THE FINNISH STATE: ORIGINS AND JURISTICAL BACKGROUND

Abstract

The article deals with the ideological trend that emerged in the middle of the XIX century on the existence within the Russian Empire of a separate «Finnish state». Analyzed the philosophical and political substantiations of the representatives of the Fennoman and Svecoman movements concerning the real state of affairs in the autonomous Grand Duchy of Finland in the reign of Nickolai I and Aleksander II. It has been determined the influence of European and Russian thinkers on public opinion in former Finland. It has given the nature and methods of the struggle of the two largest opposition to tsarism of ideological movements – Fennomans by the leader of Johan Vilhelm Snellman and Svecomans by the leader of Leopold Mechelin for the political Olympus of autonomy. Separately it was made the analysis of the activities of the representative of the Royal Swedish Academy of Israel Hwasser, who was the first to think about the appearance of a «Finnish state» in the North of Europe as a counterweight to the Russian Empire threatening Scandinavia. It was determined how the reign of Nickolai I and Aleksander II influenced the development of the theory of a separate «Finnish state», which laid a solid foundation for the appearance in the early 20th century independent Finland from any country. It was emphasized the tsarist dual policy in the national outskirts: in the Kingdom of Poland the autocratic spirit reigned, in the Grand Duchy of Finland local residents were offered a relatively independent position in domestic policy. It was stated that the theory about a separate «Finnish state» from the middle of the 19th century had a defensive reaction to the conservative ideology of the «united and indivisible empire» without the right of every nation to its identity. The importance of making historical parallels was emphasized with the then situation in Naddnipryanshchyna in the studied period of history.