Wednesday, March 27

Sweden and Finland’s relationship with Russia: three centuries of death and betrayal



The chess game continues on the world board. It matters little to the Moscow government that the offensive on kyiv has shown the seams of an army that still exudes a certain post-Soviet aroma. Despite the military setback, President Vladimir Putin It continues to threaten to take action against any country remotely linked to Russia that even suspects the possibility of joining NATO. The latest example has been Sweden and Finland, territories that, despite their traditional neutrality, now see the possibility of joining the Atlantic Alliance after the upcoming Madrid summit. The Baltic regions rise up against the Tsar of the 21st century.

The reality, however, is that these two Scandinavian countries are not very Soviet. Its relationship with Moscow goes back rather to the old empire founded by Pedro I in 1721 and liquidated by the revolution in 1917. That ‘great russia‘ of 22,800,000 square kilometers that, as explained to ABC by José M. Faraldo –expert in the country’s history and author of essays such as the recent ‘Against Hitler and Stalin’– seeks to evoke Putin today. A president who bears many more resemblances to the tsars who reigned from the Black Sea to Vladivostok than to the Bolsheviks led by Comrade Lenin.

New Empire

The germ of animosity between these actors dates back to the early eighteenth century, dark days for the old Swedish Empire. Although it is true that the old power still dominated Finland and the Baltic states, it is also true that it began to suffer the hardships brought by a severe economic crisis and a great famine. Despite this, his warlike little Alexander the Great of the East, the monarch Charles XIIkept their natural enemies in check: Russia, Poland Y Denmark. Although, among all of them, his nemesis was undoubtedly Pedro I, the one that his contemporary Voltaire defined as the “first Augustus” of the country.

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After an infinity of troubles, Pedro I, the man who founded the great Empire that Putin wants to emulate, defeated Carlos XII and forced his successors to sign peace in 1721. That was the first time that Russia took over Finland; the second was in the war of 1741. Although both times he returned it to Stockholm after the end of hostilities. The same did not happen at the beginning of the 19th century, when the east experienced the umpteenth confrontation between the two powers during an era as turbulent as the Napoleonic era. That was the beginning of the end. “The defeat and subsequent peace treaty signed at Hamina led to the cession of Finland to Russia,” explains Professor Neil Kent in his many essays on the subject.

What was billed as the biggest national disaster in Swedish history marked the beginning of a new era of greatness for its neighbor. The Tsar Alexander I it integrated the region into the Empire, allowed its citizens to retain their rights and, after being proclaimed the Grand Duchy of Finland in September 1809, gave it some independence and autonomy. In return, a strong Russification of the country also began, which experienced its peak moments from 1908 with more than painful measures for the nationalist sectors. “That year began with the revocation of autonomy and the suspension of parliament,” says Javier Maestro in ‘The formation of the national identity of Finland’.

Revolutions and neutrality

With these and many other measures, it is not surprising that, taking advantage of the revolutionary tides that shook tsarist Russia in 1917, Finland began its process of autonomy. On July 5 of that same year, Parliament enacted a law that defined its sovereignty and marked the path to freedom. The independence was supported by the Soviet Bolsheviks, firm followers of the future Leninist doctrine of favoring the emancipation of the peoples. An idea against which, by the way, the so-called 21st century czar has charged, Vladimir Putinin recent years.

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The paths of both powers crossed again in the Winter War, during Stalin’s unsuccessful invasion in November 1939. This ended with a peace treaty ratified in March 1940, after the Red Army be shaken by extreme cold and local snipers. “Finland cedes the Karelian Isthmus to the Soviet Union, including Viborg, the Ladoga coastline and a military base on the Hangoe peninsula,” ABC explained at the time.

Throughout their history, both nations have embraced a policy of neutrality, albeit for different reasons. Gustavus XIV of Sweden proclaimed this status in 1834 almost out of obligation due to the severe economic crisis that the country was going through. Since then, it has become something of a tradition.

The Finnish case has little to do with it. In 1948, after the end of World War II, the ‘Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance‘ forbade Russia and Finland to join in a military alliance against each other. In turn, it was established that the Baltic country could not offer passage permits to enemy nations of the USSR. They have continued like this, with exceptions, until the Kremlin stirred up the international hornet’s nest with a war last February.


www.abc.es

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