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The Russian-Swedish Treaty of 1812 and its Aftermath in Northern Europe

 

The Russian-Swedish Treaty of St. Petersburg was signed on 5 April (24 March old style) 1812 by Tsar Alexander I and Crown Prince Carl Johan of Sweden. Carl Johan, until recently known as Jean Baptiste Bernadotte, Marshal of France and Prince of Ponte Corvo, had accepted an invitation to become Crown Prince of Sweden. The invitation was based on the expectation that Bernadotte would reinforce, rather than terminate, Sweden’s links to France and Napoleon.

The conference is organised by the Fritt Ord Foundation, Oslo, and the Institute for Universal History of the Russian Academy of Sciences, in cooperation with the Department of History and Religious Studies, University of Tromsø and the Institute for Defence Studies, Norwegian Defence University College, Oslo. It will take place at Hotel Astoria, St Petersburg.

The Treaty had repercussions on both the European and the regional level. Within the great power game, Sweden became a crucial participant on the allied side in the final phase of the Napoleonic wars. At the regional level, it paved the way for the constitutional upheaval in Norway in 1814 and, ultimately, the formation of the dual monarchy of Sweden-Norway within which Norway enjoyed a high degree of autonomy based on the 1814 constitution.

Participants in the conference will discuss the Treaty in the regional and international context of the maelstrom of the Napoleonic wars, with a special view of the Treaty as one of the international prerequisites for the Norwegian constitution of 1814 and the establishment of the Norwegian nation-state. Prominent historians from Russia, Sweden, France, Great Britain, Norway, Denmark and Finland will take part.



PROGRAMME

The opening lectures will be devoted to the Napoleonic wars as a global contest, Alexander I’s relationship with Napoleon and Carl Johan, the making of the Treaty of 1812 and its implications for the Nordic region. Other lectures in this part of the conference will focus on the Treaty’s implications for the processes leading up to Norway’s detachment from Denmark, until the approval of the revised Norwegian Constitution and the finalisation of the Swedish-Norwegian union in November 1814.

The second part will examine Russia’s changing roles vis-à-vis the Swedish-Norwegian union during the rest of the 19th century until 1905, a period when Russia was increasingly represented as a menace to European civilization. The Swedish-Russian friendship established in 1812 came to an end during the Crimean War, and the November Treaty of 1855 stigmatized Russia as the most likely potential aggressor against Sweden-Norway. Towards the end of the 19th century the Russian menace was used by Sweden as an instrument to keep Norway inside the union. Despite this, the Swedish-Norwegian union was dissolved peacefully in 1905. In October of that year Russia became the first great power to acknowledge Norway’s independence.

Professor Patrick Salmon, Chief Historian at the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office, will chair the proceedings.

The official opening of the conference will take place on the morning of Sunday 25 March and the conference will close by lunch-time on Monday 26. Below is an outline of the conference programme:


SUNDAY, 25 MARCH, morning session:

09:30–09:45: Opening of seminar

A.O. Tchoubarian, Institute of World History of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow
Erik Rudeng, The Fritt Ord Foundation, Oslo

09:45–10:45: Dominic Lieven, Cambridge University: The Napoleonic wars: A global contest

10:45–11:00: Coffee break

11:00–12:15: Marie-Pierre Rey, University of Paris (Sorbonne): Alexander I and Napoleon

Krister Wahlbäck, University of Umeå & Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Stockholm: Bernadotte, the Swedes and Russia, 1810–1812: an imported strategist overrules his new subjects

12:15–12:30: Coffee break

16:15–17:15: Gunnar Åselius, Swedish National Defence College, Stockholm: From enemies to allies: the transition of Swedish-Russian military relations, 1809–1814


SUNDAY, 25 MARCH, afternoon session:

12:30–13:30: Max Engman, Åbo Akademi University: Autonomous Finland between Russia and Sweden

13:30–15:00: Lunch

15:00–16:00: Vadim Roginski, Institute for World History, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow: The Norwegian question in Swedish-Russian relations 1810–1815

Thomas Munch-Petersen, University College London: Denmark’s fateful alliance with France: the destruction of Danish neutrality in 1807

16:00–16:15: Coffee break


MONDAY, 26 MARCH, morning session:

09:00–10:30: Alexandr V. Tchoudinov, Institute of World History of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow: The year 1812 in the historical memory of the Russian people in the 19th century

Odd Arvid Storsveen, University of Oslo: A game of great powers – or a game of small states? A reconsideration of Norwegian national ‘revisionism’

10:30–10:45: Coffee break

10:45–12:15: Øystein Rian, University of Oslo: Scandinavia in the 19th century: from bellicose powers to peaceful nation-states. The roles of Russia and Norway

Jens Petter Nielsen, University of Tromsø: The Norwegian-Swedish-Russian triangle. From the November Treaty to the dissolution of the Norwegian-Swedish union (1855–1905)

12:15–12:30: Patrick Salmon, Foreign and Commonwealth Office, London: A treaty and its aftermath: Concluding remarks

Closing of conference

13:00: Lunch


Conference participation is free of charge. The following hotels are in the vicinity of Hotel Astoria:

Hotel Old Vienna, standard single room ≈ EUR 115

Comfort Hotel, standard single room ≈ EUR 95

Hotel Central-Inn, standard single room ≈ EUR 45

At Hotel Astoria, the single room price is EUR 150.


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