The imperial experience of the Russian empire: the Grand Duchy of Finland in the second half of the 19th – early 20th centuries

Background. The relevance of the work is determined by the need to rethink the imperial experience of the national policy of the Russian Empire in the second half of the 19th – early 20th centuries from a new perspective in the Grand Duchy of Finland. The pur-pose of the work is to study the features and results of the national policy of the Russian Empire using the example of the Grand Duchy of Finland in the second half of the 19th – early 20th centuries through the prism of the views and assessments of contemporaries. Materials and methods. The research is based on the principles of historical science: objec-tivity, historicism and consistency. The system-structural method is used by the author to study the principles and methods of conducting national policy on the example of the Grand Duchy of Finland. The historical and anthropological approach is applied to the study of notes and publications of contemporaries – Russian and Finnish politicians, histo-rians, jurists, representatives of the highest bureaucracy regarding the status of Finland within the empire. The application of the comparative historical research method made it possible to analyze the peculiarities of Finland’s position within the Russian Empire. When analyzing the materials of the periodical press, the method of content analysis of the press was used. Results. During the writing of the article, the main task was solved – based on a wide range of sources to study the experience of the national policy of the rulers of the Russian Empire in the second half of the 19th – early 20th centuries on the territory of the Grand Duchy of Finland and its assessment by contemporaries. Conclusions. The second half of the 19th century was characterized by changes in domestic policy, expressed not on-ly in the implementation of large-scale reforms, but also in changing approaches to the na-tional policy of the tsarist government. The events of the 1860s and the subsequent changes affected the position of the Grand Duchy of Finland. The period from the beginning of Alexander II reforms to P.A. Stolypin’s transformation projects was a landmark for the Western Region in terms of the tsarist government's search for an optimal management model for these territories. The controversy on this issue has spread from the ministerial offices to the pages of the periodical press. The analysis of the opinions of representatives of educated society about the status of Finland within the empire allowed us to get an idea of the approaches to the implementation of national policy on the outskirts of the state and the totality of factors that influenced the forms and methods of its implementation.