One of the children of my Westerlund "Adam and Eve" was Maria Larsdotter (1753-1824). In 1778 Maria married the soldier Anders Bjurman (1757-1831), and together they had a big family of 10 children. Remarkably, all the children survived early childhood. From 1783 on, they lived in Västerfärnebo, a town in Västmanland. When Maria died in 1824 from tuberculosis (lungsot), there was a note in the entry in the book of death records that stated that she had had 3 sons and 6 daughters, of which 2 sons and daughters survive. One son was unknown. He remains imprisoned in Russia: "3 söner och 6 döttrar, hvaraf 2 söner och döttrarna lefvar. Om en son är det ovist. Han blev fången i Ryssland." Again, when her husband Lars passed away from a stroke in 1831, the same notation was made.
The missing son's name was Anders. So what was Anders doing such that he ended up being imprisoned in Russia? And what happened to him? The last record that I have for him comes from the household records for 1808 in Västerfärnebo. You can see the record in the image below, with his name listed as Anders Andersson. After this point, he completely disappeared from the church books. But in that record, on the right-hand side, there is a two-word note that says "Comanderad Svanfelt." In other words, he entered the army.
That begs the question, though: what was the Swedish army doing around 1808 that would account for one of the soldiers ending up as a Russian prisoner? And isn't the country of Sweden noted for its neutrality? I had so many questions. The short answer to this one is, yes, but Swedish neutrality is a relatively recent phenomenon. The last time Swedish armed forces engaged in a declared war was in 1814, over 200 years ago. Actually, that year two conflicts ended. One was the War of the Sixth Coalition. This was one of the series of wars against Napoléon Bonaparte and the French Empire. This one ended with Napoléon's defeat and exile to the Mediterranean island of Elba. The other was the Swedish-Norwegian War, and at its conclusion the two countries were united in a union. Since that time, Sweden has adopted a position of neutrality, a stance that at times has been difficult to maintain, especially during the Second World War when Germany imported large quantities of iron ore from Sweden.
Let's go back to the time that Anders Bjurman (or Andersson) entered the army in 1808. A great source to learn about all things associated with the military (and more) in Sweden is a website developed and maintained by Hans Högman (www.hhogman.se/military.htm). First things first: Sweden has continuously had an army, even through the last two centuries of official neutrality. How did they man their armed forces, in particular, how did they do so around the time when Anders disappeared from the record?
The Swedish army and navy acquired their manpower from two sources. First, of course, men could volunteer. The other was called the allotment system (indelningsverket), introduced as a reform in the late 17th Century. Under this system the country was divided into districts called rotar. The freeholders within a rote were collectively responsible for contributing one soldier to the army (or a sailor to the navy depending on where the rote was located). Together they would provide for the maintenance of this soldier, providing equipment and a uniform, as well as a small house and land for the soldier (and his family, if needed). Sometimes you see this home called a croft in English. The local farmers were then exempt from being drafted into the army. The soldier, in turn, was responsible for reporting for training, such as it existed, and going off to battle if called upon.
Another feature of the army and navy that sometimes complicates family history research is the practice of assigning soldier names. Most of the men going into the army had patronyms. What we call a surname was actually the combination of a man's father's name plus the word "son." As a result, the ranks of the army were filled with men named Andersson, Larsson, Johansson, and every other combination. Put this together with a relatively low diversity of given names and you end up with many soldiers with exactly the same name. The solution to this potential confusion was the soldier's name: the company commander would assign each soldier a new "surname" to distinguish him. Usually, this was a relatively short word based on military terms or weapons, personal characteristics, names from nature, or names from the rote from which the soldier hailed.
In our case, Anders was assigned the name Svanfält, meaning, I think, field of swans. You may notice the difference in spelling from the church record: Svanfelt vs. Svafält. Spelling in those days was not as tightly regimented as it is now. The two words are pronounced just the same. In this case, the name Svanfält was given to each generation of the soldiers from that rote even though they were not necessarily related. Our Anders Svanfält belonged to the Berg Company of the Västmanland Regiment. The Central Soldier Registry (Centrala Soldatregistret) at Linköping University records that he was both enlisted and "discharged" in 1808. Again, my question: what was going on in 1808? It turns out that this is where family history intersects the larger conflicts in Europe in the early 19th Century: the Napoleonic Wars.
