My paper examines the political use of the concept of nation in defining the status of the Grand Duchy of Finland within the Russian empire as well as the legacies this has left for the later political and scholarly discussions on the constitution of Finland as political space.
The concept of nation was a crucial part of the Finnish discussion of the status of the Grand Duchy ever since the emperor of Russia, Alexander I, had in his speech to the Finnish estates in 1809 stated that the Finnish people had now been “raised to the rank of nations”. As part of Finnish nation-building, this statement was adopted as a component of double-layered rhetorical strategies in the Finnish political discussion. Following traditional dynastic conceptions of sovereignty, the position of Finns as a nation referred to a new status as one of the many nations (ethic groups) under the almighty rule of the Russian emperor. In this defensive strategy, the role of the emperor as the Grand Duke of Finland formed the ultimate guarantee and embodiment of the Finnish state. At the same time, in domestic political discourse the concept of nation was used to depict the Grand Duchy Finland as a separate political entity and ultimately a self-governing political community that was defined in terms of principles of popular sovereignty and representation.
This paper strives to uncover the legacy that the Grand Duchy of Finland as past territorial entity has left for later understanding of Finland as political space. Within Finnish academic community, the question of the position of Finland has been extensively studied and vividly discussed in terms of the legal-institutional framework and the related “constitutional battle” between Finnish and Russian high officials and scholars. By analysing how the concept of nation was related to the notion of Grand Duchy, this paper aims at opening an alternative approach to the inherited routines of imagining Finland as political space.
Mots clés : Political space|spatial imagination|nation building|Finland
A105362IL