The Finnish Cadets Corps 1819-1903-Finno-Russian Relations and Language Conflict in Finland

The Finnish Cadet Corps, 1819-1903: A Reflection of Finno-Russian Relations and theLanguage Conflict in FinlandAuthor(s): J. E. O. ScreenSource: The Slavonic and East European Review, Vol. 81, No. 2 (Apr., 2003), pp. 217-235Published by: the Modern Humanities Research Association and University College London, School ofSlavonic and East European StudiesStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4213683 .

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SEER, Vol. 8i, No. 2, Aprzl 2003

The Finnish Cadet Corps,

I 8 I 9- 1903: A Reflection of Finno-

Russian Relations and the

Language Conflict in Finland

J. E. 0. SCREEN

FOR much of the period I 809- I9 1 7, when Finland formed part of the Russian Empire, little or no Finnish army existed. Yet from I8I2 to 1903 Finland possessed an officer-training establishment. The first was the Finnish Topographical Corps at Haapaniemi in eastern Finland, founded by the Emperor in i 812, but which drew on traditions from the earlier period of Swedish rule. However, in I 8 I 9 the Topographical Corps was reformed by the Russian general staff as the Finnish Cadet Corps and moved to Hamina in south-eastern Finland where its teaching resumed in March i821. By the time of its closure in July I 903 the Corps, with its precursor, had admitted i ,607 cadets of whom 955 had passed out as officers. Its alumni attained distinction as soldiers, in administration and other activities. Although small in numbers, the Corps had been an important educational establishment. ' The aim of this article is to show how changes in Finnish society, particularly the shift towards the Finnish language, and in the relationship between Finland and Russia affected the Corps and led ultimately to its closure. The emphasis will be on the Corps' last years.

I

The foundation of the Topographical Corps and the Finnish Cadet Corps demonstrated imperial favour to newly-conquered Finland.

J. E. 0. Screen was Librarian of the School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University of London, I972-98. The author gratefully acknowledges financial assistance for this research from the Finnish Cultural Foundation (Kymenlaakso).

l A new history of the Finnish Cadet Corps by J. E. 0. Screen and Veli-Matti Syrjo is to be published in Finnish by Tammi, Helsinki, in 2003. Older histories are: (Carl Enckell), Finska kadettkdren. I8I2-I887 (hereafter, Finska kadettkdren. I812-I887), Fredrikshamn, 1890; Carl Enckell, Finska kadettkaren I887-I903 . . ., Utgiven med en inledning avJ. E. 0. Screen (hereafter, Enckell, Finska kadettkdren), Helsingfors, I 990; G. A. Gripenberg, Finska kadettkdren och dess kamratskap, Helsingfors, I 9 I 2.



2I8 J. E. 0. SCREEN

Alexander I wanted to win the support of the Swedish-speaking upper class whose leaders were anxious to demonstrate their loyalty to the Emperor.2 Those serving in the Senate the autonomous Grand Duchy's 'government' -were also eager to provide educational and career opportunities for the upper class, in particular its poorer members.3 Funded principally by Finland but with a contribution from Russia, the Corps had from I832 an establishment of 120 cadets and trained Finnish upper-class boys to become army officers. Because there were few opportunities for military service in Finland most entered the Russian army where they acquired a reputation for loyalty and efficiency.4 From I836 the Corps became subordinate to the chief of the Russian military educational institutions instead of the chief of the general staff and was administered like a Russian cadet corps.5 However, from I843 Finns were always appointed as director of the Finnish Cadet Corps.

Until the I 86os Finnish and Russian interests in the Corps coincided. To the Finns it provided a free or subsidized education for the sons of the nobility, officers, civilian officials and clergy while simultaneously demonstrating Finland's loyalty to the Empire. To the Russians the Corps provided a valuable link with Finland and a small but helpful source of officers at a time when relatively few officers had been trained in military educational institutions.

From the I86os onwards the Finnish Cadet Corps became exposed to challenges to its character and even its existence from a rapidly changing Finnish society. The old society of the four estates (nobles, clergy, burgesses and peasants) began to crumble. An individual's social origin became progressively less important as education, manners and wealth became determinants of social position.6 As this process continued, the socially exclusive Finnish Cadet Corps ceased to correspond to the expectations of an increasingly liberal and socially- mobile educated society.

At the same time the potential for conflict between Finland and Russia increased. Finnish readiness to perceive Finland as a separate 'state' was unacceptable to a more integrated and nationalist Russia.

2 On the revival of officer training in Finland see Carl von Bonsdorff, 'Militarfragor vid ryska tidens borjan', Fdrhandlingar och uppsatser, I 8, I 9 I 8, pp. 14 I -54; Keijo Elio, Otto ''aarle von Fieandt suomalainen upseerikouluttaja, Helsinki, 1973, pp. 6I-87; Finska kadettkaren. I8I2-I887, pp. 6-i8.

3 Kansallisarkisto (National Archives of Finland, hereafter, KA), Valtiosihteerinviraston arkisto (Archive of the State Secretariat, hereafter, VSV), I87 OD 22.

4 'AVra landsmdn'. Finnish Officers in Russian Service, I809-I917.- a Selection of Documents, compiled byJ. E. 0. Screen, Abo, I984, pp. 143-45.

5 Polnoe sobranie zakonov Rossiiskoi imperii, Sobranie 2-e, XI, St Petersburg, I837, no. 9076; Sota-arkisto (Military Archives of Finland, hereafter, S-Ark.), M276/ i, Akti 138.

6 Kaarlo Wirilander, Herrasvdked. Suomen saatylaisto 172I-i870, Helsinki, 1974, PP. 395-96.



THE FINNISH CADET CORPS, 18I9-I903 2I9

The emerging Finnish language movement attracted support from Russia in an attempt to weaken the dominance of the Swedish-speaking upper class among whom were prominent supporters of the idea of a Finnish 'state'. Imperial appointments to the Senate began to include 'fennomen', who were eager to promote Finnish at the expense of Swedish. The Finnish Cadet Corps, which remained very Swedish in its staff and cadets, became a target for criticism as public attitudes became important in more liberal times and found expression not only in the press but also in the Diet, which met regularly after I 863.

