Finnish Passive Resistance against Russification 1899-1905

Presentation Overview

• Finland’s Relationship with Russia• ‘Russification’• Finnish Resistance to Russification– Methods of Resistance– Social Base of the Resistance

• Outcomes

Finland’s Relationship with Russia

• 1808-9 Finnish War• Pax Russica• Tsar Alexander I’s ‘special

agreement’• Autonomy for Security

‘Russification’• 1898 Appointment of Governor-General Bobrikov, who

attempted to ‘Russify’ Finland:– Abolition of the Secretary of State– Russian jurisdiction– Russian as the official language– Monitoring and surveillance of

educational institutions– Abolition of Finnish monetary and

cultural institutions– A Russian press and general censorship

of the press– Incorporation of the Finnish army into that of the Empire

‘Russification’

• February Manifesto 1899– Legislation of imperial

concern not constitutionally bound to Finnish political systems

– ‘the murder of Finland’– Directly led to the passive resistance movement

Why passive resistance?

• Affront to burgeoning national culture• National unity was more geared to passive

than violent resistance• Militarily mismatched with Russia

Methods of Resistance

• Great National Address 1899 – 523,000 signatures

• Pro Finlandia addresses earned the support of prominent Europeans

• Mechelin Committees• 1901 Conscription Act protest

address – 475,000 signatures

Methods of Resistance - Kagal

• More direct action, less protest address• 45 departments, numerous subgroups• Financed through collections and donations• Secretive, never sought mass membership

Methods of Resistance - Press

• Anonymous• 22 papers shut down by Bobrikov• Fria Ord (Free Words, Swedish) – 2,500• Vapaita Lehtisiä (Free Leaflets,

Finnish) – 3,000• Means of spreading the passive

resistance ideal and tactics

Russian Limitations

• A deep integration within Finnish society was lacking

• Finns understood their passive resistance as part of an empire-wide programme

• Only 15,000 troops; ineffective police, gendarmes belittled

• Dictatorship Decree 9 April 1903

Methods of Resistance - Active

• 1904 Finnish Active Resistance Party• Japanese aid forthcoming but failed to deliver• Kagal’s endorsement of violence• 1904 Assassination of Bobrikov

Methods of Resistance – The General Strike

• 30 October 1905 railway workers shut down the system

• Unified rather than divided Finnish society

• Threat of socialist revolutionaries

• Tsar agreed to more moderate Constitutionalist demands

• Break up of organised resistance groups

The Social Base

• Nationalist Fennomanians• Groups from all walks of life: conservatives,

liberals, workers, students• Some socialists saw the attempt to preserve

the system as incompatible with the workers’ movement

• “God’s will is not on the side of the resistance.”

Outcomes

• Press regulation failed, resistance press reigned supreme.

• Failure of schoolsurveillance

• Lack of European support

• Conscription Act revoked 29 March 1905