In March 1856, Alexander II (1855–81) visited the Grand Duchy of Finland, and laid before the Senate a five-point programme of reform, designed to revive trade and stimulate the economy. This marked the beginning of a hectic period in which public life in Finland would escape from the narrow, cramped confines of the first five decades of imperial Russian rule, and the firm contours of a modern state would begin to take shape. The new emperor's visit took place at the end of a war which had revealed the necessity of modernisation throughout his sprawling domains. The Grand Duchy of Finland was thus not alone in going through the turmoil of change, which was ultimately to threaten the continued existence of favoured autonomous regions within an empire striving for uniformity and administrative centralisation.

Alexander II had probably less freedom than his namesake fifty years earlier to experiment in reform within the framework of an established political and legal system. In the first instance, as the emperor occasionally reminded his advisors on Finnish affairs, unrest at home occasioned by the emancipation of the peasantry in 1861 and the growing threat of revolt in the Polish lands compelled him to exercise caution. He also had to take account of the still tense international situation after the conclusion of the Crimean War in 1856, and of an emerging Russian nationalism that expressed critical opinions about Finland's status.