Finnish Factor in the History of the Northern Frontier of the Russian Empire 1809–1855

The article is devoted to the little-known pages of the "Northern Frontier" history – the Russian-Norwegian border zone, namely the role of the Grand Duchy of Finland in the border policy of the Russian Empire and the Swedish-Norwegian in the border area in 1809–1855. The authors demonstrate that in 1809 the entry of Finland into the Russian Empire strengthened its ability to defend national interests in the far north of Europe. At the same time, the growing influence of the Grand Duchy on the Russian home and foreign policy contributed to the total indoctrination of the Russian-Swedish/Norwegian border and the image of the "Russian threat", which was distributed among the political elite of the Swedish-Norwegian state in the 1820–1850s. Distribution of russophobian sentiments in the United Kingdom of Sweden and Norway accelerated the urgency of the Northern Frontier formal delimitation for the Russian-Swedish diplomatic relations in the first half of the 1820s. The "Russian threat" also served the ideological basis for gradual securitization and politicization of the Russian-Norwegian border area. Thus, the United Kingdom of Sweden and Norway viewed the whole range of cross-border relations between the population of Finnmark (Sweden-Norway), Uleåborg province (Grand Duchy of Finland) and the Arkhangelsk province (Russian Empire) as one of the potential threats to national security in the second half of the 19th century. The closure of the Finnish-Norwegian section of the Russian-Swedish/Norwegian border in 1852 and joining the anti-Russian coalition with Britain and France, formally enshrined in the so-called the November Treaty of 1855, become the culmination of this process