Finland's Political and Legal Status at the Turn of the Century: the opinion of legalists
Keywords:
B.N. Chicherin, N.S. Tagantsev, Finnish Sejm, legalists, autonomy, State Council, Finnish Senate, Criminal CodeAbstract
In the second half of the 19th century, Finland experienced rapid economic, political and social development. As a result, it began to distance itself from Russia. The Emperor’s manifestos allowed the country to maintain a high degree of autonomy and sovereignty. Ultimately, Finland’s “drift” began to worry conservatives and statists within Russia. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the empire attempted to adapt North-West Russia to national legislation. The Russian intelligentsia faced a choice: to support the strengthening of the state or to fight for the observance of the rights of the subjects of the Grand Duchy. Liberal lawyers were divided on the issue of Finland. The purpose of our work is to establish the position of moderately liberal lawyers (legalists) on the issue of the status of Finnish autonomy. It can be stated that most legalists took an intermediate position between the right-wing and liberal groups. They assumed that only a peaceful, humanistic evolution would allow Finland to be gradually integrated into the empire.
