A feeling for justice: French reactions to the ‘finnish cause’ between 1890 and 1917

Abstract

At the turn of the century, Finnish networks in France managed to raise consciousness about Finland and the Finnish situation among certain groups within the French intellectual and political elite. If the French reactions to the ‘Finnish cause’ remained ambiguous, the Finns in Paris and their French interlocutors managed to paint a certain picture of Finland, its political and juridical situation with the Russian empire, and its national development. Until 1917 French leaders continued to emphasize the alliance with Russia against the German threat. Yet the image of Finland and the Finnish networks created in France before the First World War prepared France and the French leadership to see Finland in a certain way when the time came to decide whether or not to recognize Finnish independence.

Keywords:

• Finland
• France
• Leo Mechelin
• February Manifesto
• 1890–1917
• nationalities

Notes

Notes

1.  See also L. Pärssinen (ed.) (1990) Matka Suomessa, Ulkomaisten matkailijain kuvauksia (Helsinki, exhibition catalogue, Agricola hall, Helsinki University Library, 8.6–2.9.1990, Universitas Helsingiensis 350), pp. 19–27.

2.  The main sources for contemporary French written material concerning Finland are the Nordic Collection of the Sainte-Geneviève Library (Fonds nordique, Bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève, Paris), the BDIC (Bibliothèque de Documentation Internationale Contemporaine, Nanterre) and the National University Library of Strasbourg (Bibliothèque Nationale Universitaire, Strasbourg). The French National Library (Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris) has embarked on a policy of scanning and making available on its website a host of publications in French from the nineteenth and twentieth century (http://gallica.bnf.fr). In Finland, the University Libraries in Turku and Helsinki have been very useful (Turun Yliopiston Kirjasto, Turku; Helsingin Yliopiston Kirjasto, Helsinki; Åbo Akademi Bibliotek, Turku). The book collection of the National Archives of Finland (Kansallisarkisto, Helsinki) has also been invaluable. Julkunen and Lehikoinen (1967) and Thomas and Øksnevad (1959), although selective, have provided an excellent starting point.

3.  Kansallisarkisto, Helsinki (KA), Leo Mechelin Collection, 602:37c, k 19, Fondkommittéen, Andra papper rör. propaganden i utlandet.

4.  Bauvois is currently preparing her PhD at the University of Joensuu. The text is due for publication in 2007.

5.  Concerning the use by the Finns of their cultural background as a political tool, the geographical review A travers le Monde points out that ‘… the Russians deny to the inhabitants of the Grand-Duchy the cultural superiority they invoke in order to justify their claim to a privileged situation in the Empire …’ (‘Les Revendications des Finlandais, le point de vue russe’, A travers le Monde, supplément du Tour du Monde, 31 August 1908, p. 246). In its previous issue, the review concluded: ‘… In all respects it [Finland] represents a moral entity that one cannot just suppress or mutilate without committing the crime of lèse-nation. A cautious policy would recommend conciliating it by tolerance instead of exasperating it by vain attempts of assimilation. This is the Finns’ point of view. Alas! The Russians think differently. And here again the law of the strongest manifests itself …’ (‘Les Relations entre la Russie et la Finlande, d’après l’opinion des Finlandais’, A travers le Monde, supplément du Tour du Monde, 30 July 1908, p. 236). In 1910, the same review again exposed the Finnish problem (‘La Finlande restera-t-elle Grand-Duché ou deviendra-t-elle une province russe?’, A travers le Monde, supplément du Tour du Monde, 26 June 1910, pp. 201–4).

6.  Le Petit Journal, Supplément illustré, 21 October 1900, p. 333.

7.  KA, Leo Mechelin Collection, 602:37c, k 26, letter draft, August 1910.

8.  KA, Leo Mechelin Collection, 602:37c, k 19, Den stora adressen 1899.

9.  KA, Leo Mechelin Collection, 602:37a, correspondence with Julien Leclerq.

10.  KA, Leo Mechelin Collection, 602:37c, k 19, Papper rörande tidskriften L’Européen, list of contributors to the capital of L’Européen. Julius Hackman, Frederik Rettig, Julius Tallberg and the Swede Sven Palme, among others, contributed to the first issue.

11.  KA, Leo Mechelin Collection, 602:37c, k 19, Papper rörande tidskriften L’Européen, handwritten note bearing the signatures of Herold and Vallette, 11 December 1901.

12.  Le Temps, 25 March 1899 (‘La Finlande et le Tsar’); Le Journal des Débats, 5 April 1899 (‘La Politique russe et la Finlande’), etc. In 1899–1900 several periodicals published articles concerning Finland and Russian politics, like La Revue Blanche or La Revue de Paris.

13.  See also ‘Book-review of Léo Mechelin's Précis du Droit Public du Grand-duché de Finlande’, Annales de l’école libre de sciences politiques, III, 1888, pp. 302–3.

