Imperial Borderland

“Tuomo Polvinen’s book, which was published in Finnish in 1984, is the first detailed monograph on Russian policy with regard to Finland during these years. The publication of this English translation, with minor corrections by the author, makes this useful study available to a wider audience. . . . Polvinen’s research in published as well as unpublished sources is exhaustive. His book retains its value even though the collapse of the Soviet Union has improved access to archival holdings for foreign scholars.” - Toivo U. Raun , American Historical Review

from a review of the Swedish edition
"[Polvinen’s] success has been helped by his approach, which is to see Bobrikov’s career in Finland as an episode in Russian history. . . . It is a major achievement to allow us to look at Bobrikov’s work from a Russian point of view, and set in its proper perspective, as a characteristic attempt by an imperialist power to adjust the security situation in one of its border provinces." - A. F. Upton, English Historical Review

"Polvinen is the first historian to provide an original, scholarly synthesis of the events in Finland at the beginning of the twentieth century. He is the dean of Finnish historians who are concerned with Finland’s relations with Russia and the Soviet Union during this century. The publication of Imperial Borderland will oblige American surveys of Russian history to revise their references to Bobrikov." - Edward Thaden, University of Illinois, Chicago