Contact and conflict: Russian mapping of Finland and the development Russian cartography in the 18th and 19th centuries

Abstract

Russian mapping of Finland started with the incorporation of areas of Vyborg and Käkisalmi into the Russian Empire in the treaties of Uusikaupunki (1721) and Turku (1743). After the incorporation of the whole of Finland to Russia, the impact of Swedish military topography through maps obtained during wars and Swedish officers entering Russian service, was decisive in the formation of Russian military topographic mapping practice. Institutionally most influential was the Haapaniemi Topographic Corps, a military topographic school established during the period of Swedish rule, which continued its activities under the Russian one. After its transfer to Hamina, it was developed as a college of higher military education and became central in the whole Russian Empire in preparing staff for military topographical surveys. Subsequent surveys of Finland contain both typically Russian and Swedish characteristics. Newly available archival sources point to the possibilities of fruitful further research on the history of military topography in Finland and in Russia. Russian mapping and surveying up to the incorporation the whole of Finland into the Empire concentrated heavily on the border area of River Kymi and Lake Saimaa. Russian mapping of Finland was active throughout the 18th century. The culmination of efforts was in the preparation of four-volume Atlas of Russian and part of Swedish Finland under the direction of Major General Fabian Steinheil in 1798-1804.The atlas covered the guberniya of Vyborg and adjoining areas on the scale of 1:42 000. This atlas was also a milestone in the development of a unified system of conventional signs for Russian topographic maps. Surviving tables of conventional signs are adapted to local conditions and concern a wide range of phenomena of natural and cultural landscape, thus making the maps a potential source for historical geographers. The State Archive of the Military History of Russia has proved a rich virtually unstudied depository of both Swedish and Russian cartographic and military geographical materials that were accumulated during wars and peacetime surveys and reconnaissance.