User:Tony24644/Alexander Armfelt



Alexander Armfelt (April 18, 1794 in Riga, Russian Empire – January 8, 1876 in St. Petersburg, Russian Empire) was a Finnish count, soldier and civil servant who served as Finland's ministerial state secretary in St. Petersburg from 1841–1876. Like his father Gustaf Mauritz Armfelt, he became a favorite of the Russian Emperor. As a presenter of Finnish affairs in St. Petersburg, Armfelt influenced, among other things, the introduction of the Finnish markka and the Diet of the Grand Duchy of Finland and came out victorious in power struggles with several Finnish governor generals. He served as Minister State Secretary longer than anyone else.

In connection with the position of ministerial state secretary, Armfelt also practically handled the duties of the Imperial Alexander University (now the University of Helsinki) Chancellor. Officially, the chancellor was the heir to the crown of Russia at that time.

Armfelt has been called Finland's leading aristocrat of his time.

Family background and childhood
Alexander Armfelt's parents were the Count and Major General Gustaf Mauritz Armfelt, who belonged to the Armfelt family, and the maid of honor Hedvig Ulrika De la Gardie. < /ref> Armfelt was the middle of his parents' three sons who lived to adulthood and his father's favorite. His brothers were Lieutenant General and Governor Gustaf Magnus Armfelt and Major General Carl Magnus Vilhelm Armfelt. Armfelt was born in Riga while his mother was on her way to his father who fled to Russia. As soon as he was born, he was enlisted as a second lieutenant of the Russian Henkikaartin Cuirassier Regiment by order of Empress Catherine the Great.

Armfelt spent his childhood and early youth mainly in Stockholm and Tallinn. Thanks to his international youth, he learned German as his first language and spoke as his actual mother tongue French. He also became fluent in Swedish and Russian as well as English, Latin and possibly a little Italian. Finnish he didn't know more than a few words.

Studies and military career
In the years 1805–1807, Armfelt studied in St. Petersburg under the guidance of a French private teacher, he graduated in Uppsala in 1808 and studied in the years 1808–1810 in the Uppsala University and in the years 1810–1812 University of Edinburgh in Scotland. After his father moved from Sweden to the newly established Grand Duchy of Finland, in the fall of 1812, Armfelt enrolled in the Turun Academy, where he began his studies the following spring. He was in 1813, one of the founding members of Turkulainen osakunta. After completing his law degree, Armfelt was appointed in June 1814 as an auscultator of the Turu Court of Appeal, but after his father's death later that year, he decided to join the Russian Imperial Army. His career development in the army was promoted by his father's reputation and friendship with the Governor General of Finland Fabian Steinheil. Armfelt participated in the last phase of the Napoleonic Wars in Western Europe and served in 1814 as a column ensign. Emperor Alexander I's headquarters.

Armfelt was promoted to lieutenant in 1815 and transferred in 1817 to the main staff of the Life Guard, where he rose to sub-lieutenant in 1818. His closest superior in the guard staff was his future patron, Prince Aleksandr Menšikov. Armfelt left the service for a while but returned in 1819. In 1820 he served as a sub-captain in the 1st Finnish Infantry Regiment commanded by his brother Gustaf Magnus and received the rank of captain the following year.

In 1821, the commander of the Finnish military district, Major General Heribert Conrad Reuterskjöld took Armfelt as his adjutant. In the same year, Armfelt became the adjutant of the Governor-General of Finland, a position he held until 1827. He first served Governor-General Steinheil and then his successor Arseni Zakrevski, the latter also as an interpreter. Still continuing in this position In 1825, Armfelt was transferred to the books of the Preobrazhensk Regiment of the Life Guard.

Armfelt gave up his military career in 1827, when Zakrevski arranged for him to be appointed to the board of the Suomen Pankki acting board. as a member. Armfelt's position at the Bank of Finland was established in 1831, but the very next year he was called to St. Petersburg to work at the Finnish State Secretary's Office.

Minister as assistant to the State Secretary
In 1834, Armfelt was appointed assistant to the ministerial state secretary. Minister State Secretary Robert Henrik Rehbinder and many other Finns considered him to be a nasty schemer and upstart, initially pro-Swedish and then a Russian sympathizer. Decisive for his career development was the support of the new Governor General of Finland, Aleksandr Menšikov. Armfelt and Menšikov shared a half-sister, Catarina (Ekaterina) Menšikov Gagarina, who was the illegitimate daughter of G. M. Armfelt. Despite occasional disagreements, Armfelt loyally supported Menšikov and persuaded him to continue as Governor-General of Finland in addition to his other posts. After Rehbinder's death in 1841, Armfelt was appointed acting as minister state secretary and permanent the following year. Rehbinder himself would have wanted senator Lars Gabriel von Haartman as his successor, but Menshikov arranged the position for Armfelt.

