The relationship between the tsarist imperial government and its Finnish territories was increasingly fraught in the decade leading up to the First World War and this tension played itself out during the war, culminating in Finland's break with Russia.

The Grand-Duchy of Finland was one of the empire's quiet regions for most of the nineteenth century. It was technically not directly part of the empire, but rather a personal union with the Romanov dynasty. Finland had its own currency, army, and a deal of local political autonomy that was atypical in the Russian empire. However, St. Petersburg's demands for both increased centralization and Russification in the late nineteenth century disturbed this quiescent relationship. The Finnish Army was dissolved in 1901 and the Finns were expected to pay an increased defense costs to make up for the loss to imperial defense. Finland gained a measure of autonomy in the aftermath of the 1905 Revolution including a democratically-elected parliament (the Eduskunta). The tsarist state increasingly tried to dissolve and get a Finnish parliament that was more congruent with imperial prerogatives (often appointing Finnish-born military officers into the Finnish Senate as "safe" candidates) but the heavy-handedness that characterized the Romanov Finnish policy of the last two decades alienated many of the Finnish political elite against the empire. The situation prior to 1914 was a political stalemate: the Russian imperial administration planned to ratchet back Finnish autonomy and the Finnish political elite wanted to preserve and expand it.

The war perpetuated this political stasis. Although the Russians toyed with expanding conscription to the Finns, they never were able to implement these designs. Finns volunteered for service in the Russian Army, but were never put into independent units. Adding to tsarist suspicions, a number of Finns volunteered to fight for the Germans and served in the 27th Jäger Battalion, an explicitly Finnish unit established in 1916. The Jägers drew their ranks from Finnish university students who traveled to Germany via neutral Sweden.

It was not so much the First World War that had a decisive impact upon Finland and Finnish culture as the 1917 Revolutions. Both February and October Revolutions gave Finnish nationalists a golden opportunity to declare their independence, which they did in December 1917. Lenin initially supported Finnish independence as being congruent with Bolshevik goals of achieving a worldwide revolution; the logic being that by giving way to the national question, it would defuse this distracting element.

Needless to say, this did not work out as planned and power in Finland eventually fell into conservative nationalists. The Bolsheviks supported the radical elements in the Social Democrats and this led to a civil war in Finland between Whites (conservative nationalists and moderate left) and Reds (Bolshevik-aligned radicals). The White's eventual victory, after much back-and-forth and usual atrocities that characterize civil wars, came at a cost. The conservative forces in the country emerged as a more unified bloc and sharpened their preexisting anticommunism. For example, the Lapua Movement drew from veterans of the Civil War and advocated a more radical Finnish nationalism and clamping down on the left. The Finnish left became split within Finland and its Communist party went underground. The result was a degree of domestic governmental chaos and a series of minority caretaker governments during the interwar period.

Internationally, Finland positioned itself among the Western powers as "Honest Little Finland" during the Paris Peace Conference and quickly applied for membership in the League of Nations. The Tartu Peace Treaty in 1921 established a diplomatic relationship with the USSR, but the latter was highly skeptical of Finnish intents. There was an increasing opinion within Soviet ruling circles that Lenin's "Gift to the Finnish Peoples" was a tactical error and contrary to the interests of the Bolsheviks. The activities of Finnish anticommunism like the Lapuas only added to these suspicions. This skepticism turned into paranoia under Stalin and although the Finnish governments preferred to enjoy a "splendid isolation" after independence, this Soviet attitude precluded this wish.

Sources

Jussila, Osmo, Seppo Hentilä, and Jukka Nevakivi. From Grand Duchy to a Modern State: a Political History of Finland since 1809. London: Hurst & Company, 1999.

Polvinen, Tuomo. Imperial Borderland: Bobrikov and the Attempted Russification of Finland, 1898-1904. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 1995.

Thaden, Edward C., and Michael H. Haltzel. Russification in the Baltic Provinces and Finland, 1855-1914. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1981.

Finnish conscription was abolished ten years before, during the Russification years, because they were afraid of armed rebellions.

But when the war started, some volunteers (about 600) enlisted in the Russian army. And then there were Finnish officers, so the total amount was about 800. They served especially in the Polish front, and 200 of them died.

Beginning of the war Finns were still quite loyal to Russia. People were afraid that Germans will invade, and they also hoped that Russia will return the Finnish autonomy. However, Russification continued and people become sure that they want to abolish it completely.

In the 1915, volunteers (about 1 900) from Finland went to Germany to train to become Jägers. They wanted to establish a Finnish sovereign state with the help of Germany. About 20 Jägers died during the combat.

Then there were Finnish volunteers in the armies of Britain, France, Australia, New Zealand, United States, and Canada. Thousands of Finns participated in the First Wold War, says the historian Tuoman Hoppu.

Groceries were rationed, the gendarmerie, police, and Russian soldiers monitored the citizens, and some of the Jägers were convicted of treason. Horses and cows were taken because the military needed them. Finns built fortifications with Russians (mainly to protect St.Petersburg, but Finland as well), but there were still not enough labor, so Russians brought Tatars and Asians to build them, too (prisoners of war, probably).