14.  KA, Leo Mechelin Collection, 602:37a, correspondence with Jean Pélissier.

15.  KA, Leo Mechelin Collection, 602:37c, k 19, file Papper rörande tidskriften L’Européen; KA, Leo Mechelin Collection, 602:37a, correspondence with L’Européen.

16.  Lucien Herr was the long-time librarian of the Ecole Normale Supérieure in Paris, and a good example of the kind of French intellectual who defended the Finnish cause. For information see Archives d’histoire contemporaine, Centre d’Histoire de Sciences-Po, Paris (AHC), LH1, Jeunesse et début de carrière, 1851–1924. Jean Poirot described Herr in 1899 as ‘well disposed ’ towards the cause of Finnish autonomy (KA, Leo Mechelin Collection, 602:37a, correspondence with Jean Poirot, Poirot to Mechelin, 28 October 1899).

17.  KA, Leo Mechelin Collection, 602:37a, correspondence with Julien Leclerq, Leclerq to Mechelin, 1 December 1900.

18.  Boyer resided in Helsinki in the autumn of 1906 (KA, Leo Mechelin Collection, 602:37a, correspondence with Paul Boyer, Paul Boyer to Leo Mechelin, 21 September 1906).

19.  Jean Deck is the penname of Jean Poirot, French academic, lecturer at the University of Helsinki and first consul in Finland from November 1918 to the end of 1919.

20.  Archives Diplomatiques Françaises, Paris (ADF), série Guerre 14–18, sous-série Russie, Vol. 709, Russie–Finlande 1917, Raynaud to Minister for Foreign Affairs, 16 December 1917.

21.  KA, Leo Mechelin Collection, 602:37a, correspondence with the Fédération Mondiale de la Jeunesse Pacifiste.

22.  KA, Rafael Erich Collection, k 23, correspondence with the Société des Amis de la Paix.

23.  KA, Rafael Erich Collection, k 23, various correspondence with the pacifist movement.

24.  See L’Humanité, Jean Jaurès, 28 October 1905 and L’Humanité, Jean Jaurès, 1 July 1905.

25.  KA, Leo Mechelin Collection, 602:37a, correspondence with Albert de Lapradelle.

26.  KA, Rafael Erich Collection, k. 39, Lapradelle to Erich, 5 April 1939.

27.  KA, Leo Mechelin Collection, 602:37c, k 18, correspondence with J. J. Caspar.

28.  After a second trip in 1913, Leclercq published his book in 1914 under the title La Finlande au mille lacs (Leclercq 1914).

29.  Professor Kalervo Hovi Collection (KHC–miscellaneous archives available in microfilm form at the Department of General History, University of Turku), TYYH/I/m/2/AE Pariisi/185, AE Russie, Politique intérieure, Pays Baltes 1896–1904, 1905–1914, article reproduction, Le Temps, 26 July 1907.

30.  Finlande et Russie: délibération internationale de la conférence de Londres, 26 février–1 mars 1910 (1910) (Paris, A. Pedone).

31.  KA, Leo Mechelin Collection, 602:37a, Emile Boutmy to Leo Mechelin, 20 February 1898. Boutmy was the first director of the Parisian Ecole Libre des Sciences Politiques.

32.  KHC, TYYH/I/m/2/AE Pariisi/185, France, AE Russie, Politique intérieure, Pays Baltes 1896–1904, 1905–1914, Duplessis to French Minister for Foreign Affairs, 25 August 1896.

33.  KHC, TYYH/I/m/2/AE Pariisi/185, France, AE Russie, Politique intérieure, Pays Baltes 1896–1904, 1905–1914, de Montebello to French Minister for Foreign Affairs, 11 March 1899.

34.  KHC, TYYH/I/m/2/AE Pariisi/185, France, AE Russie, Politique intérieure, Pays Baltes 1896–1904, 1905–1914, de Montebello to French Minister for Foreign Affairs, 11 March 1899. For comments on the negative effect on the Russian economy of the Russification policy, the damage to Russia's reputation in Sweden or Denmark, and the influence of Slavophile and orthodox circles see KHC, TYYH/I/m/2/AE Pariisi/185, France, AE Russie, Politique intérieure, Pays Baltes 1896–1904, 1905–1914, French ambassador in Stockholm to French Minister for Foreign Affairs, 13 March 1899; Charles Jusserand, French ambassador in Copenhagen, to French Minister for Foreign Affairs, 31 March 1899; KHC, TYYH/I/m/2/AE Pariisi/185, France, AE Russie, Politique intérieure, Pays Baltes 1896–1904, 1905–1914, Chayet to French Minister for Foreign Affairs, 29 September 1899.

