The Treaty of Nystad (Russian: Ништадтский мир, Finnish: Uudenkaupungin rauha, Swedish: Freden i Nystad) was the last peace treaty of the Great Northern War. It was concluded between the Tsardom of Russia and Swedish Empire on 30 August (O.S.) / 10 September (N.S.) 1721 in the then Swedish town of Nystad (Finnish: Uusikaupunki), after Sweden had settled with the other parties in Stockholm and Frederiksborg.
During the war, Peter I of Russia had occupied all Swedish possessions on the eastern Baltic coast: Swedish Ingria, where the new Russian capital St. Petersburg was constructed since 1703; Swedish Estonia and Swedish Livonia, which had capitulated in 1710, and Finland. In Nystad, Frederick I of Sweden formally recognized the transfer of Estonia, Livonia, Ingria, and Southeast Finland (Kexholmslän and part of Karelia) to Russia in turn for two million silver thaler, while the bulk of Finland was returned to Sweden.[1][2]
The treaty enshrined the rights of the Baltic-German nobility within Estonia and Livonia to maintain their financial system, right to self-government and Lutheran religion, the German language and the existing customs border; this special position in the Russian Empire was reconfirmed by all Russian Tsars from Peter the Great to Alexander II.[3]
Nystad manifested a decisive shift in the European balance of power the war had brought about: The Swedish imperial era was over, and Sweden entered the Age of Liberty, while Russia had emerged as a new empire.
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