FINNISH STRUGGLE AGAINST RUSSIFICATION - ASSASSINATION DEATH BY EUGEN SCHAUMAN

Systematic offensive imperial policy of Russification during the 1899-1904. In the Grand Duchy of Finland under the leadership of Governor-General Nikolai Bobrikov and Minister-Secretary of State Vyacheslav von Plehve too stirred up to radical society of North autonomy. Originated resistance Finnish nationalist patriots who did not take the king's autocratic “innovations”, so increasingly in the press of the Grand Duchy of Finland start sounding slogans about the separation of Finland from the Russian Empire. It was something quite unprecedented in this still loyal to the imperial power of the Grand Duchy of Finland: Helsingfors in 1904 became more like Warsaw in 1863.

When during the 1902-1904 Governor General Bobrikov speeded up the pace of counter-reform, hoping the policy of Russification “forever tie” Finnish autonomy to Tsarist Russia, dismissing the Finnish Cadet Corps, strengthening the position of the Russian language in the organs of the central government of Finland and eventually received new dictatorial powers to suppress opposition in Finnish caste representative Diet and Senate, desperate resistance in the middle of the Lake District only increased. In addition to the passive resistance movement arose conspiratorial active: there were established contacts with Russian revolutionaries and Japanese spies who, after beginning the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905. Undertook to finance this illegal activity Self-Finns. There were some political assassinations, especially an attempt resonant became governor general Bobrikov committed by Eugen Schauman, the son of Finnish Senator Swedish origin in June 1904.

Eugen Waldemar Schauman is Finnish senator official well-known for being mortally wounded Nikolai Bobrikov, Russian Governor-General of Finland and the Finnish military commander. Schauman, who was born May 10, 1875 in Kharkiv, came from a family of Finnish Swedes and was the son of the Vasa Lääni governor, and senator of the Finnish Senate by Fredrik Waldemar Schauman, who retired in 1900. Eugen Schauman was a former officer of the Finnish Senate, officer and later chief of management schools in Finland, has taken an informed decision to kill the Russian Governor-General Bobrikov before the next summer session of the Finnish Diet. As noted Schauman himself in his suicide note, Russian Governor-General Bobrikov caused public hatred for its violent policies of Russification and repression against the whole of Finland, for which he deserved the death penalty.

June 16, 1904 Schauman, who also was a member of the radical revolutionary “Kagaali” or “Finnish resistance movement” could lie in wait in the corridors of the building of the Finnish Senate, Governor-General Bobrikov en route to the meeting, and shot him three times with a revolver-Brauning mortally wounded. Schauman shot himself immediately after the assassination. After his action Eugen Schauman became a national hero in Finland, the site of the assassination in the hall of the Senate was a plaque with the inscription, “he gave his life for his country”. So in Borgå or Porvoo city Schauman’s grave became a holy place for many Finns. However, Finland has repeatedly discussed the issue of who should be considered Schauman – a national hero or a terrorist. In both then and now, Schauman and his ilk always considered “murderers and terrorists that carried the threat of state”. The Bobrikov’s murder took place against the background of revolutionary action, not only in Finland but also in Russia itself. Important role in this played by the Japanese secret service, which supplied weapons through Finland, both Finnish separatists and other revolutionary parties.

Interestingly, that after Bobrikov’s murder Russian tsarist press reacted violently for discredit the Finnish national movement. The popular Russian weekly magazine “Niva”, said about this: “June 3, at 11 am in the Finnish Senate building, on 2nd floor, radical Finnish senator-nationalist Eugen Schauman made three shots to the Governor-General of Finland, Nikolai Bobrikov. One bullet hit the neck is harmless, another concussion, once in the order, the third – in the stomach. By filed first aid Russian doctor, Governor-General moved home. Doctors have recognized the need to produce a speedy operation. The wounded Bobrikov had a communion. After laparotomy doctors made extracted the bullet and found a lot of blood clots, the taken away from the affected part of the bullet thin intestines. The wounded man died quietly on the night of the 4th of June. The offender shot himself on the spot...”

