On this day 120 years ago, Finnish nationalist Eugen Schauman shot and killed the then Governor-General of Finland, Russian General Nikolay Bobrikov, in the stairway of the Finnish Senate’s main building.

https://i.redd.it/n4f3rdkqhv6d1.jpeg

by Finlandiaprkl

11 comments

  1. Shooting was a response to the policy of russification started by the Tsar in 1899, which aimed at termination of Finland’s cultural, linguistic and political separation from Russia.

    Before the assassination, Schauman had written a letter addressed to the Tsar, in which he explained his actions and stressed that he wasn’t a rebel, but a loyal subject of the Tsar and that he had acted alone without the knowledge of his friends or family. After the assassination Schauman shot himself and his actions were celebrated by the populace, when the news was shouted from a window of the hospital Bobrikov was rushed into after the assassination.

    After Schauman’s death, many of his writings came to light, one such writing, written couple days before the murder, explains Schauman’s motive:

    >Freedom is its own end. With certain, rather small limits, it is an inherent right of all people, which no external force can remove. A person has no right to give this right away from themselves, even less from their children. Freedom is the base of self-esteem, and without it the teaching of a person’s chaste responsibility would be nothing but lies and deception. Freedom is a sacred thing and the love of freedom is a natural instinct deeply integrated into our hearts. Do you love your country? Good, remember Ibsen’s words: “Even if you had given all, but not your own life, you would have given nothing.”

    Reposted with edited title.

  2. Well, guess I’ll post it here on your reupload lol

    This is also such an irony because Finnish nationalism had proliferated so successfully partly _because_ of the Russian Tsars. After Russia won Finland from Sweden, there was a concern that the Finns might want to return to the rule of the Swedes.

    The Tsars actively worked to promote and incite Finnish nationalism (which had already been developing among the people) to act as a bulwark against the population identifying too strongly with the Swedes, including granting the Finns an unusual level of autonomy–which actually had steadily increased over the century or so as part of Russia–during the time of European Absolutism (and especially for Russia, which typically didn’t allow autonomy for any of its regions west of the Urals).

    This ultimately led to Finland having a kind of cultural and intellectual renaissance together with new economic and industrial progress, especially during the reign of Alexander II. Finland evidently was quite happy with their newfound (relative) independence and the relationship only started to get really, really soured around the turn of the 1900s, which is when Russia decided to officially adopt their now-infamous policies of total Russification of the empire, and as you might guess, the Finns started rebelling basically immediately.

    Interestingly, most Finns weren’t interested in national independence at the time (although this would change very soon, especially once the revolutions and civil wars broke out), they just wanted their culture, language and rights respected by Nicholas II as they had been under his father, grandfather and the other Tsars before him for over the past century, by that point.

    The Finns really liked Alexander II and he was very popular among them (probably because he invested quite a bit into Finland, like founding their national bank and railway systems), and while they certainly _did not_ like his son, the repressive Alexander III, they tolerated him well enough because even he refused to violate Finland. And then Nicholas II came and utterly shat the bed with the Grand Duchy when he trampled their rights and tried Russifying it anyway and well, the rest was history.

    Finns aren’t Russians. Finns aren’t Swedes. They’re Finns.

  4. Good that a painter was here too to take an accurate picture of this historical moment

  5. Good lad. More people should try shooting Russian rulers.

  6. He shot Bobrikov three times. Allegedly, the medals Bobrikov wore protected him somewhat and that’s why he did not die right away, but the next morning.

  8. Gigachad. He has a big ass tombstone/memorial in Porvoo cemetery which is always lit with hundreds of candles on All Saints Day when we remember the dead.

  11. Probably the first recorded “Bobr(ikov) kurwa!” meme in history.

Leave a Reply