History of Finland VIII: Joining of Finland to Russia led to an increase in crime

This is the eighth part of a blog post series where I go through the most significant phases of Finnish history. In the seventh post, I described how King Gustav III's coup continued to strengthen the position of peasants and urban bourgeoisie, thereby increasing their economic activities.

But then a new major turning point in our country's history came. It turned out that Finland's administration was transferred from Sweden to Russia, and the kings were replaced by grand dukes. The first of them was Tsar Alexander I.

At least according to my history education during school, this was said to have happened by elevating autonomous Finland to a nation among nations. In reality, however, the power used in Finland was transferred to the highest officials who shared common interests with the Tsar and further to the nobility, officials, rural businessmen, and urban bourgeoisie, who merged into a Swedish-speaking entity.

During the era of the emerging bureaucracy, the liberalization of the Finnish economy came to a halt, and the economic inequality among people increased. The wealthier population, including the peasant landowners, became richer, while the rapidly growing population became poorer. This was due to the fact that the business sector was not liberalized, and therefore the economy did not grow much. As a result, there were not enough jobs for the growing population.

In Finland, this led to a situation where previously salaried farmhands were reduced to seasonal laborers, whose recruitment principle was to choose the applicant who was willing to accept the lowest wage. As a result, the general standard of living of the people quickly declined.

As living conditions deteriorated, the marginalized and dissatisfied responded with crime, which quickly began to grow, reaching an exceptionally high degree of organization. An example of this was a group terrorizing the area of Nurmijärvi, Uusimaa, and Southern Häme, which included the great-uncle of a noted writer Aleksis Kivi.

This group started their criminal career in 1820, at first with petty thefts and later expanding their operations to include robbery and murder. Eventually, Finland's first organized criminal gang was brought to justice by as many as 700 Cossacks and soldiers - and even after that, they organized a prison uprising.

Another well-known example is the "puukkojunkkarit" (knife-fighters) of Southern Ostrobothnia, whose story may be familiar to some readers. The roots of this group also lay in the lack of future prospects for young men.

As the Finnish economy faltered under the power of bureaucratic administration, and more and more people turned to a life of crime, a growing portion of the population ended up in prison. The numbers were so large that overcrowding in prisons had to be alleviated by even sending people to serve their sentences in Siberia.

Overall, it can be said that Finland's annexation to Russia was initially a step backwards for the country, while our old motherland Sweden continued its positive development, which may explain a significant part of our western neighbor's substantially stronger economy even today.

The original blog post in Finnish:
Suomen liittäminen Venäjään johti rikollisuuden nousuun

All the blog posts in this series:
History of Finland I: How did Finland become culturally part of the West?
History of Finland II: From a hinterland of the Union into a modern state
History of Finland III: The legal and economic weakening of the position of the people
History of Finland IV: The bleakest time in Finnish history
History of Finland V: The pursuit of economic profit saved the country
History of Finland VI: Age of freedom and utility
History of Finland VII: The dictator of the era of Enlightenment promoted capitalist economy
History of Finland VIII: Joining of Finland to Russia led to an increase in crime
History of Finland IX: Enlightended dictator initiated economic growth
History of Finland X: The birth of Finnish identity
History of Finland XI: Finnish democracy and gender equality for women
History of Finland XII: Bloody civil war
History of Finland XIII: The far-right's rebellion
History of Finland XIV: The end of the first Finnish Republic
History of Finland XV: Paasikivi-Kekkonen doctrine
History of Finland XVI: Through rise and fall to a new kind of future

History of Finland VII: The dictator of the era of Enlightenment promoted capitalist economy

This is the seventh part of a blog post series where I go through the most significant periods in the history of Finland. In the sixth post, I described how the military state of the Swedish kingdom, which had fallen into a shortage of men and an economic crisis, led to liberal economic reforms that resulted in a long-term growth trend in the state's economy and the standard of living of its people.

During this period, the state was characterized by a democracy of Estates, where lower-class people had more power than ever since the Middle Ages. However, Sweden faced an unexpected turn when King Gustav III, who had adopted the ideas of the Enlightenment, seized power in 1772 with the support of the officer corps, France, and the high aristocracy.

However, the coup d'état did not stop the growth of wealth among the lower classes and the resulting increase in political influence. Therefore, the king faced difficulties with the lower nobility, clergy, and peasants.

To solve this, Gustav III resorted to an ancient method by initiating a war of aggression first against Russia and later against Denmark. The latter resulted in a clear victory, which gave Gustav the momentum to push a new constitution through.

As a result, the king's support base changed from the nobility to the bourgeoisie and the peasants. This was because although the king gained a lot of power, the imposition of new taxes was still subject to the approval of the Assembly of the Estates, and the lower two estates also had the opportunity to influence it.

At the same time, the people's, i.e. the peasants', ownership of their land was strengthened, and even the children of the Crown's tenant farmers were able to become legal inheritors of their farms, which increased the purchasing of inherited estates. This way, the people became even more committed to their land and, as their ownership rights were reinforced, also to promoting their own economy. The entire kingdom benefited from this economic activity.

The legal system also progressed with the establishment of the Supreme Court, the banning of torture, and the mitigation of sentences. The development of the justice system, along with the crucial economic reform of allowing factory privileges for ordinary people, promoted the capitalist economic system and created unprecedented prosperity in the kingdom.

On the other hand, the growth of new tax-exempt noble lands was completely prohibited. The abolishment of the Council of State, a symbol of the old rulers' defeat, was another change, although the highest positions were still reserved for the nobility. However, they too were required to have education for their duties.

At this stage, Sweden's rule in Finland also ended when Russia took control of the eastern part of the state as a side-show of the Napoleonic Wars. However, this did not change the fact that Finland was rapidly moving towards a society based on competence and economic activity, where the significance of birth and special privileges was disappearing.

The original blog post in Finnish: Valistusajan diktaattori edisti kapitalistista taloutta

All the blog posts in this series:
History of Finland I: How did Finland become culturally part of the West?
History of Finland II: From a hinterland of the Union into a modern state
History of Finland III: The legal and economic weakening of the position of the people
History of Finland IV: The bleakest time in Finnish history
History of Finland V: The pursuit of economic profit saved the country
History of Finland VI: Age of freedom and utility
History of Finland VII: The dictator of the era of Enlightenment promoted capitalist economy
History of Finland VIII: Joining of Finland to Russia led to an increase in crime
History of Finland IX: Enlightended dictator initiated economic growth
History of Finland X: The birth of Finnish identity
History of Finland XI: Finnish democracy and gender equality for women
History of Finland XII: Bloody civil war
History of Finland XIII: The far-right's rebellion
History of Finland XIV: The end of the first Finnish Republic
History of Finland XV: Paasikivi-Kekkonen doctrine
History of Finland XVI: Through rise and fall to a new kind of future