Capitulation of Estland and Livonia

The future capture and division of the Swedish territories Augustus the Strong and Peter I in preparation for the war were discussed in the Transfiguration Treaty ( 1699 ) ^[10] . During the war, Charles XII managed to crush the Russian army near Narva , then pursued Augustus the Strong in Saxony. After the departure of the majority of the Swedish army, the Russian troops were able to regroup and seize most of the Baltic provinces; in 1710, the supporting fortresses of Riga , Revel, and Pernov fell ^[11] . By this time, the bulk of the Swedish army was defeated in the Battle of Poltava ( 1709 ), the Baltic provinces were ravaged by a grueling war and plague epidemic, and Peter I himself was already standing near the walls of Riga ^[10] .

Russia largely retained the rights and privileges of the local population, especially the freedom of the Protestant religion ^[12] , thus guaranteeing these lands economic, administrative, social and cultural autonomy ^[13] . Rights and privileges were dated from the time of the Teutonic Order , and in Estland, Danish law. The decline of these privileges in Sweden was due to the expulsion of the Livonian nobility ^[14] , and their representative Johann Reitkold Patkul successfully sought a pretext for war against Sweden ^[15] , which guaranteed the loyalty of the local elite ^[16] , which fiercely resisted the conquest of the Russian tsar ^{[14 ]} . The conditions of capitulation extended exclusively to Baltic German burghers and to know that the rights of the Estonian and Latvian population were not stipulated ^[16] .

Local legislation and administration were confirmed, with the result that many Swedish laws and decrees continued to operate under the authority of Russia. For example, in 1777, an incomplete list of 122 Swedish decrees still in force was published in Revel, and the Swedish church order was replaced only in 1832 ^[17] .

The capitulation of Estland and Livonia violated the claims of Augustus the Strong, guaranteed by the Transfiguration Treaty and revised by the Treaty of Toruń . When the allies divided the Swedish territories by these treaties, Augustus was relied upon Livonia. Ignoring the requirements of Gerhard Johann von Löwenvolde about the need to comply with contractual obligations, Boris Sheremetyev took the oath of Livonians to Peter I. Lowenewolde, who had previously served Augustus the Strong, was appointed by the Russian plenipotentiary (chief plenipotentiary) in Llandland and Estland and he was in this position.

Sweden did not recognize the surrender of Estland and Livonia until the end of the war in 1721 by the Nishtadt Peace. Her intelligence service worked in the occupied territories and interrogated fugitives from these provinces to Sweden. In 1711 and 1712, Swedish naval sailors made several landings on the coast of Estland, burning villages and estates. At the same time, other expeditions were planned, including an attack on the island of Ezel in 1711, preceding the approach of all the Swedish forces stationed in Finland, but these plans were not realized. The last plan for the return of the Baltic provinces, also not implemented, was developed in 1720 . The Russian administration under the command of Boris Sheremetyeva forbade the local population to maintain contact with Sweden ^[19] .

On August 30, 1721, the Nishtadt peace treaty confirmed the acquisition of the Baltic provinces by Russia in paragraphs IX, X, XI and XII. ^[20] Sweden "forever" abandoned them and excluded their mention from the royal title. Peter, on the contrary, changed the title from the tsar to the emperor, with the amendments "prince Livonia, Estland and Karelia". However, over the course of a century, the Swedes made more than once attempts to retake these lands, which were important to them, but not a single attempt was crowned with success. The Baltic expansion of Russia ended in 1795 with the annexation of Courland during the third section of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth ^[20] .

The acquisition of Estonia in 1561 was the first step of Sweden’s European grandeur, and the loss of the Baltic provinces in 1710 (1721) meant the return of Sweden to the second rank of sovereign power.

- ^[21]

In addition, Russia's acquisition of the Baltic states meant the emergence in Russia of a new class of nobility - Baltic (Baltic) Germans, who throughout the whole century occupied important government posts in the Russian Empire ^[18] . After the conquest of Peter the Great , the lands were guaranteed German as an official, Catherine II made Russian the second state language. The Baltic provinces retained a special status until the implementation of the Russification policy in the 1840s .

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• Frost Robert. The Northern Wars. War, State and Society in Northeastern Europe 1558–1721. - Longman, 2000.

• Hatlie Mark R. Crisis and Mass Conversion. Russian Orthodox Missions in Livonia, 1841–1917. - Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur, 2005.
• Kappeler Andreas. Rußland als Vielvölkerreich. Entstehung, Geschichte, Zerfall. - CHBeck, 2008.
• Koch Kristine. Deutsch als Fremdsprache im Russland des 18. Jahrhunderts. - Walter de Gruyter, 2002.
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