2 Euro BU

The Diet of Porvoo was connected with the Finnish War of 1808 to 1809. In the course of this war, the Russian Empire occupied the Finnish territories that had until then belonged to the Kingdom of Sweden. The final transfer to Russia was sealed by the Treaty of Fredrikshamn. Finland was subsequently incorporated into the Russian Empire as a Grand Duchy; the Russian emperor and the Finnish Grand Duke were the same person.

Even before the conclusion of peace, Emperor Alexander I convened the representatives of the four estates of the time: the nobility, the clergy, the burghers and the peasantry. This assembly of the estates was not a parliament in the modern democratic sense. The population was not represented on the basis of universal and equal suffrage, and political participation rights were divided according to social groups. Representatives of the Finnish territories had previously participated in the Swedish Diet; the assembly of 1809 now created a separate political framework for Finland.

Alexander I promised to respect the existing religion as well as the country’s traditional laws and rights. The estates, for their part, swore an oath of allegiance to him. These mutual declarations gave rise to the idea of a special Finnish legal and administrative order within the Russian Empire. The extent to which these promises constituted a formal constitution was interpreted differently at a later date.

As a result, a separate central administration was established. A governing council assumed responsibility for internal administration and was later referred to as the Senate. Finland also retained its own laws, its own administration and separate state finances. This institutional autonomy contributed to the emergence of a Finnish state in the 19th century, although the country continued to belong to the Russian Empire.

The coin’s theme thus refers to a political turning point: not only did Finland’s state affiliation change, but institutions also emerged that could serve as a basis for later parliamentary and state structures. The anniversary therefore provided an occasion to commemorate the formative period of the autonomous Grand Duchy.