How long has Finland been part of the Russian Empire. How the Finns lived in the Russian Empire
According to the Friedrichsham Peace Treaty, the newly conquered region passed "into the property and sovereign possession of the Russian Empire."
Even before the conclusion of peace, in June 1808, there was an order to call 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 set out several wishes of an economic nature, having previously indicated that, not being representatives of the whole people, they could not enter into judgments belonging to the zemstvo ranks, convened in an ordinary 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, signing a manifesto on state structure Finland. At the opening of the Diet, Alexander I uttered French speech, in which, among other things, he said: "I promised to keep your constitution (votre constitution), your fundamental laws; your assembly 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 fundamental laws and constitutions (lois fondementales 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; upon discussion, their deputies were dissolved. The conclusions of the Sejm formed the basis for organizing the administration of the region, although not all the petitions of the Zemstvo officials were satisfied. With regard to 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 monetary unit is the Russian ruble. In 1811 a Finnish bank was established; a modern device based on the control and guarantee of the zemstvo officials, which the Borgo Sejm petitioned for, he received only in 1867.
The governing council was placed at the head of local administrative institutions, and in 1816 it was transformed into the Imperial Finnish Senate. In 1811 (manifesto of 11 (23) December) followed by an order to join the Grand Duchy of the so-called "Old Finland", 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 the 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. Avoiding major reforms, the government could govern without a diet, using the very broad rights granted to the crown in the so-called. economic legislation. In some urgent cases, the Diet was dispensed with even when the participation of the latter was necessary. So, in 1827 it was allowed to take on public service persons of the Orthodox faith who have acquired the rights of Finnish citizenship. In the royal decree on this, however, there is a reservation that this measure is carried out by administrative means in view of its urgency and the impossibility "today" to convene zemstvo officials.
During Crimean War the allied fleet bombarded Sveaborg, took the fortress of Bomarsund on the Åland Islands and devastated the coast of Esterbotnia. The population and the leading circles of the intelligentsia remained devoted to Russia.
The time of the reign of Nicholas I, poor in reforms, was rich in phenomena of cultural life. Finnish educated society has awakened national consciousness. Some signs of such an awakening appeared even in late XVIII in. (historian Portan); but only after Finland was separated from Sweden and occupied, in the words of Alexander I, "a place among the nations," a national movement could begin in it. It is called Phenomania.
According to the conditions of the time, Fennomanism took a literary and scientific direction. The movement was headed by Professor Snellman, the poet Runeberg, the collector of the Kalevala Lönnrot, and others. Later, the Svecomans, who defended the rights of the Swedish language as an instrument of Swedish cultural influence, became opponents of the Fennomians in the political arena. After 1848, the Finnish national movement was suspected, without foundation, of demagogic tendencies and was persecuted. It was forbidden, among other things, to print books in Finnish; an exception was made only for books of religious and agricultural content (1850). Soon, however, this order was cancelled.
Emperor Alexander II in 1856 personally presided over one of the meetings of the Senate and outlined a number of reforms. Most of the latter required the participation of zemstvo officials. This was talked about in society and the press, and then the Senate, on one particular occasion, spoke in favor of convening a Sejm. First, it was decided to convene a commission of 12 representatives from each class instead of the Sejm. This order made a very unfavorable impression in the region.
Public excitement subsided after the official explanation that the competence of the commission is limited to the preparation of government proposals to the future Sejm. The commission met in 1862; it is known as the "January Commission". In September 1863, the tsar personally opened the Diet 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, calmness and moderation of your debate that in the hands of a wise people ... liberal institutions are far from being dangerous, they become a guarantee of order and security. Many important reforms followed.
In 1866, the transformation of public schools took place, the main figure of which was Uno Signeus. In 1869, the Sejm charter was issued, the Finnish bank was reorganized and placed under the control and guarantees of the Zemstvo officials. In 1863, Snellman initiated an order to introduce the Finnish language into official office work, for which a 20-year period was set. The Saeima of 1877 adopted a charter on conscription for Finland.
