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control them. In a lawsuit between Count Orloff and
his peasants, it was decided by the Imperial Senate
that rent could be fixed by the landlord at his will,
and that peasants who tried to leave their estates
should be regarded as offenders against the Emperor
and as criminals. The landlords would not even
permit women to marry outside their estates without
permission.
Alexander I., who had by this time conquered the
whole of Finland, now decided that Old Finland, the
Province of Viborg as it was then called, should be
re-united to the rest of Finland. One of his reasons
was a desire to improve the position of the peasants;
their present position, he said, was well-fitted to make
the inhabitants of the rest of Finland afraid of his
rule. In this, as in several other matters, he acted on
the advice of the Finnish Count G. M. Armfelt, and
against the views of his Russian councillors. The
officials, many of whom were Germans, were reduced
in number from 217 to 89, and some incapable
persons were replaced by better men from Finland. The
Russian landlords would not, however, give up their
demands; they were so persistent, that the Secretary
of State for Finland in St. Petersburg, Count
Rehbinder, recommended that the Province of Viborg
should be again separated from Finland.
The nobles did not gain their point about the
introduction of serfdom, but they obtained an official
declaration that they were absolute proprietors of the
peasant farms. Alexander I., who had grown less
liberal than formerly, would not separate the province
from Finland, but Count Zakreffski, the
Governor-General of Finland, obtained the nomination of a
Finnish Committee under his presidency, which was
to decide the exact meaning of the letters of donation,
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