Editing Pehr Evind Svinhufvud (section)

==A lawyer and a politician==
Svinhufvud's career in law followed a regular course: he worked as a lawyer, served at district courts, and served as a deputy judge at the [[Turku]] Court of Appeal. In 1892 he was appointed as a member of the Senate's law-drafting committee at the relatively young age of 31. For six years he worked in the committee, initially redrafting taxation laws. As head of his family, Svinhufvud participated as a member of the [[Estates of the realm|Estate of Nobles]] in the [[Diet of Finland]] in 1894 and 1899–1906.

He found his work on the law-drafting committee tedious and moved to the Court of Appeal as an assistant judge in 1902, his long-term goal being the easy life of a rural judge. Svinhufvud stayed mainly in the background until 1899, when [[Imperial Russia]] initiated a [[Russification of Finland|Russification policy]] for the autonomous Grand Duchy. The Finnish answer was mainly legislative and constitutional resistance, of which Svinhufvud became a central figure as a judge in the Court of Appeals.

When some inhabitants of Helsinki lodged a complaint with the Turku Court of Appeal in 1902, concerning violence employed by the Russian Governor of [[Uusimaa]] to break up a demonstration against [[Military of the Grand Duchy of Finland|military call-ups]], the court initiated proceedings against Governor-General [[Nikolay Bobrikov|Bobrikov]]. Bobrikov demanded that they be stopped, and when this did not happen, he used a decree which the Finns regarded as illegal to dismiss sixteen officials of the court, including Svinhufvud.

Originally a moderate of the [[Finnish Party]] or Old Finnish Party, after his dismissal Svinhufvud became a strict [[Constitution of 1772|constitutionalist]] who regarded the resistance of judges and officials as a question of justice, not believing that political expediency offered compromises. He moved to Helsinki to work as a lawyer and participated in the political activities both of the Diet and of a secret society, ''[[Kagal (Finnish society)|Kagal]]''.

Svinhufvud played a key role in the birth of a new parliamentary system in 1905 and he was elected as a [[Young Finnish Party]] member of the new [[Parliament of Finland|Parliament]] in 1906. Svinhufvud went on to serve as a member of Parliament on four occasions (1907–1908, 1908–1914, 1917, and 1930–1931).

After being appointed as a judge in [[Heinola]] in 1906, he attempted to keep out of the front line of politics. However he was elected [[Speakers of the Parliament of Finland|Speaker]] of the Parliament in 1907, largely because the majority [[Social Democratic Party of Finland|Social Democrats]] considered him "the best-known opponent of illegality". Svinhufvud's parliamentary opening speeches, in which he laid emphasis on legality, led to the Tsar dissolving Parliament in both 1909 and 1910. He served as Speaker until 1912. Svinhufvud also served as a judge in [[Lappee]] 1908–1914.

During the [[World War I|First World War]] Russia replaced various Finnish officials with Russians. Svinhufvud refused to obey the orders of the Russian procurator [[Konstantin Kazansky]], which he considered illegal, and this led to his removal from office as a judge and being exiled to [[Tomsk]] in [[Siberia]] in November 1914. In his Siberian exile, he spent his time hunting and mending his clothes, still keeping secret contact with the independence movement. When he left Finland, he had promised to return ''"with the help of God and [[Paul von Hindenburg|Hindenburg]]"''. When news of the [[February Revolution]] reached Svinhufvud, he walked to the town's police station and bluntly announced, ''"The person who sent me here has been arrested. Now I'm going home."'' In Helsinki he was greeted as a national hero.