Seimas were convened every five years. The Reformation era was marked by an extraordinary revival of the political and public life, as well as a rapid rise in general prosperity and culture. At the beginning of the reign of Emperor Alexander III, some measures were taken that were decided in principle or conceived in the previous reign: the Finnish units of the troops were formed, the diet received the right to initiate legislative issues (1886). Zemstvo ranks were convened every three years.
In the late 1980s, the government's policy towards Finland changed. In 1890, the Finnish postal and telegraph department 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. AT last years The unification policy found an energetic executor on the spot in the person of Adjutant General N. I. Bobrikov, appointed in 1898 by the Governor General of Finland. The Manifesto of June 20, 1900 introduced the Russian language into the records management of the Senate and local main departments. Provisional regulations on July 2, 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. At first an attempt was made to force the Finns to pass military service in Russian army. When the Sejm, which used to make concessions, rejected this demand, General Bobrikov introduced courts-martial. As a result, in 1904, there was an attempt on Bobrikov, 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 agenda.
Nicholas II was forced to cancel the decrees that limited Finnish autonomy. In 1906, a new democratic electoral law was passed that gave women the right to vote. After the suppression of the revolution in 1907, the emperor once again tried to consolidate the old policy by introducing military rule, and it lasted until 1917.
At the beginning of the 20th century, the woodworking and pulp and paper industry, which was oriented towards the Western European market, was mainly developing in Finland. leading industry Agriculture became livestock, whose products 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 communications, both the main export industries and the domestic market industries that worked on imported raw materials were curtailed.
After February Revolution in Russia in March 1917, the privileges of Finland, lost after the revolution of 1905, were renewed. 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 Seimas on July 18, 1917, was rejected by the Provisional Government, the Seimas was dissolved, and Russian troops occupied its building. After the overthrow of the Provisional Government, Finland declared its independence on December 6, 1917.
Finland or Suomi because of their geographical location for a long time remained a tasty morsel for neighboring more developed countries - Sweden and Russia. And despite the fact that Finland existed under the influence of the Swedes for more than 600 years, the period as part of the Russian Empire (a little over 100 years) is no less important.
In this article we will talk about the Principality of Finland, that is how Finland was called as part of Russia.
The most significant episode in the history of the Russian-Swedish wars for Finnish lands and access to the Baltic Sea (for Russia) of the New Age was the Great Northern War of 1700-1721, in particular, the Finnish campaign of 1713, during which Russian troops entered the territory of Finland, and the new Russian fleet defeated the Swedes for the first time at sea. As a result, Russia conquered the Karelian Isthmus with Vyborg (that is, the so-called Old Finland), and the rest of Finland, nevertheless, remained with Sweden.
The Russian military administration in 1713 - 1717 extended almost to the entire territory of Suomi: back in 1710, the Vyborg commandant's office was created, which included southern Finland, and the governor-general of Western Finland, controlled from Turku. Moreover, in addition to southern Finland, the Vyborg commandant's office was in charge of the Izhora and Estland governor-generals. Western Finland was generally in a special position at that time - Russian troops were concentrated here, and a further invasion of Sweden was supposed to be from here.
Much of the history of this time indicates that Peter the Great had plans to annex Finland to Russia (for example, recruiting from the local population and sending them to preparatory camps inland), but in the end he was forced to abandon these plans.
One of possible causes for such a refusal could be guerrilla war against the Russian troops and the military, and then the civil administration, unleashed by local peasants with the support of the Swedish military. We also note that the local Finnish population suffered from the actions of the partisans to a much greater extent, perceiving their compatriots who had gone into impenetrable forests as one of the parties to the armed conflict.
In the late Swedish-Finnish historiography of the 18th century, this period is called the "great hard times".
Nevertheless, ten years before the Russian troops marched on the historical lands of Finland, Petersburg was founded at the mouth of the Neva, and after 1721 the border of the eastern Swedish possessions in the Baltic was moved several hundred miles to the west, and Russia, which overnight became the Empire, received a long-awaited access to the sea.
Thus, following the results of the Northern War, Russia retained part of the former Swedish Kexholm fief and most of the former Vyborg-Neyshlot fief, which, in the new grid of the administrative-territorial division of the Russian Empire, were united into the Vyborg province of the St. Petersburg province.
