Assassination of Nikolay Bobrikov

From 1899, the Russian Tsar, Nicholas II, pursued a policy of Russification, aimed at eliminating Finland's political autonomy and relegating it to the same status as other provinces of the empire.

In 1898, the Tsar appointed Nikolay Bobrikov as the Governor-General of Finland, with dictatorial powers to implement his policies.

Bobrikov's first major act was the February Manifesto, which asserted the right of the imperial government to rule Finland without reference to the Finnish legislature.

Shooting clubs sprang up throughout the country, ostensibly to promote good marksmanship but in fact to serve as the basis for armed opposition.

[3] Eugen Schauman, a Swedish-speaking Finnish civil servant and ardent nationalist, was a member of one such shooting club, although he claimed that he was not party to any conspiracy and that he acted alone.

He gave his most important papers to his friends, and he wrote two letters to doctor Gunnar Castrén, to be opened only "when there is need for it".

He was partly motivated by two crises in his personal life: his education and career had suffered because of an incurable hearing condition; and a woman he had loved for ten years had cold-heartedly left him.

Schauman's cousin, Mary Junnelius, was living in Saint Petersburg at the time, and was in the habit of sending him news of the city.

This included a detailed account of Sipyagin's murder, which had been committed by a Russian student, Stepan Balmashov, disguised as a member of the Socialist Revolutionary Party.

[4] Schauman chose as the site of the assassination the main building of the Senate, where he had worked as a clerk and where he still enjoyed freedom of movement.

[10] He had originally intended to commit the murder on Thursday 9 June, but failed to gain entry into the building, thus delaying the plan by one week.

He gave the young Edvard Ellman the job of moving a target with a picture of a bearded Russian, with a heart painted on his chest, along a piece of string.

Ellman asked him why he had chosen such a peculiar target, to which Schauman replied: "An enemy that stays still when being shot is not a good one!

"[8] That Wednesday Schauman also met his friend, Walter Rydman, the leader of the Helsinki branch of the Kagal resistance movement, who was walking his dog in the Kaisaniemi district.

He had earlier asked a doctor friend, Birger Runeberg (a member of the Kagal), where to shoot for the wounds to be fatal.

The operation was performed by the hospital's senior physician, Dr. Richard Faltin, with professors von Bornsdorff and Ali Krogius in attendance.

In the 1950s Envall told Yleisradio how he had seen Schauman fall to the floor after his suicide and Bobrikov continue on his way to the meeting room.

The letter also sought to draw the Tsar's attention to serious problems throughout the empire, specifically in Poland and the Baltic countries.

"[8]By order of the authorities, Schauman was buried at night in an unmarked grave at the Malmi Cemetery with only his immediate family attending.

[5][16] In 1910, a substantial granite monument, designed by Valter Jung, was erected on Schauman's grave, paid for with funds collected by Finnish students.

The deputy chancellor of the university, Thiodolf Rein, declared that the murder had been "an act of self defence made on behalf of everyone".

The Finns expected to gain more freedom with the elimination of Bobrikov, who had oppressed the rights of the Finnish people.

This convinced the Finnish activists that the Russians understood the measures they had used, as it was written in the Eugen Schauman memorial booklet of the Active Resistance Party of Finland.

"[20] Juho Paasikivi, a future president of Finland, wrote an editorial in the newspaper condemning the murder.

[10] When Paasikivi described Bobrikov's murder as a "disgusting and heinous crime" in his editorial, his choice of words was met with hostility.

[4] Paasikivi later wrote in his memoirs that he had felt Schauman's act was heroic and that he understood its significance, but he had not dared to say this aloud at the time for fear of repercussions.

[21] Eight months after Bobrikov's murder, a student, Lennart Hohenthal, shot and killed procurator Eliel Soisalon-Soininen, a pro-Russian politician, who the activists saw as a supporter of Russification.

A third and final known assassination took place in different circumstances in 1922, when a Finnish nobleman, Ernst Tandefelt, shot interior minister Heikki Ritavuori.

[4] To this day, there is a small plaque in the stairway of the Government Palace (which previously served as the main building of the Senate) at the site of the assassination, bearing the Latin inscription Se pro patria dedit ("Gave himself to his country").