Стр. 39 - V

Упрощенная HTML-версия

temporal Russian administration in the Duchy as its political instrument in Finland.
The usual methods could not be applied to the Finns. The empire could not unify the political,
social, economic and other processes to achieve complete homogeneity as it was doing in other
newly acquired possessions. Never before had St. Petersburg contemplated a special status for
any of its national parts. The European practice of vassalage was alien to Russia's experience;
throughout its history, the autocracy had failed to master the relationship between rights and
obligations.
As part of the Russian Empire, Finland was a very special element that looked after its internal
affairs and was guided by its own laws. The Instrument of Government made the czar a consti-
tutional monarch with an undivided right to convene the parliament (Diet) and the right of leg-
islative initiative. In Finland, the rights of the Russian autocrat were limited: He could not approve
new or change old laws without the expressed consent of the Diet; the same applied to intro-
duction of new taxes or the revision of estates' privileges.
THE DUCHY'S AUTONOMOUS STATUS in the Russian Empire limited the presence of the
imperial executive power in Finland to only one official: Governor General with the rank of
plenipotentiary representative of the Russian czar.
ALL WORKS devoted to the "Russian" period in the history of Finland at the turn of the cen-
tury invariably pay particular attention to the policies of Emperor Nicholas II (1894-1917). In
the West, this period is described as Russification.
I will write here not about Russification singularly, but about Russifications in various hypostases.
In other words, in the case of Finland we should assess Russification as a regional form of as-
similation that could be observed in different degrees in varied spheres of everyday life and ac-
tivities of the local socium.
BY THE EARLY TWENTIETH CENTURY, Europe already had several military-political blocs
and was divided into two hostile camps. Russia joined the Entente that stood opposed to the
Triple Alliance headed by Germany. The Russian General Staff and other military structures
were actively working on operational plans of the future war. The top military in St. Petersburg
agreed that Germany, having concentrated its main forces at the Eastern Front, would move
against the Russian bases in Finland to threaten Russia's northern capital.
It should be said that Russia's military presence in the Grand Duchy during World War I allowed
it to retain Finland within its orbit. The Finns, in their turn, recognized that neutrality was the
wisest option during a world war. Very much like in peacetime, the Romanovs were true to their
principle: The borders of the empire should remain safe.
At that time, the history of Russia performed a U-turn: The Bolsheviks who came to power
"followed a different path." Lenin confirmed the right of Finns to self-determination; at the
small hours of January 1, 1918, he signed a document on the independence of Finland. The
Bolsheviks gained nothing of this "New Year gift." Contrary to expectations, the socialist revo-
lution did not win all over the world and Finland did not return to Soviet Russia. The border be-
tween Soviet Russia and Finland came too close to Petrograd; the Soviet government hastily
moved to Moscow. For the long years of the Lenin-Stalin "proletarian" governance, Finland re-
mained a difficult neighbor for Russia.
http://interaffairs.ru