The revolution in Finland under Prince John Obolensky

UC-NRLF

D K

GIFT OF

THE REVOLUTION IN
FINLAND

UNDER PRINCE JOHN OBOLENSKY.

BY

VSEVOLOD VLADIMIROV.

(From the Russian).

[Translator: Victor E. Marsden, M.A., St. Petersburg.}

LONDON :

WYMAN & SONS LTD.,
1911

Price Four pence.

THE REVOLUTION IN
FINLAND

UNDER PRINCE JOHN OBOLENSKV.

BY

VSEVOLOD VLADIMIROV.

(From the Russian).

[Translator: Victor E. Marsden, M.A., St. Petersburg.}

LONDON :

WYMAN & SONS LTD.,
1911

Price Four pence.

The Revolution in Finland under
Prince John Obolensky.

THE unparalleled success of the October revolt in Finland
owed less to the organising capacities of the Finlander
revolutionaries or their admirable preparations for the
" great deed" they had in mind, than to the inactivity
and utter incapacity of the representatives of the Russian
authority, and of these first and foremost to him of sorry
memory who succeeded to the post of Governor-General
of Finland vacated by the assassination of the never-
to-be-forgotten N. Bobrikov, namely, to Prince John
Obolensky.

The Finlander party of " active resistance " which
played the leading part in this revolution, was formed as
early as 1902 at the time when the measures of N. Bobrikov
and V. Plehwe had broken the back of the so-called
" passive resistance," whose manifestations principally
appeared in the matter of opposition to the regulations
of military service. It was then that certain of the leaders
of sedition recognised the impossibility of continuing the
struggle by these means alone and decided to take more
decisive measures. Their first act was to get in touch
with and then to enter into a close alliance with the
Russian revolutionaries, and from that time forwards

3 A

240972

representatives from Finland have taken part regularly
in all the revolutionary congresses held abroad. In the
general plan of action of the revolutionaries Finland was
given a very substantial part, the part of that binding
material which makes all the separate units a coherent
whole, for Finland was acknowledged to be the best pre-
pared for action, owing to its higher level of culture. The
following passage contains the views of the Finlander
revolutionaries themselves on the role of Finland in the
general Russian revolutionary movement. It is quoted
from their organ, the Stockholm Fria Ord. of Novem-
ber n, 1902.

;< We have no longer any grounds for refraining from
throwing in our lot with the Russian opposition, with those
Russians who are officially called revolutionaries. Poles,
Little Russians, Baltic Provinces peoples, Jews, the people
of the Caucasus — all these nationalities are in an equal
degree with the liberal elements among the Great Russians
convinced that only the abolition of the Autocracy can
secure the culture and civilisation of Russia, and conse-
quently also their sights. . . . Not one of these groups
possesses the ability to rally around it all the rest. In view
of this fact our co-operation may become, and without doubt
will become, of very great value to the Russian opposition. . . .
We shall know how to make ourselves the nucleus round
which all the remaining opposition elements will assemble,
we can facilitate the organisation of forces, the drafting of
a practicable programme and the general plan of political
work. , . . We are not minded to suffer patiently the

introduction of arbitrary Autocracy, and therefore we
ourselves are taking our places in the ranks of the opposi-
tion which desires its destruction. The time has come
for this for the peoples of Russia : the days of the Auto-
cracy are numbered, though we do not yet know its term
of life. But to assist in shortening that term, this we both
can and ought to do that we may have the right to a voice
when the time comes to divide up the heritage of the Czars."

The active revolutionaries made their entrance on the
scene with the assassination of the Governor-General of
Finland, N. Bobrikov. That this was a political murder
and that those concerned in Stockholm were perfectly
aware of what was to be done and who was to do it, is
proved by the publication on the very next day in the
Stockholm paper, Aftonbladet,oi the portrait of the assassin,
Schaumann, and his full biography. These particulars
could not by any possibility, on a calculation of time and
space, have reached Stockholm from Helsingfors by any
steamer whatsoever. In just the same way, five days
before the bomb of Sazonov which cut short the life of
Plehwe, there appeared in the Paris paper, L'Europeen,
of July 10/23, an " °Pen letter " by Konni Zilliacus * to
the Minister State-Secretary for Finland, which ended
with the following threat : " Mais vous ne pourrez
probablement plus mentir longtemps. Qui seme le vent
recolte la tempete. Vous avez largement seme, un avenir
prochain verra la recolte. A vous alors la responsabilite',

* The most energetic member of the " Finnish Party of
Active Resistance " and one of the editors of the Fria Ord.

a vous les maledictions des peuples pousses au desespoir,
sur votre tete retombera tout le sang qui sera verse." It
is self-evident that the Finlander revolutionaries, if they
did not actually take part in the assassination of July
15/28, already knew for certain of the contemplated crime.
In the interval that elapsed between the death of N.
Bobrikov and the arrival in Finland of the new Governor-
General Prince John Obolensky there came to the light of
day the well-remembered case of ex-Senator Schaumann.
A domiciliary perquisition at his house (after the assassina-
tion of Bobrikov committed by his son) resulted in the
discovery of a pencilled note in the ex-Senator's own hand,
which revealed a plan of organisation throughout the
country of a secret system of instruction in rifle practice
for the population against the day of " the overturn of the
Autocracy."

At the same time, in connection with the detective work
on the assassination of Adjutant-General Bobrikov, were
arrested Hermann Gummerus, a university graduate, and
Albert Kollan, a mechanic. The former turned out to be
one of the organisers of the revolutionary network in the
Province of Vasa and the latter confessed that he belonged
to a criminal society which had set before it as its immedi-
ate object the assassination of the Governor-General. A
thorough all round investigation by the Russian authori-
ties into all these cases, connected with the assassination
of Adjutant-General Bobrikov might, if it had been taken
out of the hands of the Finnish authorities by Imperial
order, have led, and probably would have led, to the full

revelation of the Finlander organisation and the seizure
of its principal leaders. But this was not the view taken
of the matter by the new Governor-General.

On the death-day of the murdered Governor-General
the educated classes of Finland everywhere rejoiced :
' The chambers were ablaze in splendour, The choirs their
thunderous praises render/' champagne flowed in rivers,
all the members of the Schaumann family were honoured
with an ovation, while the true servant of the Czar and of
Russia, as he lay on his bed of an agonising death, was
treated with every kind of contumely and mockery. . . .
Then came the voice of the common people of Finland,
who condemned the assassination as a shameful crime
that had smirched the history of Finland with blood. . . .
And the first outbursts of rejoicing among the revolution-
aries turned to a shuddering fear of some terrible retribu-
tion. All Finland lay still as death in anticipation of that
just penalty which it was prepared to accept with humility,
as well-deserved, as inevitable. . . . Numbers of village
communities sent in addresses to the Emperor expressing
indignation at the assassination ; and the same feelings
found expression also in the Finnish Senate in its appeal
to the people of June 9/22.

The feeling of the country at this moment may be
characterised by the following quotation from a correspon-
dent's letter to the Norwegian newspaper, Morgenbladet :
" After the assassination of Bobrikov the torment of the
situation has deepened terribly and it needs the resolution
of a martyr not to yield utterly to despair."

B

8

But at this juncture there appeared the Imperial Rescript
of June 17/30 to the newly appointed Governor-General.
The contents of this Rescript, in which the abominable
crime of June 3 was qualified as " the work of the hands
of a madman and some few of his accomplices," while the
Finnish people had no part in this crime, should have
•calmed the fears of the Finlanders, the more so that the
Rescript expressed a firm belief in the possibility of main-
taining " also for the future " the special structure of
Finnish administration and legislation on internal affairs.
But, on the other hand, the Rescript made mention of
"" the closest unity of Finland with the Empire," as form-
ing the "unfaltering aim of the Sovereign Power," con-
firmed it as an aim that " must remain the same also
henceforth " ; in the Rescript the sovereign duly ex-
pressed appreciation of the murdered Governor-General
.as one who " had won a place of honour in the annals of
the strengthening of Russian State-rights in the northern
borderland," thereby, it seemed, recommending the new
liead of the country to follow in the same path. But
there was more than this. To the " special care " of the
new Governor-General was entrusted the task not only of
inspiring the population of the country with the necessity
of " restoring the peaceful course of life in the country for
the securing of the further progress of Finland under the
shadow of the Russian State, but also, and above all, to
•strengthen in the Finnish people the conviction that its
historic destinies were bound up inseparably with the
destinies of Russia."

