Finland is part of Russia. Finland became part of the Russian Empire

To the question: In what year did Finland become part of the Russian Empire? given by the author Modernize the best answer is For the first time, the border between Russia and Sweden was defined in 1323 according to the Treaty of Orekhovka, according to which all of modern Finland went to Sweden. In 1581 Finland received the title of Grand Duchy. According to the Peace of Nystadt, Sweden returned South-Eastern Finland and Vyborg to Russia. After the Northern War, anti-Swedish sentiments intensified in Finland, and according to the Peace of Abos in 1743, South-Eastern Finland was ceded to Russia. And only in 1809, after the Russian-Swedish war of 1808-1809, all of Finland was ceded to Russia. After the war of 1808-09. Finland's situation has changed greatly. The cause of the war was the Peace of Tilsit between Fr. and Russia, after which England found an ally in the Swedes and sent it against Russia. The Swedish king announced the impossibility of reconciliation with Russia as long as it held Eastern Finland. Russia began military operations first. Its goal was to conquer all of Finland and secure the northern borders by eliminating the common border with Sweden. After successful military operations in 1808, a declaration was issued on the accession of “Swedish Finland” to Russia. In 1809, the Treaty of Friedrichsham was signed, according to which all of Finland went to Russia. The Borovsky Diet of 1809 approved the entry of Finland into Russia. The annexed lands received the status of the Grand Duchy of Finland.
As a result of the Russian-Swedish war of 1808-1809, all of Finland, which previously belonged to Sweden, was included in Russia as the Grand Duchy of Finland.
In 1809, according to the Treaty of Friedrichsham, Russia annexed the entire territory of Finland.
From 1809 to 1917, Finland (Grand Duchy of Finland) was part of the Russian Empire, enjoying the broadest autonomy (for example, it had its own currency - the Finnish mark). On December 11 (23), 1811, the Vyborg province was transferred to the Grand Duchy, which included lands that were ceded to Russia under the peace treaties of 1721 and 1743. As a result, the administrative border of Finland moved closer to St. Petersburg. Immediately before the October Revolution - October 23 (November 6), 1917 - the Finnish Sejm proclaimed Finland an independent state
Source: www.ulver.com/frg/20.html

Answer from I-beam[guru]
1806 After the war with Sweden, Finland was annexed

Answer from JNV[guru]
In 1908.
For about 600 years, Finland was under the rule of the Swedish crown, and from 1809 to 1917. was part of the Russian Empire with autonomy rights as the Grand Duchy of Finland.

Answer from Alexey Belyaev-Avdeev[guru]
in general, until 1809, back in the 9th century it sailed near Novgorod, and after that it was recaptured as a result of the war with Sweden in 1808-1809

Answer from Alina Bardina[newbie]
actually in 1808-1809.

Answer from Mikhail Basmanov[expert]
In 1809.
People moved to Europe no earlier than 6,000 years ago because it was under a glacier. Finland -Finland - Finnish land (land). Suomi - Suomi - from Omi, a river in Russia that flows into the Irtysh River, in ancient times part of the territory of Belovodye. The name of the people - Suomi - was preserved by the Finns because this word was used among the people, but over time its meaning was forgotten. It is no coincidence that Slavic runic inscriptions are found on the territory of Scandinavia. Finns (more correctly - Finns) are ancient Slavic-Russians, like the Icelanders, Danes, Norwegians, Swedes, British, Scots, etc. The single people were territorially divided into countries after the collapse of the Slavic-Aryan empire. By replacing their writing with the Latin alphabet and writing a new history, they got different languages, although previously, the differences between the peoples were only in the dialect, the dialect. In 1697, the Swedish court master of ceremonies Sparvenfeld, in an official speech, also called himself “a true date of bitter heart.” Moreover, he wrote in Latin in Russian. Finland, like many countries that were Slavic, was made non-Slavic. To do this, they made it autonomous and imposed a language, rewriting history. Isn’t that what they’re trying to do in Ukraine now?

The Finns lived well in the Russian Empire. The Grand Duchy of Finland enjoyed unprecedented autonomy. Russians went there to work and sought permanent residence. Finnish language and culture flourished.

Accession

In 1807, Napoleon defeated the coalition of Prussia and Russia, or rather, defeated the Russian army led by the German Bennigsen. Peace negotiations began, during which Bonaparte met with Alexander I in Tilsit (now Sovetsk, Kaliningrad region).

Napoleon sought to make Russia an ally, and explicitly promised her both Finland and the Balkans. It was not possible to agree on a close alliance, but one of the main demands on Russia was to facilitate the naval blockade of England. For this, if necessary, a war with Sweden was implied, which provided the British with its ports.

In February 1808, the Russian army, led by the Ostsee resident Busgevden, entered Finland. Military operations continued for a whole year under the awkward leadership of Russian generals of German origin. Tired of the war, the parties made peace on conditions that seemed obvious from the very beginning (it is not for nothing that in Swedish historiography the war is called Finnish) - Russia acquired Finland.

