The Grand Duchy of Finland was the direct predecessor to modern Finland, existing from 1809 to 1917 as an autonomous region within the Russian Empire and briefly under the Russian Provisional Government.
Originating in the 16th century as a titular grand duchy held by the King of Sweden, Finland was ceded to Russia following the Finnish War of 1808–1809. At the 1809 Diet of Porvoo, Emperor Alexander I pledged to uphold Finland's fundamental laws, Lutheran religion, and estate privileges. The emperor of Russia ruled as the Grand Duke of Finland, represented locally by a governor-general, while domestic administration was conducted by native officials through the Senate of Finland. Throughout most of the 19th century, Finland maintained broad internal autonomy, preserving its Swedish legal system and establishing its own customs boundary, currency (1860), and separate civil service.
The reign of Alexander II (1855–1881) brought significant liberalization, industrial expansion, and the elevation of the Finnish language to official status alongside Swedish. In 1906, following the 1905 Russian Revolution, Finland replaced its four-estate Diet with a unicameral Parliament based on universal suffrage, becoming the first European territory to grant women the right to stand for election. Tensions escalated in the late 19th and early 20th centuries as imperial authorities implemented Russification policies aimed at curtailing Finnish legislative and administrative autonomy. Following the collapse of the Russian monarchy in 1917, the Finnish Parliament approved the Declaration of Independence on 6 December 1917.
History
An extended Southwest Finland was made a titular grand duchy in 1581, when King Johan III of Sweden, who as a prince had been the duke of Finland (1556–1561/63), extended the list of subsidiary titles of the kings of Sweden considerably. The new title of grand duke of Finland did not result in any Finnish autonomy, as Finland was an integrated part of the Kingdom of Sweden with full parliamentary representation for its counties. During the next two centuries, the title was used by some of Johan's successors on the throne, but not all. Usually, it was just a subsidiary title of the King, used only on very formal occasions. However, in 1802, as an indication of his resolve to keep Finland within Sweden in the face of increased Russian pressure, King Gustav IV Adolf gave the title to his new-born son, Prince Carl Gustaf, who died three years later.
During the Finnish War between Sweden and Russia, the four Estates of occupied Finland were assembled at the Diet of Porvoo on 29 March 1809 to pledge allegiance to Tsar Alexander I of Russia, who in return guaranteed that the area's laws and liberties, as well as religion, would be left unchanged. Following the Swedish defeat in the war and the signing of the Treaty of Fredrikshamn on 17 September 1809, Finland became a true autonomous grand duchy within the Russian Empire; but the usual balance of power between monarch and diet resting on taxation was not in place, since the emperor could rely on the rest of his vast empire. The title "Grand Duke of Finland" was added to the long list of titles of the Russian tsar.
After his return to Finland in 1812, the Finnish-born Gustaf Mauritz Armfelt became counsellor to the Russian emperor. Armfelt was instrumental in securing the grand duchy as state with greater autonomy within the Russian Empire, and acquiring so-called Old Finland that Russia had annexed from Sweden in the Treaty of Nystad (1721) and the Treaty of Åbo (1743).
Beginning of the Grand Duchy
The formation of the grand duchy stems from the Treaty of Tilsit between Tsar Alexander I of Russia and Emperor Napoleon I of the French. The treaty mediated peace between Russia and France and allied the two countries against Napoleon's remaining threats: the United Kingdom and Sweden. Russia invaded Finland in February 1808, claimed as an effort to impose military sanctions against Sweden, but not a war of conquest, and that Russia decided to only temporarily control Finland. Collectively, the Finns were predominately anti-Russian, and Finnish guerrillas and peasant uprisings were large obstacles for the Russians, forcing Russia to use various tactics to quash armed Finnish rebellion. Thus, in the beginning of the war, General roda Voysk Friedrich Wilhelm von Buxhoeveden, with permission of the tsar, imposed an oath of fealty on Finland, in which Russia would honour Finland's Lutheran faith, the Diet of Finland, and the Finnish estates as long as the Finns would remain loyal to the Russian imperial crown. The oath also dubbed any person who gave aid to the Swedish or Finnish armies a rebel.
The cession of Finland to the Russian Empire in 1809 represented a significant and bitter loss for the Kingdom of Sweden. For more than six centuries, Finland had formed an integral part of the Swedish realm, providing both manpower and strategic depth. Finnish participation was instrumental in Sweden's ascent to great-power status during the seventeenth century, when the Swedish Empire expanded across the Baltic region.
The Finns complied, bitter over Sweden abandoning the country for their war against Denmark and France, and begrudgingly embraced Russian conquest. The Diet of Finland was now to only meet whenever requested, and was never mentioned in the manifesto published by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Further on, Alexander I requested a deputation of the four Finnish estates, as he expressed concern over continued Finnish resistance. The deputation refused to act without the Diet, to which Alexander agreed with, and promised the Diet would shortly be summoned. By 1809, all of Finland had been conquered and the Diet was summoned in March. Finland was then united through Russia via the crown, and Finland was able to keep the majority of its own laws, giving it autonomy.
Instead of the newly acquired territory being subjected to direct rule by an imperial governor-general, a novel administrative system was established in Finland, drafted in part by the liberal Mikhail Speransky. The new grand duchy would be governed by a Government Council, later the Senate of Finland, a body made up of Finnish citizens. The governor-general would accordingly have a relatively diminished role. Further, the emperor would deal with matters relating to Finland directly through a dedicated Secretary of State, without the involvement of his Russian cabinet or administration. This laid the foundation for the considerable autonomy enjoyed by Finland for most of the period of Russian rule.