In the early i 86os the Senate became anxious to reduce the deficit on military expenditure and turned its attention to the Finnish Cadet Corps which was expensive compared with civilian secondary schools.7 In December I86I the Senate had a committee set up to consider a major change to the Corps. At that time the Corps comprised seven classes. Four general classes provided a non-classical education, with an emphasis on Russian and mathematics, for boys aged eleven to sixteen before they entered the three special classes where they were trained to become officers. The Senate wanted to abolish the general classes and have the Corps concentrate solely on officer training.8

The committee's deliberations in mid I862 proceeded against the background of a lively press debate about the Corps' future. Its defenders argued that the Corps served a useful purpose through the respect its alumni aroused in Russia. Its opponents claimed that Finland could not be proud of the Corps as it was then constituted with the aim of training officers to serve in a foreign country. The debate was widened by a pamphlet (whose author later became director of the Corps) advocating closure of the general classes and the removal of the special classes to Helsinki as the military department of a new polytechnic institute partly funded from savings on the Corps' budget. This idea had been considered by the Senate in December i 86 i. The Corps' opponents seized on the plan as cheaper than a boarding school for privileged members of society. The Corps' defenders pointed to its role in educating boys of slender means and the desirability of giving Finns who went to serve in Russia a useful start; civilian secondary schools should be improved and the Corps left alone.9

The committee reported in July i862. It recommended closing the lowest general class but retaining the Corps' establishment of I20

I Finlands Allmdnna Tidning (hereafter, FAT), 29 March I 862. 8 KA, Senaatin talousosaston poytakirjat (Senate Administrative Department minutes,

hereafter, Sen.tal.os.ptk.), 4 December i 86i. 9 Helsingfors Dagblad (hereafter, HD), i 8 February i 862, 4 April i 862, I 4 April i 862, 26

April I 862; FAT, 28 March I 862, 29 March I 862, I 4 April I 862, i 6 April I 862; Helsingfors Tidningar, 5 April I 862, I 9 June I 862; Borga Bladet, 3 April I 862; F. N(eovius), Ett sdtt att med ringa iya anslag dvdgabringa ett Polytekniskt Institut, Helsingfors, I 862.



220 J. E. 0. SCREEN

cadets. The Senate, to save money, wanted only two general classes to remain and the establishment to be eighty. This was not accepted by the chief of the Russian military educational institutions, Grand Duke Mikhail Nikolaevich.10 Imperial assent was nevertheless obtained in May I863 for far-reaching changes to the Corps. Cadets were to be prepared for university entrance as well as to become officers. Fees were introduced in the general classes, of which the lowest was abolished. The social restrictions on admission were ended."

The result was a slump in the number of entrants which threatened the Corps' survival. The situation was saved by an appeal from the Corps' director to the new chief of the military educational institutions, Major-General N. V. Isakov, who in I865 secured Russian funds to pay for a new preparatory class and, 'as a mark of His Imperial Majesty's gracious goodwill towards the Grand Duchy of Finland', to fund forty free places for cadets who intended to enter military service.'2 In consequence numbers revived.

When new regulations for the Corps were considered in I865 (the old ones having been made obsolete by the changes of I863), Isakov pointed out the desirability of 'maintaining the Finnish Cadet Corps in its former organization, as a useful and sound connection between the Empire and Finland, and to remove as far as possible all circumstances which could diminish the confidence of the better classes in the Grand Duchy in this school or make difficult their sons' entry to the Corps'.'3 The reluctance of the Senate to pay for Finns to become officers in Russia was not matched, during this period, by any Russian hostility to or reservations about the Finnish Cadet Corps. Moreover, because of its Finnish dimension, the Corps was excluded from the reforms of the military educational institutions in Russia in the i 86os. It never underwent a similar restructuring which aimed to foster the profession- alization of the officer corps by separating the education of boys (in military gimnazii) from the military training of young men as officers (in military colleges or junker schools).14 This later caused trouble because the combination of both activities in one establishment appeared increasingly anomalous.

The Regulations for the Corps of March i 865 were promulgated as Finnish, not Russian, legislation. They governed the Corps, with few

I0 KA, VSV Fb 908/ I 863; VSV 85/ I 863. " Suomen suuriruhtinanmaan asetus-kokous (Collection of Decrees of the Grand Duchy of

Finland, hereafter, As.kok.), I863, no. 20, Julistus ... Suomen kadettikoulun uudelleen jarjestamisesta, 6 May I 863.

12 KA, VSV I46/I865; 94/I867. 13 KA, VSV 146/i865. 14 On the reform of the Russian military educational institutions see Forrestt A. Miller,

Dmitrii Miliutin and the Reform Era in Russia, Nashville, TN, I968, pp. 88-I4'; Carl Van Dyke, Russian Imperial Military Doctrine and Education, New York, I990, pp. 57-58.



THE FINNISH CADET CORPS, I8I9-I903 22I

changes, for the rest of its existence. It became subject to the Senate in respect of its largely Finnish funding but the Main Administration of the Military Educational Institutions continued to control military instruction. The Corps enjoyed all the privileges of the military colleges in the Empire but unlike the infantry military colleges (which its special classes resembled) could also pass out its cadets into the cavalry and artillery. 1 5

A review of the Corps continued intermittently from I875 to i888 prompted by the need to correct defects in the i865 regulations and to provide officers for the new Finnish army formed in I 88 I following the law of I878 on universal military service.'6 The Corps' Swedish character was now attacked by the fennomen as outmoded and an obstacle to the provision of Finnish-speaking officers able to interact properly with their soldiers in a largely Finnish-speaking army. Some newspapers also claimed unfairly that the Swedish-speaking officers produced by the Corps were lacking in a national spirit and a sense of comradeship with their Finnish-speaking men.'7 However, despite the continuing shift in Finland towards the Finnish language, helped by the foundation of Finnish-language secondary schools, the Finnish Cadet Corps remained linguistically very Swedish. This increased its isolation.

