The article based on A.N. Yakhontov’s documents examines the problems of relations between the center and the Finnish borderlands in the Russian government at the turn of the 19th-20th centuries and, in more detail, during the first year of the Great War. A.N. Yakhontov held the post of assistant to the administrator of the Council of Ministers during the difficult period of the beginning of the War, retreat at the Russian- German front, and mobilization of the economy. As the documents show, the work of the Council of Ministers was hampered by numerous conflicts, both external and internal.The relationship between the Council of Ministers as the government of the Empire and the authorities of the Grand Duchy, represented by the Minister of State, the Governor- General and the Senate of Finland was not regulated in detail. As Yakhontov’s materials clearly demonstrate, decisions were made largely on the basis of military and strategic considerations, the economic needs of the country at war, and accepted bureaucratic practices. An important factor in the relationship between Petersburg-Petrograd and Helsingfors was the international trade: issues of transit, Triple Entente military cargo and exports from Russia to Scandinavia.