Grand Duchy of Finland: creation

Finland became part of the Russian Empire with the preservation of all possible rights and freedoms that existed before. This was declared personally by Alexander I at the very beginning of the war, and then at the Diet in Borgo (the Swedish name of the city of Porvoo, where the film “Behind the Matches” was filmed) even before the formal end of the war with Sweden.

Thus, the main Swedish code of laws - the General Code of the Kingdom of Sweden - has been preserved in Finland. The legislative body and supreme judicial body of Finland became the Government Council, independent from the St. Petersburg bureaucracy, and later the Imperial Finnish Senate, which held meetings in Swedish.

The main legislative body was formally the Sejm, but it began to operate actively only from the middle of the 19th century. Governors-general were extremely nominal until the end of the 19th century. Alexander I ruled the principality personally through a special committee, later transformed into a secretariat of state, headed by Finns. The capital was moved in 1812 from Turku (formerly Swedish Abo) to Helsingfors (Helsinki).

Simple Finnish peasant

Even before joining Russia, the peasants in Finland lived, in the words of Prince Vyazemsky, “quite fairly well,” better than the Russians, and even sold grain to Sweden. Thanks to the fact that the Grand Duchy of Finland did not pay anything to the treasury of the Russian Empire, the well-being of the people there, of course, improved significantly. There was a large stream of peasant walkers from nearby provinces - both Russians and Finns. Many sought to go to Finland for permanent residence. Peddlers were not liked in Finland; a village policeman could detain them without cause. There are eyewitness accounts that when the peddlers decided to run away, the policeman shouted: “Kill the damned Russians, nothing will happen to you.” Men also went to Finland to work in factories, cutting fields, deforestation, and were often hired for agricultural work. As Bubnovsky, a researcher of the Russian North, wrote, “The real breadbasket of Karelia and its gold mine is Finland.”

Old Finland and new Finland

This episode in the history of the Grand Duchy of Finland shows how different the structure of the annexed territory and the Russian lands bordering it were. In 1811, Alexander I annexed the so-called Old Finland - the Finnish province - lands conquered from Sweden in previous wars - to the new principality. But legal issues arose. There was no serfdom in Swedish legislation, peasants were tenants with broad rights to land, and imperial order had already reigned in the Finnish province - the lands belonged to Russian landowners.

Because of this, the inclusion of old Finland into the principality was accompanied by conflicts, so acute that the Diet even proposed in 1822 to abandon the idea. But in the end, the laws of the principality were introduced on the territory of the province. The peasants did not want to become free tenants in Finland, and riots even broke out in a number of volosts. Only by 1837, those peasants who did not sign the lease agreement were evicted from their former lands.

Fennomania

Thanks to greater autonomous rights, the Finnish culture movement, Fennomania, flourished in Finland. Its adherents advocated the Finnish language instead of Swedish, and for a deep study of Finnish traditions. At the beginning of the 19th century, Finnish was the language of the common people; Swedish remained the official language. Fennomans published newspapers, carried out educational work in universities, etc.

In 1826, Finnish was taught at the University of Helsingfors. During these same years, Finnish literature flourished. For several reactionary years after the European revolutions of 1848, the Finnish language was de jure banned, but the ban had almost no effect, and was lifted in 1860. With the cultural revival of the Finns, the national liberation movement is growing - for the creation of their own state.

Unlimited autonomy

There are a lot of examples that confirm this definition: an autonomous legal system and its own legislative assembly - the Sejm (which met every five years, and since 1885 - every three years, and received the right of legislative initiative); separate army legislation - they didn’t take recruits there, but the Finns had their own army.

Historians and legal scholars identify a number of other signs of Finnish sovereignty: separate citizenship, which the rest of the empire’s inhabitants could not obtain; restrictions on Russian property rights - real estate in the principality was extremely difficult to buy; separate religion (Orthodox could not teach history); own post office, customs, bank and financial system. At that time, such autonomy rights for an annexed territory were unprecedented.

Finns in the Emperor's Service

As for the opportunities for Finns in Russia, by the time they joined the Russian army there was already a Finnish regiment operating, which in 1811 became the Imperial Life Guards Guards Regiment, a very deserved one. It consisted, of course, of representatives of the so-called. "Old Finland", but also new Finns could build a career in the Empire. Suffice it to recall Mannerheim, who learned Russian for the sake of military education and made a brilliant career. There were many such Finnish soldiers. The Finnish regiment included so many officers and non-commissioned officers that the latter were commissioned as soldiers.

Restriction of autonomy and Russification: a failed attempt

This period is associated with the work of the Finnish Governor-General Nikolai Bobrikov. He submitted a note to Nicholas II on how to change the order in the too “sovereign” autonomy. The Tsar issued a manifesto in which he reminded the Finns that they were, in fact, part of the Russian Empire, and the fact that they retained internal laws “corresponding to the living conditions of the country” does not mean that they should not live according to general laws. Bobrikov began reforms with the introduction of general military service in Finland - so that Finns would serve outside the country, like all citizens, the Diet opposed. Then the emperor resolved the issue single-handedly, once again recalling that Finland was subordinate to the governor-general, who carried out the policy of the empire there. The Seimas called this state of affairs unconstitutional. Then the “Basic provisions on the drafting of laws” were published for the Grand Duchy of Finland, according to which the Sejm and other structures of the principality had only an advisory role in lawmaking. In 1900, the Russian language was introduced into office work, and public meetings were placed under the control of the governor-general. As a result, in 1904 Bobrikov was killed by the son of the Finnish senator Eigen Schauman. Thus ended the attempt to “take control” of the territory.

