Between the Lion and the Colossus. The Grand Duchy of Finland and the birth of the nationalism during the XIX
century.
"Oh, our land, Finland, the fatherland!
Listen to the gold word!
There are no valleys, nor hills,
Nor water, nor loved beaches
Than this northern land
The precious land!"[1]
Introduction
Finland, a land that has been
characterized by having an inhospitable weather and because of that, of little
importance for the European potencies; nevertheless its military importance
during the XIX century was huge for Russian Empire. In this work I will try to
give a general view about this Nordic country during this period, considering
that Russia had others grand duchies, Finland developed in a special way, by
gaining more autonomy than the others like for example the Poland's one.
In Mexico isn't so common to write
of the nations of northern Europe, and that's why this work has the objective
to increase the historical knowledge about that country. Besides here it's
expected to know the conformation process of Finnish nationalism and the
influence that this along the romanticism, had to achieve the independence;
also I expect to know the rights that this country had under the Russian
influence.
The hypothesis to follow on this
work is that Finland developed as a mostly autonomous territory that could have
its own government, parliament, currency and taxes, different from Russians.
With the arrival of romantic and nationalist movements to Finland, Finnish
started to have independence ideas and to have an own territory, out from the influence of Sweden or Russia.
XIX century was characterized by
having great revolutions, empires and ideological trends that would affect the
XX century events. Finland played an strategic role for Russians, because even
when "insufficiently populated and poor, interested to Russia barely, but
since the establishment of San Petersburg, the protection of its occidental
capital and their communication with the Baltic sea was something important to
Russia."[2]
Giving start to the conquest period of Finland.
Finland goes to Russia
During more than six centuries
Finland was under the influence of Sweden and it was in the end of XVI century
when the king John III of Sweden introduced the Grand Duchy of Finland.[3]
Nevertheless, this historical period is better known under the influence of
Russia: when in XVIII century Sweden lost its status of potency, Russia took
advantage of this situation to start several incursions to the Finnish
territories and it was with tsar Alexander I when Finland was finally
conquered.
In 1808, Sweden -ally with
England- denied to participate in the continental block tha Napoleon Bonaparte
tried to do against England, and Russia -ally with Napoleon- took advantage of
the situation to oblige Sweden to give it the Finnish territories and as a
result, Finland went definitely to Russia,[4]
the first treaty where this was stipulated was the Treaty of Tilst of 1807,
where Napoleon made a distribution of the influence zones[5]
and finally with the Treaty of Hamina of 1808 "all the Finnish provinces
and a part of the Västerbotten in Sweden were given over to Russia."[6]
After the firm of the treaty,
Finland changed its status and was even different to the other territories
dominated by Russia. The nation was governed with a constitution, laws and own
taxes, becoming into a grand duchy apart and different from the whole empire.[7]
Grand Autonomous Duchy of Finland
"Finland
kept not only its Lutheran religion, Swedish as the official language, the
Swedish civil right and the penal right, but also the gustavian government
form. The fact that Finland got its own central administration, in principle,
its own Parliament conformed by four statements, resulted in the apparition of
a genuine Finnish State. Finland, that had already got the heraldic range of
Grand Duchy became in fact in a Grand Duchy provided with its own
institutions."[8]
The last citation describes the
advantages that Finland gain becoming a part of Russia. Nevertheless, this was
because Russia had to ensure the loyalty of the Grand Duchy in any way, and it
wasn't a better form than offering a better status than it had with Sweden over
more than six centuries. But let's analyse this political entity.
Government
Russia respected the Finnish
government form, and not only that, but also all the public servants of tue
government were Finns: with exception of the Governor-General, Russian
representative of the emperor.[9]
Besides, Finland had an authority of superior administration: the Senate; equal
to the officials, all the senators were Finnish but elected by the tsar.[10]
This situation makes us clear that the Finns were the only ones that can manage
the internal issues, meanwhile the external issues were reserved to the tsar.[11]
the influence of the Finns started to be more evident during the second half of
XIX century, in the moment were the Finnish Diet -members of the Parliament, in
charge of the internal issues-, gathered for the second time to declare the
Finnish language as the official in the duchy. The first time they gathered was
in 1808, in the city of Porvoo, in which the tsar Alexander I "stated that
Finland had been raised to the grade of nation."[12]
The autonomy of Finland was such,
that had an unique democracy end in 1907 became the first country to give women
the universal suffrage, being the elections of that year were a breaking point
to the triumph of the Finnish social democracy. The opposition of the tsar
Nicholas II of Russia to these reforms, brought the popular discontent, and
this took Finland to search the independence.[13]
The Finnish autonomy was attacked by the Russians nationalists who started to
see in Finland a territory external to the Empire, and it needed to be
subjugated once again, so the issues of the Grand Duchy went to be decided by
the Russians.[14]
All of that was a consequence of the strengthening of the pro Finns parties
that were developed in the Finnish State, specifically during the reign of tsar
Alexander III (1881-1894).
