Treaty of Nöteborg

The Treaty of Nöteborg, also known as Treaty of Orekhovo or as Pähkinäsaaren Rauha (in Finnish), was signed at Orechovets (Pähkinäsaari) on August 12, 1323, was a treaty between Sweden and Novgorod Republic regulating their border. This was the first time the border between what was to become Russia and Sweden-Finland was regulated.

The border defined by the Treaty of Nöteborg showing the towns and castles of Turku and Viipuri (Åbo and Viborg in Swedish).

The treaty, which was called an "eternal peace", was negotiated with the help of Hanseatic merchants in order to conclude the Swedish-Novgorodian Wars. As a token of good-will Prince Yuri ceded three of his Karelian parishes to Sweden. Sweden would in turn stay out of any conflict between Novgorod and Narva. Both sides would also abstain from building castles on the new border.

The treaty defined the border to go east and north of the town Viipuri, splitting the Karelian Isthmus in half, across Savonia and ending in the Gulf of Bothnia around Pyhäjoki. Only the southern part of the border, close to Viborg, was actually seen as important and clearly defined in the treaty.

The northern part of the borderline has actually been under an extremely controversial issue dividing the opinion of historians. Some eminent historians suppose the borderline did not end in the Gulf of Bothnia at all. According to this view, the area forming the northern part of modern Finland was rather considered to be an area where Novgorod and Sweden shared the right to tax the population.

The northern part of the border, in every case, crossed wide stretches of wilderness which were of little importance. This would lead complications later, as the Swedish Olavinlinna Castle, which was built in 1475, was clearly on the Novgorodian side of the border.

Three years later, Novgorod signed the Treaty of Novgorod with the Norwegians. The borders remained unchanged until the Treaty of Teusina, which shifted the border further east in 1595.