An Interview with N. V. Nekrasov, Newly Appointed Governor General of Finland

N. V. Nekrasov, the new Governor General of Finland, stated the following during an interview with press correspondents:

"My program with respect to Finland is determined by the fact that I was a member of every composition of the Provisional Government and, consequently, I was in full agreement with its entire policy toward Finland. This circumstance has already been noted by the Finnish press.

"The Finnish policy of the Provisional Government is one of the few spheres of its activity that met with general sympathy. This policy is characterized by a firm and consistent line of upholding the rights of Russia with unimpeachable good will toward the interests and rights of Finland.

"On leaving now for Helsingfors, I see that my actions as Governor General find support not only in the policy of the Provisional Government but also in the attitudes of vast public circles. The only dissonant [voice] in the public's attitude on the Finnish question was the well-known resolution of the All-Russian Congress of Soviets of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies, which gave rise to highly regret- table misunderstandings, because the political and legal terminology it contained was given too literal an interpretation by certain Finnish circles. However, we have every reason to believe that this resolution, which was adopted in a hurry, does not reflect the opinions of those democratic circles in the name of which it was approved."

Source: Rech', No. 215, September 13, 1917. In The Russian Provisional Government 1917. Documents. Selected and edited by Robert Paul Browder and Alexander Kerensky. Stanford University Press, 1961.

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