After the Russian-Swedish war of 1741-1743, the lands of southern Finland with the cities of Neishlot, Wilmanstrand, Friedrichsgam were added to the territorial acquisitions of Russia, which were first included in the Vyborg, and later in the Finnish province.
It is clear that on the new territory conquered from the Swedes and included in the Russian Empire, there remained a native Finnish or, as it was then called, the Chukhonian population, living according to the customs of their ancestors, mainly fishing, with their usual way of life, ancient traditions and habits.
As a historical anecdote, they say that in 1757 Empress Catherine the Second gave birth to a girl and that this girl was immediately given to the family of a Chukhon fisherman in one of the villages in the vicinity of St. named after the heir Tsesarevich Pavel Petrovich. But this, we repeat, is a historical anecdote, another myth from the life of Catherine II, an idle fiction of contemporaries and nothing more.
When Finland became part of the Russian Empire
The entire original territory of Finland, which remained in the possession of the Swedish crown, finally became part of the Russian Empire after the defeat of Sweden in the last Russian-Swedish war in the history of the two states of 1808-1809.
When Finland left the Russian Empire
The process of Finland's withdrawal began immediately after the events of the February Revolution in Petrograd in 1917. At the legislative level, the fact of Finland's secession from Russia was established by the Finnish Senate after the so-called. October revolution, in December of the same year, when the local parliament approved the provisions of the Declaration of Independence of Finland with the announcement of the Republic of Finland.
Two weeks later, this fact was also confirmed already in the Republic of Soviets by a special resolution of the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR, which recognized the "state independence of the Republic of Finland."
One of the reasons for such a hasty decision of the Soviet government was the presence in Finland a large number social democrats and the predominance of social democratic sentiments in the Finnish society of that time. Thus, recognizing the independence of Suomi, the Bolsheviks counted on the support of the new Finnish state in the international arena.
In addition, it was a kind of gesture of gratitude to the Finns on the part of the then chairman of the Council of People's Commissars, Ulyanov-Lenin, for the fact that they had once sheltered him on their territory from the political persecution of the tsarist government.
It is clear that the borders of sovereign Finland were thus in the immediate vicinity of Petrograd.
Finland as part of Russia 1809-1917
In 1812, the territories that ceded to Russia after the Russian-Swedish war of 1808-1809, unofficially called New Finland and formed the Grand Duchy of Finland, were added to the so-called lands conquered by Peter the Great almost a hundred years earlier. Old Finland - the Finnish province with its renaming to Vyborg.
The Grand Duchy of Finland was granted a number of privileges by the Highest, and the rules established by the Swedish administration were not canceled. In general, the Swedish influence remained on these lands for quite a long time - over the next few decades, until, finally, in the middle of the 19th century, during the time of Alexander II, the Finns themselves began to fully participate in the affairs of the principality.
It is also interesting to note that from 1815 and in subsequent years, there was an increase in the Finnish population: for example, from 1 million in 1815 it increased to 1 million 750 thousand people in 1870.
At the same time, Finland was gradually turning into an industrial region, the pace of industrialization here was then even higher than at the same time in Russia, including in the Donbass and the Urals.
How Finland became part of the Russian Empire: the accession of Finland to Russia under Alexander I
According to the Friedrichsgam Peace Treaty of 1809, all of Finland and, together with it, the Åland Islands and the eastern part of the province of Västerbotten (Västerboten) and up to the borders of the rivers Torneo (in the Swedish border area) and Muonio, the tributary of the first, were transferred to Russia "for eternity".
Shortly after joining Russia, the provincial Helsingfors (now Helsinki) became the Finnish capital instead of the former Turku (Abo).
Finland as part of the Russian Empire until 1917
In modern times, for the most part, the Finnish population always, until the February Revolution of 1917, remained loyal to Russia and the Russian administration of Finland.
Throughout its history, the Grand Duchy of Finland enjoyed the widest autonomy rights within the Russian Empire: Suomi retained its own monetary unit - the Finnish mark. significant portion tax collection also remained in the country.
The principality had its own constitution, the country lived according to its own laws.
