Liikanen, Ilkka, Marjanen, Jani

The Grand Duchy of Finland — From Princely Power to National Statehood

The Grand Duchy of Finland

From Princely Power to National Statehood

Product description

Histories of Finland within the Swedish Kingdom and Russian Empire often treat the country's status as a grand duchy as a mere curiosity. This book challenges this trivialization by illuminating the grand duchy's crucial role in shaping how historical actors understood political structures. In the early modern period, it served as a stage for the display of princely power. After the Napoleonic Wars, the grand duchy emerged as a pivotal intermediary between imperial rule and ideas of national sovereignty. At the time of Finnish nation building and political mobilization, it became a context for rethinking national, ethnic and regional identity, as well as statehood and, ultimately, democracy.

Through a series of selected case studies, this volume examines how conceptualizations of Finland as a political entity evolved from the early modern period to the First World War, offering fresh insights into past ideas of Finland's autonomy, independence and statehood.

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