Earlier I mentioned that Napoléon was defeated and exiled to Elba (able was I ere I saw Elba) by the Sixth Coalition in 1814. I need to begin the story a bit earlier, though, with the Third Coalition against Napoléon from 1803-1807. The Third Coalition was made up of Russia, Great Britain, Prussia, Austria, and Sweden. It was during this period that two very famous battles occurred: the British naval victory at Trafalgar under Horatio, Lord Nelson, and the victory of the French Grande Armée at Austerliltz in Austria over Russian and Austrian troops. These two battles assured British dominance at sea and French dominance at land, leading to a stalemate. Austerlitz is also known as the Battle of the Three Emperors: the French emperor Napoléon I defeated Tsar Aleksandr I of Russia and Emperor Franz II of the Holy Roman Empire (Austria and Prussia). As a consequence of the loss, the Holy Roman Empre was dissolved. More relevant to my story, though, is that Tsar Aleksandr signed the Treaty of Tilsit with Napoléon in 1807, thus switching his allegiance from one side to the other. Russian ambitions in Finland were blessed by Napoléon, and the Russians demanded that Sweden participate in the "Continental System." This system was the response to the British blockade of the French Empire by the Royal Navy. In retaliation for the blockade, the French pushed all their allies - and other countries on the continent - to close their ports to British commerce. Aleksandr I pressured the king of Sweden, Gustaf IV Adolf, to participate in this boycott of British goods. Gustaf, however, detested Napoléon and resisted the Russian pressure.
As a result of this combination of Russian expansionist ambitions and the refusal to close Swedish ports to Britain, 24,000 troops under Friedrich Wilhelm von Buxhoevden moved west from Russia (near Saint Petersburg) into southern Finland on 21 February, 1808, thus beginning the Finnish War. At this point in history Finland was an integral part of Sweden, and to this day Swedish remains one of the official languages of Finland. The winter invasion was unexpected, and the Russians encountered little resistance to their initial push. The defenders' strategy was to retreat inland and wait for summer when more troops could be brought as reinforcements. Additionally, the plan was to maintain the series of sea fortresses along the Baltic coast of southern Finland. From there smaller ships could effectively maneuver in the maze of small islands off the coast where the larger warships could not venture. One of the most famous of these fortresses was Sveaborg (known in Finnish as Suomenlinna), built upon the Susiluodot Islands within view of Helsinki. However, the latter half of this strategy collapsed after both Sveaborg and another fortress, Svartholm, surrendered to the Russians after short sieges. The commander of Sveaborg, Admiral Carl-Olof Cronstedt, was subsequently vilified not only for the loss of the fortress, but for the eventual outcome of the war.
I'm not going to try to go into depth on the Finnish War: it was a confusing time, often with little coordination between actions in the south, the west and the east of Finland. One of the most important battles took place on 14 September, 1808 near Oravais, a small town on the west coast of Finland on the Gulf of Bothnia. Here the Swedish and Russian armies were arrayed in a long line on either side of a small stream. One of the Swedish units participating was the Västmanland Regiment, presumably including Anders Svanfält. The battle was a tactical give-and-take. First, a Russian attack on the Swedish right flank was pushed back. The Russians then tried the left flank, advanced, but were then repulsed. The Russian commander pulled troops from his center to again attack the Swedish left flank, and the Swedish commander counterattacked up the weakened middle. Unfortunately, the arrival of Russian reinforcments prevented the Swedes from being victorious. After 14 hours of bombardment, cavalry charges, and infantry attacks both sides were physically spent and running low on ammunition. After nightfall the Swedes retreated, and the Russians were in no condition to pursue. The Swedish army retreated north around the Gulf of Bothnia and then south into Sweden proper.
