Governor-General of Finland

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Governor-General of Finland
King of Sweden, later Emperor of Russia
Formation1595[citation needed]
First holderKlaus Fleming[citation needed]
Final holderNikolai Vissarionovich Nekrasov
Abolished1917

The governor-general of Finland (Finnish: Suomen kenraalikuvernööri; Swedish: generalguvernör över Finland; Russian: генерал-губернатор Финляндии) was the military commander and the highest administrator of Finland sporadically under Swedish rule in the 17th and 18th centuries and continuously in the autonomous Grand Duchy of Finland between 1809 and 1917.

Swedish realm

After the final abolition of the

king of Sweden sporadically granted most or all of Finland under a specially appointed governor-general, who took care of the matters in the eastern part of the country more or less according to his own best judgement. Best known of these officials is count Per Brahe
whose reign is still referred to in Finland as the "count's days" (kreivin aikaan), meaning something positive that happens just in time.

List of Swedish governors-general of Finland

Translation in Swedish: Generalguvernör av Finland

Governor-general In office
Klaus Fleming[citation needed] 1595–1597[citation needed]
Nils Turesson Bielke 1623–1631
Gabriel Bengtsson Oxenstierna 1631–1633[citation needed]
Per Brahe the Younger 1637–1641[citation needed] and 1648–1654
Herman Fleming [sv] 1664–1669
Karl Nieroth
1710–1712
Russian occupation
)
1717–1721
Russian occupation
)
1742–1743
Gustaf Fredrik von Rosen [sv] 1747–1753

Grand Duchy of Finland

During the time when Finland was an autonomic state within the

St Petersburg, just outside Finnish borders. The governor-general was constitutionally the chairman of the Senate of Finland, the government in the autonomous grand duchy. The chairmanship he represented, with two votes in the Senate, belonged to the grand duke of Finland, a title held by the emperor of Russia
. The governor-general was the highest representative of the emperor and received his instructions directly from the imperial government in Saint Petersburg.

Finnish citizenship was not required of the governor-general, contrary to all other highest positions such as senators and the

rank.

Many of the governors-general were disliked by the Finnish population. The first man on the post,

Nikolai Bobrikov, was assassinated in 1904 by the Finnish nationalist Eugen Schauman
. On the other hand, several governors-general worked in a way that guaranteed the Finnish autonomy in face of the interests of ministers of the imperial court.

The governor-general between 1831 and 1855,

Russian minister of navy. Gubernatorial duties in Helsinki were cared for by the deputy governor-general. For most of the term, in that position was general Alexander Amatus Thesleff [ru
].

List of Russian governors-general of Finland

Translation in Russian: Генерал-губернатор Финляндии

Governor-general In office
Baron
Göran Magnus Sprengtporten
1808–1809
Prince
Michael Barclay de Tolly
1809–1810
Count Gustaf Mauritz Armfelt 1812-1813 (acting)
Count Fabian Steinheil 1810–1823
Count Arseny Zakrevsky 1824–1831
Prince Alexander Menshikov 1831–1855
Alexander Amatus Thesleff [ru] 1833–1847 (acting)
Count Friedrich Wilhelm Rembert von Berg 1855[citation needed]–1861
Baron Platon Rokassovsky [ru] 1861–1866
Count
Nikolay Adlerberg
1866–1881
Count
Feodor Logginovich Heiden
1881–1897
Stepan Goncharov [ru] 1897 -1898 (acting)
Nikolai Bobrikov
1898–1904
Prince Ivan Obolensky 1904–1905
Nikolai Gerard
1905–1908
Vladimir von Boeckmann
1908–1909
Franz Albert Seyn 1909–1917
Adam Lipsky [ru] 1917 (acting)
Mikhail Aleksandrovich Stakhovich
1917
minister Nikolai Vissarionovich Nekrasov 1917

See also

References