In addition, from the very beginning of its entry into Russia, the principality had its own senate, appointed by the emperor ( Grand Duke Finlyandsky) from Finnish subjects, and in St. Petersburg the affairs of the principality were in charge of a special committee, which also consisted of subjects of the Grand Duchy of Finland.
And, as mentioned above, by the middle of the 19th century, the native population themselves were directly involved in the government of their country.
And in 1863 state language principality, along with Swedish, the Suomi language was officially recognized. The Russian language was introduced into local office work only in 1900.
In March 1918, the troops of the White Finns from the movement of Finnish nationalists invaded the territory of the “new” Russia, who showed themselves back in 1092, and the main motive for their invasion of Soviet territory was to repel the threat of “Sovietization of Finland”: this invasion of East Karelia itself was the result of persecution they were the "Finnish Reds" - the Civil War was in full swing in Finland.
And only after the invasion and defeat of the Finnish Socialist Workers' Republic on May 15, 1918, the bourgeois government of Finland declared war on Soviet Russia.
The first Soviet-Finnish war, which in national historiography considered to be part of civil war in Russia and foreign military intervention, ended with the signing of the Tartu Peace Treaty on October 14, 1920, which deprived the RSFSR of a number of its territories - the western part of the Rybachy Island, a large part of the Sredny Island and the Pechenga Region (later, until 1944, the province of Petsamo) in the Arctic. These lands were returned back to the USSR only following the results of the Soviet-Finnish 1940 and the Second World War of 1939-1945.
By the way, as a result of the Soviet-Finnish war of 1940, the Soviet Union managed to push the country's state border with Finland to the west of Leningrad.
The Great Patriotic War
During the Great Patriotic War, Finland fought on the side Nazi Germany. Becoming, in fact, one of the springboards for the attack of the Third Reich on Soviet Union. With the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, Mannerheim, refusing to lead the offensive of the Finnish troops on Leningrad (here, obviously, his past as a retinue general of Nicholas II affected), nevertheless, carried out a successful offensive in the Ladoga region, blockaded the Kirov railway, the famous White Sea Canal and the Volga-Baltic waterway, thus cutting off Leningrad from cargo supplies.
And the then Finnish president generally offered the German ambassador to liquidate Leningrad as a large city.
During the war in Finnish concentration camps tens of thousands of Soviet citizens, including children, died in Karelia.
Was Finland part of the USSR
Finland as such was never a part of the USSR, some of its territories were included - the Republic of Karelia and part of Leningrad region.
Former territories of Finland in Russia
Former Finnish territories in modern Russia- this is mainly the Republic of Karelia and part of the Leningrad region: Vyborg with its environs, the villages of Kuznechnoye (Kaarlakhti), Repino, Roschino (Raivola), the cities of Kolpino, Kingisepp, Svetogorsk and others.
Brief history of Finland before joining the Russian Empire
Finland or Suomi is an extraordinary, wonderful country in the Baltic with a very ancient history, a harsh northern region rich in forests and lakes, whose population, the Sami or Suomi, has been engaged in hunting and fishing since time immemorial. This, in particular, is evidenced by the very name of this country, given to it by neighboring Scandinavian tribes in the early Middle Ages - "country of hunters" or "land of hunters".
Already in the 13th century, the toponym was somewhat different from what we are used to. modern form Finnland (with a double “n”, where finn is “hunter”, and land is “land”, “country”), is mentioned by the Icelandic skald (poet) popular in Scandinavia and the historian Snorri Sturluson in his Ynglinga Saga.
It is the ancestral hunting trades, the extraction of game and fish for food or sale and exchange, as well as beekeeping, that make Finland historically close Ancient Russia, and the Finno-Ugric Suomi or Saami (in Russian, Lapps) and Karelians - Slavic tribes Ladoga and Novgorod the Great. The developed trade and economic ties of these peoples in ancient times are also quite obvious - to the envy of all Scandinavian neighbors.
It is clear that such a region rich in furs and fish could not remain without the attention of the latter for a long time, which ultimately led to the fact that the entire territory of the current Republic of Finland, the Republic of Karelia and the current Leningrad region became the scene of a fierce struggle between Swedes and Russians.
