ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with the role of the crusading movement in the relationship between the two Christian confessions in the Baltic region, the Catholic church of the West and the Russian Orthodox church of the East, and the further consequences it had for Karelia and the Karelians. The consequences of the crusades for the peoples and regions they were targeted against have in general been insufficiently studied, although an improvement in this situation can be seen. That the crusades in the Baltic region had consequences which – to borrow a modern term – can only be described as ethnic cleansing, has always been clear, if not always emphasized. The stage of Scandinavian-Russian dynastic relations relevant to period began with the marriage of Christina, daughter of King Inge I of Sweden, to Mstislav Vladimirovich, prince of Novgorod and son of Prince Vladimir Monomakh, at that time the most powerful of the numerous Russian princes.
