Siege of Sveaborg

Siege of Sveaborg
Part of the Finnish War

Sveaborg surrenders to the Russians
Date14 March [O.S. 2 March] 1808 – 3 May [O.S. 21 April] 1808
Location
Sveaborg, Swedish Finland
Result Russian victory
Belligerents
Russian Empire Russia Sweden
Commanders and leaders
Russian Empire Fyodor Fyodorovich Buksgevden
Russian Empire Pieter van Suchtelen		 Carl Olof Cronstedt
Strength
6,500 men,
59 cannons[1]		 7,503+ [2]
Casualties and losses
Unknown Whole garrison captured,
58 guns lost[2]

The siege of Sveaborg was a siege by Imperial Russian forces of the sea fort of Sveaborg (Finnish: Suomenlinna), off the coast of Helsingfors (Helsinki); at the time Finland was part of the Kingdom of Sweden. It took place in the spring of 1808, during the Finnish War. Despite its formidable reputation as "the Gibraltar of the North", the fortress surrendered after a siege of two months. As its capitulation was followed by the rapid collapse of Swedish resistance elsewhere, and ultimately the Russian conquest of Finland, the siege is often regarded as the decisive battle of the war.[3]

  1. ^ Mattila (1983), p. 238-239.
  2. ^ a b Mikhailovsky-Danilevsky, Описание Финляндской войны на сухом пути и на море в 1808 и 1809 годах, St. Petersburg, 1841, pp. 106—108
  3. ^ Carl Nordling, "Capturing ‘The Gibraltar of the North‘: How Swedish Sveaborg was taken by the Russians in 1808." Journal of Slavic Military Studies 17#4 (2004): 715-725.