Known as the land of a thousand lakes for it posseses over one-hundred and eighty thousand of them, and also as the land of the midnight sun since it's proximity to the north pole means that for half the year the sun does not set in much of the country, Finland is a harsh, rugged and beutiful land that has given rise to a hardy and practical people, remarked of throughout Europe. At the dawn of the Victorian Era the land of Finland was and had been for some years a part of the vast Russian Empire, having been conquered by Tsar Alexander from the Kingdom of Sweden in 1809 during one of the many byzantine actions of the Napoleonic Wars, in this case the appropriately named Finnish War. Sweden itself had ruled the lands since the twelfth and thirteenth centuries after invading during a period known as the Northern Crusades against the various pagan Finnic tribes that had lived in the area since time immemorial.
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A not uncommon Finnish landscape
After five hundred years of almost continual swedish rule and not insignificant colonisation it is little surprise that Finland at the time was dominated by an entirely Swedish aristocracy and had a substantial and wealthy minority of Swedes holding the vast majority of influence in the territory. A minority that still relatively speaking punches above their weight to this day. However unlike in many nations at the time, and while still leaving a lot to be desired by modern standards, the treatment of the Finns by their Swedish overlords was relatively benign. So long as they paid their taxes, worshipped at the right churches and got on peaceably with their lives, the Swedish elite was content not to interfere, at least to no greater extent that could be expected in the other nordic nations.
When Finland became part of the Russian Empire after 1809 the country was reorganised into the formal Grand Duchy of Finland(the title previously having little weight or bearing and used mainly as an honorific for certain members of the Swedish Royal Family) and the four estates convened at the Diet of Porvoo that year. Each of the four estates, nobility, clergy, the burghers and the peasants pledged their loyalty to Alexander and proclaimed him their Grand-Duke and Emperor. In return the Tsar was expected to guarantee the status quo, uphold the laws and privileges the population had enjoyed up to that point and not interfering in their religion, since Russia was Eastern Orthodox and the Finnish held to the Lutheran branch of Protestantism.
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A map commisioned by the Tsar of his new domain
Despite oscillating between liberalism and autocracy in the affairs within and without his enormous and diverse Empire, the Grand-Duke and Emperor Alexander upheld his promise to Finland given at the Diet, leaving the Grand Duchy largely autonomous in all its internal matters. With continual pledges and evidence of loyalty from the Diet, Alexander even rewarded the country with the return of territory lost by Sweden to Russia in previous wars, particularly Finnish Karelia and with it the city of Viipuri. Thus the people continued on happily or at least as content as before until the Tsar’s death in 1825.
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Alexander, Grand Duke of Finland 1809-1825 & Nicholas, Grand Duke of Finland 1825-1851
Having died without issue, at least without male ones, the next Emperor and Autocrat of all the Russians and therefore Grand Duke of Finland was Alexander’s youngest brother Nicholas. Enraged and disgusted at the liberal instigated Decembrist Revolt against him, after the middle brother Constantine refused to take the throne, Tsar Nicholas turned his back upon even the very limited liberalism enacted by Alexander. The rebellion of the Kingdom of Poland did not help matters and the Emperor would take a much more active interest in his various satellites afterwards, which also did not help matters. By the time the liberal revolutions of 1848 rolled around, better known as the Springtime of Nations, a greater supporter of monarchical collectivist autocracy could not be found than in the person of the Russian Emperor.
Even Prime Minister Metternich of Austria, credited with creation of the Vienna system or Concert of Europe, could only stand back in awe of the Tsar’s anti-revolutionary and anti-reform fervour. Thus it was to him and Russia, a political rival but ideological ally, that Austria would turn to for help when the Hungarian revolution spilled out of their control when the rebels occupied Vienna. With the concert of Europe having been dealt a mortal and echoing blow in Belgium a decade earlier and the other principal players of it locked in wars, France and Prussia were fighting each other in the Left Bank War and the United Kingdom was utterly distracted from continental affairs by the 48 50 War with the United States while neither the Netherlands nor King Carlos in Spain had the power to intervene even had they the inclination, there really was no other alternative. Only to happy to deal a blow against what he saw as decadent liberal individualism, the Tsar jumped at the opportunity though unfortunately for him to would prove his undoing.