Peace from Åbo

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Through the Peace of Åbo, Russia also acquired territories that had not previously been Russian (red line)

The Peace of Åbo ( Swedish Freden i Åbo , Finnish Turun rauha , Russian : Абоский мирный договор) was a July 7th . / August 18,  1743 greg. between Russia and Sweden closed a peace treaty , in Turku (Finnish: Turku ) was signed. He ended the Russo-Swedish War from 1741 to 1743.

Starting position

By the end of the war, Russia had militarily occupied almost all of Finland . A strong parliamentary group at the court of the tsars advocated moving the Russian-Swedish border far north as part of a peace treaty. The strategic idea was to better protect the Russian capital Saint Petersburg, founded in 1703 .

Adolf Friedrich von Holstein-Gottorf

A more Swedish-minded group at the Tsar's court, led by Count Jean Armand de Lestocq , and relatives around the Russian heir to the throne, later Peter III. from the house of Holstein-Gottorf , campaigned for Tsarina Elisabeth to return most of the territories to Sweden. In return, Sweden was to designate Peter's uncle Adolf Friedrich as heir to the Swedish throne.

Tsarina Elisabeth was guided by this line, which Sweden accepted under the skilled negotiator and Russia expert Herman Cedercreutz . The election of Adolf Friedrich as Swedish Crown Prince took place on June 23, 1743. Although this intensified the Swedish antagonism with Denmark , it left Sweden in possession of large parts of Finland and brought a certain degree of relaxation towards the tsarist empire.

Territorial Assignments

The Treaty of Åbo also gave Russia additional parts of South Karelia . According to the provisions of the peace treaty, Sweden ceded the area east of the Kymijoki River with the Olofsborg Fortress and the towns of Villmanstrand and Fredrikshamn to Russia. The Tsarina guaranteed the local residents the freedom to continue practicing their religion. The existing privileges, ownership structures and the Swedish legal system introduced in 1734 were guaranteed.

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