1922 Encyclopædia Britannica/Finland

FINLAND (see ). &mdash; The remarkable development of Finnish nationalism in the closing decades of the 19th century was primarily directed against the Swedish language and Finno-Swedish cultural domination. Through the revival of their own singularly rich and beautiful tongue, the Finns of Finland had learnt to think of their country as &ldquo;Suomi,&rdquo; as utterly distinct from Sweden and Russia, as possessing thought and literature of its own. Though open to European influences, specially in their art, and taking their political ideas from Scandinavia and Germany, the &ldquo;Fennomans&rdquo; (Finnish Finns) climbed &ldquo;unto a language island&rdquo; and, developing along extremely democratic lines, took no part at all in Russian affairs and showed little interest in those of Scandinavia. There was no sympathy even with the Russian proletariat in its early struggles, while the revolutionaries were cold-shouldered.

Second Period of Russification 1908-14. &mdash; The successive governors of Russia, however, regarded the &ldquo;Suomilaiset&rdquo; (or the people of the fens) as a strange and totally different nationality from themselves, although the Finno-Ugrian race blended with the Slav is to be found all over northern Russia; they could not forget that the &ldquo;country of the thousand lakes&rdquo; had been under Swedish rule for 600 years, and cherished a civilization wholly alien to their own. This so obviously democratic, almost self-governing grand duchy of Finland was a thorn in the side of the vast autocratic Russian State conception. Out of this train of thought arose Russia's first attack upon the liberties of Finland during the dark years 1899-1906.

Effects of the World War, 1914-8. &mdash; In these circumstances supervened the World War of 1914, and it was left to Lt.-Gen. F. Seyn, the governor-general, to supervise the stringent censorship and the harassing restrictions of personal liberty which an unprecedented situation called for in all the countries of Europe. Though Finland escaped the horrors of foreign war upon its own soil, a descent of the German armies upon the coast was a military eventuality which had to be taken into account. Accordingly two lines of trench covering the chief railway lines were constructed across Finland, one system of fortified lines running from Tornea to Helsingfors, the other from Kajana to Kotka. Besides, the long sea border of the grand duchy was exposed to enemy action from the sea; and some 40,000 tons of the Finnish mercantile marine, which sailed under the Russian flag, exposed to destruction in the open waters of the Baltic Sea, remained locked in the harbours of the Bothnian gulf. This heavy loss to seaborne commerce was balanced by the extraordinary advantages which Finnish industries derived from the war partly by reason of the low tariff prevailing, partly through the influx of Russian labour. Industries connected directly with military supply, as also the iron, leather, glass, drugs and polishes trades and paper-manufacturing concerns, attained unexampled prosperity. The Russians, who were well aware that the Finnish people at the end of a 15 years' constitutional struggle did not love them, strongly garrisoned the country, but, the discipline in the Tsarist armies being maintained at a high standard,

collisions between the military and the civil population were few. The Russian authorities, impulsive as was their wont and inconsequent in their application of the law, suffered from divided councils, and were alternately bent on reconciliation and repression. There being no means as in Sweden and Denmark to take advantage of leaks in the Allied blockade, the price of living gradually rose, railway fares and telephone costs being raised by 25%. But the country was relieved of the burden of the annual military indemnity, and the Russians, in their sporadic anxiety to please, were strangely negligent of such essential precautions as the surveillance of telephonic communications. There was, however, a special 5% tax on property and mortgage.

Events in 1919 and 1920. &mdash; The year 1919 witnessed the growth of the Republic of Finland out of the ashes of a country laid waste by civil war. Mannerheim organized the &ldquo;Skyddskorps&rdquo; or Protective Guards, a body of over 100,000 men, whose loyalty to the existing order of society could be relied upon.

The general election of March 1 1919 showed the following division of parties: Social Democrats 80, Agrarians 42, Coalitionists 28, Progressives 26, Swedish 22, Christian Labour two. The Social Democrats had thus diminished by 12 since the 1917 elections. This was largely attributable to the disfranchisement of over 40,000 voters for participation in the Red revolt. The tendency towards a republican form of government was outlined by the Agrarian party, composed of small landowners hostile to the claims of the Swedish-speaking Monarchist section.

Mannerheim's popularity being immense with the parties of the Right and the army, the temptation of exploiting the military impotence of Soviet Russia was very great. In 1919 continued the Entente intervention on the Murmansk and Archangel fronts, and when the 237th Brigade (Gen. Price), which formed part of the expeditionary force under the English Maj.-Gen. Maynard, at the end of May reached Medvyejva Gora at the head of Lake Onega, the Finnish Government offered coöperation in return for the possession of Petrozavodsk. The offer being declined, a Finnish volunteer force nevertheless assaulted the town independently, but without success. Again, at the close of the year, when the White-Russian Gen. Judenitch was marching on Petrograd, Mannerheim went so far as to sound the Allies as to their views on the proposed Finnish intervention. But he received no encouragement from Paris or London, nor from the Moderates at home.

Already on July 17 of that year the Finnish Diet had resolved to establish a republic, with a president to be elected every six

years, and, on July 25, Prof. Kaarlo Juho Ståhlberg was chosen as the first president by 143 votes against 50 recorded for Mannerheim. It was then that the Vennola Government, which was a coalition of the Progressive and Agrarian parties, came into power. Though it commanded only 64 out of 200 seats in the Diet, it marked a great administrative improvement from a democratic point of view. It introduced the Amnesty bill, which after a chequered career was passed by the Diet on Dec. 18 by 165 votes to 68. Its adoption synchronized with the abandonment of the Communists by the extreme Left. The de jure recognition of the republic was accorded by Great Britain soon after the instalment of Ståhlberg.

The outstanding event of the year 1920 was the signing of a peace treaty with Soviet Russia, which after long negotiations was signed at Dorpat on Oct. 14, the military defeat of the Bolsheviks by the Poles being a contributory factor. Pechenga was ceded to Finland, which thus obtained the much-desired outlet on the Arctic Ocean, while Russia retained eastern Karelia, where, after the collapse of Gen. Skobelzine's White-Russian front in Feb., fighting had occurred with Bolshevik troops with results satisfactory to Finnish arms. The treaty was approved on Dec. 1 by the Diet with only 27 dissentient voices and ratified on Dec. 11 by the President. Finland soon after was admitted as a member of the League of Nations.

Åland Islands Dispute. &mdash; The question of the Åland Is. was, in its simplest form, whether the group of islands adjacent to Finland and inhabited by a few thousand people of Swedish extraction should belong to Sweden or to Finland. In its wider aspect, however, the whole network of islands which form the archipelago of Åbo and that of the Åland Is. constituted the key of the defence of the coast of Finland and of the gulfs of Bothnia and Finland against attack from the west. In 1920, as in previous years, sovereignty was claimed over these islands by Finland on the ground that it was for her a question of existence, though autonomy was given to the Ålanders and for the safety of Sweden the absolute demilitarization of the islands was conceded. Under such circumstances the question was referred on June 19 1920 to the League of Nations, and in June 1921 (see ) its decision was given in favour of Finland.

(W. L. B.)