This Rescript was received with a feeling of satisfac-
tion, both by the Finlanders and by the Russians. The
former recognised in it " a breath of healthy fresh air '*
and the " possibility of breathing freely " (v. the news--
paper Uusi Suometar). The Russian press accepted the
Rescript as a symptom of unchanging stability in the
direction of Russian policy and saw a special guarantee
thereof in the appointment, as successsor of N. Bobrikov,^
of Prince Obolensky.

Time was to prove how mistaken were the estimates of
both sides.

At this time over all Russia, notwithstanding the
presence of a louring autumn, there suddenly burst into
bloom a glorious spring, planted by Prince Svjatopolk-
Mirsky. " Princes are not free as maidens are," and this
no doubt explains why another Prince, Prince Obolensky,
also made haste to imbibe the spirit of " trusting the
people " which had been so very foreign to his thoughts
up to this date. On his arrival in Finland the first thing
he did was to- receive the Russian officials, but without
finding anything better to say to them than that there
" were too many of them " ; the Finlanders on the other
hand he lost no time in charming by that poetic picture
of the " two vessels." " The relations of Finland to
Russia," said Prince John Obolensky, " may be likened
to the relations of a small, if beautiful, river boat to a great
ocean-going ship. Acting together with the ship, the
river boat may do much that is great and useful, but'if the
river boat has the audacity to venture alone into the open

B 2

10

sea it may very easily come to shipwreck," " Two
separate vessels," a big one and a little one, it was plain to
see, symbolised the " union " : and what more could
Finlanders desire ?

But the advice to the little river boat to attain that
" great and useful " together with the sea-going ship was
understood and taken note of : the alliance of Finlander
and Russian revolutionaries was drawn yet tighter as the
events of January of this year (1905) showed. At the
same time the lessons of the Russian Terrorists did not fall
on stony ground, and the list of victims of their devotion
to Russia swelled in Finland. Jonson, Mjasoedov,
Kramarenko, Deitrich, Papkov, policemen, gendarmes-
some wounded, some killed, some saved by an inexpli-
cable stroke of good luck. But the anti-Government
activity contined to spread and was considerably facili-
tated by the amnesty to political exiles. . . .

Prince Obolensky was duly and fully informed by the
qualified officials in ample time and with complete definite-
ness of the very serious events that were being prepared
for the immediate future in Finland. The last reports of
this kind in point of time were presented last September by
the administrator of the Province of Niwland, during the
time Prince Obolensky was at Transund and Biorke on the
occasion of the visit of His Majesty the Emperor to these
places. The reports indicated the existence of a complete
plan for suddenly attacking officials, disarming police and
gendarmes, seizing the railways, telegraphs and telephone.
This intelligence even caused special precautions to be

II

taken in Helsingfors and the province of Niwland, which
were carried out, in the absence of the Governor-General
without any instructions whatever on his part. The
military and naval authorities, being forewarned, also
made their preparations ; the police force of the town
was reinforced ; the battleship " Slava " (" Glory ") was
sent to Helsingfors from Kronstadt immediately after
the Imperial inspection of certain vessels of the Baltic
Fleet, and the commander of the battleship received
definite instructions in case the disorders in Helsingfors
should already have begun.

Prince Obolenksy knew nothing of the despatch of the
battleship.

Regarding all these alarming pieces of intelligence,
according to his custom, as nothing more than newspaper
sensations, Prince Obolensky notwithstanding the practi-
cal confirmation which these reports of the systematic
import of arms into the country received by the discovery
of a whole shipment* on board the "John Grafton,"
which went ashore at Jacobstadt, continued boldly to
assure His Majesty of the loyalty to him not only of the
Finnish peasantry but of all other classes of the popula-
tion.

Prince Obolensky did his best to convince the Imperial
pair of this loyalty by presenting to them deputations of
simple-minded Viborg peasants with milk, eggs, and other

* As many as 12,000 rifles of the system "Vetterley" (of
Swiss make) with bayonets ground sharp and a quantity of
cartridges, revolvers and dynamite. .. . ._

12

farm produce, at the same time most carefully concealing
the fact that in the rest of Finland a powerful agitation
, was unceasingly spreading, that arms were being brought
in and distributed, that stormy meetings were being held,,
that there had even been cases of military drilling and
jrifle-practice.* It is curious that all these honeyed
speeches about the " placid, calm Finnish waters/' as the
only suitable spot for repose from the labours of State,
were uttered by that same Prince Obolensky, who no
further back than the previous December had reported to
his sovereign f that the Finlanders hated Russia, and that
in the whole people there was not to be found any genuine
loyalty to the Russian State and to the throne of the
Autocrat.

The arrival of the squadron { at Helsingfors was a
complete surprise for the Finlanders. Whether it was
for this reason, or in consequence of a change in their own
plans is uncertain, but at any rate the revolutionaries,
calmed down this time and the expected outburst did not
take place. This fact at once gave occasion to the local
press§ to openly accuse the administrator of the Province
of Finland of having, by his reports of an insurrection in

* The Russian military organ, Russky Invalid, in No. 138,.
for 1905, has shown the character and aims of these contemporary
rifle clubs in Finland.

•f In the Memorandum to the Emperor which the Prince
himself took very great pains to spread about in the highest
spheres of St. Petersburg.

J The other ships came up and joined on the day after the
arrival of the " Slava."

§ For example, see the ltd Hdmi of October n, etc.

13

preparation, caused false information to be given to His
Majesty.

In point of fact, as is now clear, the Finlander revolu-
tionaries had decided to await the general political strike
in Petersburg.

Soon after this Prince Obolensky, visiting Petersburg,
.graciously put himself at the disposal of a correspondent
of the Novoe Vremja, and to him, among other things,
very freely and off-handedly attempted to prove to him
something to the effect that a revolution in Finland with
the object of splitting it off from Russia would never
come about, and that if rifles really had been delivered,
they would have to be distributed and even when distri-
buted they would not fire of themselves,* that the squadron
had visited Finland merely as a " military promenade,"
and that, in general, the Finlanders could not do anything
fraught with any danger to Russia.

In full accord with the views of his chief, the Governor
of Vasa, a local-born official of Russian extraction,
named Knipovich, explained to representatives of the
Nikolaistadt papers that he could categorically assure
them that the arms captured on board the " John
Graf ton " were intended not at all for the Finlanders but
for the Russian revolutionaries.

Prince Obolensky, not being in a position to deny the
fact that the arms had been found, nevertheless remained

••' See No. 10618 of the Novoe Vremja. It is to be regretted
that this respectable newspaper did not print those replies which
were sent to it in refutation of Prince Obolensky.

14

true to himself and entrusted the investigation into the
affair solely to the local officials, the consequence of which
was a systematic series of escapes from custody of those
who had been arrested in connection with this matter,
under the very eyes of the gendarmes whose instructions
bound them to refrain from exceeding the part they were
ordered to play as mere spectators.

Events very quickly showed how much truth there was
in the assurances of Prince Obolensky, whether about the
" tranquil waters " of Transund and Biorke or in his
remarks in the columns of the Novoe Vremja.

Taking advantage of the fact that in the Empire itself
( the outbreak of sedition was assuming a more and more
serious aspect, engrossing the attentions of the highest
ruling spheres, the Finlanders, in alliance with the Russian
revolutionaries decided to put into execution a long-
matured plan for an upheaval which should result in a
nominal, if nothing more, independence of Russian
authority.

