The Institutionalization of the Russo-Swedish Border Region in the 1743 Peace Treaty
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DOI: 10.15201/hungeobull.66.4.1Merovuo, J. HungarianHungarian Geographical Geographical Bulletin Bulletin 66 (2017) 66 (4) 2017 283–293. (4) 283–293.283 ‘Divided and validated’? The institutionalization of the Russo-Swedish border region in the 1743 peace treaty Jenni MEROVUO1 Abstract In this article, I analyse the institutionalization of the border region between Sweden and Imperial Russia presented in the peace treaty signed in Åbo (now Turku) in 1743. The Russo- Swedish war of 1741–1743 was disastrous for Sweden. Instead of regaining the losses suf- fered on the eastern front in the previous war (1700–1721), Sweden ceded more territory to Russia shifting the state border westwards again. The new border located in the middle of the present-day eastern Finnish countryside followed no religious or linguistic divisions. The peace treaty was a top-down measure. However, one must recognise that regions were institutionalised in several parallel and interactive processes. I apply the approach of insti- tutionalization of regions to categorise the peace treaty according to the four dimensions of the approach. The aim is to untangle the official re-establishment of the new regional order to indicate the room for the local influencing. I conclude that the peace treaty did not extensively define the shape of the border region, which led to challenges in reshaping and further developing the border region in the local practices. Classifying the region building process according to the dimensions of the regional institutionalization – though intertwined in practice – provide comparativeness for the local progressions foregrounding their distinc- tive and consistent characteristics. Keywords: border studies, borderlands, re-bordering, institutionalization of regions, Sweden, Russia, state building Introduction demarcation of a modern political territory based partially on strategic grounds. The The Russo-Swedish war also known as The idea of the territorial state had developed War of the Hats (1741–1743) concluded with stronger in the Nordic context since the late shifting the border between the Russian 17th century. Therefore, it was now possible Empire and the Swedish realm westwards. to demarcate the new borders without con- Per the peace treaty of 1743, Imperial Rus- sidering the local circumstances to remark- sia gained an area on the northeast shore able extend (Katajala, K. 2010). Neverthe- of the Gulf of Finland. The new borderland less, the power had to be legitimised and ran through the countryside of the present- established at the borderland, a process that day eastern Finland. The demarcation of the can be called the institutionalization of re- border was not based on cultural, linguistic gions. In this paper, I apply the regional in- or religious grounds. It was a new kind of stitutionalization approach on the research 1 Department of Geographical and Historical Studies, University of Eastern Finland, Yliopistokatu 2, 80100 Joensuu, Finland. E-mail: [email protected] 284 Merovuo, J. Hungarian Geographical Bulletin 66 (2017) (4) 283–293. of this 18th century borderland. The aim is to the official border shift and the actual process analyse how the institutionalization of the of forging regional consciousness. By reacting new border region between the two states to the changing territorial situation, the locals can be seen in the peace treaty of 1743. affected the region building process proving A region exists in a certain cultural and tem- the peace agreement to be an impulse in the poral context. Further, it emerges in a combi- process rather than resolution. I concentrate nation of intersecting interests or claims form- on the document that officially determined ing it into an institutional structure of power. the regional disintegration and triggered re- Therefore, a region is not created merely by actions from the local level. To complete the drawing lines on a map (Massey, D. 1995; analysis of the peace treaty of 1743, it is sig- Paasi, A. 2011). In the formation of historical nificantly important to employ the previous borderlands, Readman, P. et al. (2014) put the Swedish-Russian peace treaty signed in 1721. emphasis on control, demand and interaction. Geography scholars have utilised the in- The methodological and theoretical view- stitutionalization of regions framework by points of human geography considering the geographer Anssi Paasi on researching emer- spatial dimensions have become increasingly gence and dissolving of regions, regional relevant in social and cultural sciences in the and place identity, regional transformation, past three decades. The spatial turn has di- and re-establishing historical regions (e.g. rected the attention of scholars towards spaces Paasi, A. 1986; MacLeod, G. 2001; Sepp, V. and places, both physical and abstract. In his- and Veemaa, J. 2010; Zimmerbauer, K. and toriography, space has been the connecting Paasi, A. 2013; Semian, M. and Cromý, P. theme of several symposiums in recent years 