Grand Duchy of Finland at the beginning of the 20th century

Taking this opportunity, the Diet radically modernized the legal system of Finland - the four-estate system was replaced by a unicameral parliament. The electoral law passed in 1906 established universal suffrage and gave voting rights to women for the first time in Europe. Despite this democratization, the subjects of the empire and the Orthodox were deprived of their rights in Finland.

Stolypin tried to correct this arbitrariness by issuing a law that once again proclaimed that the Seimas had only an advisory voice on all issues, including internal ones. However, this law remained on paper. In 1913, laws were passed that made it possible to take money from the treasury of the Grand Duchy of Finland for defense needs, as well as on the equality of Russian citizens in Finland.

A hundred years after the conquest of Finland, all subjects of the empire were finally equal in rights on the territory of the principality, but this was the end of the policy of the “center” - then war and revolution. On December 6, 1917, Finland declared independence.

The Grand Duchy of Finland is a general government within the Russian Empire (1809-1917) and the Russian Republic (1917). It occupied the territory of modern Finland and part of the Karelian Isthmus (now the Leningrad region).

The Grand Duchy of Finland had broad internal and external autonomy, bordering on a personal union that was not legally secured.

In 1809-1812, the capital of the principality was the city of Abo. On April 12, 1812, Emperor Alexander I declared provincial Helsingfors the capital of the principality. As part of the Russian Empire, both cities remained predominantly Swedish-speaking. The principality used the Gregorian calendar, therefore, in the official documents of the Russian Empire concerning the principality, two dates were established (according to the Gregorian and Julian calendars).

Story

Annexation (1808-1811)

In February 1808, units of the Russian imperial army under the command of General Fedor Buxhoeveden crossed the Russian-Swedish border and began an attack on the capital of the principality, the city of Abo. It was not until March that war was officially declared. At the same time, proclamations were distributed to the population, which contained promises to guarantee the preservation of the previous religion, laws and privileges. This was a well-known tactic used when new lands were annexed. Its goal was to conclude a kind of agreement with the population of the annexed territory, according to which the conqueror received the loyalty of the population, in return confirming the preservation of the foundations.

On March 10 (22), the main Finnish city of Abo was taken without a fight. A week later, on March 16 (28), the declaration of Alexander I was published: “His Imperial Majesty announces to all European powers that from now on the part of Finland, which hitherto was called Swedish, and which Russian troops could only occupy after having survived various battles, is recognized as a region , conquered by Russian weapons, and joins the Russian Empire forever.”

And on March 20 (April 1), the emperor’s manifesto “On the conquest of Swedish Finland and its annexation to Russia forever” followed, addressed to the population of Russia. It read: “This country, conquered by Our weapons, We are annexing from now on forever to the Russian Empire, and as a result We commanded that its inhabitants take an oath of loyalty to Our Throne.” The manifesto announced the annexation of Finland to Russia as a Grand Duchy. The Russian government pledged to preserve its previous laws and the Sejm.

On June 5 (17), 1808, Alexander I issued a manifesto “On the annexation of Finland.” The fighting continued until mid-September, when a truce was concluded.

Even during the war, at the end of 1808, G. M. Sprengtporten was appointed Governor-General of Finland. On December 1, a plan was adopted for the establishment in Tavastehus, taken in March 1808, of a special Committee of the Main Administration.

In February 1809, the Russian Emperor ordered the convening of a Sejm in the city of Borgo - an estate meeting of representatives of the peoples of Finland. On March 16, Alexander I personally opened it, having signed the manifesto on the state structure of Finland the day before. At the opening of the Sejm, Alexander I, sitting on a special throne, made a speech in French, in which, among other things, he said: “I promised to preserve your constitution (French votre constitution), your fundamental laws; your meeting here certifies the fulfillment of my promises.” The next day, members of the Sejm took an oath that “they recognize as their sovereign Alexander I the Emperor and Autocrat of All Russia, the Grand Duke of Finland, and will preserve the indigenous laws and constitutions (fr. lois fondementales et constitutions) of the region in the form they currently exist.” times exist." The Sejm was asked four questions - about the army, taxes, coins and the establishment of a government council; after discussion, their deputies were dissolved. The conclusions of the Sejm formed the basis for organizing the administration of the region, although not all petitions of zemstvo officials were satisfied. Regarding the army, it was decided to preserve the settlement system. Regarding the tax and financial system of the grand duchy in general, the emperor announced that they would be used only for the needs of the country itself. The Russian ruble is the accepted monetary unit.