At the general conference, held April 2-9, 1905, of the
united revolutionary parties : the Social-Revolutionary
"Russian, Sociafistr^Polish, Armenian Revolutionary
Federation, Finnish Party of Active Resistance, Georgian
Federalist-Revolutionary Socialist Party, Lettish Social-
Democratic Union, and the White Russian Socialist
Assembly, it was resolved to " close the last accounts with
the expiring forces of Autocracy," taking advantage of
the two merciless wars — abroad and at home — which
were rending Russia's vitals, and then, after gaining

15

the one common end by their united action, to follow there-
after each its own private objects. In the proclamations
issued by the conference, signed by all the above-mentioned
revolutionary parties, was announced the unavoidable
necessity of gaining, by means of a general armed insur-
rection, the overthrow of the dynasty and of seizing the
power into the hands of constituent assemblies " of the
nationalities who denned themselves," hitherto bound
by the Autocracy, like convicts, on one chain. The
structure of each separate nation should be re-erected
independently on democratic-republican foundations :
Finland, Poland and the Caucasus take no part in the
constituent assembly of representatives of the State of
all the Russias, and, in relation to Finland all parties
have unanimously resolved to demand : (i) The abrogation
of all measures " insulting " to its constitutional rights ;
(2) the introduction of a democratic regime based on the
universal right to vote ; and (3) the prohibition of any
manner of interference of the Russian Government in its

y

national development.*

It is highly significant that Finland did not proceed to
strike simultaneously with the events of the same char-
acter in the Empire, but only after the Finlanders became
aware of the intention having been formed to issue an
Imperial Manifesto giving to the inhabitants of all Russia
liberty of conscience, speech, press, meetings and unions,
and extending the powers of the State Duma to include

* See Proclamation No. 6 of the " Finnish Party of Active
Resistance."

i6

the right of control over all officials and organs of the
Government, and the principle that no law could be issued
without its consent, The Finlanders had been diametri-
cally opposed to the movement in Russia for the
summoning of a State Duma from its inception, and had
manifested a positive aversion to taking part in a general
Russian representative assembly. They considered their
Diet fully sufficient for themselves, even indeed for the
legislative settlement of general State questions. When
the Finlanders read in the Statutes of the State Duma
an indication of the obligation to send representatives of
Finland also in the settlement of general State questions
concerning Finland, they immediately took alarm, and
as soon as they learned that the Manifesto of October 17/30
contained no special clause safeguarding the relations
of Finland they at once resolved to seize the opportunity
and produce pressure on the Russian Government,,
calculating thereby to obtain the concessions they
desired.

Thus the events which happened in Finland from
October 17 to 25, although to some extent they resembled
those that had occurred somewhat earlier in the home
provinces of the Empire and also entered into the general
plan of the revolution, yet were evoked by altogether
different and local causes of excitement.

At six o'clock in the evening of October 16, by which
time Petersburg already knew the contents of the
Imperial Manifesto, officially published on the following;
day, the Petersburg station of the Finland Railway*

17

•struck;* during the night the strike spread to Viborg and
on the next day, the lyth, after workmen's meetings had
been held everywhere, the whole network of railways in
Finland struck work, with all the factories, works, places
of trade, stores and shops, with the exception of those
dealing in comestibles. On the following day, notwith-
standing the publication in all newspapers f of the Imperial
Manifesto of October 17J30 the strikes extended, not only
to all the educational establishments, with the Imperial
Helsingfors Alexander University at the head of them,
but also to the majority of the Government institutions,
not excepting also the Finnish Senate. From ten o'clock
in the morning of this day the electric tramways
ceased to run in the town, the telephone was closed,
as also the electric lighting and gas lighting, and
all carting business was stopped. The Helsingfors
municipal representatives assembled in extraordinary
session and resolved to express their sympathy with the
strikers and to give them their support. The students
and lyceum-boys went round all the schools in a body,
stopping work in them all. This crowd even made its
appearance in the Russian boys and girls schools, and
here they put forward as the pretext for striking, the feeling
of joy at the issue of the Imperial Manifesto ! Neverthe-
less, though some newspapers in the country, on the

* The employees of this station who the day before had de-
clined to join the Russian strikers now did so on the demand of
-^special ^emissaries sent from Helsingfors.

f Which appeared on this day for the last time before the
.strike of compositors began.

iS

ground of the granting of liberty of the press in this
Manifesto, made their appearance without the customary
preliminary censure, there were no signs to be found any-
where else that the Finlanders recognised this act of State
as having any obligatory force for Finland. And a strike
of this kind took place over the whole country, everywhere
at once.

At eleven o'clock in the morning of the nth, the Com-
mander of the 22nd Army Corps was summoned to the
Governor-General, who had warned Lieutenant-General
Baron Salz already of the general strike, but now expressed
doubts of the possibility of there being any serious
disorders. His Excellency then indicated the necessity
of bringing up the customary guard for the Governor-
General's official residence with as much secrecy as pos-
sible, in order to avoid exciting the people prematurely.

Being faced with such a situation, the possibility of
which he had constantly denied, Prince Obolensky most
ingeniously evolved a way out, which would enable him on
the one hand to secure his own person from violence, and
on the other to justify his acts before his sovereign and
before Russia. Not finding in the Manifesto of October
17/30 any direct indication of its being extended also to-
Finland he seized upon this and began to declare openly
to all that this " omission " appeared to be an " error "
of those who had drafted the Manifesto, wherefore he^
in order to avoid undesirable complications, intended
immediately to discuss in concert with the Senate as to
what measures ought to be taken in relation to Finland.

19

According to the interpretation of Prince Obolensky, it
thus came out that a Manifesto addressed to all true sub-
jects of His Majesty had no relation to the inhabitants of
Finland, which formed an inseparable part of the Empire,
and that for the Finlanders it was essential that a special
act of State should be issued. So in order to decide in
what this special act of State should consist — and not at
all for the purpose of carrying out the law and promul*
gating in the order appointed in Finland, this Manifesto
of October 17/30, Prince Obolensky invited to his own
house * for 3 p.m. on the i8th the whole Finnish Senate
in corpore. The Senators assembled in the official
residence of the Governor-General because the Senate
house was closed owing to the strike of the servants, and
Prince Obolensky, besides, remembering the fatal date
June 3, 1904^ was never particularly fond of visiting
this building and used frequently to summon the Senators,
quite illegally, to his private quarters to arrange private
meetings.

When the Senators were assembled the Prince appeared
before them in full gala uniform, read the Manifesto and
then left them to discuss as to what should be done next.

Some time had elapsed after the opening of this sitting,
when, at about half -past three o'clock, an enormous crowd

* During the whole tenure of his office as Governor-General,
Prince Obolensky was never in the Senate more than four or
five times, whereas his predecessor, Governor-General Bobrikov,
had attended regularly every week on Thursdays.

t The date of the assassination of N. Bobrikov in the Senate
House.

20

of people all at once flooded the space before the Governor-
General's residence, blocked up the esplanade and the
streets debouching on it, and stopped all approach to the
house. This crowd had just come from the meeting on
the railway square,* and taking advantage of the almost
total absence of police, who had been compelled all over
the town to give up their arms, strip off their uniforms
and go on strikef, succeeded in carrying out their inten-
tions almost without hindrance.

At this moment, namely at 3.40 p.m., by order of the
Governor of Finland, an official attached to the Governor-
General despatched to the Commander of the 22nd Army
Corps the following note : " A great crowd is assembling
at the residence of the Governor-General, but so far is
behaving in an orderly fashion. The attitude of the crowd
does not promise anything good. Troops may be required
at any moment. I report this in case to your Excellency. ' '

* Of which the Governor had been duly apprised.

t At about noon special groups were making the rounds of
all the police, urging them to strike at and after 2 p.m. This
proposition was made also to the police on point duty opposite
the Governor- General's house, but these men refused. The
Governor of Niwland Province, who was in the house, was
immediately informed of this, but nevertheless took no pre-
cautionary measures whatever (see letter in the Novoe Vremja,
No. 10657). As, subsequently came to light, at the appointed
time for the police strike, every policeman was surrounded by
a group, removed from his post, disarmed, and reclothed. The
majority were enrolled on the spot as members of the " muni-
cipal police " then being formed ; some eighty (men who remained
true to their service (almost exclusively Russians and Esthonian)
could not even make their way to the Governor as they were
nowhere allowed to pass through by the new volunteer police
who were all provided with photographs of these incorruptible
policemen.

21

Soon after appeared at the residence of the Governor-
General the Helsingfors Policemaster, a Swede named
Av-Enegelm.* He was in very excited state, and reported
to the Governor of Finland that the crowd desired that
the Governor-General would immediately receive a depu-
tation of five men, and that the attitude of the crowd
was such that in his opinion this demand must absolutely
be satisfied, or else he, the policemaster, would not be
responsible for anything that followed. The Governor
then ordered the policemaster to go in person out to the
crowd and warn them that the Governor-General was
occupied at that moment and could not receive the
deputation. The policemaster very unwillingly fulfilled
this mission, but when the door was opened to let him out
the crowd forced their way in and held it open, while the
deputation, under the leadership of the university graduate,
Gummerus,t insisted upon forcing its way into the ante-
room of the Governor-General. Gummerus, with an air
of extreme insolence, marched right up to the Governor
and asked him : " Who are you ? " and then, on receiving
a reply, declared in the name of " the people " that he
demanded to be immediately received by the Governor-
General. To the proposal to wait a little in the reception

* Who had replaced the Russianised Finn Karlstedt when
the latter was dismissed by Prince Obolensky.

f See above. Besides this graduate there were in the deputa-
tion the poet, Arwid Merne, M. Stenberg, the teacher Gabriel
Biode (brother of the ex-officer, a Finn, who was concerned in
the assassination of the Minister of the Interior Sipjagin), and
the student Jutseniemi.

