Abstract
<jats:p>Three recurring themes dominate the Grand Duchy of Finland’s historical image. First, it is used as shorthand for Finland’s status as a modern autonomous state within the Russian Empire. Second, seen from a longer perspective covering the Swedish period, scholarly works tend to present it as an empty relic stemming from old listings of royal titles. Third, in more popular representations it is part of the imaginary realm of Sweden-Finland and predestined to become a nation state. This book strives to specify all these takes by investigating the historical meanings associated with the notion of grand duchy from the sixteenth to the twentieth centuries. It analyses different layers in the Swedish, Russian, and Finnish use of the concept, from medieval modes of princely power to modern ideas of national statehood in the light of the evolving history of the European concepts of state and nation. In Finland the ‘grand duchy’ was seldom rhetorically confronted as a symbol of the declining old order. Nor, however, was it a synonym for the ‘Emperor’s Finland’ and unbroken loyalty. Instead, its meaning was stretched in opposing directions as a frame for princely rule and an arena for representing the people. During its long history the Grand Duchy of Finland came to signify both Finland’s imperial dependence and its constitution as a separate state and nation – until the overstretched concept shattered in 1917, both from without and within.</jats:p>