Great Russification program
The "great Russification program" was a plan for new laws concerning the Grand Duchy of Finland made during the second period of oppression from 1912 to 1914, which would have set Finland even deeper under the control of the government of the Empire of Russia and significantly suppressed its autonomy, had it ever come into force. This secret plan leaked into the public in November 1914, which caused fear in Finland of losing the country's autonomy and of Russification.
Background and preparation
Pyotr Stolypin, Prime Minister of Russia from 1906 to 1911 was a nationalist and a staunch supporter of concentration of power, who wanted to discontinue most of Finland's autonomy. Under his term, a law of nationwide legislature was made against the Finns' will, which made it possible for the Russian legislative bodies to enact laws concerning Finland without the approval of the Parliament of Finland.[1] However, the Russian government did not have a ready-made plan as to how it would use this opportunity.[2] Governor-General of Finland Franz Albert Seyn sent a letter to Stolypin in 1910, where he listed six things required for new laws in Finland: a bureau of officials, court treatment of crimes against the state, the news press, union legislation, the police and the gendarmerie, and the position of the Russian language. Stolypin's government decided to propose a committee to prepare a detailed program of the needed laws. The emperor Nicholas II of Russia appointed a committee in January 1912, at which time Stolypin was already dead and had been succeeded by the more benign Vladimir Kokovtsov.[3]
The director of the secret preparation committee was the real state official Nikolay Korevo.[3] He had already previously led the "committee for the systematisation of Finnish laws" at the Russian State Council as the successor of professor Nikolay Sergeyevsky.[4] Korevo's committee had a total of 24 members, of which 23 represented different branches of the Russian government. The only representative of the Grand Duchy of Finland was the procurator of the "admiralty senate" Alexey Hozyainov, who also was Russian by ethnicity.[2] The committee first met in late April 1912. It decided to enact a program for all laws necessary for the protection of the interests of Russia and its governing authority in Finland regardless of whether they were general state laws.[3]
- ^ Osmo Jussila: Suomen suuriruhtinaskunta 1809–1917, pp. 712–714, 725. WSOY, Helsinki 2004.
- ^ a b Jussila 2004, pp. 734–738.
- ^ a b c Viljo Rasila: Torpparikysymyksen ratkaisuvaihe – Suomen torpparikysymys vuosina 1909–1918, pp. 190–193. Historical research 81. Historical Society of Finland/Kirjayhtymä, Helsinki 1970.
- ^ Jussila 2004, pp. 679–680, 721, 734.