22

room until the termination of the sitting, until which time
it was impossible to announce the deputation to the
Governor-General, Gummerus repeatedly taking out his
watch answered that " the people cannot be kept waiting,"
and went out at last to communicate what the Governor
had said to the crowd, with the words : " we are going out
now, but we shall return immediately." Speaking to the
crowd from the porch of the Governor-General's residence
Gummerus repeated to them the statement of the Gov-
ernor, beginning with these words : " the unlawful
Governor says."

The crowd insisted on their original demand being
complied with " even if violence follow," and this was
communicated to the Governor by the deputation who
came back into the house. The Governor gave Way, and
went to announce the deputation to the Governor-General
on the second floor of the house. The Prince, who was
in the drawing-room next door to the hall of portraits in
which the Senators were in session, received the deputa-
tion and it was admitted to the drawing-room. Gum-
merus, in the name of the people, laid before the Prince
in a very insolent form and in a loud, rude voice the demand
that he with his Senators should submit their resignations
on the spot. But when the Governor-General expressed
his readiness to do so, and added : " You are aware that
this amounts to a declaration of war ?" Gummerus replied :
" Yes, it is war, but a war without weapons only." Then
pointing to the door of the hall of portraits he asked : " Is
that where the Senators are ? " and without waiting for

23

any reply kicked the door open with his foot and the
deputation after him burst in upon the session of the
Senate. Here they repeated their demand that the
Senators should resign. The latter lost their heads
entirely, all but one, Senator Lang, a man of some energy,
who rose and declared that having been appointed by
the will of the Emperor, he could be replaced only by the
same imperial will and therefore was unable to submit
to the demand. The rest of the Senators held their
peace and the youngest of them, Neovius ("Minister"
of Finance *) in token of his entire contempt for
the delegates of the " mob " turned his back upon
them.

In the meantime there appeared below another deputa-
tion in the name of the united meeting of constitutionalists
and workmen, which had just come on from the fire
brigade depot where they had been assembled. This
deputation, notwithstanding that it comprised no less
a personage than a former adjutant of Governor-General
Count Heyden, a Baron von Kohten,-f behaved itself in the
reception room, which was alongside the drawing-room

* Neovius, besides, was one of only two Senators (the other
was Chilman), who declined to take a pension.

f Its other members were : (i) Inspector of town school,
A von Blomerius (dismissed under Bobrikov from the post of
director of the Lyceum for his anti-Government agitation) ;

(2) Assessor of the Hofgericht Swinhufvud (who defended
Khokhenthal and had been a great agitator in the last Diet) ;

(3) Dr. H. Revel ; (4) lawyer Jonas Kastren, a member of the
fighting organisation exiled under Bobrikov ; (5) bank director
Lavonius ; (6) Magister Philosophise E. (?) Schaumann (brother

f the assassin of Bobrikov) ; and (7) the writer Tekla Khultin.

24

in which the whole family of Prince Obolensky was
assembled, with such easy familiarity and made so
much noise that Senator Neovius was compelled to re-
monstrate with them.

This second deputation the Governor-General received
in the same drawing-room and invited them to take seats.
They demanded the immediate abolition of the " dictator-
ship " and other " illegal " ordinances, named in the
" grand petition," the dismissal of all Russian officials
who were to be replaced by persons " invested with the
confidence of the people," the immediate resignation of
the Minister State Secretary, the Governor-General and
the Senators : the handing over of Prokope, the assassin
of the Colonel of Gendarmes Kramarenko, who had been
condemned by a military court, to the local court : the
recall of the exiles Westlin and Ericson, who had at-
tempted to assassinate the policemaster of Nikolaistadt,
and, finally, the immediate summoning of an extraordinary
Diet for the settlement of two questions, namely: (a)
universal and equal voting power with the reconstruction
of the administration of the country on modern democratic
principles with a Government responsible to the Diet, and
(b) the regulation of the question of the Budget. If all
these demands, declared the delegates, be not satisfied
we wash our hands of all responsibility for further conse-
quences, and the strike will continue and grow like an
avalanche on the move. The Governor-General replied
that the issue of the Manifesto of October 17/30 in the
Empire of itself implied the necessity of granting privileges

25

of the same kind * also to Finland, and that an appeal to
the Emperor to that effect would be made by the Senate,f
and declared his readiness to petition for the summoning
of the Diet ; as regarded his own dismissal from office,
he declared that he would leave his post himself with
pleasure if His Imperial Majesty would give him leave to
do so. The deputation insisted upon his immediately
leaving for Petersburg to petition the Emperor to grant
all their demands, and one of them (Jonas Kastren) said :
' You have the ' Eleken ' under steam J ; you can start at
once." All the demands of the deputation were expressed
in Swedish by Bonsdorf, very calmly, but in a firm tone
that admitted of no reply, and in the most precise form,
emphasising every time the fact that this was not a
" petition " but a " demand ; " he dictated every point
in a voice of authority to the official attached to the person
of the Governor-General (Count Eric Berg, grandson of
a former Governor-General and enjoying the honour of a
" Finlander " title), who humbly translated and carried
out the frequent corrections impatiently made by
Bonsdorf.

While all this was going on inside the house the great

* In the result a Manifesto was issued, that of October 22nd,
but it had nothing whatever in common with the Manifesto of
October i/th, and did not contain even the slightest reference
to it.

t As we shall see later the Senate never had any idea of
asking anything of the kind, but they did ask — something very
different !

J The yacht of the lighthouse department, on which, no one
knows by whose orders, steam had actually been got up with
great forethought.

c 2

26

crowd outside waited with considerable restraint, and
only the declaration of the first deputation which issued
with Gummerus at the head to the effect that " Prince
Obolensky is going to resign/' roused the crowd to loud
shouts of joy.

During the time that the deputations were inside the
house of the Governor-General the Russian national flag
flying on all the Government buildings of the town, on the
Senate, the railway station, the " Athenaeum," etc., were
replaced by the newly invented Finlander colours, red
with a yellow Finlander lion.

An attempt was also made to tear down the flag flying
over the Governor-General's house, but when the bold
spirits had climbed the balcony and were already getting
up on the roof, some one in the crowd shouted " the
Cossacks." A panic followed ; the mob rushed back
from before the house, and a dozen or so persons suffered
serious injuries in the rush while two were crushed to
death.

The deputation of constitutionalists and the workmen
who had joined with them, after being received by the
Governor-General were admitted to the hall of portraits
where the Senators were in session, and here, in the pres-
ence of the portraits of all the Russian sovereigns, they
made their demand that the Senate should resign in a
body. Individual members of the deputation then held
a conference with individuals among the Senators. The
result of all this was the unanimous decision of the Senate
to resign, and minute drawn up and signed by the Senators

27

was handed to the deputation. It ran as follows : " The
members of both departments of the Senate here present
declare publicly that they have resolved to resign." But
even this was not enough. To intensify the humiliation
of the Senators, Kastren compelled three of them who were
more obnoxious than the rest, namely, Streng, Solman and
Vuorenkheimo, to go out on the balcony of the Governor-
General's house and announce to the crowd the resignation
of the whole Senate, which was unhesitatingly performed,
the faces of the three Senators being lighted up by cande-
labra taken from the apartments of the Governor-General.
This announcement was greeted by the mob with loud
shouts of approval ; the crowd sang right through " Wort
Land " and to the strains of the Bjerneborg March grad-
ually dispersed towards seven o'clock in the evening.

During the whole time of this four hours' " siege " of the
Governor-General's house, troops were never summoned
to put an end to it although communications with them
never ceased,* as was proved by the sending, a second
time, at about five o'clock in the evening, the following
letter of the Governor of Niwland Province to the Chief
of the Staff of the 22nd Army Corps, received by the latter
at 5.50 : "In consequence of the extremely tense attitude
of the population which may require at any moment the

* Generally speaking communication with the outer world
during the " siege " of the Governor-General's house was main-
tained without interruption ; a whole series of messengers
despatched from the house to different destinations duly arrived,
and many persons, among them even officers, succeeded in
making their way into the house.

