File No. 861.00/509
The Consul at Petrograd (Winship) to the Secretary of State
[Received September 14.]
Sir: I have the honor to refer to despatch No. 314 of June 2, 1917, on the revolutionary movement in Petrograd as affecting Finland. In that despatch it was stated that the first understanding of the mutual relations between Russia and Finland after the fall of the old regime was that the powers held by Nicholas II as Grand Duke of Finland passed, on his abdication, to the Russian Temporary Government which held them in custody to be handed over to the Russian Constitutional Convention. It was stated that this idea was first held both in Russia and in Finland, but that as time went on a Finnish movement gained strength, asserting that with the abdication of Nicholas II his rights over Finland did not pass to the Russian Temporary Government but reverted to the Finnish people.
As the Temporary Government in Petrograd has been growing weaker and weaker in the last months, especially during June and early July, under the influence of the pro-German Maximalist socialist [Page 727] propaganda, the Finnish separatist movement has been increasing in strength. This movement took form in the draft of a law declaring the Seim, the Finnish popular assembly, the supreme authority in the land, except as regards military matters and foreign affairs, which were left within the competence of the Russian Temporary Government.
This law has now been passed. It is expected that its immediate consequences, from the Finnish point of view, will be the abolishment of the Russian governor general in Helsingfors, the ending of the responsibility to Russian authority of the governors of the provinces in Finland, the recall of the Finnish government’s representative in Petrograd, and the abolition of the Finnish Senate’s responsibility to the Russian Government. The Senate is to be responsible to the Seim only.
The following translation of the report of the Seim debates that appeared in the Petrograd papers gives a picture of the conditions under which the law establishing the supreme right of the Seim was adopted by that body. …
The text of the law is as follows:1
After the end of the monarch’s rights in Finland, may the following be in force, according to the will of the Seim in Finland:
- 1.
- The Finnish Seim declares, confirms and enforces all Finnish laws not excluding those affecting national economics, taxation and customs duties. The decision of the Seim is final in all other Finnish affairs that were formerly decided by the Emperor and Grand Duke on the basis of existing laws. The present law does not affect matters of foreign policy, military legislation or military control.
- 2.
- The current session of the Seim is called without special summons and is to last until a new form of government is established. According to paragraph 18 of the Seim rules, the Seim appoints new elections and decrees its own dissolution.
- 3.
- The Seim appoints the executive power in Finland. The supreme executive power temporarily belongs to the economic department of the Senate, whose members are appointed and dismissed by the Seim.
Aside from the nature of the law itself, in abolishing all Russian authority in Finland except that of “military legislation and control,” the important points regarding it are that it was passed by the Social Democrats against the opposition of the bourgeois political parties, and that its passage was hastened by the news of the Maximalist socialist mutiny in Petrograd. The underlined portions2 of Senator Tokoi’s speech prove this. Tokoi even stated that the Temporary Government no longer existed, at the very moment it was [Page 728] regaining control of the situation in Petrograd. Schubergson’s hint that the Finnish separatist movement had appealed to the Russian troops, who are largely Maximalists, further shows the reliance its leaders placed in the Socialist Maximalist movement against the Temporary Government.
As this despatch is closed it is announced, unofficially in the press, that the Temporary Government will refuse to recognize the law as passed, and will continue to maintain the Governor General in Finland. No intention to take active measures, however, is indicated. …
To-day it is announced that the Finnish Seim has been dissolved by the Temporary Government, exercising its right under the Finnish Constitution. The decree states, in substance, that according to the Finnish Constitution Finland only enjoys internal independence within the limits set by the mutual juridical relations between Finland and Russia, and that the very foundation of these relations is that one and the same legal person wields the supreme national authority in both countries. The decree continues that, with the abdication of Nicholas II, his powers as Grand Duke of Finland passed to the Temporary Government, and that the Temporary Government, by its oath of office, is bound to hand all its powers to the Russian Constitutional Convention. The law passed by the Seim is declared an infraction of the Finnish Constitution. The question is left for the Finnish people themselves to reconsider and therefore the present Seim is dissolved and a new one ordered to be elected to assemble not later than November 1 (old style).
When this decree was announced to the Finnish Senate by the Governor General, the Senate only voted to publish the decree by 7 to 6, the Social Democratic senators voting in the minority. The same day the Talman, or speaker, of the Seim, without reporting the decree, announced that its session was closed until further notice.
Below are given some of the Petrograd press comments on the dissolution. …
I have [etc.]