At the same time, in early March 1809, Russian troops captured the Åland Islands and planned to move the fighting to the Swedish coast. On March 13, a coup d'etat took place in Sweden, Swedish troops capitulated. A new, so-called Åland Truce, was concluded between the Swedish and Russian commanders-in-chief. However, Alexander I did not approve it and the war continued until September 1809, ending with the Treaty of Friedrichsham.

According to the actual results of the advance of the Russian army, the Kingdom of Sweden ceded to Russia six fiefs (provinces) in Finland and the eastern part of Westerbothnia (from Uleaborg County to the Tornio and Muonio rivers), as well as the Åland Islands, into the “eternal” possession of the Russian Empire. According to the Friedrichsham Peace Treaty, the newly conquered region became “the property and sovereign possession of the Russian Empire.” Even before the conclusion of peace, in June 1808, there was an order to summon deputies from the nobility, clergy, townspeople and peasants to submit opinions on the needs of the country. Arriving in St. Petersburg, the deputies submitted a memorial to the sovereign, in which they outlined several wishes of an economic nature, having previously indicated that, not being representatives of the entire people, they could not enter into the judgments belonging to the zemstvo officials, convened in the usual and legal manner.

Grand Duchy of Finland under Alexander I (1811-1825)

In 1811, the Finnish Bank was established; he received a modern structure based on control and guarantee of zemstvo officials, which the Borgo Sejm petitioned for only in 1867. A government council was placed at the head of local administrative institutions, which in 1816 was transformed into the Imperial Finnish Senate. The general change in the policy of Alexander I was reflected in Finnish affairs by the fact that Diets were no longer convened.

Reign of Nicholas I

During the reign of Nicholas I, the country was governed by local authorities on the basis of local laws, but the Sejm was never convened. This did not constitute a violation of Finnish laws, since the frequency of the Sejm was established only by the Sejm statute of 1869. Avoiding major reforms, the government could govern without the Diet, taking advantage of the very broad rights granted to the crown in the field of so-called economic legislation. In some urgent cases, they did without the Sejm even when the participation of the latter was necessary. Thus, in 1827, it was allowed to accept into public service persons of the Orthodox faith who had acquired the rights of Finnish citizenship. In the highest resolution on this, however, there is a reservation that this measure is carried out administratively due to its urgency and the impossibility “now” of convening zemstvo officials.

In March 1831, Nicholas I ordered the division of the Grand Duchy of Finland into 8 provinces. At the same time, 4 provinces remained within the same borders: Abosko-Bjorneborgskaya (Abo), Vyborgskaya (Vyborg), Vazaskaya (Vaza) and Uleoborgsko-Kayanskaya (Uleaborg), and 4 were formed: Nylandskaya (Helsingfors), Tavastguskaya (Tavastgus), St. Michelska (St. Michel) and Kuopioska (Kuopio).

In December 1831, Nicholas I appointed the head of the Main Naval Staff, His Serene Highness Prince Alexander Sergeevich Menshikov, to the post of Governor-General of Finland. In 1833, the emperor granted Menshikov and all his descendants Finnish citizenship.

During the Crimean War, the allied fleet bombarded Sveaborg, took the fortress of Bomarsund on the Åland Islands and devastated the shores of Österbothnia. The population and the leading circles of intelligent society remained loyal to Russia.

National and language policy

The reign of Nicholas I, poor in reforms, was rich in phenomena of mental life. National self-awareness awoke in Finnish educated society. Some signs of such an awakening were discovered at the end of the 18th century (historian Portan); but only after Finland was separated from Sweden and took, in the words of Alexander I, “a place among nations,” could a national movement begin in it. It was called phenomania. According to the conditions of the time, Fennomanism took a literary and scientific direction. The movement was led by Professor Snellman, the poet Runeberg, the Kalevala collector Lönnrot and others. Later, the opponents of the Fennomans in the political arena became the Svekomans, who defended the rights of the Swedish language as an instrument of Swedish cultural influence.

After 1848, the Finnish national movement was suspected, without justification, of demagogic tendencies and was persecuted. It was forbidden to print books in Finnish; an exception was made only for books of religious and agricultural content (1850); soon, however, this order was canceled.

In general, despite the privileges reserved for the Swedish elite under the terms of the peace treaty of 1809, the Russian government feared revanchist tendencies in Sweden. In 1809-1812, the capital of the principality was the predominantly Swedish-speaking city of Turku in the southwest of the country. In order to weaken the influence of Sweden, the Russian emperor decided to move the capital to the city of Helsinki on the southern coast of the country. The new capital was located 300 km from St. Petersburg (as the crow flies), while the distance to Turku in a straight line was about 450 km.

Reforms of Alexander II and Alexander III

In 1856, Emperor Alexander II personally presided over one of the Senate meetings and outlined a number of reforms. Carrying out most of the latter required the participation of zemstvo officials. They started talking about this in society and the press, and then the Senate, on one particular occasion, spoke out in favor of convening the Sejm. At first, it was decided to convene a commission of 12 representatives from each estate instead of the Sejm. However, this order made a very unfavorable impression in the region. The public excitement subsided after the official clarification that the commission’s competence was limited to preparing government proposals for the future Sejm.