28

intervention of armed forces I request Your Excellency
to arrange that orders be given to the troops of the gar-
rison to be in perfect readiness, so that at the first call
they may march out of barracks and reach, with the utmost
possible speed, such places as may be indicated, of which
information follows." The receipt of such a letter con-
fined the action of the Commander of the Army Corps
nolens volens to putting the troops in their barracks in full
marching order, appointing a detachment to the Governor-
General's house from the companies hard by in the Guards'
barracks, and transferring to the same barracks all the
rest of the Cossacks of the Orenburg sotnia (squadron),
that they might be at hand in case of a call from the
Governor to utilise them for dispersing the crowd by force.
It was the movement of these Cossacks at the end of the
Esplanade Street farthest removed, and a very long way
off the Governor-General's house, that caused the panic
in the crowd referred to above. This episode goes to
prove, among other things, how easy it would have been
at that time to disperse the crowd without even having
recourse to arms, and that, at any rate, there was no very
pressing necessity to submit so humbly to such insolent
demands. It is a significant feature of the whole affair
that after this a deputation from the inhabitants came
to the ex-commander of the 3rd Finnish Rifle Battalion
— who continued to occupy his old quarters in the Guards'
barracks — to beg him, as a fellow countryman, to use his
influence to have the Cossacks, as the cause of the accidents
that had happened, immediately ordered off !

29

The evening of the i8th and the succeeding night passed
in Helsingfors in outward tranquility ; there were no
gatherings of crowds, and the town, plunged in darkness,
in the midst of which here and there flitted the electric
pocket lamps of the newly appeared " volunteer watch,"
seemed dead and deserted.

This " watch," or " self-enrolled police/' had been
organised by orders of the town magistracy by an ex-
Policemaster (dismissed under Bobrikov) before the
appointment of Karlstedt, and entered upon its duties
immediately after the overthrow of the Government police.
The distinguishing mark of these " police " was a white
arm-band. Among them were not a few students and
afterwards also a good many Finns and Swedes of the
former police force, amounting to a total of about a thou-
sand ; they took possession of the buildings of the central
police office and the sectional stations, and disarmed the
police reserve whom they compelled in the presence of the
crowd to lay down their arms on the Senate Square. The
new " police " * immediately instituted the strictest obser-
vation over the Governor-General's house, and afterwards,
of all Russian houses, as well as over the telegraph, noting
all who entered or left these places, and even asked persons
unknown to them, or stopping them and ascertaining their
identity at the police office, whither they were taken in
custody. This continued right up to October 21 (the
day on which the Governor-General transferred himself
to the battleship " Slava "), and at one time all access to
* Afterwards replaced by the " National Guard."

30

the telegraph* was absolutely prohibited. Among those
taken in custody and brought to the police office for
examination were many officials of the Chancellery of
the Governor-General (except such as wore a military
uniform, who were merely recognised by the light of the
electric pocket lamps which had been given out to every
" policeman ") ; the special messenger of His Imperial
Majesty to the President of the French Republic, Kammer-
herr Stojanovsky, who was on his way back to Russia and
got to Finland owing to the strike of the St. Petersburg-
Warsaw Railway, was conducted from the Governor-
General's house through a chain of the " National Guard "
only thanks to the intervention of the director of the Pilot
and Lighthouse Department, Major-General Sheman, of
the Admiralty, who proffered his services to the unlucky
Imperial messenger.

Following on the disarming and removal of the police,
the members of the corps of gendarmes who were quar-
tered in Helsingfors were, by orders of the Governor-
General, and in order to save them from persecution,
partly disguised in civil clothes and partly transferred to
Sveaborg. Orders were also issued to those of the police
who remained faithful and became part of the guard of
the Governor-General and continued to carry on their
detective duties to disguise themselves likewise in civil
clothes. As to the Policemaster who was the whole day

I* As will be seen below, the telegraph as well as the telephone
and the railways did not cease to operate ; but they were utilised
only by the seditious exclusively for revolutionary purposes.

31

of the i8th in the house of the Governor-General, he was
missing on the next and following days, having concealed
himself so successfully that no one even knew where to
find him.

One of the first things done by the new Municipal police
when they entered on their duties was to destroy every-
where the portraits of the Emperor (some of them were
found in very unbefitting places),* portraits of the assas-
sinated Governor-General Bobrikov and also the Holy
Eikons. There were cases of the most outrageous blas-
phemy, and they occurred in all quarters. Some of the
details of the conditions under which the activity of the
lawful police was put an end to in Helsingfors found ex-
pression in a letter to the Novoe Vremja (No. 10657)
from some of the members of the force who had gone
through it. This letter brings out very clearly the dubious
part played by the Policemaster and the "Russian"
Governor, Lvovsky,^ who were both of them guilty, not
merely of want of energy but of absolute negligence of
duty.

By the morning of the igth information had been re-
ceived that all the railways, with the railway telegraphs
and telephones, were in the hands of the revolutionaries,
who were making use of them ; communication by the

* In one case the tearing down of portraits of the Emperor
and Empress was done solemnly before an immense concourse
of people, who shouted with joy in applause of the deed.

f Who had just been appointed by Prince Obolensky and was
to be, as the Prince himself put it, a " drawing-room police-
master."

32

State telegraph was interrupted in places and the head
telegraph office in Helsingfors itself was subjected to the
closest observation by the " watch," who did not allow
anyone in without examining into the contents and des-
tination of their telegrams,* and later closed the office
entirely to private telegrams from Russian residents and
at one time even refused to pass Service telegrams.

From all sides information was coming in of the enrolling
of militia, the cadres of which were found in the former
Finnish troops and their officers. The distribution of
the orders for what they called their " mobilisation," was
effected at first by sending messengers on horseback
round the villages, but afterwards the telephone got to
work and railway trains were also sent to bring up rein-
forcements to Helsingfors. This was arranged by a
committee of five formed by the rebels for the administra-
tion of the railways, and special posters were pasted up
all about the town, informing the people that the railways
were in the hands of the " National Guard." This
" National Guard " was formed principally out of workmen
and common people, and by the third day of the disorders
(October 20) had almost entirely displaced the Municipal
police. At its head, in Helsingfors, was one of the leading
Social Democrats, an ex-captain of the Finnish troops
named Koch, who also for nearly a week playecl the part
of the prefect of Helsingfors. The new " labour " police

* From information in our possession it appears that a number
of private telegrams accepted at Helsingfors for transmission
and received at Helsingfors from other places, were never
delivered to their destinations.

33

donned red armbands, and the vast body of organised
workmen who formed a sort of reserve for the force began
gradually to evince a more and more hostile feeling toward
the Swedomans.

From the morning of the igth there began to present
themselves to the Governor-General a long list of new
deputations from all kinds of political groups. Each of
these groups endeavoured to produce a conviction that
the deputations of the previous evening had been repre-
sentatives merely of the " street," and that not one of the
political parties had ever empowered them to demand
the resignation of the Governor-General. Instead of this
they demanded the summoning, with all possible speed,
of an extraordinary Diet, and the satisfaction of all the
demands contained in the Grand Petition ; besides this
they sought to secure the further development of a
" State " organisation in Finland, without any kind of
connection with the new principles on which the recon-
struction of the Empire itself was maturing.

In addition to this the Old Finn and the Constitutional
Parties formed separate groups of authoritative persons,
in accordance with the invitation of Prince Obolensky
himself, given the evening before to Baron Wrede * and

* A professor, an ardent separatist, and bosom friend of Baron
Born, of Mechelin and of Anteli ; he had been exiled from Finland
to Reval in June, 1904, after the assassination of N. Bobrikov,
on the demand of the Adjunct Minister State Secretary, E.
Erstrem, who was then acting Chancellor of the Imperial Alex-
ander Helsingfors University, and in 1905, on his return from
exile, was appointed, by the influence of the same Erstrem,
Rector of the University.

