Prologue: The Grand Duchy and the Bilingual Nation

The cultural panorama of nineteenth-century Finland is, to a great extent, shaped by the national awakening, particularly toward the end of the century. And Sibelius played a significant role at this critical moment in the political history of Finland. Russian rule, beginning in 1809, was a relatively recent development: Finland had been under Swedish rule since the Middle Ages.

In the aftermath of the Napoleonic wars and the redrawing of the map of Europe, the 1809 Peace Treaty of Hamina (Fredrikshamn) confirmed the outcome of the war between Sweden and Russia in 1808–9 as well as the new borders, with the result that Finland fell within the Russian empire. In his opening speech at the Porvoo (Borgå) Diet in 1809 immediately after the war, Czar Alexander I promised to preserve the country’s religion and constitution and raise Finland to “a nation among nations”, called the Grand Duchy of Finland. This was a new formulation: the concept of a Finnish nation had been irrelevant so long as its union with Sweden was taken for granted. The declaration of the new ruler lacked any constitutional basis; it was simply his confirmation of the Swedish Instrument of Government from 1772, a personally guaranteed continuation of social structures, legislation, administration and common rights. This granting of autonomy has been seen as the reason the Finns remained an obedient part of the Russian empire throughout the nineteenth century. Self-evidently, the new situation brought about an adaptive process for the inhabitants of Finland in relation to St. Petersburg, as well as a catalyst for the formation of the nation. A frequently quoted statement, “we are Swedes no more, we don’t want to become Russians, let us be Finns”, reflected a common sentiment.

An interest in the Finnish language, specific Finnish roots and a Finnish nationality had begun before the autonomy declared in 1809. During the 1770s the scholar Henrik Gabriel Porthan (1736–1804) established a group of intellectuals called the Aurora Society, at The Royal Academy of Åbo (Turku). Porthan was the publisher of the first newspaper in Finland (1771) and he also became a professor of literature, paving the way for later national heritage research, and rector at the academy; he would later be known as the “father of Finnish History.”