Early years
Despite promises of a Finnish Diet, the Diet was not called to meet until 1863 and many new laws going through the legislature were laws that would have required the approval of the Diet while under Swedish rule. Alexander went a step further to demand a Finnish House of Nobles, which organised in 1818. The house was designed to register all noble families in Finland so that the highest Finnish estate would be representative of the next Finnish Diet.
Whether or not Alexander purposely ignored the existence of the Diet is debatable, with notable factors such as the fall of Napoleon and the creation of the Holy Alliance, newfound religious mysticism of the Russian crown, and the negative experience with the Polish Sejm. Despite this, Alexander I ceased to give in to Finnish affairs and returned to governing Russia.
Alexander's death and the assimilation of Finland: 1820s–1850s
In 1823, Count Arseny Zakrevsky was made Governor-General of Finland and quickly became unpopular among both Finns and Swedes alike. Zakrevsky abolished the Committee for Finnish Affairs and managed to obtain the right to submit Finnish affairs to the Russian emperor, bypassing the Finnish Secretary of State. Two years later, Alexander I died (1 December [O.S. 19 November] 1825). Zakrevsky seized the opportunity to require Finland to swear an oath of fealty which would refer to the emperor as the absolute ruler of Finland – expecting that emperor would be Constantine, Alexander's next-eldest brother. However, Nicholas, younger brother of Constantine and Alexander, became emperor despite the Decembrist revolt against him in December 1825. Nicholas assured Finland's secretary of state, Robert Henrik Rehbinder, that he (Nicholas) would continue to uphold Alexander's liberal policies regarding Finland.
In 1830, Europe became a hotbed of revolution and reform as a result of the July Revolution in France. Poland, another Russian client state, saw a massive uprising against Saint Petersburg during the November Uprising of 1830–1831. Finland made no such move, as Russia had already won over Finnish loyalty. Thus, Russia continued its policies respecting Finnish autonomy and the quiet assimilation of the Finns into the empire. Zakrevsky died in 1831; Knyaz Alexander Sergeyevich Menshikov succeeded him as Governor-General of Finland and continued Finnish appeasement.
However, Finland did experience a nationalistic revolution in the 1830s – one based around literature. This marked the beginning of the Fennoman movement, a nationalistic movement that would operate in Finland until its independence. In 1831, the Finnish Literature Society was founded, which formed on the basis of appreciation of the Finnish language. Finnish was not represented as language of the scholarly elite, as most printed academic works, novels, and poetry was written in either Swedish or Russian. Copying the German reading craze, Lesewut, and subsequent Swedish mania, Finland entered the reading craze by the 1830s. This fad peaked in 1835 with the publication of The Kalevala, the Finnish epic. The Kalevala's influence on Finland was massive, and strengthened Finnish nationalism and unity. The quest for literature expanded into the 1840s and 1850s and caught the eye of the Finnish church and the Russian crown. Finnish newspapers, such as Maamiehen Ystävä (The Farmer's Friend), began publication in both urban and rural areas of Finland. However, the Swedish academic elite, the church, and the Russian government opposed Finland's literature movement. Edvard Bergenheim, Archbishop of Turku from 1850 to 1884, called for double censorship on works opposing the church and works appearing socialist or communist. The reactionary policies of the Lutheran Church convinced the also reactionary Nicholas I (r. 1825–1855) to prohibit (1850) the publishing of all Finnish works that were not religious or economic in nature, as such works would have been considered revolutionary and might encourage the Finnish majority to revolt against the church and crown. However, the censorship only fueled Finland's language strife and the Fennomanian movement.
Crimean War and 1860s–1870s
The works of Johan Snellman and other Fennoman authors combined literature and nationalism and increased the calls for language recognition and education reforms in Finland. This heightened during the Crimean War in which Finnish ports and fortresses on the Baltic Sea became subject for Allied attacks, specifically Suomenlinna and Bomarsund in Åland during the Åland War. As newspapers were printed in Swedish and Russian due to censorship, many Finns could not read about the events of the Battle of Bomarsund and the Battle of Suomenlinna. Moreover, Nicholas I died in 1855.
The new emperor, Alexander II, had already planned educational reforms in outlying territories in Russia, including Finland.
Alexander II also planned to call on the Diet of the Estates in 1863. Under Alexander's rule, Finland experienced a period of liberalization in education, the arts, and the economy.
There was a certain uncertainty among Finns in the 19th century as to whether the Russian Tsar Alexander II would keep his promise to convene the Diet, since Finland enjoyed autonomy and special rights that neither Poland nor "proper" Russia had, which caused tensions and fears for the future. The background was precisely the situation in Congress Poland: in 1863 there was the January Uprising, which made Russian authorities hostile to regional self-government rights. In Finland, there was concern that the unrest in Poland and the tightening Russian rule might lead to Finns also losing their privileges and autonomy - and that the Diet would no longer be convened. In Poland, the Russian army of 90,000 men were commanded by the Finnish‑born General Anders Edvard Ramsay, whose forces suppressed the uprising.
Alexander II signed a decree that elevated the Finnish language to equal status with Swedish on July 30, 1863. The law was expanded in 1865 to require that state offices must serve the public in Finnish if requested. Despite this, the language laws took time to be fully implemented due to the interference of the Swedish elite, who owned most of these offices and businesses.