34

Danielson (Vice-Chancellor of the University and head of
the Old Finn Party) whom he summoned to him for the
purpose. To these persons the Prince proposed to work
jointly under the supreme guidance of Leo Mechelin on
the drafting of legislative bills rendered necessary by the
existing situation. These drafts the Prince wished to
compare with that drawn up the night before by the
Senators, their " swan's song," for presentation to the
Emperor, and to lay all together before the sovereign for
his consideration. The Old Finns, however, were not
long before they slipped away from the ferule of Mechelin
and the latter assumed thenceforward entire command.
To the waving of his baton even the Governor-General
himself, a Russian prince of the ancient house of Rurik,
yielded implicit obedience. This is plain, if only from
the fact that he, who had so often and at such length
dilated on the necessity of having representatives of Fin-
land in the State Duma and the share which Finland
should take in the decision of general State questions,
now, suddenly, as it were, ceased to notice that the objects
aimed at by the Constitutionalists who were enjoying
his support were not merely the overthrow of the " Bob-
rikov Regime " but also the equalising of the rights of local
representative assembly with the rights of the general Imperial
Duma, thereby effecting the double object of rendering
it superfluous to send representatives to the State Duma,,
and guaranteeing themselves beforehand from any inter-
ference by the State Duma in the affairs of Finland. One
of the Labour parties alone (to which later adhered also

35

in part the Old Finns) sharply differentiated itself from
these demands. This party desired that the universal
right to vote should be introduced, not by means of the
Diet, but that it should be directly granted by Imperial
Order, after which the local legislative elected on these
new principles should proceed to elaborate the necessary
reforms for the country in the direction of perfecting its
internal legislation. The representatives of this party,
in contradistinction to all the rest, did not look askance
at the State Duma and were willing for representatives
of Finland to take part in it for the decision of general
State questions ; in the local Diet, on the other hand,
which under the existing suffrage system was the repre-
sentative solely of the " masters " (i.e., of one-tenth of
the population) they had not a jot of confidence, and the
very idea of the possibility of the suffrage question being
entrusted to that body for settlement aroused tremendous
excitement. The mutual dislike between the Constitu-
tional and the Labour parties grew to such a height that
the Swedish population of the town of Helsingfors began
hurriedly to get away in the night, and many of the peace-
ful inhabitants made interested inquiries as to when at
last the troops would exercise some proper pressure on
the workmen, to make them go back to work and restore
the normal course of life.

While all this was going on the " National Guard "
had been got in readiness everywhere ; on the squares
and other open spaces of the town, company drills were
regularly in progress, and the arrayed battalions of the

36

" Guard " not infrequently marched demonstratively
past the windows of the barracks occupied by the Russian
troops. At the same time every kind of slander was
spread, and even appeared in the newspapers, about the
supposed disaffection among the Russian troops ; and at
this time the revolutionaries were particularly active in
flooding the barracks with " proclamations " addressed
to the soldiers in which it was solemnly declared that the
soldiers all over Russia had laid down their arms, that
the Government had been overthrown in St. Petersburg,
and that the people had taken the reins of power into their
own hands. These " proclamations " in point of fact still
further intensified the indignation of the Russian troops
who had seen committed before their very eyes, openly
and with impunity, the most insolent acts of contempt
and violence upon Russians and the Russian power.
Officers relate that the privates many a time begged per-
sistently to be served with ball-cartridge and be led out
against the rebels. All were eager to serve their " Little
Father, the Czar " and their beloved fatherland with
honour, and they did not spare the author of all the shames
they had witnessed ; he got in all its fulness the feelings
of the Russian heart expressed through all the wide limits
of the rich lexicon of Russian abuse ! The sailors, too, were
highly excited, especially aboard the battleship " Slava,"
where Prince Obolensky afterwards took up his residence.
In Helsingfors there was a persistent rumour kept up to
the effect that the officers, in order to quiet their men and
to prevent any sudden outbursts, found it necessary to

37

assure them that the Czar himself would judge the doings
of Prince Obolensky.

The night before October 20 passed tranquilly. Out-
wardly, the situation had undergone no change this day,
though the increasing tension was betrayed by the more
frequent assemblages, in a more regular organisation of
the task of drilling the mob in military formations, in the
arranging for rifle practice in the Kaisaniemi park and
the opening all about the town of field-hospital points
marked by red crosses on the lamps, the main hospital
point being in the Hotel Kemp. Persistent reports were
in circulation of the arrival of a large quantity of arms
in the town, partly by steamer and party by the Abo-
Kari Railway. The distribution of arms was carried on
in secret ; those who obtained them carried them home
through the streets wrapped up in newspapers. A cred-
ible witness saw two maxims brought through the town
by night on two- wheeled carriages. The head-quarters
of the " fighting organisation " of the Constitutionalists
was in the building of the students' society of the Province
of Niwland. Towards evening was prepared at last the
draft of the Imperial Manifesto, and Mechelin, who re-
peatedly consulted the Prince, was all the time trying to
hasten its despatch to its destination, urging the extreme
tension of all men's minds and the momentary possibility
of an outbreak of bloodshed. Mechelin himself drew up
the Manifesto and brought the result of his labours to
receive the approval of Prince Obolensky. The latter,
it is said, made only a few insignificant changes in forms

38

of expression of no consequence and then Mechelin took
the Manifesto away with him again to settle finally its
contents together with his colleagues on the revolutionary
committee. Thence he despatched a holograph MS. in
his own handwriting entitled " the draft of an authorita-
tive group of persons led by M. Mechelin," and this, by
order of the Governor-General was copied out fair, with all
the matter appended to it, in his own Chancellery under
the personal direction of the Director of the Chancellery,
Colonel Sein. For Mechelin's approval was presented also
the covering despatch, so that, in point of fact, Mechelin
inspected and passed the entire contents of the packet
sent to St. Petersburg. At eight o'clock in the evening
the petition of the Governor-General concerning the issue
of the Manifesto with the drafts of the Senate and of
Mechelin, but without any personal suggestions of any
kind from Prince Olobensky himself, was despatched from
Finland on the pilot service boat " Eleken," with the
Director of the Pilot Service, Sheman. General Vatatsi
ex-Governor of St. Michael's, who had just been appointed
Governor of Kiev, and was hastening to Petersburg on
the duties of his service, begged to be taken aboard, but
Sheman found various pretexts for evading this
request.

On the next day, the 2ist, the accession day ol the
Emperor, the usual service was appointed in the Cathedral
of the Assumption. The Governor-General left his resi-
dence in his carriage, without the Cossack escort, which
he left behind him at home. The bazaar square was lined

39

with the " National Guard," which had roped off the foot-
walks as was usually done by the police, and the Governor-
General passed from the house to the cathedral under
the exclusive escort of this " Guard." It was said that
on the preceding evening " Captain " Koch, who had
assumed the rank of commander of the " National Guard "
was sent for to the Governor-General's and received from
the Governor of Niwland, Colonel Lvovsky, and Burgo-
master Gartman the necessary instructions for the follow-
ing day. The story is even told that Prince Obolensky
at first requested the military authorities to march the
troops who were to take part in the parade past the
Governor-General's house in such order, that he might,
by stepping in between their ranks, reach the cathedral
under their protection. Such a use of troops was however
considered as somewhat inconvenient by the command-
ing officer, and the Prince nolens volens had to entrust
the protection of his person to the " National
Guard."

At the conclusion of the parade which was taken by the
Corps Commander an unwonted surprise awaited the
Russian residents of Helsingfors. The Governor-General,
with his family, after leaving the cathedral in their car-
riage, simply disappeared. At any rate he did not return
home, and up to five o'clock in the afternoon no one in the
town knew where he was. Even the servants left in the
house knew nothing, and the Governor of Kiev, who was
the guest of the Governor-General and had been invited
to lunch with him on that day waited with his wife in vain

40

for his host and hostess until half-past three, and only then
learned that they would not return.

The disappearance of the Governor-General gave rise
to some alarming reports in the town, as well as others
little redounding to the honour of the Russian authorities.
Some said the Prince had been seized and was kept in
custody by the rebels, who were holding him as a hostage,
others that he had been put under arrest as a traitor by
the Russian officers, others again that he had delivered
himself up to the revolutionaries, that he had fled to the
squadron and was making his way thence by Sveaborg
to Reval, that in fine, he had died a violent death at the
hands of the sailors of the " Slava " enraged at his conduct,
etc., etc. Under the effect of these stories the foreign
Consuls all took the excitement, the more so that some
unknown persons had already announced to them the
overthrow of the Russian power in Finland and the sub-
stitution for it of some sort of " temporary government,"
which had no use whatever for them. The alarmed
Consular body rushed to make inquiries, of course, first
of all to the Governor-General. And highly delighted
and relieved they were to find the Russian flag still flying
over the official residence ! All must, of course, be well !
But on making inquiry for the Governor-General of the
porter their fears were aroused once more : the Governor-
General was " not at home, and it was not known where he
was," answered the lackey. So the poor foreigners went
running about in all directions making inquiries ,^until
some good soul took pity on them and told them that

both the Governor and the Governor-General and all
their staff were on the island of Skatudden, under the
administration of the port of Sveaborg, spending most
of their time aboard the squadron which had arrived in
the roads about three o'clock in the afternoon of that day.
Thither the Consuls hied them on the very next day, the
22nd, to explain their situation to the Governor, and were
tranquillised by having appointed to each one of them a
guard of three armed soldiers, who were to serve as a
token that the Russian authority still existed in the
country. The German Consul alone must be excepted
from this account, for he, without troubling to make any
inquiries anywhere and even without going outside his
house, wired off to his Government to send him a German
ship of war.

