occupied by the Russians. The cities of Helsinki, Lappeenranta, Pietarsaari and Porvoo were burned to the ground. The armies of Charles XII were scattered, and the nation was compelled to begin peace negotiations. Provinces conquered in Germany were ceded to England and Prussia, reparations were paid to Denmark, and in the Peace of Uusikaupunki (Nystadt) of 1721, Russia received Ingria, Esthonia, Livonia, and southeastern Finland as far inland as Viipuri and Käkisalmi. As a result of this peace, a new power factor entered the Baltic: imperial Russia. Of course, the danger from the east had been already apparent earlier as well, and, like the buffer it was, Finland had been forced to repel the pressure from the kingdom's eastern enemy, a pressure which had been very great indeed at times. During the decades which now followed, the danger grew even greater as a result of Russia's increased strength. In the year 1703 was begun construction of the city of St. Petersburg at the head of the Gulf of Finland; the passage through that gulf to the Baltic was narrow, and to enlarge that passage and to assure the safety of the future capital became significant concerns in Russian foreign policy from that time on: the Finnish frontier lay much too close to St. Petersburg, and this factor has fundamentally affected Finland's fate for two and a half centuries. 5

Any rise in either economic well-being or morale after the war between Charles XII and Peter the Great was very slow. Finland's entire population amounted to about 335,000 and the army, for example, had but approximately 1,500 men. Life had hardly begun to approach what it had been before the catastrophe when war broke out again (1742-43) and once more devastated

of internal unrest in Russia to win back territories previously lost, but the war ended in defeat and in yet another portion of eastern Finland being lost to Russia in the peace treaty of Turku. Among the complications of the conflict there had been a remarkable document, the so-called Manifesto of 1742, in which Empress Elizabeth of Russia had tried to appeal to the Finns to break away from the "Swedish aggressors." Even if the declaration had to be considered merely as war propaganda, the idea of Finnish independence was nevertheless given expression for the first time, and it was subsequently never forgotten. 6

After the war of 1742-43, one of the most important problems became the fortification of Finland. The Russians possessed a

5. op. cit. Eino S. Suolahti, "Isoviha", I, pp. 471-498.

6. op. cit. Eino Jutikkala, "Vapaudenaika", I, pp. 499-589,

5