The Cossacks of the Russian Empire kill about 800 people overnight in Hailuoto during the Great Wrath.

The Cossacks are a predominantly East Slavic, Eastern Christian people, originating in the Pontic–Caspian steppe of eastern Ukraine and southern Russia. Cossacks played an important role in defending the southern borders of Ukraine and Russia, countering the Crimean-Nogai raids, alongside economically developing steppe regions north of the Black Sea and around the Azov Sea. Historically, they were a semi-nomadic and semi-militarized people, who were allowed a great degree of self-governance in exchange for military service under the nominal suzerainty of various Eastern European states. Although numerous linguistic and religious groups came together to form the Cossacks, most of them coalesced and became East Slavic–speaking Orthodox Christians.

The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about 22,800,000 km² (8,800,000 sq mi), roughly one-sixth of the world's landmass, making it the third-largest empire in history, behind only the British and Mongol empires. It also colonized Alaska between 1799 and 1867. The empire's 1897 census, the only one it conducted, found a population of 125.6 million with considerable ethnic, linguistic, religious, and socioeconomic diversity.

Hailuoto is a Finnish island in the northern Baltic Sea and a municipality in Northern Ostrobothnia region. The population of Hailuoto is 928, making it the smallest municipality in Northern Ostrobothnia and the former Oulu Province in terms of population. The municipality covers an area of 205.65 km² (79.40 sq mi) of which 1.70 km² (0.66 sq mi) is inland water. The population density is 4.51/km² (11.7/sq mi). Of all the Finnish sea islands, Hailuoto is the third largest after Fasta Åland and Kimitoön.