Rückblicke im Finnland des Jahres 1999 auf den Versuch zum Abbau der finnischen Autonomie im Russischen Reich

The anniversary of the “February Manifesto”, by which Emperor Nicholas II of Russia stipulated that laws of all-Russian importance with respect to Finland would no more require the consent of the Finnish Diet, has not received the attention one could have expected. After Finnish independence this incident had long been regarded as unconstitutional and aggressive. Päiviö Tommila's study, which came out in 1999, and two exhibitions during that year focussed on the “great address” of half a million Finns to the Tsar, pleading to revise his decision. Thus, instead of awaking aggravating memories towards Russia, attention was directed to an act of grassroots democracy and civil resistance in Finland itself. Anyway, revisionist historians have shown that the charge of “unconstitutional” behavior rested on a unilateral interpretation, by which the Finnish side had overemphasized the assurances given by Alexander I in 1809 as a separate peace treaty creating a Russo-Finnish union. In 1999, only a lay historian, Märten Ringbom, furiously challenged this view as “official historiography”