It is pointed out in the passage that ----.

Narva is a quiet northeastern Estonian town bathed
in sea breezes. Though small, with a population of
just over 72,000, it occupies a large place in Russian
history. It was here in 1700 that, by attacking the
Swedes, who were then in control of much of the
Baltic coast, Russia launched its final campaign in a
centuries-long quest to become a European power.
The battle ended in defeat for the Russians, but the
war did not; by 1721 Russia had conquered the
Baltic territories as far southwest as Riga, the capital
of present-day Latvia, and had built a new capital,
Saint Petersburg, on the Gulf of Finland. Later in
that century, Russia, through a partition agreement
with Austria and Prussia, gained control of the rest
of the Baltics, and would retain them until the fall of
the Soviet Union in 1991.