About four o'clock in the afternoon Prince Obolensky
transferred himself from the port to the battleship
" Slava " on which he continued to live up to the end of
October, but without ever hoisting the special flag appro-
priate to his rank as Governor-General of Finland. All this
time the Prince almost every day, about noon, would visit
the administration of the port, where he received deputa-
tions, reports and visitors, and returned to dinner to his
family on board the battleship, where he mostly spent his
hours of leisure at the green table so strictly prohibited
aboard our ships of war.

It is related that Prince Obolensky used to explain his
departure from his official residence and his transference
to the squadron as caused by the necessity of escaping

42

from a state of captivity and securing " freedom of
action ; " it is said that he even proposed to the troops
of the garrison to abandon their barracks with all the
stores and property therein and pass over to the island
of Skatudden, so as not to risk being surrounded in their
barracks by the rebels and be deprived of their water-
supply. At the same time the Prince promised to arrange
for the whole of the Russian population of the town to be
taken off, partly to the fortress of Sveaborg and partly
to Russia,* and that he actually issued the necessary
orders for this move. This plan, however, it appears
was not accepted, probably because the military authori-
ties could not bring themselves to imagine that troops
perfectly ready to take the field and more than filled with
the spirit of military daring ought to think only of their
own proper safety !

In view of the alarming intelligence that reached the
Corps Commander on the evening of the 2ist the suc-
ceeding night was passed by the troops under arms. The
search-lights of the squadrons and the fortress lighted
up the town as if it was day ; the troops punctually
performed patrol duty and kept up constant communi-
cations with one another ; the Skatudden bridge throughout
the night was entirely closed to all traffic, and the island
itself was cleared by the patrols of the self-styled police and
private persons. The night passed, however, quietly.

* In point of fact they were not taken off anywhere, but
those whose hearts failed them made the best of their way them-
selves to the fortress or anywhere else as seemed them best.

43

On the morning of the 22nd posters were everywhere
displayed, by order of the strikers, announcing that the
command of the town had been handed over to Lieutenant-
General Baron Salza. From this day forth the "Com-
mander of the National Guard " Johann Koch began to
present himself every day to the Corps Commander with
a report in the Russian language * to the effect that all
was well in the town. To the Corps Commander there
came, besides, many representatives of the local popula-
tion, who were obviously strongly impressed by the arrival
of the squadron and the measures taken in the evening
before and throughout the night by the troops of the garri-
son. Baron Salza replied to all in the same form, that
the troops would not take the initiative, but if, which
Heaven forfend, any violence were offered to any of the
Russian residents retribution would be swift and heavy.
The result of this was that Koch issued a printed notice
dated November 3, N.S., addressed to the Russian
residents of the town of Helsingfors in which he assured,
them that the "National Guard was under the obligation
to preserve strict order and in particular to take all care
that no one of the Russians should run any risks of danger
or rude treatment," and requested that any complaints
on this head might be addressed to the central police

* This shows amongst other things that the Finnish Social
Democrats' attitude to the Russian language is more respectful
than that of the Constitutionalists, who, when they received full
powers under Governor-General Gerardt, began first of all by
banishing the Russian language altogether from the Senate, in
defiance of the Manifesto of October 22nd.

44

office. Another identical lithographed appeal was cir-
culated in the name of the " Stud en Strike Committee."
Considerably later, that is to say, on November 5 or 6,
N.S. notifications were issued by the Governor of Finland *
without date, but they did not actually reach anybody
except a few Russian servants and travellers living in
the hotels. The majority of the Russian residents of the
town, merchants, traders, workmen, time-expired soldiers
and others, never had a chance of seeing these notifica-
tions at all. Yet it was principally among these classes
of the Russian population that the greatest panic prevailed,
increased by the absolute ignorance as to their fate and
the prevalent rumours which were of the most threatening
character.

To sum up the situation, from the moment when Prince
Obolensky transferred himself to the battleship " Slava,"
the state of affairs stood as follows : The highest repre-
sentatives of the Imperial authority in the country had
taken up for himself a position which enabled him, accord-
ing as things might turn out, at any moment to wash his
hands quite easily of all responsibility for anything that
might happen. The military authorities, 'on the other

* The following is the text (translation) :

NOTIFICATION OF THE GOVERNOR OF NIWLAND.
" In view of the reports circulating in the town I consider
it my duty to bring to the public knowledge of the Russian
residents, with the object of tranquilising their minds, the fact
that their fate is equally dear alike to the civil and to the military
authorities, who will use every effort to prevent any injury or
loss being inflicted upon any Russians. (No date.)

Governor-Colonel A. LVOVSKY

45

hand, remaining all the time at their posts were actually
deprived of any sort of initiative, since they had not been
definitely given the necessary freedom of action. Even
in these circumstances of such extraordinary importance
the Prince, in obedience to the evasive character of his
nature, always inclined to avoid definite decisions,
remained true to himself.

About five o'clock in the evening of the 22nd General
Sheman returned from St. Petersburg on the " Eleken."
His arrival was already awaited and a large crowd of
people had assembled on the square near the landing
stage. As soon as the general, in the character of the
messenger of peace, had disembarked, the crowd demanded
that he should communicate the contents of the Manifesto,
and he had great difficulty in extricating himself. The
Manifesto was handed to the Governor, who carried it off
with him aboard the " Slava." In the evening, at the
summons of the Governor-General, certain of the former
Senators were conveyed to the battleship, and also a
number of the " authoritative persons " of the Mechelin
group and members of other parties. But among them
was neither " Captain" Koch nor Matti Kurikka, i.e. the
representatives of the Labour Democratic Party, owing to
a " misunderstanding " which caused them to arrive too
late.* The Governor-General received the invited persons
(many of whom turned up in lounge suits) in full gala

* The invitations were sent out by General Sheman who did
not, it may be supposed, find it particularly convenient to have
the representatives of the above-mentioned democrats present.

46

uniform, and solemnly read aloud to them the Imperial
Manifesto, which was translated into Swedish on the spot
by Count Berg. When the question came up of the
publication of the Manifesto one of those present proposed
that the Senate be summoned in a private house, in view
of the continuance of the strike. The Governor-General
did not give his consent to this, but declared that the
publication of the Manifesto must be made in the regular
order ; that is to say in the Senate house and on condition
of the cessation of the strike and restoration of perfect
order in the town. Nevertheless, copies of the Manifesto
were given by him on the spot to be circulated generally
among the public.

Burgomaster Gartman, who was among those present *
could not answer for the restoration of order immediately,
and only hoped that it might be attained a day later. In
point of fact it turned out to be impossible to arrange
the assembling of the Senators on the 23rd. The workmen

who were not satisfied with the contents of the Manifesto

•i . i »

continued to murmur and were unwilling to go back to
work.

A workmen's deputation f presented itself to Prince

* Whom the " red guard " had no idea of ever obeying as the
previous " white guard " had done.

f Hufvudstadsbladet, Thursday, November 9th, No. 299.
This deputation consisted of the six persons elected by the
workmen to form a " temporary government " which they
wished to put in power in place of the Senate over the adminis-
tration of the country, and proposed, as their own list of candi-
dates for the post of Senators. It is curious that in the number
of these twenty-four candidates were to be found representatives

47

Obolensky consisting of six persons, who pointed out that
the workmen had been trying for some decades already
to secure the general suffrage, and as they had so often
been deceived by the Constitutionalists they did not intend
to believe them any more and demanded, in place of the
Diet, the summoning of a national assembly on the
principles of universal suffrage, which should be, as a
preliminary, granted from the height of the throne. When
Prince Obolensky referred to the Manifesto of October 22,
which laid upon the Senate the duty of drafting new
Statutes for the Diet precisely on the lines of universal
and equal suffrage, they replied that they had indeed seen
in the burgomaster's hands some piece of paper or other,
but as it was unsigned they could not put any trust in its
contents. They added that their strike would continue
until the demands of the workmen were satisfied. In
reply to this Prince Obolensky said that " The Grand Duke
of Finland, as a constitutional monarch, could not commit
a violation of the fundamental law of the Diet by summoning
a national assembly," and that the drafting of the new

of the most diverse parties and professions ; here were the heads
of the old Finns (Danielson), the Young Finns (Ero Erikko),
the Swedomans (Leo Mechelin, third from the end of the list) •
at the head of the list stood a number of people known to nobody'
unless the workmen knew them, perhaps rather too well, teachers,
doctors, carpenters, road-makers, etc. In a word the workmen
had prepared a regular " salad," adding by way of a mitigating
oil even the superannuated old General Ramsay ! But their
proposals were not accepted, just as the project of Linder also
was not accepted for a mixed Swedoman-Fennoman Senate ;
what the Finlanders had to take was a set of pure-blooded
Constitutionalists of the most veritable "made in Stockholm"
type.

