Independence of Finland
[2] The Anjala conspiracy was a scheme in 1788–1790 as a response to end Gustav III's Russian War, and it included the independence of Finland to some degree.
Georg Magnus Sprengtporten, who took no direct part in the conspiracy, had written a proposal for a Finnish constitution [fi] in 1786.
[6] During the famine of 1866–1868, Snellman worked to obtain aid and distribute it in a country with low resources and undeveloped communications.
[8][9][10] As a response, the cultural address Pro Finlandia was gathered with 523,000 names, and a delegation of 500 people was sent to Saint Petersburg to deliver it.
[13] The steamship SS John Grafton unsuccessfully attempted to smuggle large quantities of arms for the Finnish resistance during the Russo-Japanese War (1904–1905).
The second period of Russification of Finland (Finnish: Toinen sortokausi) in 1908 and World War I led activist groups to unite.
Under Franz Albert Seyn, Bobrikov's successor as Governor-General, all legislation was moved to the Russian State Duma, which then pushed for laws restricting Finnish autonomy.
[15] Nicholas II pushed for complete russification and the end of Finnish autonomy in 1914, but this was halted by the beginning of the First World War.
The resulting proposal, approved by the Russian Provisional Government, was heavily rewritten in the Finnish Parliament and transformed into the so-called Power Act (Finnish: Valtalaki, Swedish: Maktlagen), whereby the Parliament declared[18] itself to now hold all powers of legislation, except with respect to foreign policy and military issues, and also declared that it could be dissolved only by itself.
[citation needed] After new elections and the ultimate defeat of the Provisional Government in the October Revolution, the Finnish Parliament decided to create a three-man regency council,[19] based on Finland's Constitution, and more precisely on §38 of the old Instrument of Government of 1772, which had been enacted by the Estates after Gustav III's bloodless coup.
This paragraph provided for the election of a new monarch in case of the extinction of the royal line and was interpreted in Finland as vesting sovereignty in the Estates, later the Parliament, during such an interregnum.
The regency council was never elected, however, because of the strong opposition of Finnish socialists and their general strike of 1917 which demanded more radical action.
On the same day, the Finnish Parliament issued a declaration by which it assumed, pro tempore, all the powers of the Sovereign in Finland.
Leading circles had long held that monarchism and hereditary nobility were antiquated, and advocated a republican constitution for Finland.
The Senate returned to the Parliament with a Declaration of Independence and proposal for a new republican Instrument of Government on 4 December.
Germany, which was in middle of peace negotiations with Soviet Russia, pressured Finns to talk to Lenin and the Council of People's Commissars.
), the Soviet Russian government issued a decree recognizing Finland's independence,[25] and on 22 December (4 January 1918 N.S.)
[26] This is how the meeting is told in Svinhufvud's biography, Svinhufvud ja itsenäisyyssenaatti written by Erkki Räikkönen: After trying in vain to meet the Soviets on December 30, 1917 - then Sunday - the next day, the delegation managed to submit this letter to Lenin's secretary, and in the evening at 9 o'clock it went to Smolny to hear the decision.
"We waited a couple of hours in the big hallway and sat at the corner of the table," says Svinhufvud, "and we had the furs on and the caps on hand, because they didn't dare leave them."
It was worded as follows: "We rose one after another and signed with special satisfaction the recognition of Finland's independence," writes I. Steinberg, who was a justice commissioner in Lenin's government.
A typewritten copy of the recognition of independence was urgently taken there, after which we left for the station and from there continued by train to Finland.
A few days later, the Russian Central Executive Committee confirmed the recognition of Finland's independence, which was thus finally decided for Russia.
The declaration actually addresses this problem: The Government will approach foreign powers to seek the recognition of our political independence.
All the complications, famine and unemployment ensuing from the present external isolation make it urgent for the Government to tie direct contacts with foreign powers without delay.
The National Board of Navigation, later called the Finnish Maritime Administration, was founded 15 December 1917, and piloting became its responsibility.
The conservatives preferred "Maamme" by Runeberg and Pacius, while the working class was singing "La Marseillaise" and "The Internationale".
