Le Nord : revue internationale des Pays de Nord - 01.06.1942, Page 264

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LE NORD
Swedish historians it was long an article of faith that this meant
the Arctic Sea. Finnish investigators, however, at an early date
came to a different conclusion, which was no doubt the correct
one: the sea in question is the Bothnian Gulf. There is a good
deal of evidence in favour of this conclusion, and to all ap-
pearances the Northern part of the frontier established in 1323
was formed by the Pyhájoki river in Northern Ostrobothnia,
or possibly some smaller stream in the vicinity of the latter.
It must be admitted that this frontier was a surprising one
in several respects: it cuts right across Finland and would seem
logically to presuppose another frontier separating Swedish terri-
tory beyond the Bothnian Gulf from the Russian possessions
which were being pushed up towards the North. But where is
one to look for this frontier? In fact, it does not exist and has
never existed. The whole question, it may be added, was simply
not taken into account by the negotiators of the Nöteborg settle-
ment, who were only concerned with the immediate problem
of laying down a frontier near the Gulf of Finland and in the
regions immediately to the North of the latter. The extreme
Northern regions beyond Kvarken, the narrow part of the
Bothnian Gulf, towards which this frontier points, were of less
immediate interest, or were at least not considered important
enough to be worth disputing about. Politically, this tract was
as yet a no man’s land, beyond the areas which had any eccle-
siastical or civil administration, and was only visited by hunters
and traders from different quarters. As later developments show,
one factor which must be taken into account here is the expansion
towards the Bothnian Gulf of the far-roaming Karelians, the bulk
of whom were under Russian suzerainty, and one of whose prin-
cipal routes of commerce passed through this region. The Pyhá-
joki line must then be regarded, less as a political than as an eco-
nomic boundary, which was claimed by the Karelians and vindi-
cated by their Russian overlords.
The question naturally suggests itself whether the dangers
inherent in such a frontier were not perceived by the Swedish
negotiators of the Nöteborg settlement. It is significant that im-
mediately after the conclusion of peace the Swedish Government
started a colonization of the empty coastal regions, especially on
the Western shore of the Bothnian Gulf, to the North of Ume
and Bygde, but also on the Eastern side. Within a few decades