Philosophical and Legal Russian Thought at the Late 19th - Early 20th Century Period on the Status of Finland in the State Structure of the Russian Empire

The subject of this article is the philosophical views of representatives of the legal tradition of the late period of the Russian Empire regarding the status of the Grand Duchy of Finland. The objective of this work is to conduct a philosophical and legal assessment of the views of various Russian legal theorists. This study uses philosophical cognition methods comprising, firstly, a formal dogmatic method for analysing legal instruments related to the legal status of the Grand Duchy of Finland, and secondly, a hermeneutic method in relation to the studied works of Russian legal theorists. A concrete historical method is also used. The main result of this article is to identify contradictions in the philosophical views of Russian legal theorists on the legal status of the Grand Duchy of Finland and determine all the contributing factors. The main conclusion drawn in this article is that the philosophical and theoretical views of representatives of the Russian legal tradition were significantly influenced by their initial objectives. Researchers first sought to refute the existence of a union between the Russian Empire and the Grand Duchy of Finland, which sidelined and hindered the cognition of the legal nature of relations between Russia and Finland.