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The Treaty of Nöteborg, also known as Treaty of Oreshek (Russian: Ореховский мир) or as Pähkinäsaaren Rauha (in Finnish), was signed at Orechovets (Pähkinäsaari) on August 12, 1323. It was the first ever settlement between Sweden and Novgorod Republic regulating their border. Three years later, Novgorod signed the Treaty of Novgorod with the Norwegians.

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 Vyborg, splitting the Karelian Isthmus in half, across Savonia and ending in the Gulf of Bothnia around Pyhäjoki River. Only the southern part of the border, close to Vyborg, was actually seen as important and clearly defined in the treaty.

The Treaty of Nöteborg did not have much effect on the conflict between Novgorod and Sweden. The northern part of the border crossed wide stretches of wilderness which were at first of little importance. This would lead to complications soon. Only a few years later, Sweden seems to have forged the treaty and claimed that the northern border went all the way up to the Arctic Ocean instead of the Gulf of Bothnia. Swedes established castles of Oulu around 1375 and Olavinlinna in 1475 clearly on the Novgorodian side of the border.

Their Russian counterparts refused to accept the forgery until 1595 when the Treaty of Teusina acknowledged it as the original document. Already long before that, Sweden had succeeded in permanently taking over large areas on the Novgorod side of the Nöteborg border, including Ostrobothnia and Savonia.

References

1. Nöteborgsfreden och Finlands medeltida östgräns. Andra delen. Skrifter utgivna av Svenska litteratursällskapet i Finland, Nr 427:2, VIII + s. 239-509. Helsingfors 1991. (97:1, 186-200). Detailed discussion about the conflict over the correct text of the treaty.

• Russian peace treaties
• Swedish peace treaties
• History of Finland
• Medieval Finland
• Novgorod Republic
• 1323