Russo-Swedish War (1590–1595)

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Russo-Swedish Wars
Swedish-Novgorodian – 1495–97 – 1554–57 – Livonian – 1590–95 – Ingrian – 1656–58 – Great Northern – 1741–43 – 1788–90 – Finnish

The Russo-Swedish War of 1590–1595 was instigated by Boris Godunov in the hope of recovering territory along the Gulf of Finland lost to Sweden during the previous Livonian War.

As soon as the Truce of Plussa expired early in 1590, a large Russian army led by Godunov and his sickly brother-in-law, Fyodor I of Russia, marched from Moscow towards Novgorod. On 18 January they crossed the Narova River and laid siege to the Swedish castle of Narva. Another important fortress, Jama, fell to Russian forces within two weeks. Simultaneously, the Russians ravaged Estonia as far as Tallinn and Finland as far as Turku.

On 25 February, a local Swedish governor was compelled to sign an armistice, which obliged Sweden to surrender the territories won by the Treaty of Plussa — namely Jama, Koporye, and Ivangorod. This peace settlement displeased John III of Sweden, who sent a fleet to take hold of Ivangorod, but this attempt to besiege the fortress was checked by a Russian castellan. Matters then remained quiet until summer 1591, when the Swedes struck against Gdov, capturing a local governor, Prince Vladimir Dolgorukov. The other war theatre was Eastern Karelia, where the Swedes sacked Kola and other Russian settlements bordering the White Sea, killing 50 monks and 65 lay brothers.

Godunov's government gradually overcame these setbacks, as Prince Volkonsky was sent to pacify Karelia, while the noblest Russian generals — Bogdan Belsky, Fyodor Mstislavsky and Prince Trubetskoy — devastated Finland. After that, the war settled into indecisive skirmishing from which it would not subsequently emerge. Three years elapsed before Sweden agreed to sign the Treaty of Tyavzino, which recognized Russian conquests and restored the borders predating the Livonian War.