But another reported the newspaper “Pravitelstvennyi Vestnik”: “The murder of the Finnish Governor-General and Russian Adjutant Nikolai Bobrikov coincided with the time when Finland was detected unmistakable calm minds, and the dominant position of the Finnish national elements of the population could be recognized in the region is quite enhanced security...”

For 2 days after the murder of Bobrikov, his display child “Finliandskaia gazeta” commented an attempt of Schauman: “History does not know that a crime of violence or achieved anything else but death. A strong foundation in the life of nations should be placed not so. Crime is always a crime, and no purpose can justify it…”

At the same time the Finnish newspaper of Helsingfors limited to the transfer of the official reports of criminal attempt of kamerfervandt Eugen Schauman, they found it necessary to express his assessment of outrageous, wild crime. Thus, the newspaper “Suomen Kansa” on 17th June 1904 wrote: “Peacefulness of our people has recently served as a proverb. We are proud of the fact that personal security we have is higher than anywhere else. After all, Finland was a country which has never been attempted on the life of members of the government or senior officials. Now it made a fatal crime and rejected our history, our self oscillating, exciting in us the fear of the future. From the point of view of humanity and as Christians, we condemn the shameful act of the murderer. Our people condemn the act, unfortunate way violates the integrity of our past…”

Immediately after the murder of Bobrikov, the Russian government decided to appease the Finnish society are reviewing previously adopted laws Russification the Lake District of Finland. For example the “1904 held the highest command of the Education Committee, chaired by Senator Tagantsev, six Russian and six Finnish officials to address the issue of delimitation of the empire-wide and local Finnish legislation and for the coordination of the manifesto of February 3, 1899 and “the Statute of the Diet” of the Great Duchy of Finland…”

New Governor-General of Finland was the duke of Ivan Obolyenskiy, distinguished stringent suppression concern farmers in Kharkiv province in 1905, being then its governor. Sergei Witte wrote about meeting him after his appointment: “I advised him not to lead such a harsh policy, which started by Bobrikov, and all return to the old traditions, which are essentially unchanged autocrats stayed for about a century, but at the same time gradually to achieve greater union with the empire-wide Finnish interests…”

In an attempt assassinations, the Russian government-localization in Finland at the time, wrote a Russian newspaper, Finns have actively participated in the revolution of 1905. Sergei Witte wrote about the role of Finland in the revolution of 1905-1907: “In these years, many of our revolutionary and ultra-liberal elements wove themselves relatively safe nest in Finland, where they worked in Russia, so that there would be formed as a rear Russian revolutionary forces seeking to carry a knife in the heart of the Empire…” Therefore, this fact shows itself in the subsequent history of Russia, and especially in 1917!

Assassination of Schauman was the first but not the last, signs of resistance actions against the Finnish social policy of Russification. Although the protests were not a surprise to the royal government, but their scale led to some caution. Thus, the first period (1899-1904) of Russification of Finland came to its logical conclusion through the heroic deed of a young patriot Schauman who does not want to see their country a colony of Tsarist Russia under close supervision “dictator” Bobrikov.

The general strike, which began in October 1905, and quickly spread into Finland and brought there, as in Russia, to more real power of the local committees of the middle class. As in Russia, the revolutionary situation was quickly disposed of radical reforms promised in October 1905 manifesto that for Finns suspended but not abolished the dictatorial laws of Bobrikov. Russification policy contributed to the rise of the Finnish national movement, its development as an independence ideology, especially during the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905, when Russian troops suffered a complete defeat. Later, with the rapid developments of 1905-1907, the Finnish national movement turned into a struggle for the independence of Finland.

It should be noted that unlike some other of the borderlands of the Russian Empire (Poland, Ukraine, Estonia, Livonia, Kurland, Lithuania and the Caucasus), Russification of Finland carried out primarily in administrative and legal sphere and hardly affected the culture and education system of the country as a whole. It is expressed mainly in trying to integrate into Finnish economy and bring all-state and all- Finnish law to rules and to create a common defense system…

By Denis KOVALIOV