Conflicting opinions about the future of the Corps, together with the cumbersome procedure for considering Finnish military matters, made the revision of the I865 regulations a protracted process. In I875 Alexander II told the Finnish minister state secretary that he wanted the Corps enlarged so that it could train more young Finns. The Senate, on the other hand, wanted to reduce its size and cost and limit it exclusively to officer training. In I877 the director of the Corps, Major-General Frithiof Neovius (author of the I862 pamphlet on its future) appealed for a revision of the regulations particularly because the pay of teachers at the Corps had fallen behind that of their counterparts at civilian schools in Finland. The Senate set up a committee which produced a new draft establishment showing the staff and pay required. This was approved by the Senate at the end of I 878 and forwarded to the war minister, General D. A. Miliutin. However, he decided in February I 879 that the regulations should be thoroughly revised to take account of the need to provide officers for the new Finnish army and to introduce an organization corresponding more to

15 As.kok. I865, no. 13, Ohjesaanto Suomen kadettikoululle, 22 March I865. 16 As.kok. I878, no. 26, Asewelwollisuus-laki, 27 December I878. I Uusi Suometar (hereafter, US), 2I April I887, 22 November 1887; HD, 27 July i888, 2

February I889.



222 J. E. 0. SCREEN

the modernized regulations of the Russian military gimnazii and military colleges. 18

The Senate set up a second committee to draft new regulations. During I88o it considered proposals from Neovius that originated in an important memorandum he wrote in i879. This concentrated on the role of the Corps as the source of officers for the new Finnish army. He wanted two courses, one (at the level of a Russian junker school) to train infantry officers for junior posts in the new battalions and for the reserve and the other (at the level of a Russian military college) for officers who would proceed to higher appointments or serve in other arms. The junker schools had been set up in the I 86os to train as officers young men with lower educational qualifications than those needed for entry to the military colleges. Neovius proposed the gradual abolition of the preparatory and general classes so that the Corps could start its new courses in I88I or I882. If the general classes were still required, they should be reorganized as a military gimnaziia. Neovius proposed an establishment of I 00 cadets but the Senate, which otherwise approved of his scheme, reduced this to sixty for reasons of economy. This was inadequate to provide sufficient regular and reserve officers for the new army.'9 Moreover, the Senate secured in i 88 i the Emperor's consent to the deferment of the Corps' reorganization until that of the secondary school system had been completed.20

It was therefore not until January I 884 that the Senate submitted for imperial consideration two proposals relating to the Corps. One (from i88o) was for a Corps of three special classes, the other (from i883) retained the general classes but made major changes to the way the Corps was controlled. These would have reduced the role of the Main Administration of the Military Educational Institutions (about which there were Finnish reservations) and increased that of the Senate and the governor-general in return for the assumption by Finland of responsibility for the Corps' funding. However, the governor-general did not want major changes and the new war minister, General P. S. Vannovskii, was also opposed to change. The latter's conservative attitude towards the Corps was consistent with the reorganization and greater militarization of the military gimnazii as cadet corps which were then under way.2' The Emperor, who wanted only minor changes to the I865 regulations, therefore rejected both proposals as well as new

18 KA, FrithiofNeoviuksen kokoelma (F. Neovius's Collection), 2, Betankande, i9 January I 878; VSV I 25/ I 879. 19 KA, Frithiof Neoviuksen kokoelma, 2, Med anledning af vackt fraga ... I 6 April I 879;

Forslag till Reglemente ... i 88o; S-Ark., M274/ I 4. 20 KA, Sen.tal.os. KD 89/333 (i88o); KD 24/338 (i883). 21 P. A. Zaionchkovskii, Samoderzhavie i russkaia armiia na rubezhe XIX-XXstoletii i88i -1903,

Moscow, I 973, pp. 294-300.



THE FINNISH CADET CORPS, I819-1903 223

proposals from a committee chaired by Lieutenant-General N. I. Makhotin, the chief of the military educational institutions, in I885. The long story came to an end only when the amendments put forward by Major-General Carl Enckell, the director of the Corps from I885, secured approval in the proclamation ofJune i888.22

The I 888 proclamation made the Corps in financial terms a Finnish institution. Fees were prescribed in all classes and the preparatory class was reunited with the Corps to restore four general classes. However, the Main Administration of the Military Educational Institutions continued to pay for forty free places which Enckell arranged to be restricted to the sons of officers, civilian officials, doctors, clergy and Finnish nobles, an arrangement which fitted in not only with the conservative tendencies in the War Ministry but also with his own. Enckell did not think members of other classes were suitable officer material.23

The failure of the Senate, in the face of Russian opposition, to reform the Finnish Cadet Corps as exclusively an officer training establishment, ensured that the Corps continued as an increasingly anachronis- tic institution, combining the education of boys (not all of whom became officers) and officer training. This was serious given the failure of the Corps to produce enough officers for the new Finnish army. Even arrangements promulgated in I884 for the training at the Corps of one-year volunteers in the army as regular and reserve officers failed to improve the position significantly. The army always suffered from a shortage of junior officers.24 The Corps also remained expensive both absolutely and in relation to the larger Russian military colleges and cadet corps. Nevertheless, the Corps' cost assumed relatively minor significance when its future was considered during the i 89os. What came then into prominence were its effectiveness as the source of officers for the Finnish army, whether Finnish should replace Swedish as the language of instruction, how the Russian language could be used more and whether unfilled places should be opened to Russians. The Corps became vulnerable to criticism in Finland just when the privileges of Finland were coming under closer scrutiny in Russia.

