Following the Russian victory in the war, sovereignty over Finland was transferred from Sweden to Russia in 1809, and in 1812 the Russian government relocated the Finnish capital to Helsinki from Turku (in Swedish: "Åbo"), a city across from Sweden on the Gulf of Bothnia. It was believed that the relative lack of Swedish influence in Helsinki, combined with its greater proximity to St. Petersburg, would make a Finnish government headquartered there easier to control. The fortress of Sveaborg also made the capital less vulnerable to an attack via the sea.