A side note: One of the battles of the end game of the Finnish War was a daring march of Russian troops in winter from Finland to the Swedish city of Umeå across the frozen Gulf of Bothnia. These troops were under the command of Bogdan Fyodorovich von Knorring (the German version of his name was Gotthard Johan von Knorring). I add this tidbit just as a bit of historical irony: in 1942 my 6th cousin 1x removed, Vega Cecilia Norman, married a man named Gustaf Mauritz von Knorring, a relative of the Russian general. The name von Knorring, not a typical patronym, suggests that the family had royal connections. In fact, this was a noble family from Estonia.
What was the ultimate outcome of the Finnish War? With Swedish war fortunes going badly, on 13 March, 1809 King Gustaf IV Adolf was seized and imprisoned in a coup. He abdicated 16 days later and his uncle became King Karl XIII. On 17 September, 1809 the Treaty of Fredrikshamn was signed in which Finland was ceded to the Russian Empire as an autonomous grand duchy under the direct control of the Tsar. At the time he became king, Karl XIII was 60 years old and had no heir. As a result of his mental incapacity and lack of heir, a search was made for someone who could take his place. Eventually, one of Napoléon's generals, Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte, was chosen for the role and he accepted. Bernadotte was the brother-in-law of Napoleón's brother, Joseph Bonaparte, but it seems that he was far from a favorite of the Emperor. (He was perceived to have a habit of failing to appear at battles.) Reigning as Karl XIV Johan, he founded the Bernadotte dynasty of Sweden, a dynasty that continues to this day in Carl XVI Gustaf.
Anders Svanfält: what happened to him? The short answer is that I don't know. I've mentioned the notations in the death records of his parents that said that he was a prisoner in Russia. In contrast, the inventory of possessions of his father upon his death (called a bouppteckning) listed all living heirs but did not include Anders. In my opinion the most likely outcome was that Anders had died during or after the Battle of Oravais, either in the battle itself or during the retreat as a result of wounds, illness, cold.... The "imprisonment" story may have been just a way to avoid acknowledging a painful truth. That's just a guess, though: who knows, Anders may have served time then settled into Russian society.
Although the Finnish War appears to have been a resounding defeat on all fronts, it did lead to a growth in Finnish nationalism under Russian rule. One form that this took was in the works of the schoolteacher and poet Johan Ludvig Runeberg (1804-1877). Runeberg is now claimed by some as the national poet of Finland, and probably his most famous work is The Tales of Ensign Stål (Fänrik Ståls Sägner). By the way, Stål, meaning steel, is one of those soldier names mentioned earlier. The Tales of Ensign Stål is a collection of 35 ballads depicting events and personalities of the Finnish War, the emotional impact of the war on the Finnish people, and an expression of their love for the land. I thought it might be interesting to highlight two of these poems.
The first is entitled Sven Duva. In it Runeberg describes the heroic defense of a small bridge crossing against advancing Russian troops with an ironic twist at the end. I found a short (about 10 minute) video made in the 1950s that tells the story (but not in verse!).
The next poem is actually the first in The Tales of Ensign Stål and is entitled Our Land (Vårt Land in Swedish, Maamme in Finnish). The words have been adopted as the national anthem of Finland. Here is a video of the anthem sung in the two national languages of the country, first Finnish and then Swedish.
And here is a translation:
Our land, our land, our native land,Oh, let her name ring clear!
No peaks against the heavens that stand,
No gentle dales or foaming strand,
Are loved as we our home revere,
The earth our sires held dear.
Notes
- The painting at the top of the post is entitled Porilaisten-marssi, Albert Edelfelt (1854-1905).
- The English version of Fänrik Ståls Sägner that I used was translated by Charles Wharton Stork and published by the Princeton University Press and the American Scandinavian Foundation in 1938. If you would like a PDF of the Sven Duva, just drop me a line or leave a comment (with an address: the commenting function in blogspot.com does not record how to get back to you).