The commission met in 1862 and is known as the January Commission (Finnish: Tammikuun valiokunta).

In September 1863, the Emperor personally opened the Diet with a speech in French, in which he said: “You, representatives of the Grand Duchy, will have to prove by the dignity, calm and moderation of your debates that in the hands of a wise people... liberal institutions, far from being dangerous, become a guarantee order and security."

Subsequently, many important reforms were carried out. In 1863, an order was issued on the initiative of Snellman to introduce the Finnish language into official records, for which a 20-year period was established. In 1865, the Finnish mark was untied from the Russian ruble; The Finnish bank was transformed and placed under the control and guarantees of zemstvo officials. In 1866, the reform of public schools took place, the main figure of which was Uno Cygneus. In 1869, the Sejm Charter (actually a constitution) was published.

In 1877, the Diet adopted a statute on conscription for Finland. Sejms were convened every five years. The Reformation era was marked by an extraordinary revival of political and social life, as well as a rapid rise in general well-being and culture.

At the beginning of the reign of Emperor Alexander III, some measures were taken that were decided in principle or conceived during the previous reign: Finnish military units were formed, the Sejm received the right to initiate legislative issues (1886). Zemstvo officials convened every three years.

On June 13, 1884, the “Rules on parochial schools” were approved for all dioceses of the Empire, except for Riga, as well as the Grand Duchy of Finland.

Russification of Finland

At the end of the 1880s, the government's policy towards Finland changed. In 1890, the Finnish Postal and Telegraph Office was subordinated to the Ministry of the Interior. At the end of the same year, the suspension of the criminal code adopted by the Sejm and approved by the emperor followed. In 1897, the Central Statistical Committee conducted the first general population census throughout the Russian Empire, with the exception of the Principality of Finland.

In 1898, Adjutant General N.I. Bobrikov was appointed Governor-General of Finland. In his person, the unification policy found an energetic executor on the spot. The Manifesto of June 20, 1900 introduced the Russian language into the office work of the Senate and local main departments. Provisional regulations on 2 July 1900 placed public meetings under the direct control of the Governor-General.

During the reign of Nicholas II, a policy was adopted aimed at the Russification of Finland. First, an attempt was made to force the Finns to do military service in the Russian army. When the Sejm, which had previously made concessions, rejected this demand, General Bobrikov introduced military courts. The period of Governor-General Bobrikov's reign, known under the emotional name “years of oppression,” ended with his assassination in the summer of 1904, and he found his political conclusion in the general strike held in the fall of 1905.

Revolutionary upsurge of 1905-1907.

The Russian Revolution of 1905 coincided with the rise of the Finnish national liberation movement, and all of Finland joined the All-Russian Strike. Political parties, especially the Social Democrats, took part in this movement and put forward their reform program. Nicholas II was forced to repeal decrees limiting Finnish autonomy. In 1906, a new democratic election law was passed, which gave women the right to vote. Finland became the first country in Europe (and second in the world, after New Zealand) to give women the right to vote. With the establishment of universal suffrage, the number of voters in the country increased 10 times, the old four-estate Sejm was replaced by a unicameral parliament. After the suppression of the revolution in 1907, the emperor once again tried to consolidate the previous policy by introducing military rule, which lasted until 1917.

Revolution of 1917

After the February Revolution in Russia in March 1917, the privileges of Finland, lost after the 1905 revolution, were restored. A new governor-general was appointed and a diet was convened. However, the law on the restoration of the autonomous rights of Finland, approved by the Sejm on July 18, 1917, was rejected by the Provisional Government, the Sejm was dissolved, and its building was occupied by Russian troops.

On September 1 (14), 1917, the Provisional Government of Russia adopted a resolution, according to which a bourgeois-democratic Russian Republic was proclaimed on the territory of the Russian Empire and the monarchical method of government in Russia was finally eliminated (until the convening of the Constituent Assembly). The fundamental law of Finland, defining the supreme power, remained the law of 1772, on the contrary, which affirmed absolutism. The same law in 38§ provided for the election of a new supreme power (“new dynasty”) by the House of Representatives in the absence of a contender, which was subsequently used.

However, despite this, the Provisional Government continued to consider Finland as part of Russia and on September 4 (17), 1917 they appointed a new Governor-General of Finland, Nikolai Vissarionovich Nekrasov, and on September 8 the last Finnish Senate was formed, which had Russian control over it - the Senate Setalya.

After the Bolsheviks came to power, Finland gained independence.

On April 1, 1808, Russian Tsar Alexander I issued a manifesto “On the conquest of Swedish Finland and its permanent annexation to Russia,” which extended his power to the lands inhabited by Finns, conquered from Sweden.

Unnecessary lands

The Middle Ages in North-Eastern Europe were marked by competition between the Swedes and Russians. Karelia, back in the 12th-13th centuries, came under the influence of Veliky Novgorod, and most of Finland at the turn of the 1st and 2nd millennia AD. e. conquered by the Swedish Vikings.

The Swedes, using Finland as a springboard, tried to expand eastward for centuries, but for a long time suffered one defeat after another from the Novgorodians, including from Prince Alexander Nevsky.

