naval base at Kronstadt, at the head of the Gulf of Finland, and Peter the Great had already intended to construct another on the Esthonian coast, opposite Helsinki. To prevent the Russians from gaining complete superiority in the Gulf of Finland, SwedenFinland began the construction of the Viapori fort, in the outer harbor of Helsinki, thereby pointing up more sharply than ever Finland's position as a shield for Sweden: "although all the blows Sweden has received from its worst enemy have been struck at the heart of Finland, this land remains a loyal part of the kingdom," declared a memorandum of 29 January 1747 of the Swedish Diet.

In the 1780s, certain Finns began to question why their land should be nothing more than Sweden's shield and taxpayer. They saw in the American Revolution an example of a people which had succeeded in breaking away by force from a mother country. They saw also that since Russia would certainly seize Finland from Sweden sooner or later, Finland could save itself only if it worked actively in a direction Russia approved : "Our fate is in any case to fall under their supremacy some time or other, but it will be much harder for us if we do not voluntarily submit to their will," was a statement of the feeling current at the time.

Among the leaders of an incipient independence movement at that moment were Georg Maunu Sprengtporten and Johan Anders Jägerhorn. The latter formulated a plan whereby Finland was to become an independent republic with the aid of Russia, while Sprengtporten, during a trip to Holland, presented the Russian ambassador there with a plan for the separation of Finland from Sweden, and then, returning to Sweden, continued his negotiations with the Russian minister in Stockholm. "Since Sprengtporten takes General Washington as his model, perhaps we can follow the example of France in its relations with a former English colony," the Russian minister wrote to his government, pointing out the possibility of Russia's giving armed assistance to Finland's separation from Sweden. Relations between Sweden and Russia, Sprengtporten had pointed out to the Russian diplomats, could never be free of mistrust as long as Finland was a part of the Swedish kingdom; Finland lay so close to the capital of Russia that as a part of Sweden it would always awaken fear, and Finland lay so far from Sweden that the latter would not be able to defend it. Finnish independence would wipe out both these problems.

In the autumn of 1786 the Swedish government gave the military command in Finland plans for the eventuality of a revolt in Finland supported by Russia. Awareness of the independence movement spurred Gustav III's ambitions to settle affairs by

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