v09_2011 - FINLAND - GRAND-DUCHY - ALEXANDER II 20 markaa 1879 Helsinki

FINLAND - GRAND-DUCHY - ALEXANDER II

(2/03/1855-13/03/1881)

Finland belonged to Sweden. After the interview at Tilsitt between Napoleon I and Alexander I, the Tsar conquered it, a cession confirmed by the Treaty of Frederikshamn in 1809. The Principality of Finland was erected into a Grand Duchy by the Act of Borgaa the same year and the capital transferred from Torku to Helsinki in 1812. Finland then experienced a century of tranquility until the Revolution of 1905. It regained its independence in 1917 and had to defend it with arms against the Bolsheviks (December 6, 1917). Alexander II (04/29/1818 - 03/13/1881), son of Nicholas I, was a reforming tsar. He ends the Crimean War and signs the Treaty of Paris. He abolished serfdom in 1861 and carried out adjustments and reforms of Russian daily life. After the Polish revolt of 1863 and the increase in the number of nihilistic attacks, the emperor hardened his attitude and from liberal, returned to traditional autocracy. He was finally assassinated and his son Alexander III succeeded him..