Only in the Livonian (1558-1583) and Russian-Swedish (1614-1617) wars were the Swedes able to inflict severe defeats on our ancestors, which forced Russia to temporarily abandon the lands on the shores of the Baltic Sea.

Painting by Mikhail Shankov “Charles XII near Narva”

However, during the Northern War of 1700-1721, Tsar Peter I defeated Sweden and took back Ingermanland (a historical region in the north-west of modern Russia), part of Karelia and the Baltic states.

“After the Northern War, Russia solved its geopolitical problems in the Baltic, when they not only opened a window to Europe, but also opened the door. However, Peter I did not go further than the Vyborg region on the Karelian Isthmus,” said Vladimir Baryshnikov, Doctor of Historical Sciences, head of the Department of History of Modern and Contemporary Times, professor at St. Petersburg State University, in an interview with RT.

According to the expert, Peter needed Vyborg in order to secure St. Petersburg. Finland itself did not represent any special value in his eyes. In the 18th century, Sweden initiated military conflicts with Russia twice more, trying to regain what was lost in the Northern War, but was unable to achieve anything. Russian troops both times entered the territory of Finland and then left it - the authorities of the Russian Empire did not see the need to annex the undeveloped northern region.

Russia's geopolitical aspirations at this time were aimed at the Black Sea region. And the fact that Alexander I nevertheless turned to the north, according to Vladimir Baryshnikov, is a great merit of the diplomatic talent of Napoleon Bonaparte, who once again pitted Russia against Sweden.

During the military operations of 1808, Russian troops captured Abo (Turku) without a fight on March 22, and on April 1, Emperor Alexander I officially announced the annexation of Finland to Russia as a separate Grand Duchy.

“Russia got Finland to a certain extent by accident, and this largely determined the attitude of official St. Petersburg towards the newly acquired territories,” noted Professor Baryshnikov.

Under the rule of Russian emperors

In 1809, the finally defeated Sweden officially transferred Finland to Russia. “Finland retained its parliament, was given a number of benefits, and did not change the rules established under the Swedes,” added Vladimir Baryshnikov.

According to Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor of the Russian State University for the Humanities Alexandra Bakhturina, Swedish influence in Finland remained for several decades. However, from the middle of the 19th century, the Finns themselves began to increasingly participate in the political life of the Grand Duchy.

“Under Tsar Alexander II, Finns became full-fledged participants in the political process in Finland, and therefore many of them still respect the emperor and consider him one of the creators of the Finnish state,” noted Alexandra Bakhturina in an interview with RT.

Painting by Emanuel Telning “Alexander I opens the Diet of Borgo 1809”

In 1863, the Tsar recognized Finnish as the official language on the territory of the principality along with Swedish. The socio-economic situation in Finland also improved in the 19th century. “Sweden squeezed all the juice out of the territories inhabited by Finns, and Russia did not even try to collect taxes, leaving a significant part of local taxes for the development of the region itself. Something reminiscent of modern free economic zones was created,” Baryshnikov explained.

From 1815 to 1870, the population of Finland increased from 1 to 1.75 million people. Industrial production increased 300 times between 1840 and 1905. In terms of the pace of industrialization, Finland was even ahead of St. Petersburg, Donbass and the Urals.

The Grand Duchy had its own postal service and its own justice system. Universal conscription was not in effect on its territory, but since 1855 Finland received the right to create its own armed forces for the purpose of “self-defense.” And in the 1860s, a monetary system separate from Russia, based on the Finnish mark, even appeared in the principality.

Although the Diet did not meet from 1809 to 1863, the Russian governors-general pursued a fairly careful policy and acted as a kind of “lawyer” for Finland in the face of the emperor. In the 1860-1880s, the Finnish parliament began to convene regularly, and a multi-party system began to form in the principality.

"Western Perimeter" of the Empire

However, Alexander III and Nicholas II set a course for curtailing Finland's autonomy. In 1890-1899, regulations were adopted, according to which a number of internal political issues were removed from the competence of the Diet and transferred to the central authorities of the empire, the liquidation of the armed forces and monetary system of Finland was launched, the scope of the Russian language was expanded, those fighting separatism began to work in the territory of the principality gendarmes.

“The actions of Nicholas II cannot be considered outside the international context. A crisis was beginning in Europe, everything was heading towards a big war, and the “western perimeter” of the empire - Ukraine, Poland, the Baltic states, Finland - was of great interest to the Germans. The tsar made attempts to strengthen state security,” Alexandra Bakhturina shared her opinion with RT.

The measures taken by the Russian authorities began to cause irritation in Finnish society. Terrorist attacks began, directed both against Russian administrators and against representatives of local government focused on St. Petersburg.

The Russo-Japanese War and the 1905 Revolution distracted the Tsar from the problems of Finland. The Finns acquiesced and were allowed to hold parliamentary elections, in which women were granted the right to vote for the first time in Europe. However, after the revolutionary events subsided, a new wave of Russification began.

Despite the fact that with the outbreak of the First World War, Finland found itself in a privileged position (there was no general mobilization, it was half provided with Russian bread), pro-German groups arose in the principality. Young people who became members of the so-called Jaeger movement traveled to Germany and fought as part of the German army against Russia.