22 KA, VSV 7a/ I888; As.kok. i 888, no. 24, Julistus, muutoksista erin'aisiin osiin Suomen kadettikoulun ohjesaannossa I865, 28 June i 888.

23 Enckell, Finska kadettkaren, p. 74. 24J. E. 0. Screen, The Finnish Army, I88I-I9oI.- Training the Rifle Battalions (hereafter,

Screen, 7he Finnish Army), Helsinki, I996, pp. 82-84, 9I-92.



224 J. E. 0. SCREEN

II

Between I 894 and I 903 the Finnish Cadet Corps became engaged in a losing battle with governors-general and war ministers who were determined to reform it as a Russian institution. Even the years from I 889 to I 894 were not without problems. Criticism by the fennomen of the 'Swedish' character of the Corps continued. More worrying for the director was the decreasing popularity of an officer's career as new opportunities arose in commerce, industry and transport. Recruitment to the Corps was adversely affected.25 Enckell tried to attract cadets by planning a new preparatory school for boys aged from ten to thirteen with admission restricted to the formerly socially-privileged classes.26

Enckell submitted his preparatory school proposal to the chief of the military educational institutions and the governor-general at the end of I 888. There was no opposition from the Russian side and the minister state secretary was also supportive. However, the Senate was uncooper- ative. The majority of senators opposed the preparatory school, believing that young boys should not be predestined for a military career and also that the school would favour Swedish over Finnish speakers. In both respects the Senate echoed opinion and developments in Finnish society. The press opposed the school on the grounds that it would help to perpetuate the general classes which ought to be abolished. The school would also encourage boys to embark on a military career before they knew their true inclinations. The concept of a military boarding school had been falling out of favour since the I 86os because of the perceived desirability on moral grounds of boys being brought up by their parents at home, which entailed attending local schools for which the expansion of the school system gave more opportunities. .2

Despite the Senate's opposition, Enckell gained sufficient backing to open the preparatory school in I890. It never produced as many entrants to the Corps as he had hoped but between I89I and I900 no fewer than 42 per cent of new cadets came from there. This, and the allocation of free places to the former socially-privileged classes, meant that the Corps became socially more exclusive than in the I 88os.28

Over the years the Senate had ceased to support the Corps on social and political grounds as providing education for the genteel poor and demonstrating Finnish loyalty to Russia. Since the I86os the Senate had been egalitarian in its approach to admission to the Corps and in

25 Enckell, Finska kadettkaren, pp. 55, 201-02; Matti Klinge, Krig, kvinnor, konst, Helsingfors, '997, P- 59- 26 Enckell, Finska kadettkaren, pp. 201 -I0. 27 KA, VSV 9/I889; 85/I863, Ifran komitterande for reorganisation af finska Kadett

Korpsen; HD, 2 February I 889; JVya Pressen (hereafter, NP), I 7 February I 889. 28 Enckell, Finska kadettkaren, pp. 52-54.



THE FINNISH CADET CORPS, I8I9-1903 225

I896 it wanted to remove the proposed social qualifications for free places at the preparatory school but failed because of opposition from the war minister. There was criticism in the press, too, of the allocation of free places at the Corps on the basis of social origin.29 The Senate no longer expected the Corps to be a benefit for the upper class but regarded it as an officer-training establishment for the Finnish army which would admit young men of all classes irrespective of whether they spoke Finnish or Swedish.

The continuing preponderance of boys and teachers from Swedish upper-class families helped to maintain the Corps as a Swedish- language institution at a time when Finnish was making its break- through as the language of an enlarged educated class. The Peasant Estate of the Diet demanded in I885 and i888 that Finnish should replace Swedish at the Corps and complaints continued in the fennoman press about the lack of instruction in Finnish compared with Swedish. The fennoman newspaper Uusi Suometar criticized the discre- tion allowed to the director under the i888 proclamation to decide which courses should be taught in Finnish and Swedish. Even some Swedish-language newspapers were critical of the Corps, wanting it to be reorganized as purely an officer-training school, abolishing the general classes as unnecessary and expensive.30

There was thus no solid support in Finland for the Corps as it was then constituted when Russian plans for its reorganization were developed between I897 and I902. Those plans took place against a changed political and military background. The appointment of General N. I. Bobrikov as governor-general in August i898 added impetus to existing Russian policy to end the increasingly autonomous Finnish 'state' in the strategically-sensitive frontier region near St Petersburg. Russian policy included the introduction of Russian into the higher levels of the Finnish administration accompanied by the simultaneous improvement of the status of the Finnish language and the harmonization of Finnish military service with that of the rest of the Empire.3 1

Two enquiries to Enckell from the assistant governor-general, Lieutenant-General S. 0. Goncharov, in October I894 and February I895 marked the change in the Russian attitude to the Corps. First Goncharov suggested the use of either Russian or Finnish as the

29 KA, VSV 5/ i 896; NP, 27 March I 895. 30 Enckell, Finska kadettkaren, p. 53; Suomen Talonpoikaissaddyn keskustelupoytakir'a ... 1885, IV,

Helsinki, i885, Sisallysluettelo, p. 38; Asiakirjat valtiopdiviltd ... i888, v, Helsinki, I889, Anomusmietinto No. 47; US, i 8 July i 888; 31 January I 890; Suomalainen, 24 October I 890; NP, 30 June I 887; HD, 6 July i 888.

31 Tuomo Polvinen, Imperial Borderland. Bobrikov and the Attempted Russification of Finland, 1898-I904 (hereafter, Polvinen, Imperial Borderland) , translated by Stephen Huxley, London, I995.