2014; Vaishar, A. and Zapletalová, J. 2016). (e.g. Lamberg, M. 2011; Hallenberg, M. and Paasi, A. (1986, 1999, 2011) introduces the in- Linnarsson, M. 2014; Stock, P. 2015). Still, I stitutionalization of regions as a process dur- believe that the research of the early modern ing which a place transforms into a region era could benefit on further invocation of the and the collective consciousness of it emerg- geographical approaches on region building. es. The process consists of four dimensions: In studying the building process of border- forging of (1) the territorial, (2) symbolic and lands, many history scholars have concentrat- (3) the institutional shape of the region, and ed on nascent national identities and ethnic (4) the region emerging in the spatial struc- grouping. Peter Sahlins, in his well-known ture of the society. As commonly in critical research demonstrated how national identities geographical approaches, the theory suggests developed and eventually bloomed contrast- that regions are social constructions, shaped ing ‘the other’ on the Pyrenees between Spain in conceptualising, networking, and actions. and France (Sahlins, P. 1989). Research of the Thus, a region is not eternal but historically borderlands between Sweden and Denmark- constructed (Berger, P.L. and Luckmann, T. Norway has concentrated on the state inte- 1967; Paasi, A. 1986, 2002; Hacking, I. 1999; gration process, state building from below, Zimmerbaum, K. and Paasi, A. 2013). linguistic distinctions and perceptions of be- Regions are collectively remembered and longing among commoners. The scholars find forgotten but the historical progress is by no that one of the crucial factors of the process means a self-directed temporal development. is interaction, and as Hallenberg and Holm To legitimise the desired status or shape, the point out, there is significance in the dynam- retrospective evaluation of the regional his- ics of top-down ruling and the reactions from tory may be inspired by the future goals. below (Edgren, M. 2001; Hallenberg, M. and Therefore, the questions of birth, dissolu- Holm, J. 2016; Lerbom, J. 2017). tion, and the transformation motivate the I concentrate on the becoming of the border research of regional institutionalization. If an region. By focusing on the institutionalization attempt to institutionalize or deinstitutional- of regions I approach the dynamics between ize a region is very dramatic, argue Paasi, A. Merovuo, J. Hungarian Geographical Bulletin 66 (2017) (4) 283–293. 285 and Zimmerbaum, K. (2013), demonstrations I focus on the establishment of the border promoting counter identity may occur. These region. By enlarging on the institutionaliza- actions are often collective and temporary. tion process, it is possible to emphasize the The process of regional institutionalization socio-spatial aspects on the development of proceeds simultaneously at multiple com- historical state peripheries. The institutionali- munal levels. A political decision alone can- zation of regions is employed as an analytical not deinstitutionalize a region. Even though tool. By categorising the establishment of the demolished from the regional administrative border region in the transcript, I demonstrate map, divided into pieces or merged into a that a top-down perspective is not enough of a bigger unit, a region can continue existing viewpoint for the process of building a region. in symbolic and mental form. Thus, the pro- cesses are not always cohesive, or unanimous in practice. Therefore, a region may appear The peace treaty of 1743 fuzzy in territorial shape, lifespan, and au- thorization (Paasi, A. 1986, 1999, 2002; Paasi, On the 7th of August 1743, Frederick I of A. and Metzger, J. 2016). Sweden, and the empress Elisabeth of Rus- The peace treaty of 1743 was a significant sia signed the peace treaty between Sweden act in forging the localities into the border re- and Russia after long negotiations. The terms gion. Can we see it as a disintegration of the had been agreed with the parties earlier in the region, though? I categorise the peace treaty summer and the Russian troops had started transcript per the dimensions of the institu- withdrawing from the territory they annexed. tionalization of region framework. I study During the war, the seizure of the Russian the aims of the peace treaty by content analy- troops reached the Gulf of Bothnia. It was sis, foregrounding the intended shape of the in their interest to pursue further territorial borderland. A question of whether this bor- conquest but as Sweden agreed to nominate der region became something fixed and then Elisabeth’s favourite as the successor to the emerged in the social process, or if the social throne, most of this territory was restored un- construction refers to the forging of the shape der Swedish domination. The war had broken peculiar to the region in addition, is onto- out from the Swedish heat for revenge after logically essential to the research (Paasi, A. the great defeat in the wars between 1700 and 2002; Stock, P. 2015; Paasi, A. and Metzger, 1721. However, the treaty of 1743 brought only J.