35.  F. Buisson, Rapport fait … au nom de la commission du suffrage universel chargé d’examiner a proposition de loi tendant à accorder le droit de vote aux femmes dans les élections aux conseils municipaux, aux conseils d’arrondissement et aux conseils généraux (1910) (Chambre des députés, session de 1910, rapporteur Ferdinand Buisson, Martinet), p. 14.

36.  KHC, TYYH/I/m/2/AE Pariisi/185, France, AE Russie, Politique intérieure, Pays Baltes 1896–1904, 1905–1914, de Montebello to French Minister for Foreign Affairs, 11 March 1899.

37.  KHC, TYYH/I/m/2/AE Pariisi/185, AE Russie, Politique intérieure, Pays Baltes 1896–1904, 1905–1914, Chayet to French Minister for Foreign Affairs, 12 April 1900.

38.  KHC, TYYH/I/m/2/AE Pariisi/185, AE Russie, Politique intérieure, Pays Baltes 1896–1904, 1905–1914, Chayet to French Minister for Foreign Affairs, 29 September 1899; Chayet to French Minister for Foreign Affairs, 12 February 1900.

39.  KHC, TYYH/I/m/2/AE Pariisi/185, AE Russie, Politique intérieure, Pays Baltes 1896–1904, 1905–1914, Delcassé to Chayet, 2 November 1899.

40.  KHC, TYYH/I/m/2/AE Pariisi/185, AE Russie, Politique intérieure, Pays Baltes 1896–1904, 1905–1914, Delcassé to Pradère-Niquet, 14 July 1900.

41.  Hagelstam was a founding member in 1913 of the ‘société franco-finlandaise Suomi’ (Ulkoasiainministeriönarkisto, Helsinki (UMA), Ryhmä 9, Os. J, 5, Mielipiteitä muissa maissa: Ranska; Hagelstam 1918, 1–26).

42.  The author is indebted for this information to M. Maurice Carrez, of the Université de Bourgogne, Dijon, France.

43.  ADF, 2^ème série Personnel, Vol. 1289, Louis François Maximilien Raynaud. ADF, série Guerre 14–18, sous-série Russie, Vol. 709, Russie–Finlande 1917, Raynaud to Minister for Foreign Affairs, Paris, 39, 21 August 1917. Raynaud is very prolix on the subject in 1917: Finland is a ‘political danger’ (21 August), its independence claim is of ‘German import’ (17 September), the country is a ‘German country’ (3 October), its press and public opinion are ‘devoted to the Central Powers’ (26 November), etc.

44.  Service Historique de l’Armée de Terre, Paris (SHAT) 16N2998, Noulens to Minister for Foreign Affaires, 28 September 1917.

45.  ADF, série Guerre 14–18, sous-série Russie, Vol. 709, Russie–Finlande 1917, Alexandre Ribot to French embassy in Washington, 1 August 1917.

46.  See, for instance, ADF, série Guerre 14–18, sous-série Russie, Vol. 709, Russie–Finlande 1917, Raynaud to Minister for Foreign Affairs, 26 November 1917.

47.  As exemplified by the meeting of Paul Boyer with Clemenceau in December 1917 (Helsinki University Library, Helsinki (HUL), Maurice de Coppet Collection, Coll. 40.20, Paul Boyer to Maurice de Coppet, 23 August 1923: ‘… when a dispatch announced to us that Finland had proclaimed its independence, I went, alone, to meet the Tiger–and this despite my being a Russophile […]–and I told the Tiger: “do not let anyone react before you. Acknowledge immediately what happened; for it will be a lasting phenomenon …” ’). Other figures of the nationalities movement (André Honorat, Marius Moutet, the vicomte de Cornudet, then the head of the Committee for Foreign Affairs of the French Chamber of Representatives, Erik Ehrström, etc.) met with the prime minister at the end of December 1917 to advocate recognition of Finland's independence (UMA, R. 1, Os. B, R. Holstin rapportikirje 2:llä 1919, report Rudolf Holsti, London, to the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Helsinki, 154, 19 February 1919; KA, Rudolf Holsti, K 39, file ‘Eräitä ministeri Holstin muistiinpanoja vuosilta 1901–1922’, unpublished typed manuscript, pp. 42–3).

48.  The recognition of Finnish independence must be seen in the context of similar policies towards Ukraine (de Castelbajac et al. 1995, pp. 104–210) and Poland (Stevenson 1986, pp. 86–8, 97–100) at this time.

49.  See, for instance, ADF, série Guerre 14–18, sous-série Russie, Vol. 710, Russie–Finlande 1918, Camille Barrère in Rome to French Minister for Foreign Affairs, 4 January 1918. Paul Cambon in London went as far as to suggest to his minister that the instructions to recognize should be cancelled (ADF, série Guerre 14–18, sous-série Russie, Vol. 710, Russie–Finlande 1918, Paul Cambon to Minister for Foreign Affairs, 5 January 1918).