Moreover, for the former, the Finnish lands were a kind of springboard for further expansion far into the “country of cities” of Gardariki (North-Western Russia): it happened that the Vikings (Varangians) reached the Northern Dvina with devastating raids, into the lands of the modern Arkhangelsk region, which they, along with North Karelia, Murmansk region and the Kola Peninsula, in their sagas they called Biarmia or Biarmaland, and the just mentioned Gardarika in the same sagas was inhabited by their kings. Traces of Biarmia - Bjarma, the countries of the North, are also found in the Karelian-Finnish folk.
In later historical research(for example, the Swede Philip von Stralenberg, who “visited” in Russian captivity during the time of Peter the Great) Biarmia was identified with the legendary Perm the Great with its capital in Cherdyn. The same point of view was subsequently held by Russian historians V.N. Tatishchev, M.V. Lomonosov and N.M. Karamzin.
The famous Novgorod ushkuyniki did not remain in debt either: in 1187, we emphasize, together with the Karelian and Komi tribes allied to them, they raided the then Swedish capital Sigtuna (today it forms the capital conglomeration of Stockholm), as a result of which this city was devastated to the ground and, never recovering from the well-coordinated actions of the Russian-Komi-Karelian international landing, he forever lost the functions of the capital.
However, in the Middle Ages and until the very Modern Age, Swedish influence on Finland was much more significant than Russian. To a large extent, this was facilitated by the constant crusades of the Swedes in these lands and their active Christianization of the native Finnish population - around 1220, a Swedish episcopal department appeared in the Suomi country with an Anglo-Saxon Catholic at the head.
Two decades later, in 1240, in an armed skirmish between the Swedish crusaders and the Novgorod detachment led by Alexander Nevsky on Izhora, the Swedes of Jarl Birger suffered a crushing defeat and barely carried their legs from there, and the Jarl himself allegedly lost an eye.
At the end of the XIII and early XIV century, the eastern coast of the Gulf of Finland turned into a real theater of military operations - in 1293 the Swedes, led by Torkel Knudson, made another raid in Novgorod lands, along the way, crushed the entire west of Karelia under them and erected the Vyborg Castle, and seven years later, in 1300, the Landskrona fortress on the Neva. True, a year later, the Novgorodians, led by the son of Alexander Nevsky Andrey Gorodetsky, came and took this very Landskrona by storm, after which it was demolished.
And in 1318, the Novgorod boats and ears penetrated the Abo-Aland skerries and then went along the Aurajoka (“Full River” flowing into the Archipelago Sea) to the Finnish capital Abo (modern Turku), where the Swedes were already in full control at that time, and took there the church cash desk - a tax that had been collected to be sent to the Vatican over the previous five years.
The continuous war for the Finnish lands and comprehensive, comprehensive influence in this region between the Swedes and Russians continued until 1323, when, through the mediation of the famous Hanseatic League, the Orekhov (Orekhovets) peace was concluded between the warring parties, which established the eastern border of Swedish possessions. The latter circumstance, however, did not at all prevent the Swedish king Magnus from making the next and last crusade to the Novgorod lands. The response to this campaign was the sea sortie of the aforementioned Novgorod ushkuyniks in 1349, during which they took the well-fortified Swedish citadel of Byarkoy (now a commune in Norway).
The Swedish border established by the Peace of Orekhovets in 1323, which captured the Karelian Isthmus and reached almost to Ladoga itself, was not only a political phenomenon, and not so much an administrative-territorial one; it consolidated de jure Swedish dominion over the entire territory of present-day Finland and put an end to cultural, trade and economic relations between the indigenous peoples of Suomi and the inhabitants of Northwestern (Novgorod) and Moscow Russia for the next four hundred years.
Another epic episode in the history of the Russian struggle for these lands was the long-term (it lasted a quarter of a century - from 1558 to 1583) Livonian War. In short, as a result of this long war the northwestern outskirts of Moscow Rus were depopulated, the ancient Russian cities of Ivangorod, Koporye, Narva, Yam (now Kingisepp of the Leningrad Region) and part of the southern coast of the Gulf of Finland were lost, which, however, they soon managed to return - following the results of the already Russian-Swedish war 1590 - 1595. In fairness, we note, however, that at the end of the Livonian War, Muscovite Russia, Russian state during the reign of Ivan the Terrible, having turned away from territorial claims to the former Livonian lands, it received a number of border lands.
