The Finnish Social Democratic Party and the Bolsheviks

The Grand Duchy of Finland was of importance to the Russian revolutionaries of the twentieth century in several respects. The frontier ran to within thirty miles of St Petersburg: a short train journey would take the wanted revolutionary into a part of the Empire where a different code of law prevailed, and where a strong tradition of constitutionalism flourished, despite the efforts of the tsarist regime to weaken the privileges accorded to Finland in the settlement of 1809. Through Finland, it was possible to escape to the west, and after the programme of russification began in earnest in 1899, there were many Finns who were willing to assist the passage of refugees. Finland provided a convenient bolt-hole, but it was also a place for hatching plots and holding conferences. The Bolsheviks held four conferences in Finland during the years 1905-8, and the Social-Revolutionary fighting committee had its headquarters at the Tourist Hotel in Imatra during the autumn of 1906. Although revolutionary activities by Russians in Finland declined after 1908, the contacts made with individual Finns during the decade of fairly intensive work in the Grand Duchy (18981908) were to be put to use again during the first world war. It is significant that these contacts were for the most part forged between individuals, and not between party organisations. The only political grouping in Finland which did make it a policy to aid and abet the Russian revolutionary movement, and which actually endeavoured to fulfil this policy, was the Finnish Active Resistance Party. This was less a political party than a group of dedicated activists, who were

Democracy · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Social democracy · Social Democratic Party · Sociology · Communism, Protests, Social Movements · Law

• Russia's revolutionaries on vacation

  Open Access•Kitty Lam•Historical Research•2017

  Incluir item

• Democratization, State Formation, and Civil War in Finland and Ireland

  Open Access•Bill Kissane•Comparative Political Studies•2004

  Incluir item

• Transnational Constructors of Parliamentary Democracy in Swedish and Finnish Constitutional Controversies, 1917–1919

  Pasi Ihalainen•Scandinavian Journal of History•2018

  Incluir item

• Lenin's decision to seize power

  Norman E Saul•Soviet Studies•1973

  Incluir item