226 J. E. 0. SCREEN

language of instruction. This was parried on the grounds that Finnish boys would not be able to learn Russian quickly enough in the preparatory school to follow instruction in Russian immediately on transferring to the Cadet Corps. Moreover, given that the majority of officers and teachers at the Corps knew little or no Finnish, a shift in the balance of teaching from Swedish to Finnish would have required a major change of personnel.32 Next, prompted by the governor- general, Count F. L. Heiden, Goncharov proposed changes to increase the cadets' practical knowledge of Russian and Finnish. He wanted some subjects taught in Finnish and others in Russian, all officers, teachers and domestic staff to be well acquainted with Russian and Finnish, and for the cadets to be made to speak Swedish, Finnish and Russian by turns, even among themselves. He pointedly and improp- erly referred to the Hamina Cadet Corps.33

Enckell consulted the Corps' teaching committee which was against major changes on practical grounds although it accepted his suggestion that parallel courses in Finnish and Swedish could be introduced if more teachers were employed. However, all the Corps proposed in March I895 were a number of minor alterations to the I888 lesson plan which would have provided a little more instruction in Finnish and Russian. All those commissioned into the Finnish army would have to be capable of using Finnish to instruct soldiers.34 The Main Administration of the Military Educational Institutions had no objec- tion to the Corps' proposals but they were held up by the Senate which considered them in November I 895 without taking a decision although some members spoke of the need for Finnish to be the language of instruction at the Corps.35

The Senate finally decided its attitude in November I896. The Corps' proposals were carried by a majority of one against determined opposition from the fennoman senators. Their alternative proposal would have introduced Finnish class by class as the language of instruction where the director had the option so that after seven years instruction in Swedish would have ceased. They wanted the number of teachers to be temporarily increased to enable this proposal to be implemented. Senator E. 0. Bergbom argued that this reform would open the Corps to a greater number of boys and that, because many sons of officials, clergy and teachers were being educated in Finnish- language schools, there would be no significant change in the Corps'

32 Enckell, Finska kadettkaren, pp. 90-97. 33 KA, VSV Fb32, 932/I895; 20/1903; S-Ark., M274/14; M276/14.2, 24 February/8

March I 895; Enckell, Finska kadettkaren, pp. 90-97. 34 S-Ark., M274/14; Enckell, Finska kadettkaren, p. 97. 35 KA, August Alexander Jarnefeltin kokoelma (A. A. Jarnefelt's Collection), 2, Undervis-

ningsspraket i Kadettkaren; Enckell, Finska kadettkaren, p. 98.



THE FINNISH CADET CORPS, I819-1903 227

social composition. He commented that: 'In reality the Finnish Cadet Corps does not stand in harmony with the course of development taken by educational institutions in the country during recent decades.' Y. S. Yrjo-Koskinen, a leading fennoman senator, declared: 'It is [... .] high time that the educational establishment in question, so important for the country, ceases to be a Swedish military school in Finland and is reorganized instead as a genuine Finnish Cadet Corps, even if the reform could not be carried out other than class by class and would thus take a period of seven years.'36

The war ministry had to be consulted about changes to the lesson plan and the minister state secretary sent the papers relating to the proposal, including a transcript of the Senate's minutes, to the War Minister in March I897. He also included Goncharov's opinion that parallel classes in Finnish and Swedish were desirable; Swedish could be abolished as the number of Finnish-speaking entrants rose.37 Enckell believed that the attack by the Russian authorities on the Corps, which led to its closure, was provoked by the arguments of the fennoman senators relating to the use of Finnish as the language of instruction which could equally well be applied by the Russians to the use of Russian.38 This seems unlikely. The Russians had wanted changes to the Corps before the Senate meetings of I895 and I896. Goncharov had proposed changes in I894, as mentioned, while in July I895 General Makhotin had told Enckell of his concern to admit Russians to ease the pressure on places at Russian cadet corps and bring the Finnish Cadet Corps up to its establishment.39 Of course it did not help the Corps that there was a strong demand in Finland for its reform, further evidence of which was the petition of the Peasant Estate in the Diet of I897 that Finnish should be introduced as the language of instruction.40

In September I897 Makhotin wanted to defer a decision on the Senate's proposal but to introduce changes to strengthen both Finnish and Russian at the Corps. However, in October he and Vannovskii decided to go further and submitted to the Emperor a proposal to set up a committee to consider new regulations for a Finnish Cadet Corps which, like the Russian cadet corps, would only prepare boys for entry to the military colleges and not produce officers. The special classes would be abolished although seven classes would be retained. As part of a major programme of russification, which would have deprived Finland of its officer training school, Makhotin's proposal also provided

36 KA, VSV Fb32, 932/I895. 37 KA, Kenraalikuvernoorinkanslian arkisto (Archive of the Chancery of the Governor-

General, hereafter, KKK), 44/ I889; VSV 20/ I903. 38 Enckell, Finska kadettkaren, pp. 99- I 00. 39 Ibid., p. i oo. 40 Asiakirjat valtiopdiviltd ... I897, V:2, Helsinki, I897, Anomusmietinto No. 43.



228 J. E. 0. SCREEN

for the acceptance of Russians as well as Finns both as cadets and staff, for the teaching of all subjects in Russian and for graduates of the Corps to be able to enter Finnish state service, irrespective of whether they were Finns or Russians.