Historical site of Bagheera - secrets of history, mysteries of the universe. Mysteries of great empires and ancient civilizations, the fate of disappeared treasures and biographies of people who changed the world, the secrets of special services. The history of wars, the mysteries of battles and battles, intelligence operations past and present. world traditions, modern life Russia, the mysteries of the USSR, the main directions of culture and other related topics - all that official history is silent about.
Learn the secrets of history - it's interesting ...
Reading now
Space missions are the backbone of the domestic manned cosmonautics. To this day, various modifications of the reliable multi-seat cargo ship work tirelessly for the benefit of progress. But the Soyuz, like all large-scale Soviet projects, had a “double bottom”, under which a “gun” was carefully hidden for ill-wishers. On the basis of a harmless civilian ship, military research vehicles were actively developed.
People calmly descended from the stern and left the burning ship. There was no point in hurrying: when the fire reached four hundred tons of TNT, the explosion would not only destroy the port, but also destroy all life in the area ...
It is unlikely that anyone seriously thought about why in European folklore death usually comes with a scythe. Oddly enough, but the answer to this question can be a specialist in military history Middle Ages, describing the formidable weapon of commoners, created from an ordinary peasant scythe.
After the tragic events of September 11, 2001, the United States declared Osama bin Laden enemy No. 1. The forces of the best intelligence agencies of the world were thrown into his search. The elimination of the leader of international terrorism has become a matter of honor for the United States.
On December 7, 1941, without a declaration of war, more than 400 Japanese aircraft suddenly hit the American naval base at Pearl Harbor. Result: 7 battleships sunk, about 200 aircraft burned on the ground, more than 3000 wounded and killed. The "chief architect" of the plan to attack Hawaii was Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto.
In the history of practical cosmonautics (which is only a little more than half a century), there are periods that cannot be called anything other than mystical - when entire programs were revised, plans collapsed like houses of cards, and all this in an incomprehensible, strange way intertwined with the fate of astronauts. However, judge for yourself.
Scientists learn about the geography of the travels of the ancient Egyptians from hieroglyphic inscriptions on natural objects, various structures, ivory tablets, as well as papyri. The acquaintance of the Egyptians with the surrounding lands stretched over millennia, and we know little about them. There is information about their voyages around Africa long before our era, as well as to the mysterious and semi-fairy-tale countries - Punt and Dilmunt. But the version that the sailors ancient egypt visited Australia, even quite recently, many scientists seemed to be an obvious nonsense.
In 2015, a survey was conducted in the United States, during which it turned out that 56% approve of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and 34% disapprove. Surprisingly, in Japan itself, 14% of the population also approve of this decision of the American government. The majority of respondents justify the fact of resetting atomic bombs on the cities in that it helped to end the war faster. But is it really so? Or maybe another factor played a role here?
According to archeology, it is known that people settled in Finland in the Paleolithic era. The first information about this country in historical documents dates back to 98, when the Roman historian Cornelius Tacitus mentioned the Finns as an unusually wild and poor tribe.
In 800-1100, the lands of Finland become military trading bases for the Swedish Vikings. And in 1155, the King of Sweden, Eric IX, makes a crusade against the pagan Finns, which marked the beginning of more than 650 years of "Swedish period" in the history of Finland.
Finland is part of Russia
During the XVIII-XIX centuries, relations between Russia and Sweden were full of tension and dramatic moments, which could not but affect Finnish history.
The first Finnish lands became part of Russian Empire in 1721, after the end of the Northern War. Russia received even larger territories of Finland, including South Karelia, as a result of Russo-Swedish War in 1743.
final accession of Finland to Russia happened under Emperor Alexander I, after the end of the war of 1808-09. The country received the status of the Grand Duchy of Finland, its own Constitution and parliament, becoming one of the most autonomous parts of the Russian Empire.