Ministerial State Secretary
In the early days of his tenure, Armfelt was forced by circumstances to play a rather passive role and was often unable to influence the content of decisions concerning Finland. Finland's ministerial state secretary had found himself in a subordinate position in relation to the Russian ministers and could not turn directly to the emperor as before. In addition, Governor General Menshikov, who enjoyed the "unlimited confidence" of Emperor Nikolai I, prepared presentations in secret and obtained the emperor's approval for them in advance, so Armfelt did not dare to challenge Menshikov's position in the presentations. Armfelt's assistant in the years 1844–1851 was Fredrik Stewen and in the years 1851–1856 Menšikov's former chief of staff Constantin Fischer, who knew the conditions of Finland poorly.

Armfelt's influence grew considerably when Alexander II became emperor in 1855 and Menshikov and Fischer also stepped down. Armfelt had gained the trust of Nicholas I, but the relationship with Alexander II became considerably closer and more confidential. It started already when Aleksanter was heir to the crown, because Armfelt introduced him to the affairs of the University of Helsinki and Aleksanter was also his father's deputy ruler from time to time. When Aleksanter ascended the throne in 1855, Armfelt persuaded him to give like its predecessors, a separate Sovereign Insurance for Finland. When Alexander II, before signing, replaced the words referring to the constitution of the monarch's declaration with the words "according to the constitutions" with the words "according to the former statutes", Armfelt translated it into Swedish with the words enligt detta lands författning, which could still be interpreted as referring to constitutional government. This expression was also used in the Swedish versions of the sovereign insurances of later emperors.

Armfelt was basically cautious and reserved in his work and avoided putting pressure on the emperor, but from 1857 he had as his assistant the more proactive Emil Stjernvall-Walleen, who also had a close relationship with Alexander II. Alexander II did not take any important action concerning Finland without first consulting Armfelt and Stjernvall-Walleen. never before or since. Conversations with the emperor were mainly in French, although the documents were in Russian.

Armfelt drifted into power struggles with two successive governors-general, Friedrich Wilhelm Berg and Platon Rokassovski, but came out victorious. The governors-general eventually overshadowed Armfelt in popularity, and he contributed to the resignations of both Berg and Rokassovski in 1861 and 1866. Armfelt and Stjernvall-Walleen wanted Finland's governor-general Romanov -belonging to the grand duke, who would have been close to the emperor and above the Russian ministers. The wish did not come true, but Rokassovsky's successor Nikolai Adlerberg was the Emperor's favorite almost as much as the Grand Duke, and with him Armfelt also found a common ground. Armfelt's influence reached its peak when Adlerberg's ability to work weakened due to an illness in 1872 as a result, although his own health was already faltering at that time.

The most important decisions that Armfelt and Stjernvall-Walleen influenced were the monetary reform of Finland (the Finnish markka introduction) and the restart of Diet of the Grand Duchy of Finland. Armfelt was able to confirm with his signature among others, the historic 1863 Diet summons, and he participated with Stjernvall-Walleen in the preparation of the Emperor's speech at the opening of the Diet. Armfelt was also involved in the preparation process of the conscription law of 1878, where the emperor was finally inclined to accept the position of the Finnish legislature. The seamless cooperation between Armfelt and Governor-General Adlerberg was decisive here, as they together formed a counter force to the Minister of War Dmitry Milyutin. Armfelt had a good cooperative relationship with the leaders of the Finnish senate, such as L. G. von Haartman, Fabian Langenskiöld, J. V. Snellman and J. M. Nordenstam.

When the 1863–1864 Parliament debated changes to the Finnish constitution, Armfelt decided to draw up a proposal to appoint two committees to prepare the administrative reform of Finland. He bypassed the Finnish Senate and took the matter directly to the emperor, who ordered the establishment of constitutional and administrative institutions committees. Armfelt drew up instructions for the constitutional committee, which emphasized the Instrument of Government (1772) and the 1789 Association and guarantee deed as a basis for the work. Only the 1869 Constitution of the Diet was realized from the project, but a separate mention of the validity of Swedish-era constitutions was added at the last minute. The Russian historian Mikhail Borodkin later claimed that Armfelt and the Finns who assisted him would have directly misled Alexander II into signing a document recognizing the Finnish constitution as binding on the emperor.

