Battle of Storkyro The Battle of Storkyro was fought on February 19 , 1714 ( O . S . ) / March 2 , 1714 ( N . S . ) near the village of Napo ( ) in Storkyro parish ( ) , Ostrobothnia , Swedish Empire ( present day Finland ) between a Swedish and a Russia n army , as part of the Great Northern War . The Swedish force , consisting almost entirely of Finnish troops , was destroyed by the numerically superior Russian force . As a result , all of Finland сame under Russian military occupation for the rest of the war , a period of hardship known in Finland as the Greater Wrath . Prelude . By 1703 Russian forces had reached the inner parts of the Gulf of Finland , and founded the city of Saint Petersburg . Since the Swedish main army was engaged in Poland and later in Russia , Sweden was hard pressed to defend its Baltic territories . After the battle of Poltava , Russia took all of Livonia , Estonia and Ingria , as well as the counties of Viborg , Savonlinna and Kexholm . When Charles XII of Sweden refused to enter peace negotiations , Denmark and Russia drew up plans with the purpose to threaten Stockholm . Two attack routes were considered : one through southern Sweden and the other through Finland and the Åland islands . The southern attack was deemed more important , but the attack on Finland was to be carried out in order to tie down as much of the remaining Swedish army as possible there . However , the attack from the south was successfully fended off by Magnus Stenbock ' s victory at Helsingborg in 1710 . The Russian attack on Finland never developed as planned . Since Peter the Great was engaged in a war against Turkey , the resulting lack of soldiers forced him to postpone the conquest of Åbo . Initial Russian actions in Finland consisted of raids and reconnaissance operations , with the purpose of occupying southeastern Finland and devastating it in order to deny Swedish forces a base of operations against the Russian - controlled areas around Saint Petersburg . Significant Russian military action in Finland began in 1713 , after logistical problems caused the failure of an initial foray the previous year . Already in May , Peter and his galley fleet were seen off Helsingfors , and during the summer all of southern Finland was occupied by Russian troops . The Swedish forces under general Georg Henrik Lybecker retreated inland . Before returning to Russia , Peter commanded Fyodor Apraksin , the commander of the Imperial Navy to attack the Swedish army during the winter . General Carl Gustaf Armfeldt was given command over the troops in Finland in August 1713 . He faced a hopeless task ; Lybecker had left him with a neglected , starving , destitute army . Reconnaissance wasn ' t possible because the cavalry was too worn out to carry out its duties . When the Russian general , Mikhail Golitsyn , marched into Ostrobothnia in the beginning of February 1714 , Armfeldt placed his forces in a defensive position by the village of Napo , east of Vasa . A council of war was held on 16 February , where Armfeldt was determined to commit to stay and give battle . A fatalist air hung over the Swedish army - weakened from the ravages of winter , a superior army was approaching , and all hopes of reinforcements were gone . The battle . The Russians approached Napo from the east , initially along the frozen Kyrö River . When they were in sight , but out of gunfire reach of the Swedish forces , the right wing of the cavalry and the infantry veered north . Instead of forming up parallel to the Swedish forces , Golitsyn intended to attack the Swedish left flank . Either through promise of payment or force , Goltisyn had a farmer lead the Russian army through the frozen marshy forest north of the river . In this way , the Russian army obtained a very advantageous initial position to attack the Swedish left . The Russian movements were observed by Armfeldt and his officers . Cossacks and dragoon s arrived in the morning , while the main force deployed in the afternoon . As the battle would break out in any moment , Armfeldt rode along the Swedish line and exhorted his soldiers to fight for king and country . How this was received by the doomed troops is unknown , but Armfeldt ' s own account states that they soldiers " showed incredible bravery , and loyalty unto death , and on their knees and with streaming eyes asked God for help . " Armfelt realized something was amiss when only a small cavalry force continued approaching along the frozen river , while the rest of the enemy force disappeared to the north . Realizing too late the implications of this , he commanded the Swedish line to redeploy northwards to better respond to the threat . He then ordered a pre - emptive attack . The Swedish right wing had initially great successes , mauling the Russian left with grapeshot , while the infantry fired their single volley and then threw themselves at the enemy in a bayonet charge . The Russian left flank hadn ' t fully arrayed itself and was disordered at the time of the Swedish attack . However , despite the initial Swedish success , the Russian position was stabilized thanks in great part to its numerical superiority . The Russian right flank was better organized and repelled the Swedish attack . The Swedish cavalry was immobilized , circumvented , and cut down by Russian dragoons and cossacks , and the left flank collapsed slowly in desperate fighting . Armfeldt tried to relieve his encircled left flank but Golitsyn now committed his forces against the Swedish center and right flank , and while the left flank was ground down , the Swedish infantry dissolved in panic . Aftermath . The battle ended with the destruction of the Swedish army in Finland , with almost 2 , 500 casualties . Many of them bled or froze to death in the night following the battle ; bodies were left lying in the battlefield for weeks . The Russian casualties were also severe : as many as 2 , 000 wounded or killed . The majority of the Russian dead were buried in the Storkyro church graveyard . Strategically , the victory at Storkyro allowed the Russians to control all of Finland the following years ; Sweden was too weak to prevent this . The parallel successes of the Russian galley fleet in the Turku archipelago allowed the it fleet to support and supply the army ' s land operations . This was important , as foraging was insufficient to sustain the Russian army .