Finland becomes an independent state
Independent history of Finland began on December 6, 1917, when a decision was made at a meeting of parliament to change political system on republican and secession from Russia. Since then, Independence Day has been celebrated as one of the main public holidays Finland.
Although the first state to officially recognize the independence of Finland was Soviet Russia, further relations between the two countries were not easy. In 1939-40, the USSR and Finland waged the so-called Winter War, during which a significant part of the Finnish territory was annexed in favor of a more powerful neighbor.
The opportunity to restore historical justice presented itself to the Finns with the beginning of World War II. In 1941, when Germany attacked the USSR, Finland actively supported the allies, occupying a significant part of Karelia, and later taking part in the blockade of Leningrad. The Russian-Finnish war continued until 1944, when Finland concluded a separate peace with the USSR, thus drawing itself into fighting with the former ally Germany (Lapland War).
Modern history of Finland
After the end of World War II, Finland did not become, like many European neighbors of the USSR, a socialist country. Remaining in line with capitalist development, Finland was able to build the most warm and good-neighborly relations with the Soviet Union, receiving considerable benefits from intermediary services in the latter's trade with the West.
The rapid economic recovery that began in the mid-1980s brought Finland closer to the countries of Western Europe. And at the nationwide referendum held in 1994, most of the Finns voted for the entry of this country into the European Union. On January 1, 1995, Finland became a full member of the EU and the European Monetary Union.
April 1, 1808 Russian tsar Alexander I issued a manifesto “On the conquest of Swedish Finland and on its annexation forever to Russia”, by which he extended his power to the lands inhabited by the Finns, conquered from Sweden.
Unnecessary lands
The Middle Ages on the territory of North-Eastern Europe passed under the sign of competition between the Swedes and the Russians. Karelia in the XII-XIII centuries was under the influence of Veliky Novgorod, and most Finland at the turn of the 1st and 2nd millennium AD. e. conquered by the Swedish Vikings.
The Swedes, using Finland as a springboard, for centuries tried to expand to the east, but for a long time they 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 did the Swedes manage to inflict sensitive defeats on our ancestors, forcing Russia to temporarily leave 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 tasks in the Baltic, when not only a window was cut through to Europe, but also a door was thrown open. However, Peter I did not go further than the Vyborg region on the Karelian Isthmus, ”the doctor said in an interview with RT historical sciences, Head of the Department of History of Modern and Contemporary Times, Professor of St. Petersburg State University Vladimir Baryshnikov.
According to the expert, Peter needed Vyborg in order to secure St. Petersburg. Finland itself was of no particular 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 could not 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.
The geopolitical aspirations of Russia at that time were directed to 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, in again pitting Russia against Sweden.
During the hostilities of 1808 Russian troops On March 22, Abo (Turku) was taken without a fight, and on April 1, Emperor Alexander I officially announced the accession of Finland to Russia as a separate Grand Duchy.
“Finland went to Russia to a certain extent by accident, and this largely determined the attitude of official St. Petersburg to the newly acquired territories,” said Professor Baryshnikov.
Under the rule of Russian emperors
In 1809, Sweden, finally defeated, officially transferred Finland to Russia. “Finland retained its parliament, gave a number of benefits, did not change the rules established under the Swedes,” Vladimir Baryshnikov added.
According to Alexandra Bakhturina, Doctor of Historical Sciences, professor at the Russian State Humanitarian University, Swedish influence in Finland remained for several decades. However, from the middle of the 19th century political life The Finns themselves became increasingly involved in the Grand Duchy.
“Under Tsar Alexander II, the Finns became full-fledged participants in the political process in Finland, and therefore many of them still respect the emperor, consider him one of the founders of the Finnish state,” Alexandra Bakhturina said in an interview with RT.
- Painting by Emanuel Telning "Alexander I opens the Diet of Borgo 1809"
In 1863 the king recognized Finnish language state on the territory of the principality on a par with the 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 particularly seek to collect taxes, leaving a significant part of local fees for the development of the region itself. Something resembling modern free economic zones was created,” Baryshnikov explained.