In connection with the duties of ministerial state secretary, Armfelt also served as the introducer and assistant to the chancellor of the Imperial University of Helsinki, practically performing the duties of the chancellor, as it was an honorary position belonging to the heir to the Russian crown. Armfelt was formally the acting president of the university. as chancellor during Grand Duke Nikolai Aleksandrovič's minority from 1855 and again at the beginning of Grand Duke Alexander's chancellorship in 1865–1866. Armfelt managed to navigate the university through several political crises, when the activities of the students and sometimes the teaching staff caused aggravation in St. Petersburg, and he got the projects to close or move the university out of Helsinki and abolish the student union rejected.

Armfelt's Policy
Armfelt was one of those Finnish statesmen of the 19th century who looked at Finnish affairs from a wider perspective, from the perspective of the entire Russian Empire. Armfelt tried in every way to bring Finland closer to Russia, but at the same time to protect Finland's social system and legislation from Russification. In his opinion, Finnish civil servants should learn Russian, preferably by first serving in positions in Russia. To avoid clashes he wanted to keep the management of relations between Finland and Russia in both countries in the hands of a few reliable persons. His world view was conservative and he approached the question of Finnish constitutions more as a practical than a principled question.

While working in the 1830s as an assistant to the ministerial state secretary, Armfelt proposed the re-establishment of the Finnish affairs committee that had been operating in St. Petersburg, in order to provide a counterweight to the Finnish senate and the governor-general close to the emperor. Later, he proposed the establishment of a special council under the ministerial state secretary in St. Petersburg, because in this way, Finnish officials could be "trained" to understand things from a Russian point of view. The latter project did not come to fruition, but the Finnish Affairs Committee was finally re-established under Armfelt's influence in 1857 and he became its chairman as ministerial state secretary. It also increased his influence. Armfelt wanted to restrain In Finland, all such expressions of opinion that could have irritated the Russian leadership, and he recruited, among others, J. V. Snellman to steer Finnish public opinion in this direction. Regarding the future, Armfelt was sometimes pessimistic. In 1871 he wrote to Casimir von Kothen: "One day Russia will get its Bismarck and then we will have to say goodbye to our so-called privileges".

Honors, dedications and death
In 1830, Armfelt received Lord of the Chamber, in 1833 State Councilor, in 1835 true State Councilor, in 1843 Secret Councilor and in 1856 true Privy Councilor titles. In 1856, he was appointed a member of the Russian Imperial Council. He also received all the highest honors awarded to Finns of the time, the highest in 1870 being the St. Andrew's Cross and in 1874 the St. Andrew's Cross most brilliant. He was reportedly the only Finn to receive the latter. In 1869, he was awarded an honorary doctorate of philosophy at the University of Helsinki.

In 1835, Armfelt bought the Ratula manor located in Artjärvi as his summer residence from his nephew Count Axel Mauritz Piper for 35 000 silver rubles. From 1843, the manor was officially owned by Armfelt's children. Armfelt worked in Ratula during the summers and received dignitaries there, up to and including governors-general. He died in January 1876 in St. Petersburg after Emperor Alexander II himself visited his deathbed. He was buried in the family grave in Halikkoon.

Family
From 1820, Armfelt's first spouse was the Swedish freewoman Sigrid Axelina Fredrika Oxenstierna af Eka och Lindö (1801–1841), whose father was minister Carl Gustaf Oxenstierna. From 1843, Armfelt's second spouse was the Russian Aleksandra (Aline) Nikolajevna Demidova (1818–1898 ), whose father was Major General Nikolai Petrovič Demidov. In 1844, Armfelt built a so-called orthodox wife's prayer room in the park of Ratula Manor Underneath the pavilion, which is now part of the Artjärvi home local museum is. On the initiative of Aline Armfelt in 1874, the Suomen Punainen Risti was founded three years later.

Armfelt had seven children from his first marriage and three from his second. The only son who lived to adulthood was the court master Mauritz Wladimir Armfelt. Of the daughters, Hedvig Agnes Armfelt Šelašnikov (1821–1848), Marianna Gustava Armfelt (1823–1921), Sigrid Augusta Armfelt Rotkirch (1826–1911) and Countess Ebba Eugenie Armfelt von Etter (1831–1822) lived to adulthood. Major General Gustaf Vilhelm Arthur Armfelt and President of the Turku Court of Appeal Gustaf Fredrik Rotkirch were Armfelt's sons-in-law.