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Petersburg. ”71 Many coastal fortifications in Finland had been constructed during the pre-1809 period of Swedish rule. This meant that they were designed to operate in conjunction with fleets of gunboats or, in the case of Sweaborg, to resist the 24 The Crimean War in Imperial Context, 1854–1856 landward attack of a large army. Imperial Russian authorities initially planned to reconstruct and augment these coastal batteries and fortresses, but later changed course and abandoned outlying positions in favour of concentrating their forces around major cities and fortress complexes, especially Sweaborg and Cronstadt.

The ensuing chapters’ discussion of the Allies’ 1854 Baltic campaign outlines a multitude of conflicting opinions involved in contemplating assaults on Sweaborg and Cronstadt. It took a change of year and of prime minister in Britain before the Anglo-French fleet would bombard Sweaborg and begin constructing a flotilla to threaten Cronstadt. ” 97 CH A P T ER 2 The White Sea, Finmark, and Russian Strategy Lord Palmerston’s February 1855 elevation to the prime ministership also impacted strategy north of the Baltic, in the White Sea.

Although the Allied presence in the White Sea during the summer and fall of 1854 ultimately fulfilled Graham’s desire to use the minimum number of warships necessary to blockade Russian ports, it faced the same challenges as its matching efforts in the Baltic and Pacific during the conflict’s first year. General operations against trade and minor successes, such as the destruction of Kola on the nearby Murman Coast, did not seem satisfactory given the technological advantages enjoyed by the British and French navies.