By the end of the war, the Imperial Russian Army had occupied most of Finland, prompting Field Marshal Trubetskoy and Chancellor Aleksey Bestuzhev to demand the application of uti possidetis principle in this case.

In the hope of gaining independence, the Finnish estates offered the ephemeral throne of their country to Duke Peter of Holsten-Gottorp, the heir apparent to the Russian Crown.

[1][2] Another party at the Russian court, represented by pro-Swedish Count Jean Armand de Lestocq and Peter's Holsteinian relatives, proposed to return Finland to the Swedes in recompense for having his uncle, Adolf Frederick of Holstein-Gottorp, elected as heir to the throne of Sweden.

Empress Elizabeth of Russia lent her support to the latter faction, partly because she fondly remembered Adolf Frederick's brother, her projected spouse who had died several months before the wedding could take place (in June 1727).

This move exposed the country to the risk of war against Denmark-Norway, hence the Baltic Fleet sailed to Stockholm to protect the Swedish capital in case of Danish attack.