The prehistory of Saint Petersburg provides information regarding the ancient historical events of Saint Petersburg. The prehistory of St. Petersburg unveils a lot of eventful incidents including the Russian-Swedish battle on the bank of river Neva.
Since the ninth century, the land along the bank of river Neva belonged to the state of Ancient Russia. During that period, those areas of land had a mixed culture of various ethnic groups including Slavs and Finns. All those areas were part of the Principality of Novgorod. During that time, Novgorod became an important center of domestic and international trade. The merchants of Novgorod executed trade with Northern and Western Europe. River Neva and Lake Ladoga were the most important waterways. The trade went through those two waterways.
During 1240s, when the central and Southern parts of Russia were engaged in fighting with the Mongol invaders, the Swedish force arrived on shore of River Neva. On 15th July, 1240, the Novgorod troops under the leadership of Prince Alexander faced up a battle with Swedish force, known as the Battle of Neva (Nevskaya Bitva). The Russian
troops triumphed over Swedish force. The battle of Neva symbolizes Russia's dramatic fight for independence.
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As a result of that battle, Prince Alexander was renamed as Alexander Nevsky, means Alexander of Neva. For his gallant efforts to protect Russia, Prince Alexander was announced as a Saint of the Russian Orthodox Church.
In the sixteenth century, Novgorod was subjugated by Moscow and became a part of the centralized Russian State. However, at the beginning of seventeenth century, Russia became unstable after the death of the last Tzar of Russia, Fiodor Ioanovich. He left no heirs to the throne. Vasily Shuisky came to the power of Russia and asked the Swedish to battle for his side. The Swedish took the advantage and settled to capture a significant portion of North-Western part of Russia. Ultimately, a new boundary line separated Russia from Sweden through the Stolbovo Treaty of 1617. For the rest of the century, the Neva River area remained as a part of Sweden.
At the end of the seventeenth century, Peter the Great made strong bonds with the West with an expectation to regain access to the portion along Baltic Sea. He confronted with Sweden through Northern War, which lasted from year 1700 to 1721. Ultimately, in 1703, the Russians succeeded in achieving areas over Neva River and on 16th May, 1703, St. Petersburg was re-established.
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