Northern War (1700–21), in the waters of Riilahti Bay, north of the Hanko Peninsula, near the site of the modern-day city of Hanko, Finland, between the Swedish Navy and Imperial Russian Navy. It was the first important victory of the Russian fleet in its history.
The First Battle of Svensksund, also known as the First Battle of Rochensalm from the Russian version of the Finnish: Ruotsinsalmi, was a naval battle fought in the Gulf of Finland in the Baltic Sea, outside the present-day city of Kotka, on August 24, 1789, during the Russo-Swedish War (1788-1790).
The naval Battle of Hogland took place on 17 July 1788 during the Russo-Swedish War (1788-1790).
The Battle of Viborg Bay was a naval battle fought between Russia and Sweden on July 4, 1790, during the Russo-Swedish War (1788-1790). The Swedish Navy suffered heavy losses, losing six ships of the line and four frigates, but Gustav III of Sweden eventually ensured a Swedish naval escape through a Russian naval blockade composed of units of the Baltic Fleet, commanded by Admiral Vasili Chichagov. The battle ranks among the world's largest historical naval battles and also among the most influential, as it introduced the naval battle concept of "firepower over mobility".
The Siege of Sveaborg was a short siege by Russia that took place at Sveaborg in early 1808, during the Finnish War.
Count Ivan Fedoseevich Botsis was a Russian admiral and one of the founders of the Imperial Russian Navy under Peter the Great.
A turuma was a type of warship built for the Swedish archipelago fleet in the late 18th century. It was specifically developed for warfare in the Archipelago Sea and along the coasts of Svealand and Finland. The turuma was designed by the prolific naval architect Fredrik Henrik af Chapman for use in an area of mostly shallow waters and groups of islands and islets that extend from Stockholm all the way to the Gulf of Finland.
The archipelago fleet, officially the Fleet of the army, was a branch of the armed forces of Sweden which existed between 1756 and 1823. Its purpose was to protect the coasts of Sweden, which was surrounded by a natural barrier of archipelagoes. Throughout its existence, it was a largely independent arm of the army, separate from the navy, with the exception of a few years in the late 1760s. In a number of respects, it was a precursor of the Swedish Coastal Artillery and it's coastal fleet.
The Siege of Viborg took place in the spring of 1710 during the Great Northern War (1700–1721), as a second attempt by the Russians to capture the fortress port of Viborg (Vyborg), near the modern border between Russia and Finland, after a failed attempt in 1706. After the outbreak of the war, Swedish forces had fortified themselves in the port of Viborg. In order to assure safety for the newly founded city of Saint Petersburg, Peter the Great ordered the Swedish fort to be secured. A first unsuccessful attempt was made in 1706. 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.
The Battle of Rimito Kramp was fought between Sweden and Russia during the Finnish War 1808–09.
The Battle of Kronstadt was a naval battle fought in the Gulf of Finland west of Kronstadt on 3–4 June 1790. The Swedish naval forces sought to engage the Kronstadt squadron of Russian fleet and defeat them both to prevent Russian squadrons from joining together and also to open the sea route to Kronstadt and Saint Petersburg.
The Battle of Palva Sund was fought between Sweden and Russia during the Finnish War 1808–09.
Mattila, Tapani (1983). Meri maamme turvana[Sea safeguarding our country] (in Finnish). Jyväskylä: K. J. Gummerus Osakeyhtiö. ISBN951-99487-0-8.
Шпилевская Н. Описание войны между Россией и Швецией в Финляндии в 1741, 1742 и 1743 гг. [N. Shpilevskaya. Description of the War between Russia and Sweden in Finland in 1741, 1742 and 1743]. Saint Petersburg, 1859.
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