Why Russia hosted a traitor, adventurer and ex-favorite of the King of Sweden

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Adventurer Gustav Moritz Armfelt has traveled an unusual earthly path, even by the standards of notorious adventurers. As a member of a noble family, an aristocrat from high society achieved great success under the Swedish king. Armfelt's court activity was full of intrigue, betrayal and espionage, but fortune did not betray the lucky one. At home, he was sentenced to death, which did not prevent Gustav not only from being saved, but also from gaining the status of the favorite of the Russian emperor and even the founder of the Finnish state.

How the schemer's character was formed

Gustav's family was the elite of the Duchy of Finland, which at that time was part of Sweden. The boy grew up well-fed and serene, received a comprehensive education. At the age of 13, his parents sent him to comprehend science at the Abo Academy, but granite seemed to Gustav too hard and boring. The young man wanted eventfulness and career adventures. So soon he left the Karlskronna cadet school wearing the epaulettes of a warrant officer. This was followed by a measured promotion up the career ladder, until Armfelt attracted the dissatisfied attention of his superiors with his participation in a forbidden duel. Having decided, and not without reason, that now awards and medals do not shine for him, the guilty officer asked for leave.

In the context of the outbreak of the war for the Bavarian succession between Austria and Prussia, Gustav teamed up with a similar "offended" military man. Together with Colonel Georg Magnus Sprengporten, they went to Berlin to ask for the service of Frederick the Great. But the last, perhaps the most famous European leader of that period, did not need the inconspicuous Swedish military at all. After a firm refusal, Armfelt and Sprengporten decided to join the independence fighters in the United States. But as soon as they reached Paris, they changed their vectors. Sprengporten reassigned to Russia, where he presented projects to the royal court for the separation of Finland from Sweden. Armfelt, on the other hand, returned to his homeland, deciding to try his luck again in his career.

"Accidental" meeting

In the fall of 1780, the young Swede seemed to accidentally find himself at the fashionable Belgian Spa, where the impregnable king Gustav III was resting. In an informal setting, under the finale of the rest, when the king got bored in the company of his entourage, a charming compatriot appeared in front of him. The enterprising and perky officer cleverly dispelled the royal boredom by returning home as one of the monarch's entourage.

The king even blessed the marriage of his new favorite with the beauty Ulrika de la Gardie, popular at the court, thanks to whom Armfelt became related to the most famous families.

In 1788, Armfelt, shoulder to shoulder with the monarch, took part in the invasion of Russian territories, after which he was appointed responsible for suppressing internal riots in the province of Dalarna. When the war with the Russians resumed the following year, Armfelt fought two successful battles - at Partakoski and Kernikoski. In 1790, he was wounded, after which the king appointed him chief diplomat in the Swedish delegation in the ensuing peace negotiations. The Treaty of Verela, signed by the royal favorite, preserved the status quo in Sweden's relations with Russia, and Armfelt received two orders at once - Swedish and Finnish. The Swedish deputies called him Viceroy behind his back, but did not revel in Armfelt's privileges for long.

From favorites to state criminals

After the sudden death of Gustav III, it became clear that the power of the ex-favorite was based only on the personal disposition of the king. After the new authorities appointed him envoy to Italy, Armfelt engaged in intrigue in Naples. In one of the letters to Catherine II, Gustav urged the empress to restore order in Sweden with the use of military force. The letter was intercepted by the Swedes, and a ship set out for Naples to arrest Armfelt. But the conspirator managed to leave Italy, going with his family to Russia. By that time, in Sweden, he had already been sentenced to death in absentia, and his mistress Magdalena Rudenskjold was tied to a pillory and subjected to civil execution.

Not wanting to tease Stockholm, the Russians hid the emigrant in the provinces, where he lived under the guise of a simple pharmacist. When in 1802 high-ranking relatives begged forgiveness for Armfelt in his homeland, he, happy, threw himself into the usual whirlpool in the new rank of the Vienna ambassador. In the outbreak of war with France, commander Gustav Armfelt defended the last Swedish possessions in Germany - Pomerania. But the intrigues turned against him, and Gustav was removed from the political scene. Already in 1804, another round happened - Armfelt took the post of Minister of War after the coup in the country, but voluntarily left the post with the arrival of the unfriendly heir to the throne.

Second Russian conversion and conquest of Alexander I

In 1809, according to the Peace of Friedrichsgam, Sweden lost its rights to Finland, and it became part of the Russian Empire. In Finland, the disgraced Swede had the most profitable family property - the Joensuu estate in Halikko. Not particularly tormented by national ideas, Armfelt accepts Russian citizenship and personally appears before Alexander I. Wielding the magic of communication, the retired Swedish minister charmed the Russian emperor, just as he had influenced Gustav III in his time. A few weeks later, the Swede was already heading the Commission for Finnish Affairs in St. Petersburg, henceforth in charge of all the important affairs of Suomi.

In the spring of 1812, he presented to the sovereign a project to include the Vyborg province and other Finnish territories annexed to Russia as a result of the Northern War into the Finnish principality. The emperor accepted the project. It turned out that thanks to Armfelt by 1917, Finland, which gained independence, included Zelenogorsk, Vyborg, Khamin, Lappeenrant, Olavinlinn. With the attack of the French, rejoicing in conversations with friends about the successes of the Napoleonic army, a man without a nation and convictions Gustav Armfelt allowed himself to speak out that "the barbarians (Russians) will finally be taught a lesson." And as soon as the situation changed in favor of Russia, he publicly admired because of the great happiness to be related to the valiant Russian nation.