Nicholas II approved the proposal to set up the committee, which met in January I898. Its proceedings were heated. Enckell and the other Finnish member, Lieutenant-General Viktor Procope, the assistant minister state secretary, successfully overcame Makhotin's contention that the Emperor had already approved his proposals in their entirety. They defended the special classes and countered the claim that the Corps was a Russian institution. The committee did not meet again untilJanuary i899.41

While the Corps was encountering these difficulties, Enckell was successfully arranging the construction of a new main building to replace the dilapidated old one. He started to plan this in I893 but it took until May I897 before the foundation stone could be laid. The cost 436,500 marks was considerable and the Diet refused to grant the money. Enckell persisted and asked in April I894 if the cost could be met from funds at the disposal of the Senate. In February I 895 he discussed the matter at an audience with the Emperor, who remarked on the Corps' defective main building. The outcome was an imperial rescript ordering the Senate to make the money available from the funds at its disposal. Although the reluctance of the Senate and the Diet to sanction such a magnificent building to house only I 20

cadets is to some extent understandable, the sympathy of Nicholas II for the project marks a significant contrast in attitudes to the needs of the Corps. The new building came into use in autumn i 898.42

When the reorganization committee for the Corps met again in January I 899 General Makhotin claimed that the proposed reform of the Corps was based exclusively on the pedagogical advantages which would ensue from the closure of the special classes. There was some justification for this argument. Cadets from the new Corps would be able to go on to military colleges in Russia which offered special-to- arm training which was not available at Hamina. Enckell argued that the proposed changes, which included the admission of Russians, would either cause the inflow of Finnish pupils to cease or the Corps 'would be completed with less desirable elements'.43 A sub-committee was set up to consider the draft regulations drawn up by the Main Administration of the Military Educational Institutions in I897. After

4' S-Ark., M274/I4; KA, VSV 20/1903; Fb32, 932/I895; Enckell, Finska kadettkaren, I 27-33. 42 KA, VSV 27/I896; S-Ark., M273/4, Akti I7; M273/6, Akti I7; Enckell, Finska

kadettkaren, pp. 155-67. 43 Enckell, Finska kadettka?ren, p. I 34.



THE FINNISH CADET CORPS, I 8 I 9-I 903 229

successive revisions, the draft regulations of June I899 placed the Corps entirely under the control of the Main Administration and provided for 200 cadets (Finns and Russians) in a seven class corps on Russian lines but with a preparatory class for Finnish boys.

In June I 899 Enckell set out for the war minister his own views on the proposal. He argued that the reform would destroy the homogen- eous character of the Corps, most of whose cadets entered aged fourteen or fifteen, and the beneficial effects of the care of senior cadets for their juniors. Lack of entrants had not affected the numbers graduating although the Corps suffered from the disadvantage that young Finns could go to military colleges or iunker schools in Russia and become officers more quickly than from the Corps with its three- year course in the special classes. The proposed corps would be more expensive, it would be difficult to recruit Russians, and the number of cadets transferring to military colleges would be smaller than the present output of about twelve officers per annum.

Interestingly, Enckell believed that if the war ministry considered the combination of general and special classes at the Finnish Cadet Corps unsuitable, it would be better not to create a seven-class cadet corps but to revert to the Senate's proposals of I 862 and i88o, abolishing the general classes and changing the Corps into an infantry junker school with a third preparatory class and a military college course taught in Russian. Such a school could produce from twenty-five to thirty officers a year.44 It was a measure of the threat to the Corps that Enckell was prepared to be so uncharacteristically radical in order to defend its existence.

General A. N. Kuropatkin, the war minister from January I898, approved the proposed draft regulations for a Finnish Cadet Corps reformed on Russian lines. However, the matter went no further during I 899 probably because General Makhotin vacated the post of chief of the military educational institutions and Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich was appointed in his stead.45 The Grand Duke proved a warm supporter of the status quo of the Corps but lacked the authority to oppose the War Minister to whom he was subordinate.46

44KA, VSV 20/I903, Memorandum, 30 June I899; S-Ark., M274/2, Akti 12; Enckell, Finska kadettkaren, pp. I33-42.

45 KA, KKK254/I9OI I os. I-II. 46 Enckell, Finska kadettkdren, pp. II9-24, I47.



230 J. E. 0. SCREEN

III

The future of the Finnish Cadet Corps was now fought out against the background of the constitutional conflict between Finland and Russia which centred on the implementation of a new Finnish military service law. The separate Finnish army had always been an irritant to the war ministry and both Bobrikov and Kuropatkin wanted its abolition and Finnish conscripts to serve instead in Russian units. The Military Service Law of i 90I was designed to achieve this aim and its implementation using the controversial February Manifesto of I899, which asserted the primacy of Russian legislation over Finnish, aroused serious opposition in Finland, not least at the Extraordinary Diet of I 899 which considered the proposed law.47

In its defence of the Finnish army the Diet also took account of the Finnish Cadet Corps, believing the special classes were needed to provide officers for the Finnish army because Finns would be reluctant to enter military colleges in Russia. If necessary the general classes could be abolished or reduced in number but the Diet did not favour fundamental change to a generally satisfactory Corps.48

The reaction of the Senate mirrored that of the Diet. In I900 the Senate opposed the changes proposed by the Russians to abolish the general classes of the Corps, admit a fixed number of Russians as cadets, make Russian the language of instruction and use the Corps as a means of giving Finnish society a Russian character. However, the Senate was prepared to accept Russians as cadets in competition with Finns and on the same conditions and to move gradually from Swedish to Finnish as the language of instruction although not to exclude Swedish altogether.49

It is noteworthy that Russian threats to the status of the Corps caused both the Diet and the Senate to rally to its defence as a Finnish institution. It was, however, impossible for the Finns to prevent the enactment of the new Military Service Law in i 9OI and the abolition of the Finnish army, with the exception of the Finnish Guards Battalion, during the same year.50 Since the majority of officers produced by the Finnish Cadet Corps entered the Finnish army, its disbandment placed the Corps' future in question.

During I900 the minister state secretary, the Russian V. K. Pleve, and the governor-general were also consulted about the future of the Corps. Pleve favoured reorganization but in such a way that Finns

4 Polvinen, Imperial Borderland, pp. 76-I02, I 3-32. 48 Asiakirjat Vdliaikaisilta valtiopaivilta ... 1899, Helsinki, I899, Asevelvollisuusvaliokunnan

mietinto, pp. I62-63. 49 KA, Sen.tal.os.ptk., 4 December I 9oo; KKK 254/190 I I os. II. 50 Screen, T7he Finnish Army, pp. 35-36.



