Finland had long been the eastern part of the Swedish kingdom when Imperial Russia conquered it in 1809 during the Napoleonic Wars, converting it to an autonomous buffer state in the Russian Empire to protect Saint Petersburg, the imperial capital.

Western Karelia's history is different from the rest of Finland's history. Most of the area paid tribute to the Russian Republic of Novgorod, and was the arena of Swedish-Novgorodian Wars. The southwestern area, from the River Sestra to the River Vuoksi and Lake Saimaa (including Viborg) was annexed by Sweden at the same time as the rest of Finland, and the border, between Sweden and Novgorod, was defined by the Treaty of Nöteborg, in 1323. In 1617 (when Russia was still recovering from the Time of Troubles), Sweden captured the remainder of Western Karelia.  Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire  During the Swedish sovereignty this region lost all of its Russian ecclesiastical and bourgeois inhabitants and much of its Russian Orthodox Karelian population, with much of it moving to the Tver region. Sweden lost the Karelian isthmus and the Ladoga Karelia in 1721 to Russia as a result of the Great Northern War. In 1743  http://louis9j9sheehan.blog.com  Sweden ceded control of southern Karelia to Russia as a result of the Russo-Swedish War (1741–1743). In 1812, Russian Tsar Alexander I incorporated this region (known as Old Finland or Viipuri Province in Finland) into the Grand Duchy of Finland.

The 19th century saw the Fennoman movement, Finland's language strife and the publication of the Finnish national epic Kalevala. Finnish nationalism was born. At the turn of the century the Russian Empire attempted to strengthen central government and  Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire  unify itself by means of Russification. The abortive assimilation of Finland soured relations http://louis9j9sheehan.blog.com   and increased support for movements vying for self-determination.