In Sweden, meanwhile, liberal beliefs were gaining ground. A consequence of this sliding toward the `left' in the neighboring country was a growth in Finland's importance, for in the series of buffer states created around Russia, Finland was once more the extreme outpost, but this time against revolutionary movements from the west. It was important to retain Finland as a contented part of the empire. Should it be asked how Nicholas and the Duke Menshikov, the Governor-General of Finland whom he appointed, succeeded in their plans, the fact can be pointed out that Finland remained faithful to its sovereign, even though there was no inclination toward the Russians and even though among the university youth at that time many opposed absolutism and glorified freedom.

This generation of students in the Helsinki lecture halls was in a different situation from its predecessors in Turku. An age group was now coming forward which had received all its education in the era of Finland under Russian domination. They had a different point of departure : with the ever increasing foreign influence of the new philosophies and literatures, the national awakening previously sparked in Turku gained added awareness in the new surrounding and circumstances. Men who were later to be included among the great men of Finland - Lönnrot, Runeberg and Snellman - having begun their education in Turku, had already managed to arrive at the point where they could exert their influence. Within the framework of Helsinki University an informal `Saturday Circle' was started in 1830, to which belonged not only the three men just cited but also the cream of the academic youth. By the following year this group had established the Society for Finnish Literature, as the torchbearer for national, patriotic aspirations. Assuming the responsibility to develop an independent, national culture, the work ahead branched out in different directions. New educational theories led to the establishment of a new preparatory school, the Helsinki Lycee. Runeberg, working as a newspaperman in the capital, continued to work as a poet also, pointing up the uniqueness of the Finnish people. Lönnrot's influence began with his writings in the Finnishlanguage periodical, The Honeybee, and when the Society for Finnish Literature arranged for the collecting of folk poetry, Lönnrot was to contribute greatly. Snellman, as philosopher, was preoccupied with the awakening of a feeling of Finnish nationalism his thesis was the conviction that Finland's new status as an autonomy within the framework of a big empire was dangerous and required the fostering of patriotic feeling, and so it was through

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