This series of posts is from a presentation entitled “German Geography of the Russian Empire 1721-1914” that I gave in the summer of 2025 at the conferences of the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia (AHSGR) and the Foundation for East European Family History Studies (FEEFHS). At a high level, it explores the territorial growth of Imperial Russia and shows its significance to German settlement and migration across the empire in the 18th and 19th centuries.
Geography of German Settlement in the Russian Empire
II. Baltics and Finland
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| Northwest section of the 1842 map “Sketch of the Acquisitions of Russia Since the Accession of Peter I to the Throne” showing the Baltics, Finland, and the part of Lapland that Russia acquired from Sweden. |
Timeline
1700 — Great Northern War (1700–1721).
1703 — St. Petersburg founded on the Gulf of Finland.
1712 — St. Petersburg becomes the capital city of Russia, replacing Moscow.
1721 — August: Treaty of Nystad ends Great Northern War. October: Russia declared an empire.
1741 — Russo-Swedish War (1741–1743).
1743 — Treaty of Åbo ends the Russo-Swedish War.
1803 — Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815).
1806 — War of the Fourth Coalition (1806–1807).
1807 — Treaty of Tilsit ends the War of the Fourth Coalition.
1808 — Finnish War (1808–1809) fought between the Russian Empire and the Kingdom of Sweden.
1809 — Treaty of Fredrikshamn ends the Finnish War.
1815 — Treaty of Vienna ends the Napoleonic Wars.
The Great Northern War was fought over control of the Baltic Sea and Sweden’s dominance in Northern Europe. In 1721, the war ended with the Treaty of Nystad, and from it, Russia emerged as a major European power.
From Sweden, Russia gained Estland, Livonia, and Ingria. Today these are parts of Estonia, Latvia and Russia. Russia also gained control of the city of Vyborg from Sweden, an important location due to its proximity to the newly founded capital city of St. Petersburg on the Gulf of Finland.
Shortly after signing the treaty, the Russian Senate conferred the title of “emperor of all the Russias” upon Tsar Peter I, who became Emperor Peter I, or Peter the Great. This was when the Tsardom of Russia became the Russian Empire.
Imperial empires generally have expansionist ambitions, a desire for economic and territorial growth. For Russia, this meant, gaining warm water ports, control over trade routes, access to fertile lands and lands with natural resources, and creating buffer zones against neighboring empires and defending those borders…all the while pushing to expand them farther and farther.
The Russo-Swedish War in 1741 followed and was mainly about Sweden’s attempt to regain lost territory in the Great Northern War. However, Sweden lost and ceded more of Finland to Russia, extending Russia’s border farther westward.
The Napoleonic Wars spanned from 1803 to 1815 and encompassed a series of conflicts between Napoleon’s French Empire and various European coalitions. I will mention the Napoleonic Wars again as we continue to move into other regions where the wars acted as both push and pull factors for German immigration to Russia.
The War of the Fourth Coalition took place between 1806 and 1807, and was one of the major conflicts of the Napoleonic Wars. It involved a coalition of powers, including Prussia, Russia, Sweden, and Great Britain, fighting against French forces. The Treaty of Tilsit ended the war and ceded to Russia the Białystok region from Prussia. Following the treaty, Great Britain and Sweden were still at war with France, while France and Russia formed short-lived alliance that promised they would aid each other. This gave Russia a path to invade and take Finland from Sweden, who had refused to join the alliance against Great Britain.
The following year, The Finnish War was fought between the Kingdom of Sweden and the Russian Empire. From it, Russia gained the eastern third of Sweden, which became the autonomous Grand Duchy of Finland within the Russian Empire. This created the desired land buffer around St. Petersburg.
At the end of the Napoleonic Wars, for this region at least, the Treaty of Vienna confirmed to Russia the conquests of Finland, including territory in Lapland.
What did this mean for German settlement and migration?
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| Known German habitation in this region of the Russian Empire on a modern map. Research is ongoing in this region. |
The Baltic states came with free Germans. So did Finland, although fewer.
Germans had been in the Baltics and Finland since at least the 13th century and were mostly nobles and merchants. They owned land and businesses. Many were professionals—architects, engineers, merchants, scholars, musicians, etc.
They did not live together in ethnic neighborhoods and enclaves like we’ll see elsewhere with the immigrant German colonists in other regions. But they did maintain their churches, schools, and associations in German. As Russian citizens, they played a large part in developing Russia’s civil and military service. Over time, some migrated to cities and other urban areas in Russia.
In 1764, when the German colonists began to arrive at the invitation of Catherine the Great the year before, they travelled through the Baltic Sea, into the Gulf of Finland to Oranienbaum near St. Petersburg, which was now surrounded and protected by Russian lands.
While most of the German colonists headed for regions inland along the Volga River near Saratov and Sarepta in the Astrakhan province, and to the Chernigov and Voronezh provinces, some stayed and founded colonies around and south of St. Petersburg on land that came from Sweden.
Next, we’ll look at Eastern Europe.
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Related Posts and Sources:
- Geography of German Settlement in the Russian Empire
I. Introduction (posted 20 September 2025)
II. The Baltics & Finland (posted 21 September 2025)
III. Eastern Europe (posted 22 September 2025)
IV. The Black Sea Region
V. The Caucasus Region
VI. Central Asia and Western Siberia
VII. Far East Russia
VIII. Summary - Images from the series Geography of German Settlement in the Russian Empire
Last updated 21 September 2025