Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - XI. The Government of Finland and its Future
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It has been well said that the Finns, who for more than
seven hundred years have not been made Swedish, during
centuries when progress was much slower, and when
the liberal character of the Swedish government did
not provoke any great resistance, have no need to fear
being Russianised. Much intellectual national life
will continue, notwithstanding all that may be done by
the rulers. And to quell a national life, intellectual
and economic, such as is now found in Finland, is
an utter impossibility.
The bad effects which might follow such an attempt
are best seen when we consider the possible acts of
the rulers against the rights and welfare of the people.
Let us suppose that the young Finlanders should
really be compulsorily enrolled for military service in
Russia. The Polish insurrection of 1863 began when
the Russians tried to prevent a national movement,
and ordered that the young men should be carried off
at night for military service in Russia. It was then
that these young men fled to the woods and really
rebelled. Such an event would not take place in
Finland; yet there is no doubt that a very great
number, and indeed the best, of Finland’s youth would
emigrate to found a new fatherland rather than serve
as soldiers in the Russian army. A Russian customs
tariff would not make it absolutely impossible to live
in Finland; it might improve certain industries in
an artificial manner and at the expense of the people,
but it would cause a fearful depression in the whole
manner of living, and would be a hindrance to
progress, public health and well-being, as well as an
immense burden on the natural industries of the
country, agriculture, exploitation of the forests and all
connected therewith, and most of the manufactures
which are really indigenous to the country, not to
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