At the next parliamentary elections, the Social Democrats won a landslide victory, immediately demanding greater autonomy for Finland, and the left-wing Diet was dissolved in 1917 by the Provisional Government. But the conservatives who came to power instead of the Social Democrats turned out to be even more radical, and against the backdrop of the acute socio-economic crisis that broke out in the fall of 1917, they raised the issue of Finnish independence head on.

From love to hate

At the end of 1917, Finnish deputies desperately tried to achieve recognition of the sovereignty of Finland, but the world community was silent - the future of the territory was considered an internal matter of Russia. However, the Soviet authorities, aware of how strong social democratic sentiments were among the Finns and hoping to gain an ally in the international arena, unexpectedly met the former principality halfway. On December 31, 1917, the Council of People's Commissars recognized Finland as an independent state.

At the end of January 1918, an uprising of Social Democrats began in Finland. Power in Helsinki and other southern cities passed to the Reds. The conservatives who won the 1917 elections fled to northern Finland. A civil war began in the country.

Former tsarist officers played an important role in the fighting on both sides of the front line. Lieutenant Colonel Mikhail Svechnikov, who joined the Social Democratic Party, fought in the ranks of the Reds, and Tsarist General Karl Mannerheim became one of the founders of the Finnish White movement.

According to Vladimir Baryshnikov, the forces of the parties were approximately equal, none of them had a decisive advantage. The outcome of the war was actually decided by the Germans who landed in Finland in April 1918 and struck the Reds in the rear. The Whites, who conquered power with German bayonets, carried out a massacre in Finland, during which, according to some sources, up to 30 thousand people died.

The Finnish government turned out to be irreconcilable enemies of the Soviets. In 1918, White Finnish troops invaded Russian territory.

The First Soviet-Finnish War was fought for two years with varying success, ending with the signing of a peace treaty in 1920, according to which the territories that had been part of Russia for centuries, in particular Western Karelia, were transferred under the control of Helsinki.

The conflict of 1921-1922, initiated by Finland, did not affect the configuration of the border in any way. However, in the 1930s, against the backdrop of an international crisis engulfing Europe, the USSR authorities tried to negotiate with the Finns on an exchange of territories and the lease of a naval base in order to protect themselves from the possibility of the Germans attacking Leningrad from the territory of a neighboring state. Finland rejected Soviet proposals, which ultimately led to a new war. During the fighting of 1939-1940, the troops of the Soviet Union reached the lines where Peter I stood two centuries earlier.

During World War II, Finland became one of the closest allies of the Third Reich, providing the Nazis with a springboard for an attack on the Soviet Union, trying to break into Leningrad and killing tens of thousands of Soviet citizens in concentration camps in Karelia.

However, after the turning point in the Great Patriotic War, Finland turned away from the Third Reich and signed an armistice with the Soviet Union in September 1944.

The motto of Finland’s foreign policy for many years was the words of its post-war president Urho Kekkonen: “Do not look for friends far, but enemies close.”

According to the Friedrichsham Peace Treaty, the newly conquered region became the property and sovereign possession of the Russian Empire.

Even before the conclusion of peace, in June 1808, there was an order to summon deputies from the nobility, clergy, townspeople and peasants to submit opinions on the needs of the country. Arriving in St. Petersburg, the deputies submitted a memorial to the sovereign, in which they outlined several wishes of an economic nature, having previously indicated that, not being representatives of the entire people, they could not enter into the judgments belonging to the zemstvo officials, convened in the usual and legal manner.

In February 1809, an order was issued to convene a Diet in the city of Borgo. On March 16, the tsar personally opened it, having signed the manifesto on the state structure of Finland the day before. At the opening of the Sejm, Alexander I delivered a speech in French, in which, among other things, he said: “I promised to preserve your constitution (votre constitution), your fundamental laws; your meeting here certifies the fulfillment of my promises.”

The next day, the members of the Sejm took an oath that “they recognize as their sovereign Alexander I the Emperor and Autocrat of All Russia, the Grand Duke of Finland, and will preserve the indigenous laws and constitutions (loisementales et constitutions) of the region in the form in which they currently exist ".

The Sejm was asked four questions - about the army, taxes, coins and the establishment of a government council; after discussion, their deputies were dissolved. The conclusions of the Sejm formed the basis for organizing the administration of the region, although not all petitions of zemstvo officials were satisfied. Regarding the army, it was decided to preserve the settled system.

Regarding the tax and financial system of the grand duchy in general, the emperor announced that they would be used only for the needs of the country itself. The Russian ruble is the accepted monetary unit. In 1811, the Finnish Bank was established; it received a modern structure based on control and guarantee of zemstvo officials, which the Borgo Sejm petitioned for only in 1867.

A government council was placed at the head of local administrative institutions, which in 1816 was transformed into the Imperial Finnish Senate. In 1811 (manifest of December 11 (23)) there was an order to annex the so-called “Old Finland” to the Grand Duchy, that is, that part of Finland that passed to Russia under the Treaty of Nystadt.