THE FINNISH CADET CORPS, 18I9-1903 231

would not be deterred from entering the Corps. He noted the practical problems arising from the promulgation of the I865 regulations as Finnish legislation and suggested that changes to the Corps could be made through the Russian Military Council with the costs charged to the Russian treasury; the Finnish share could subsequently be arranged through local Finnish laws. The governor-general predictably sup- ported the plans of the Main Administration of the Military Educational Institutions.5'

Bobrikov became an implacable opponent of the Finnish Cadet Corps. He believed that its alumni in Finland had fallen completely under the influence of Finnish politicians and noted later that most of the officers who refused to enter Russian service when the Finnish army was disbanded were former cadets from the Corps. Moreover, 'many of the Corps' alumni have placed themselves in open opposition to the measures of the Russian administration'. Their attitude was the fault of the 'inner life and traditions within the Cadet Corps'. The reorganized Corps would produce reliable officers although the governor-general doubted whether Finns would enter it given the 'false patriotism' and protests currently prevailing in Finland.52

After receiving these opinions, the war minister set up a new committee at the Main Administration, chaired by Grand Duke Konstantin, to consider the reform of the Finnish Cadet Corps. It met in November I9OI and the majority of its members favoured leaving the Corps alone. Kuropatkin, who slightingly referred to the Hamina Cadet Corps, disagreed.53 He nullified the committee's recommenda- tion by securing on 15 April I 902 the Emperor's approval not only for the draft regulations drawn up earlier under Makhotin's chairmanship but also for measures to compose definitive regulations for submission to the Military Council. In his submission to Nicholas II, Kuropatkin argued that immediate reform of the Corps, as wanted by the governor- general and the minister state secretary, was preferable to allowing it to wither away for want of applicants as Grand Duke Konstantin thought likely and only then setting up a new corps.54

The future of the Corps was thus decided without reference to Finnish opinions. The special classes would be closed and two classes added in place of the preparatory school; instruction would be given in Russian with Finnish and Swedish used only in the two junior classes; Finnish and Swedish would be available as compulsory subjects and cadets could choose which they studied; Russians would be admitted as

51 KA,VSV20/I903. 52 Generalguveentir Bobrikoffs berattelse ofrer Finlands forvaltning fran sept. I898 till sept. 1902

(hereafter, Bobrikoffs berattelse), Stockholm, 1905, pp. I 36-39. 5 KA, VSV, 20/1903. 54 KA, KKK 254/190 I I os. I-II, Doklad, 31 March I 902.



232 J. E. 0. SCREEN

well as Finns; all cadets would have places at state expense; all staff would be in imperial service (either Russians or Finns 'who were Russians in their outlook'); and the Corps would be in all respects under the authority of the Main Administration of the Military Educational Institutions.55

Kuropatkin acted without waiting for the conclusions of the new committee to prepare the regulations which met in May I 902. Nor did he wait for the opinion of the finance minister, S. Iu. Vitte, about the cost of the proposal. When Vitte's objections to the excessive cost of the reorganized Corps were received in December I902 it was too late.56 Kuropatkin had taken the question of the future of the Corps to the Military Council which in July 1902 resolved to close the two highest special classes from the start of the I902/03 academic year and to cease admission to the first general class. Cadets who completed the course at the Corps would be entitled to enter military colleges in the Empire. The Emperor confirmed these decisions on I9 August I902. New regulations were to be introduced at the start of the I 904/05 academic year.57

From the beginning of the I 902/03 academic year the Finnish Cadet Corps was truncated. Under fifty cadets remained, some of whom left during the year, and there was also a shortage of officers and teachers. Bobrikov's expectation and Pleve's fear that Finns would not be attracted to a reformed Corps were amply justified. Grand Duke Konstantin concluded that the Corps could not continue in these circumstances and sought Enckell's opinion. The director, too, saw no alternative to closure and put forward proposals to that end. He was concerned to safeguard the entitlement of the staff to disbandment pay, to provide bursaries to enable the remaining cadets to complete their education in civilian schools, and to secure the care of the Corps' premises.58

In June 1903 Kuropatkin agreed with Grand Duke Konstantin's proposal that the Finnish Cadet Corps be closed. Closure was ordered by the Emperor on I 8 July. Enckell submitted his resignation and was retired in September. Twelve cadets transferred to Russian cadet corps and the rest received bursaries. Most staff were granted disbandment pay. Arrangements were made to repay the Corps' funds to the Finnish and Russian treasuries, as appropriate, and gradually to dispose of its

55 KA, KKK 254/I990 I os. I-LI, Doklad, 31 March 1902; Bobrikoffs berdttelse, pp. I37-38. 56 KA, KKK 254/190 I I os. II; 7 X/ I 904 II; Enckell, Finska kadettkaren, pp. 152-53. 57 VSV 20/I902; KKK417/I902; Prikazpo voennomu vedomstvu, no. 329, 27 August 1902. 58 Enckell, Finska kadettkaren, pp. I89-go.



THE FINNISH CADET CORPS, I8I9-I903 233

property. Some of its buildings were taken over by the Russian garrison in Hamina during I 904.59

That was not quite the end of the story of the dissolution of the Corps. In September 1903 Grand Duke Konstantin pointed out to the war minister that although the Finnish Cadet Corps had been closed, the questions had been left open of its new regulations and of its recruitment from the start of the I904/05 academic year. Kuropatkin commented that Bobrikov and Pleve would have to be asked whether they wanted a cadet corps at Hamina or preferred to arrange places for Finns in other cadet corps. Bobrikov stated in October I903 that he considered the question of the Finnish Cadet Corps exhausted. He did not want to reopen a cadet corps at Hamina because of its high cost and for political reasons. It would be preferable to have places at cadet corps in St Petersburg for Finns and for Russians serving in Finland. Pleve also considered it unnecessary to maintain a cadet corps at Hamina.60 As far as Kuropatkin was concerned, much of the justification for a Finnish Cadet Corps had disappeared with the disbandment of the Finnish army, over which he rejoiced.6' Bobrikov was shown to have been more concerned to eliminate a Finnish institution than to create a Russian one in its place. It is no exaggeration to claim that just as the precursor of the Finnish Cadet Corps had been founded as a demonstration of Russian goodwill towards Finland, so the Corps was closed as an example of Russian ill-will towards the Grand Duchy.

