Old Finland

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Swedish loss of territory in 1721 and 1743
Coat of arms 1788–1811

As Old Finland or Old Finland , Finnish Vanha Suomi , Swedish Gamla Finland , the formerly Swedish areas of the Karelia region are called, which fell to Russia after the Great Northern War in the Peace of Nystad ( 1721 ) and in the Treaty of Åbo ( 1743 ).

In the Peace of Nystad, Sweden ceded the Kexholms län (Finnish Käkisalmen lääni ) and a large part of the Viborgs och Nyslotts län (Finnish Viipurin ja Savonlinnan lääni ) to the Tsarist empire, in 1743 some other areas in southern Finland, including the cities of Nyslott / Savonlinna , Villmanstrand / Lappeenranta and Fredrikshamn / Hamina .

The Tsar guaranteed the inhabitants of Old Finland certain privileges such as freedom of religion and the continuation of Swedish laws. The Swedish land law reform of 1734 only came into force in the Swedish areas until 1743; the old law continued to apply in the already Russian areas; So there were different legal areas within Old Finland until 1812. The tsarist empire administered old Finland similar to its Baltic provinces, and so the areas could enjoy a certain autonomy.

In 1809 all of Finland fell to Russia and was raised to the rank of Grand Duchy with extensive autonomy. As a sign of his goodwill, Tsar Alexander I reunited Old Finland as the province of Viipuri with the Grand Duchy of Finland in 1812 .

literature

  • Eljas Orrman and Jyrki Paaskoski (eds.): Vanhan Suomen arkistot / Arkiven från Gamla Finland . Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura, Porvoo 2012, ISBN 9789522223821 .
  • Raimo Ranta: Vanhan Suomen talouselämä vuosina 1721-1743 . 2 volumes. Suomen Historiallinen Seura , Helsinki 1986.
    • Summary in German: The economic life of Russian-Finland in the years 1721-1743 . In: Edgar Hösch (Ed.): Finland Studies . Volume 1. Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1990, pp. 4-33.
  • Ragnar Rosén: Vanha Suomi . In: Historiallinen Arkisto 8, 1938, pp. 117–159.
  • Robert Schweitzer: The Baltic Germans and “Old Finland”: Finland, the Tsarist Empire and the Germans . In: Robert Schweitzer: Finland, the Tsarist Empire and the Germans - Collected Studies on the European Northeast. Commemoration for the author's 60th birthday . Edited by Uta-Maria Liertz. Schmidt-Römhildt, Lübeck 2008, pp. 85-91, ISBN 978-3-7950-7065-6 .

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