Economy
During the XIX century Finland
found an economic stability that it hadn't had under Swedish control; in the
first half kept living conditions mainly rural, that represented an economic
slowness, considering the climatic conditions typical of the country, it is
hard to keep good harvest or make them prosper. In the second half of the
century, the Industrial Revolution came to Finland and with it the railways and
the creation of several lines that crossed the country, with the
Helsinki-Riihimäki-Viipuri-St. Petersburg line, as the main, opened in 1870.[15]
This brought the development of trade between Finland, the rest of the empire
and Europe. The railway wasn't the only achievement in the economy, but also
"the Parliament, an own army and a national currency, the mark, that
Finland got in 1860 and that in 1865 was separated from the rouble and in 1878
related to the gold standard, had a notable influence in the Finnish state and
economic life and in its modernization."[16]
Nevertheless this modernization
didn't mean an improvement in the quality of life of the Finnish population,
considering that a high percentage continued living in the rural zones of the
country and the trading was benefit only to the mainstream classes, and the
territory was divided in two zones: the west of Finland that was more directed
to Sweden and the east that strengthen bonds with St. Petersburg.[17]
This oversight to the rural classes was obvious during the 1860 decade when the
famines were presents due to the bad harvests and even in the 1890 decade, the
famines and diseases grew, killing the tenth part of Finnish population.[18]
Education and national security
Under the Swedish influence,
Finland got its own institutions, one of them was University; the University of
Turku (Åbo) was the first in the country and it was there where the
intellectual life began. Nevertheless, with the new regime in Finland, the
university was moved from Turku to Helsinki, being known as the University of
Alexander.[19]
The University of Helsinki began
to gain importance in the 1860 decade for its important role in the education
of great thinkers at that time. Besides it offered the precise conditions to
the development of intellectual activities, the importance of this institution
also lay in the fact that outside there were few sources of cultural resources.[20]
Bound to the university there was the imperial army, the one that Finland was
fitted in 1878 and it was formed by 5000 men, same that enter with the
realization of military service; the army was important because it was another
way for the population to get access to education. Nevertheless, there was
another organism through which the educational level of the people was raised:
the popular school, established in 1866.[21]
The strategy of Russia: the
establishment of a new capital
With the importance that Finland
gained to Russia, tsar knew that keep the territory pacified and loyal was a
must, and that's why the empire must had the capital of the Grand Duchy closer
to it and away from Sweden, something not possible with Turku as the main city;
in 1812 Alexander I decided to make Helsinki the new capital and it was
rebuild"with a splendour without precedents, to show Finns and foreigners
that a new political entity was born: the Grand Duchy of Finland."[22]
With this Russia sat clear its superiority in the Finnish territory and its
intentions to make Finland an autonomous State. In 1819 the Senate was moved to
Helsinki and in 1828 the university;[23]
Turku didn't lose its importance and nowadays it's the second most important
city of the country. With the new capital, Russia had a bigger presence on the
Duchy, an the necessity to bring closer spiritual and geographically the
administrative centre of Finland; the Russians had to make sure to keep the
Finns loyal, this was proved "when the British and French fleets destroyed
the Russians defences during the Crimean war, damaging at the same time the
Finnish properties, Finns contributed with great zeal and conviction to reject
the western enemy."[24]
This event also makes us clear that the Finnish nationalism started to take
form.
A free Finland
Due to the great revolutions born
in the end of XIX century and the beginning of the XX, Russia was immersed into
a deep crisis that affected the country's nobility and society in general.
Because of the nationalism developed inside the Grand Duchy, the high class of
the territory started to search the independence, same that was declared on
December 6th, 1917; taking advantage of the Russian Revolution of that year and
the fact that bolshevik didn't have the capacity to continue fighting to impose
their vision in the Baltic states and Finland, this took them to recognise the
independence of the Nordic country in 1920.[25]
Being Finland the first nation that got its independence as a consequence of
the First World War.
[1] J. L. Runeberg, “Maamme”, en Matti Poutvaara, Suomi Finland, Porvoo, Werner Söderström Osakeyhtiön, 7° ed. 1961,
p. 6 (text translated from Finnish by Anahí Sandoval: Oi maamme, Suomi,
synnyinmaa!/Soi sana kultainen!/Ei laaksoa, ei kukkulaa,/ei vettä, rantaa
rakkaampaa,/kuin kotimaa tää phjoinen,/maa kallis isien!)
[2] Matti Klinge, Breve historia de
Finlandia, Helsinki, Otava, trad. Úrsula Ojanen
y Joaquín Fernández, 2° ed., 2000, p. 63.
[4] Mikko Juva,
“Mil años de historia finlandesa”, en V.V.A.A., Finlandia, ayer y hoy, Madrid, Espasa-Calpe, trad. Alfonso Reta y
Felipe Ximénez de Sandoval, 1973, p. 62.
[7] B. H. Sumner, Una retrohistoria de Rusia, México,
F.C.E., trad. Teodoro Ortíz, 2° ed., 1985, p. 104.
[11] Ángel Ganivet,
Cartas finlandesas y hombres del norte,
Buenos Aires, Espasa-Calpe, col. Austral,
1940, p. 19.
Finland was not the first country to grant universal suffrage to women....New Zealand granted universal suffrage in 1893, 14 years before Finland. Australia followed suit, becoming a nation in 1901, and granting not only suffrage to women in 1902, but the law allowed women to stand for parliament (some 26 years before their colonial masters in Britain gave voting rights to women)
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