After the disbandment of the Finnish army public opinion about the Corps became more muted and news of its forthcoming closure attracted little press attention. Finnish society and its concerns had changed and the fate of the Finnish Cadet Corps was of no great general interest.62

IV

The closure of the Finnish Cadet Corps was a blow to its director, staff and alumni as well as to its friends in Finland, and a disappointment to its supporters in Russia. Closure marked the end of a unique establishment, both loyal to the Emperor and patriotically Finnish, with an excellent spirit and a good reputation. And yet there was an

59 Prikazpo voennomu vedomstvu, no. 26i, I I July 1903; KA, KKK 7 X/1904 II Os.; VSV 22/ 1903; 5/I904; S-Ark., M1274/8, Akti 11/1902; M274/Io, Akti I2/I904; M/274/I I, Aktit 12/I906; I2/I907; Enckell, Finska kadettkdren, pp. I9I-93. 60 KA, KKK 7 X/ 1904, II Os.; VSV I4/ I 906. 61 Polvinen, Imperial Borderland, pp. i64-66. 62 NP, 8 June I 9oo; I O June I 900; Fredrikshamns Tidning, 25 July I 903; Hufvudstadsbladet, 26

July 1903; Pdivdlehti, 25-26July 1903; US, 25-26July 1903.



234 J. E. 0. SCREEN

inevitability about its demise. The Corps had not adapted, or been allowed to adapt, to changes. It had become in consequence a relic of superseded social and military educational systems.

Finland had left behind the 'society of estates' of the first half of the nineteenth century, in which the Corps had flourished, and become instead a more modern, mobile class-based society in which education and wealth determined social position. This development had been accompanied by the rapid emergence of an educated Finnish middle class, whose aspirations to equality with the Swedish-speaking elite were fostered both by Russian policies and an increasingly influential group of fennoman politicians. To these the Finnish Cadet Corps, which had remained Swedish speaking in a growing Finnish language environment, and which recruited for preference from the formerly dominant Swedish-speaking leader class, appeared not only as an outdated bastion of Swedish language privilege but also as an obstacle to the creation of a truly national and effective Finnish army, officered by Finnish speakers who related closely to their Finnish-speaking soldiers. Finnish politicians also objected to the role of the Russian Main Administration of the Military Educational Institutions in the management of the Corps, believing it should be wholly Finnish controlled.

The dual aim of the Corps after I863 to provide both general education leading to university entrance and military training in a single boarding school created serious problems. The difficulty of relating the Corps' curriculum, with its strong emphasis on Russian, to that of civilian secondary schools complicated recruitment. Militarily it was wasteful to allow cadets to leave for civilian careers or the university instead of continuing into the special classes to become officers. The cost of the Corps as a boarding school in a small town where the teachers had to be carried on the establishment was inevitably high and attracted criticism. There were obviously cheaper ways of educating boys and training officers. Because such a large proportion of cadets was receiving a general education, there were fewer places for those being trained as officers. This in turn meant that the Corps was unable to meet the needs of the Finnish army for junior officers.

The Finnish Cadet Corps was also open to criticism on military grounds because it combined general education and military training in a single establishment. The separation of the two in Russia in the I86os had been logical and successful. The military colleges, each in a particular arm, which trained young men to become officers, offered better opportunities for training than the small Finnish Cadet Corps and at a lower average per capita cost. The Corps provided essentially an infantry course but enjoyed the privilege of passing out its graduates



THE FINNISH CADET CORPS, I8I9-I903 235

also into the cavalry and the artillery, a legitimate cause of complaint by the war ministry.

To have divided the Corps into two institutions, a cadet corps for boys and a military college or a junker school for training officers, would have increased the cost and been unacceptable in Finland where budgets were subject to public scrutiny. The opportunity to change the Corps into a junker school in the I 88os had been missed, largely because of conservative tendencies in the war ministry. The ministry approved of cadet corps, which were conservative class-based institutions. The ministry's desire at the end of the nineteenth century to turn the Finnish Cadet Corps into a cadet corps for boys on the Russian model was in a sense a conservative measure although the ministry also deployed arguments based on efficiency in support of this reform. Of course another aim of the reorganization of the Corps was its russification which would have ended what the governor-general and the war minister regarded as a source of Finnish separatism and promoted what they perceived as the desirable integration of Finns with Russians.

A further blow to the future of the Corps was the abolition of the Finnish army in I 90 I. The Corps had easily survived the disbandment of the first Finnish army of the autonomy period in I 830 by sending its graduates to serve in Russia. Circumstances were now completely different. Finnish attitudes towards service in the Russian army had changed during the nineteenth century as a sense of Finnish identity intensified. This was accompanied by political developments which caused many Finns increasingly to regard Finland as a separate state linked to the Russian Empire only by a common sovereign. Russian determination to assert the supremacy of imperial legislation was therefore regarded by the Finns as an attack on their constitution and made Russia, which had always been regarded as foreign, become threatening as well. Although some individuals would continue to be drawn to military service of the Emperor in Russia, the ideological basis for a Finnish institution which trained Finns to be officers in the Russian army had ceased to exist.



The Finnish Cadets Corps 1819-1903-Finno-Russian Relations and Language Conflict in Finland

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