Military commander and highest administrator of Finland from the 17th century to 1917
The
governor-general of Finland
(
Finnish
:
Suomen kenraalikuvernoori
;
Swedish
:
generalguvernor over Finland
;
Russian
:
генерал-губернатор Финляндии
) was the military commander and the highest administrator of Finland sporadically
under Swedish rule
in the 17th and 18th centuries and continuously in the autonomous
Grand Duchy of Finland
between 1809 and 1917.
Swedish realm
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After the final abolition of the
Duchy of Finland
and related feudal privileges in the late 16th century, the
king of Sweden
sporadically granted most or all of Finland under a specially appointed governor-general, who took care of the matters in the eastern part of the country more or less according to his own best judgement. Best known of these officials is count
Per Brahe
whose reign is still referred to in Finland as the "count's days" (
kreivin aikaan
), meaning something positive that happens just in time.
List of Swedish governors-general of Finland
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Translation in
Swedish
:
Generalguvernor av Finland
Grand Duchy of Finland
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During the time when Finland was an autonomic state ruled by the
Russian Empire
, the governor-general's position was permanent. He was viceroy of the emperor, who was not personally present in
Helsinki
, but resided in
St Petersburg
, just outside Finnish borders. The governor-general was constitutionally the chairman of the
Senate of Finland
, the government in the autonomous grand duchy. The chairmanship he represented, with two votes in the Senate, belonged to the
grand duke of Finland
, a title held by the
emperor of Russia
. The governor-general was the highest representative of the emperor and received his instructions directly from the imperial government in Saint Petersburg.
Finnish citizenship was not required of the governor-general, contrary to all other highest positions such as senators and the
minister-secretary of state
. Most governors-general were men whom the emperor trusted as counterparts of potential Finnish separatism. Many of them, up to Baron
Rokassovski
[
ru
]
, however were also made
Finnish subjects
, by granting them a
Finnish nobility
rank.
Many of the governors-general were disliked by the Finnish population. The first man on the post,
Georg Magnus Sprengtporten
, resigned after only a year. Another,
Nikolai Bobrikov
, was
assassinated
in 1904 by the Finnish nationalist
Eugen Schauman
. On the other hand, several governors-general worked in a way that guaranteed the Finnish autonomy in face of the interests of ministers of the imperial court.
The governor-general between 1831 and 1855,
Prince Menshikov
, sojourned his entire term in St Petersburg, being simultaneously the
Russian minister of navy
. Gubernatorial duties in Helsinki were cared for by the deputy governor-general. For most of the term, in that position was general
Alexander Amatus Thesleff
[
ru
]
.
List of Russian governors-general of Finland
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Translation in
Russian
:
Генерал-губернатор Финляндии
See also
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References
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