From 1815 to 1870, the population of Finland increased from 1 million to 1.75 million. industrial production in 1840-1905 it increased 300 times. In terms of the pace of industrialization, Finland overtook even St. Petersburg, Donbass and the Urals.
The Grand Duchy had its own postal service and its own justice system. General conscription did not apply 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 Seimas did not convene from 1809 to 1863, the Russian governors-general pursued a fairly accurate policy and acted as a kind of "lawyers" of Finland in the face of the emperor. In the 1860s-1880s, the Finnish parliament began to convene regularly, and a multi-party system began to take shape in the principality.
"Western perimeter" of the empire
However Alexander III and Nicholas II headed for curtailing the autonomy of Finland. In the years 1890-1899, regulations were adopted, according to which a number of domestic political issues were removed from the competence of the Seimas and transferred to the central authorities of the empire, the liquidation of armed forces and the monetary system of Finland, the scope of the Russian language expanded, and gendarmes fighting separatism began to work on the territory of the principality.
“The actions of Nicholas II cannot be considered outside the international context. A crisis began in Europe, everything went to 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, ”Alexander Bakhturina shared her opinion with RT.
The measures taken by the Russian authorities began to irritate the Finnish society. Terrorist attacks began, directed both against Russian administrators and against representatives of local government oriented towards St. Petersburg.
The Russo-Japanese War and the Revolution of 1905 distracted the tsar from the problems of Finland. The Finns went along and were allowed to hold parliamentary elections, in which for the first time in Europe the right to vote was granted to women. However, after the revolutionary events came to naught, 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 (it did not have 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 german army against Russia.
At the next parliamentary elections, the Social Democrats won a landslide victory, immediately demanding greater autonomy for Finland, and the leftist Sejm 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 an acute socio-economic crisis that erupted in the autumn of 1917, they raised the question of Finland's independence point-blank.
From love to hate
At the end of 1917, the 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 issue for Russia. However Soviet authorities, realizing how strong social democratic sentiments are among the Finns and hoping to get an ally in the international arena, they unexpectedly went towards the former principality. 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 the Social Democrats began in Finland. Power in Helsinki and others southern cities switched to red. The conservatives who won the 1917 elections fled to northern Finland. The country began a civil war.
Fighting on both sides of the front line important role played by former tsarist officers. Lieutenant Colonel Mikhail Svechnikov, who joined the Social Democratic Party, fought in the ranks of the Reds, and one of the founders of the Finnish white movement became the tsarist general Karl Mannerheim.
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 hit the rear with the Reds. The Whites, who had won power with German bayonets, staged a massacre in Finland, during which, according to some sources, up to 30 thousand people died.
The government of Finland turned out to be implacable enemies of the Soviets. In 1918, the troops of the White Finns invaded the territory of Russia.
For two years, the First Soviet-Finnish War was waged with varying success, culminating in the signing of a peace treaty in 1920, under 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, had no effect on the configuration of the border. However, in the 1930s, against the backdrop of an international crisis engulfing Europe, the Soviet authorities tried to negotiate with the Finns on the exchange of territories and the lease of a naval base in order to protect themselves from the possibility of the Germans striking Leningrad from the territory of a neighboring state. Finland rejected the Soviet proposals, which eventually led to a new war. During the hostilities of 1939-1940, the troops of the Soviet Union reached the lines where Peter I had stood two centuries earlier.
During the Second World War, Finland became one of the closest allies of the Third Reich, providing the Nazis with a springboard for attacking the Soviet Union, trying to break into Leningrad and destroying tens of thousands of Soviet citizens in concentration camps in Karelia.
However, after the turning point in the Great Patriotic War Finland turned its back on the Third Reich and signed an armistice with the Soviet Union in September 1944.
motto foreign policy Finland for many years were the words of its post-war President Urho Kekkonen: "Do not look for friends far, but enemies close."
- The displacement is called the vector connecting the start and end points of the trajectory The vector connecting the beginning and end of the path is called
- Trajectory, path length, displacement vector Vector connecting the initial position
- Calculating the area of a polygon from the coordinates of its vertices The area of a triangle from the coordinates of the vertices formula
- Acceptable Value Range (ODZ), theory, examples, solutions