Only twenty years after the Great Wrath, Sweden started a new war against Russia to win back its lost lands. It went badly from the first battle. Russian troops occupied Finland again, and in the summer of 1743 the peace was made in Turku.
The Hats’ war
- Hats and Nightcaps. From 1719 Sweden was ruled by its Diet more than by its king, a period called the Age of Liberty. In the late 1730s a party called the Hats, named after the three-cornered hats of officers and gentlemen, pushed aside the cautious Arvid Horn. They mocked his followers as “Nightcaps” Well documented.
- A war of revenge. The Hats wanted back the lands lost in 1721 (stop 20). France, Sweden’s ally, wanted Russia kept busy while war raged in central Europe. Sweden declared war in July 1741 Well documented.
- Disaster at Lappeenranta. On 23 August 1741 a Russian army at least twice as large stormed the fortress of Lappeenranta (Villmanstrand). The Swedish commander was captured, and the help that should have come never arrived. Hundreds of civilians were killed or carried off to Russia Well documented.
- A new empress. In December 1741 Elizabeth, the daughter of Peter the Great, seized power in Russia. Sweden had hoped she would give back land in return. She did not Well documented.
- A promise to Finland. On 18 March 1742 Elizabeth issued a manifesto in Finnish, Swedish and German. If the Finns stopped helping the Swedish army, it said, Finland could become a free country under no foreign power. If they went on fighting, they would face fire and sword Well documented.
- Retreat. In June 1742 a Russian army of about 30,000 crossed the border. The Swedish army fell back without a real fight and set Hamina on fire behind it Well documented.
- Trapped at Helsinki. In August the Swedes were surrounded at Helsinki, and on 24 August 1742 they surrendered. The Finnish soldiers were sent home and the Swedish ones shipped back to Sweden. Soon Russian troops held all of Finland Well documented.
Occupied again
- The Lesser Wrath. Finns remember the occupation of 1742–1743 as pikkuviha, the Lesser Wrath, after the Great Wrath of 1713–1721. In the border areas Cossack and Kalmyk troops were accused of terror, torture and taking people captive Well documented.
- Ruled from Turku. The Scottish-born general James Keith, who served Russia, ran occupied Finland from Turku almost like a viceroy. He was known as a capable and fair administrator. In late 1742 he handed the job to governor-general Johan Balthasar von Campenhausen Well documented.
- Old acquaintances. Russian traders were nothing new in Turku. Some had come with the first occupation and stayed after the peace of 1721 (stop 20). In the 1720s they appear in the town’s court records dozens of times a year, as butchers and shopkeepers, as thieves and as victims of theft. Their cases were mostly the same quarrels over measures and debts as any burgher’s Well documented. In all there were probably 20 to 30 of them Likely.
- One who stayed. In the 1730s the traders’ visits became rare. But Vasili Kiriloff, often called rysse, “the Russian”, settled in Turku as a burgher, and from the late 1720s he was known as Vasilius Fremling Well documented.
- Silver to Sweden. In July 1742, with Russian troops on the way, townspeople sent their valuables to safety. The merchant Josef Petrej told the town court that he could not give back the silver his brother-in-law had pawned with him. He had pawned it on, together with his own, to a merchant who had already loaded it onto his ship for Sweden Well documented.
- The governor’s goose. The new governor had forbidden his soldiers to harass the townspeople, but quarrels still happened. On 5 May 1743 two Russian grenadiers were chasing von Campenhausen’s runaway grey goose along the riverbank. Josef Petrej watched from across the river and, thinking the goose belonged to a tanner, shouted a warning. The grenadiers rowed across, pulled his hair, tore his shirt, cursed him and marched him to the governor’s office, where he was let go. His complaint was put off until the soldiers could be named, and it never came back to court Well documented.
- A grand duke for Finland? In the autumn of 1742 Keith called representatives of the Finnish estates to Turku. They sent a delegation asking for a young duke of Holstein, Charles Peter Ulrich, as Grand Duke of Finland. But he was the empress’s nephew and soon to be named heir to Russia, and she would not receive them Likely.
How do we know?
The treaty itself survives: it was printed in 1743 and 1745, and anyone can read it today. The trials of the generals, the Diet’s debates and the reports of the border commissioners are kept in Swedish archives. Two warnings. First, Sweden and Russia still used the old Julian calendar, so 7 August 1743 in Turku was 18 August in most of Europe. Second, the numbers of soldiers and dead differ a lot depending on whether the source is Swedish or Russian. The stories of ordinary townspeople come from the minutes of the Turku town court, retold by the historian Veli Pekka Toropainen.
Peace in Turku
- Talks in an occupied town. The peace talks were held in Turku in 1743. Russia sent the generals Alexander Rumyantsev and Johan Ludwig von Luberas, and Sweden sent Baron Herman Cederkreutz and the state secretary Erik Mathias von Nolcken Well documented.
- The price of peace. Elizabeth’s main demand was that Sweden choose Adolf Frederick of Holstein-Gottorp as heir to the throne. The Hats agreed, hoping for gentler terms. Preliminary articles were signed in Turku on 16 June 1743, and a week later, on 23 June, the Diet elected Adolf Frederick Well documented.
- Uproar in Dalarna. At the same time peasants from Dalarna marched on Stockholm to stop the election and punish those who had started the war. They reached the capital on 22 June and were scattered by troops Well documented.
- Scapegoats. The Diet put the blame on the generals. Henrik Magnus von Buddenbrock was beheaded in July 1743. The commander-in-chief Charles Emil Lewenhaupt was freed by his son and a few helpers, caught on a ship bound for Danzig, and beheaded on 4 August Well documented.
- The treaty. The final treaty was signed in Turku on 7 August 1743. Sweden gave up the land east of the Kymi river, with the towns and fortresses of Hamina, Lappeenranta and Savonlinna. Russia promised to hand back the rest of Finland within four weeks of ratification and to free all prisoners without ransom. Sweden could also buy grain worth 50,000 roubles a year in Russian ports, free of duty Well documented.
- A border through parishes. The new line cut through seven parishes and split villages and farms. Marking it on the ground took commissioners several years, and in places local farmers were asked where the old boundaries ran Well documented.
- A new frontier town. Hamina had been the only staple town in eastern Finland, the only place there allowed to trade abroad. In 1745 Sweden founded a new frontier and fortress town at Degerby, renamed Loviisa a few years later Well documented.