POLAND AND FINLAND IN THE INTEGRATION POLICY OF THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE IN THE CONTEXT OF A. TOYNBIE'S CONCEPT
https://doi.org/10.48137/23116412_2025_4_104
Abstract
The study of the integration policy of the Russian Empire (18th – early 20th centuries) through the lens of the “challenge-response” concept (A. Toynbee) reveals a hybrid governance model that combined autonomy (preservation of language, religious identity, and local laws in Finland and the Kingdom of Poland) with gradual centralization. Using these regions as case studies, the research demonstrates that the empire adapted to the challenges of multiethnicity by balancing local institutions (the Finnish Diet, the Polish judicial system) with administrative unification, thereby ensuring systemic stability (elite loyalty, territorial control). The late 19th-century crisis, driven by rising nationalism and external geopolitical pressures (diplomatic support for the Polish movement by European powers, threats to territorial stability in border regions), is interpreted as a phase of systemic breakdown: the shift toward rigid unification (restrictions on Finnish autonomy via the 1890 Manifesto, abolition of Polish institutions in 1864–1867) disrupted equilibrium, accelerating disintegration. The findings, building on J. Burbank and F. Cooper’s approaches to analyzing imperial strategies, reinterpret integration as a process of seeking stability amid civilizational confrontation, highlighting the cyclicality of balance and breakdown as an adaptive mechanism.
About the Authors
M. M. Ryabova
State University of Humanities and Technology
Russian Federation
Russian Federation
Ryabova Maria M. – Senior Lecturer, Department of History and Humanities
Orekhovo-Zuyevo
D. D. Tumbusov
State University of Humanities and Technology
Russian Federation
Russian Federation
Tumbusov Daniil D. – Assistant Lecturer, Department of History and Humanities
Orekhovo-Zuyevo
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Review
For citations:
Ryabova M.M., Tumbusov D.D. POLAND AND FINLAND IN THE INTEGRATION POLICY OF THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE IN THE CONTEXT OF A. TOYNBIE'S CONCEPT. Post–Soviet Continent. 2025;(4):104-119. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.48137/23116412_2025_4_104
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