The general change in the policy of Alexander I was reflected in Finnish affairs by the fact that Diets were no longer convened. During the reign of Nicholas I, the country was governed by local authorities on the basis of local laws, but the Sejm was never convened. This did not constitute a violation of Finnish laws, since the frequency of the Diet was established only by the Diet Charter of 1869. By avoiding major reforms, the government could govern without the Diet, taking advantage of the very broad rights granted to the crown in the so-called area. economic legislation. In some urgent cases, they did without the Sejm even when the participation of the latter was necessary. Thus, in 1827, it was allowed to accept into public service persons of the Orthodox faith who had acquired the rights of Finnish citizenship. In the highest resolution on this, however, there is a reservation that this measure is carried out administratively due to its urgency and the impossibility “now” of convening zemstvo officials.

The reign of Nicholas I, poor in reforms, was rich in cultural phenomena. National self-awareness awoke in Finnish educated society. Some signs of such an awakening were discovered at the end of the 18th century. (historian Portan); but only after Finland was separated from Sweden and took, in the words of Alexander I, “a place among nations,” could a national movement begin in it. It was called phenomania.

According to the conditions of the time, Fennomanism took a literary and scientific direction. At the head of the movement were Professor Snellman, the poet Runeberg, the collector of the Kalevala Lönnrot, and others. Later, the opponents of the Fennomans in the political arena were the Svekomans, who defended the rights of the Swedish language as an instrument of Swedish cultural influence. After 1848, the Finnish national movement was suspected, without basis, of demagogic tendencies and was persecuted. It was forbidden, by the way, to print books in Finnish; an exception was made only for books of religious and agricultural content (1850). Soon, however, this order was canceled.

Emperor Alexander II in 1856 personally presided over one of the meetings of the Senate and outlined a number of reforms. Carrying out most of the latter required the participation of zemstvo officials. They started talking about this in society and the press, and then the Senate, on one particular occasion, spoke out in favor of convening the Sejm. At first, it was decided to convene a commission of 12 representatives from each estate instead of the Sejm. This order made a very unfavorable impression in the region.

The public excitement subsided after the official clarification that the commission’s competence was limited to preparing government proposals for the future Sejm. The commission met in 1862; it is known as the "January Commission". In September 1863, the Tsar personally opened the Sejm with a speech in French, in which, among other things, he said: “You, representatives of the Grand Duchy, will have to prove by the dignity, calm and moderation of your debates that in the hands of a wise people ... liberal institutions are far from Having become dangerous, they become a guarantee of order and security." Many important reforms were then carried out.

In 1866, the reform of public schools took place, the main figure of which was Uno Cygneus. In 1869, the Sejm charter was published, the Finnish bank was transformed and placed under the control and guarantees of zemstvo officials. In 1863, an order was issued on the initiative of Snellman to introduce the Finnish language into official records, for which a 20-year period was established. The Diet of 1877 adopted a statute on conscription for Finland.

Sejms were convened every five years. The Reformation era was marked by an extraordinary revival of political and social life, as well as a rapid rise in general well-being and culture. At the beginning of the reign of Emperor Alexander III, some measures were taken that were decided in principle or conceived during the previous reign: Finnish military units were formed, the Sejm received the right to initiate legislative issues (1886). Zemstvo officials convened every three years.

At the end of the 80s, the government's policy towards Finland changed. In 1890, the Finnish Postal and Telegraph Office was subordinated to the Ministry of the Interior. At the end of the same year, there was a suspension of the criminal code adopted by the Sejm and approved by the emperor. In recent years, the unification policy has found an energetic executor on the spot in the person of Adjutant General N.I. Bobrikov, who was appointed Governor-General of Finland in 1898. The Manifesto of June 20, 1900 introduced the Russian language into the office work of the Senate and local main departments. Provisional regulations on 2 July 1900 placed public meetings under the direct control of the Governor-General.

During the reign of Nicholas II, a new policy was adopted aimed at the Russification of Finland. First, an attempt was made to force the Finns to do military service in the Russian army. When the Sejm, which had previously made concessions, rejected this demand, General Bobrikov introduced military courts. As a result of this, in 1904 there was an attempt on Bobrikov’s life, and after his death, unrest began in the country. The Russian Revolution of 1905 coincided with the rise of the Finnish national liberation movement, and all of Finland joined the All-Russian Strike. Political parties, especially the Social Democrats, took part in this movement and put forward their reform program.

Nicholas II was forced to cancel decrees limiting Finnish autonomy. In 1906, a new democratic election law was adopted, which gave women the right to vote. After the suppression of the revolution in 1907, the emperor once again tried to consolidate the previous policy by introducing military rule, which lasted until 1917.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the woodworking and pulp and paper industries predominantly developed in Finland, which were oriented towards the Western European market. The leading branch of agriculture was livestock farming, the products of which were also mainly exported to Western Europe. Finland's trade with Russia was declining. During the First World War, due to the blockade and the almost complete cessation of external maritime relations, both the main export industries and the domestic market industries that worked on imported raw materials were curtailed.