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Prime Minister Juha Sipilä at the seminar "Finland’s Path to Independence"

Government Communications Department
Publication date 7.11.2017 9.12 | Published in English on 7.11.2017 at 9.41
Speech

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Ladies and Gentlemen,

The deadline passed last week for submitting projects for the Finland 100 programme which has been ongoing this year in celebration of the centenary of Finland’s independence. A huge variety of projects, some 5,000 in total, have been submitted during the year. Based on the Finland 100 survey, over half a million people had, by August, taken part in the planning of these different events.

These numbers prove that the most important goal of the centenary celebrations is being achieved, as we have been celebrating together. ‘Together!' is, after all, the theme for Finland 100. Civil society in Finland has demonstrated its strength. Sports associations, cultural organisations, the academic and scientific communities, companies, labour market organisations – a wide diversity of stakeholders – have joined the process of building the centenary year programme.

Today, the most distinguished historians of our country are here to recollect, with us, the times and events that helped Finland to become an independent, sovereign nation.

Now is the right time to turn the spotlight on our history. A great succession of events unfolded a hundred years ago, leading to Finland's independence after a century of rule by the Russian Empire. The events were so many that we could turn to any single day and write a fascinating article titled 'This happened in Finland exactly a hundred years ago'.

For instance, today is precisely one hundred years since the day Finland was informed of the transition of power in St Petersburg. The Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, had seized power. Alexander Kerensky, prime minister of the provisional government, had fled and other members of the government had been arrested. Negotiators, authorised by the Finnish Parliament, left for St Petersburg, where they realised that the government – which was supposed to be making decisions regarding Finland’s position – no longer existed. Our meeting here today marks the severance of the state connection between Finland and Russia.

The Finnish Parliament, which had been elected in October, had already convened for its first session in a very controversial atmosphere. Conflicts in society had come to head and Finland was facing a food crisis.

Today we will hear more about what exactly happened a hundred years ago. It is worth remembering, however, that the preconditions for Finland’s independence had actually been in the making for a long time, more than a hundred years. Finland’s future was crucially dependent on political developments in Europe, as Risto Volanen, DSocSci, describes in his newly published book “Suomen synty ja kuohuva Eurooppa” ('The Birth of Finland and Europe in Ferment').

1809 proved a critical turning point, as this was the year that Sweden ceded Finland to Russia. Under the Russian Empire, the Grand Duchy of Finland gained an autonomous position, which allowed the development of national institutions.

An awakening of national consciousness was then a further ingredient that would take shape. The subsequent hundred years gradually strengthened the belief that the Finnish language could be more than the mother tongue of a tiny nation somewhere under the North Star. Religious movements, youth associations, the cooperative movement, the labour movement, the founders of Finnish industries – all of these participated in laying the foundations, ensuring that Finland would be ready to grasp the opportunity when it presented itself in the autumn of 1917.

Here, particularly, there is reason to emphasise the significance of state institutions. By 1917, Finland had accumulated ten years’ experience of how a democratically elected Parliament functions. A structure of political parties had been established, providing channels for different sections of the population to voice their opinions.

Another important state institution was the Finnish Government, the Senate, which had its origins in 1809. 

Both institutions – Parliament and the Senate – played an important role in the process by which Finland gained independence. Parliament officially recognised the severance of the state connection with Russia by assuming supreme authority on 15 November 1917. At the end of November a vote was organised in Parliament and a Senate was appointed with P.E. Svinhufvud as its Chairman. The Svinhufvud Senate became responsible for the completion of measures leading to Finland’s independence.

Svinhufvud read the Declaration of Independence to Parliament on 4 December 1917. On 6 December, Parliament approved the Senate’s actions and a resolution on independence, and in Parliament Santeri Alkio was the first to sign this resolution. That day, 6 December, became Finland's Independence Day.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

The years 1918 and 1919 turned out to be very significant in the history of Finland. The newly independent country drifted into a cruel Civil War in 1918. Less than a year after the end of the Civil War in 1919, the country held democratic parliamentary elections. A republican constitution was adopted and the people of Finland started to build their country based on a parliamentary democracy.

Now that a hundred years have passed, we can review those three years in our history objectively, and as a distinct period. We must try to understand that period and the motives of those in power from their perspective, as they saw it at the time.

Finland’s path to independence was narrow and difficult, but it took us where we are today.  Together, we can be grateful for this, our independence.

May I wish you all a very happy centenary of Finland’s independence!