HISTORY. The Finns are said to have dwelt on the Volga in the seventh century, and to have driven eortheard at the beginning of the eighth. The true Films call themselves Suomi. In the teelith century I he Swedes, zealous for the extension of Christianity, and perhaps also ambitious for the expansion of Swedish power, began the long struggle which ended in the elos lug years of the thirteenth century in the Chris tianization of the (week and their subjection to Swedish sovereignty, llenrik, the English-born Bishop of t psela, who accompanied the first Swedish expedition in 1157, was murdered by a Finn and became Finland's patron saint and mar tyr. For over live hundred years Finland re mained an appanage of the Swedish crown. Gus tavus Vasa (q.v.) introduced the Lutheran re ligion in 1528, and John III. male the country a grand duchy. Under Swedish rule the people en joyed an autommums constitutional government, and developed a simple, intelligent. and unique eivilization. \\Idle Finnish rimiained the lan guage of the peasantry, Swedish became that of the towns and of the cultivated and official classes. During the long wars between Russia and Sweden Finland was frequently a battle ground, and as the Finnish frontier is only thirty three miles from Saint Petersburg, it was natu rally desired by the former conetry to round out its territory and complete its defenses. This desire was realized in the Peace of Fredries hanin, September 17, 1809, following upon a Russian invasion, by which Sweden ceded the grand duchy with the Islands to Rus sia. Alexander I. (q.v.) guaranteed to Fin land the preservation of its laws, Constitution. and religion, and this pledge has been solemnly renewed to the Finnish estates by each of his successors, including the present Czar. In 1898, however, Nicholas 11. began the series of meas ures which have since been slowly put in operation looking to the Russification of Finland, in com mon with other provinces of the Russian Empire.
The army law, which was to change the army from a purely national force for purposes of de fense to an integral part of the Russian Army and make it a heavier burden, received a check in February, 1901, in the form of a heavy adverse vote in the Russian Council of State, but this served merely to retard the process of Russitica tion for a very brief time. In October, 1902, a series of ordinances was promulgated. aiming at the complete Ilestruction of Finnish autonomy. The Senate was placed under the control of the Governor-General, who. under the 111'W conditions, exercises the virtual power of dismissal over all administrative offieials, as well as over the judges of the law courts. To seenre immunity for the Rus sian Imre:um-racy in their attack upon the liber ties of the people, it was provided that no official, however humble, could be brought to trial with out the consent of his superior. Before this Rus sian had been made the official language. and a rigid censorship had resulted in the suppression of a number Of Finnish journals.
Consult: Michelin, Finland int 19ten Juhrhun (1,11 I Ilelsingfors. !RN) Tweellie. Through Fin land in Carts I London, 18971; Statistisk Arbok fe;r Finland (annual, Ilelsingfors) ; Barnhak, llussland und •'inland (Leipzig, 1900) ; The People of Finland in Archaic. Timrs (London, 1892) : Koskinen, Finnisch• Gest-hit-hie (Leipzig. le73) : Jgnatius. Grand-dm-he de Finlande ( Ilelsingfo•s. 1878) : Jonas, Das Grossfiirsten tam h'iniumi (Berlin, 1886). For Finland's re lations with Russia, Fisher, Finland and the Tsars (London, 1890) ; Nybohn, Die Stellung Finlands ins russischen Kaiserrcich (Leipzig, 1901) ; Arnheim (editor), Der ausserordentliche finlapidis•he Landtug, 18.99, German translation from the Finnish (Leipzig, 1900) ; Getz, Des staatsrechtliche Verhaltnis zn'ischen Finland wed Russian(' (Leipzig, 1900). See RUSSIA ; SWEDEN.