The Anjala Conspiracy
Gustav III of Sweden’s Russian War was an ill-advised conflict started by the Swedish King to address internal political concerns. Gustav was certain that his political opposition was receiving Russian support and Russia was already at war with the Ottoman Empire (John Paul Jones was serving in the Russian Navy). Gustav used his autocratic powers, which he had achieved in a coup in 1772 ending the rule of the Swedish Parliament but not its existence as a deliberative body, to negotiate an alliance with the Turks. The opening of the war furthered the decline in his popularity, both with the public and the Swedish military.
The war did not go well, and rising resentment against the King led to the formation of a plot against him. Swedish officers gathered in Anjala to secretly open peace negotiations with the Russian Tsarina, Catherine the Great. Finland was then an eastern region of Sweden, but in Russian hands, and was occupied mostly by ethnic Finns. The Swedish conspirators asked for a restoration of the Finnish borders and for peace negotiations with representatives from Russia, Sweden, and the Finns. They also declared that it was their collective belief that the war had been started by the Swedish King illegally.
Catherine was unimpressed and when the Swedish courier returned with the news that the Tsarina was disinclined to accept the terms, the officers of the conspiracy decided to spread a rumor to the contrary. When Gustav learned of the conspiracy he demanded that all of his officers sign a pledge of loyalty, and 113 of them responded by signing the Anjala Declaration. They stated that they would defend Sweden if attacked, but that the war was illegal and they would not take part in attacking Russia. At first the majority of the Swedish Army and Navy supported the declaration.
Having not learned the lesson that war does not necessarily increase a national leader’s popularity, and fearing assassination if he remained in the Finnish region, Gustav initiated another war, against Denmark to the south, and relocated to that area. As Russian military operations revealed their intention of dividing the Swedish nation in two, popular and military support for the Anjala Declaration waned, and by the winter of 1788-89 Gustav believed he had sufficient support to arrest some of the conspirators. Nine were eventually sentenced to death for the crime of treason, but only one was executed.
Toward the end of the war Gustav’s armies achieved some success against the Russians, but his treasury was out of funds and further prosecution of the war offered little chance for a major victory by the Swedes. A negotiated peace ended the war with little being gained by either side. Gustav III was assassinated in 1792, the result of another conspiracy, when he was shot while attending a masquerade ball in Stockholm on March 16. He died of an infection on March 29.