48

law could only be done through the Diet, and if this Diet
did not carry through the amendments in the fundamental
law in the desired sense a new Diet would be immediately
summoned for that purpose. Further, the Prince pointed
out that the draft of the Manifesto had been based on a
compilation made by him of the views of all parties,* and
that he was therefore surprised to find that the workmen
were dissatisfied with it and wished to continue the strike,
a course of action that could only be understood as a
protest against the Manifesto.

Thanks to the influence of the more moderate elements,
urged thereto by the Governor-General, the workmen at
length softened down and decided to stop the strike for
the time being, but all the same to request the Governor-
General once more to satisfy their demands. This decision
was confirmed the same evening by a mixed deputation
of workmen and Old Finns, among whose members were
to be found several former Senators. While expressing
to the Governor-General their acknowledgments for all
that he had done for Finland, this deputation nevertheless
requested him to bring to the notice of His Majesty the
fact that there existed in the country a considerable
group of local residents, " amounting to several tens of
thousands of men/' who " stood on one side and apart
without taking any share in the general rejoicings." It
is curious that in the address to the Emperor from the

* We have seen above that this draft was drawn up almost
solely by Mechelin who took into his counsels only his own
party, the Constitutionalists.

49

Old Finn Party — the text of which was published by the
Russian telegraphic agency — only the expressions of loyal
feeling and the thanks to Prince Obolensky were included,
but all mention of the group of the population standing
apart was omitted. As to the party of Constitutionalists
who alone, flinging themselves head foremost into the
movement, had got out of it all they wanted, they were
precisely the party which presented no loyal addresses to
the sovereign nor uttered any expression of thanks to the
Governor-General.

But later on they did not omit to thank him in their
special organ, Hufvudstadsbladet, on the day of the final
departure of the Prince from Finland, with the words :
" The period of this Governor-General's administration
has been distinguished by unintermittent vacillation,
indecision, and postponements of the most important
questions for settlement " and this period was for the
history of the country " a featureless epoch," " a period
of postponements and half -measures." The one service
of the Prince, in the opinion of this paper, was that he
" had understood the requirements of the age and had
got away in time."*

On the 24th at eleven o'clock in the morning the Mani-
festo was read in full session of the Senate, held in the
Senate House. A crowd of people assembled on the square
before the Senate eagerly caught the printed copies of
the Manifesto flung them from the balcony of the Senate.
The shops gradually opened, the cabs, trams, etc., were
* No 309, November iQth, N.S.

50

moving once more, the telephone, etc., again at work.
The railways finally got going again only on the 25th.
From this date onwards the first news also began to come
in that could be relied on of what had taken place in the
rest of the country. At night Helsingfors, for the first
time since the celebration of the hundredth anniversary of
the birth of the poet Runeberg, was illuminated. Candles
burned in all the windows. Everywhere could be seen the
symbols of the " union " (crossed flags, the Russian with
the " red-yellow " arrangement) ; the magistracy engaged
a band to play on the Senate square. This band, by
secret instructions it was said, performed once only the
Russian Hymn* " God guard the Emperor," which was
listened to indifferently, and then immediately passed on
to the beloved patriotic repertoire with the notorious
" Bjerneborg March " and " Wortland " to lead off with,
and these were sung enthusiastically by a crowd of
thousands, with shouts of "Eleken"fin honour of the
" fatherland."

On the next day at two o'clock on the same square
assembled the strikers, and under the shadow of their red
emblems solemnly resolved to suspend the strike until
the Diet began its labours, the course of which would then
indicate whether it would be necessary to resume it.

Prince Obolensky spent yet another week after this
aboard the battleship " Slava." Rumours flew in the
town, at first obscure but gradually taking a more and more

* Which in Russia is always played through thrice. (Trans.)
j- Finnish for " Long live."

definite form, that the Prince no longer came ashore, that
he was going under convoy of the squadron to St. Peters-
burg to report to the Emperor, that the Prince had sent
in his resignation and that it had been accepted, finally,
that his resignation was not altogether voluntary. All
doubts were finally dispersed when on the morning of
Friday, November 4, newspapers' " specials " flew about
the town of Helsingfors announcing that the office of
Governor-General had been temporarily entrusted to the
Commander of the 22nd Army Corps, Lieut .-General
Salza. Some four days before this the Prince had unex-
pectedly left the battleship " Slava " and repaired to his
official residence where he managed to receive several
service reports ; still earlier he had been visited by the
Adjunct Minister, State Secretary Erstrem, who, it was
said, had taken away with him to St. Petersburg all
the necessary materials for drawing up a report to the
sovereign on all that had occurred. Thus, it had been
decided beforehand that the story of the course of the
revolution in Finland should be composed not on the spot
where the events happened but at St. Petersburg, and
withal under the supervision of Erstrem of whose devotion
to himself as well as his affection for the Finlanders the
Prince could have no possible doubts. At the same time
this method had the advantage of excluding from any
hand in the report to the throne those who were eye-
witnesses of the events, who alone, of course, were in a
position to give trustworthy information and throw a true
light on the whole story. There was also an intention,

52

it was said, to draw up an official Government com-
munique on the events in Finland, on the pretext of refut-
ing the false and garbled accounts given by the newspapers
and the telegraph ; this statement also was to be got up
under the guidance of the same Erstrem, but it has not
yet seen the light of day ! It thus fell out that while
innumerable Government communiques have been ap-
pearing of late, not infrequently upon matters of insignifi-
cant importance, an event of such capital importance
as the revolution in Finland has remained officially unre-
corded in any form for the public eye. Possibly the reason
for this may be found in the fact that any statement in the
Press of the events which so agitated the Russian public
if told on the basis of strictly accurate documents and the
evidence of eye-witnesses, would have thrown such a full
and clear light upon the conduct of Prince Obolensky
and certain of the Governors that any further attempts
to justify this conduct would only have done more harm
than good.*

The last days of his tenure of office the Prince devoted,
strictly speaking, to two matters : the disbandment and
remuneration of the " National Guard " and the drawing
up of telegrams to Peterhof describing the choral singing

* A brilliant example of this unsuccessful attempt at justifica-
tion is to be found in the letter of the Prince's brother, Prince
A. Obolensky, to the Novoe Vremja, in which he sets out to
prove, to the intense amusement of readers acquainted with
the biography of the Prince, that the Naval School gives the
highest grade of education and that the experience gained by
a Marshal of Nobility in the provinces admirably fits him to
hold the highest posts in the administration of the Empire.

53

of thousands of grateful Finns who performed the Russian
hymn, the laying of wreaths and flowers at the foot of
the Throne, statements of the thanks expressed by the
foreign Consuls for their " protection " and a number of
equally interesting idyls.

Receiving for the last time the commander of the
" National Guard," Captain Koch, the Prince thanked him
for the good order in the town and even embraced and
kissed him. Koch, encouraged beyond all bounds, in
disbanding his corps of five or six thousand men, made
an inflammatory speech in which he referred to the
" swiftness in attack " which his " guards " had shown
in joining his standard. If they had even at the first
attempt at a levy so admirably responded to the call,
they had fully proved their readiness for the " great
affair," and this was a promising guarantee for the
future.*

As if this were not enough, the ex-Senate, on the advice
of the Prince, set about an appeal to the Emperor to sanc-
tion the distribution of a largess to the " guards " for
their labours to the amount of 160,000 marks, which
called forth protests, even in the Press, of the strikers
themselves. Side by side with this all the Russian police-
men, when they applied to the authorities for succour,
were told that they were traitors, and that it was intended
that a thorough investigation be made into the case of

* And his words were in fact well verified not long after in
the organisation of the " national watch." See telegram in the
Novoe Vremja, November 24th.

54

each of them, after which alone could any thought of
considering their petitions be entertained.*

It was during this time, i.e., between October 25 and
November 6, that information came gradually trickling
in as to what had been occurring in other localities of
Finland. This intelligence filled in the general back-
ground of a dark picture made up of the universal neglect
of duty of those in authority and the helplessness of
individuals who were true to their service but utterly
unable to accomplish anything owing to the entire
absence of any kind of support from without.

In all the places throughout Finland where there were
no troops the gendarme officers and men, who every-
where remained true to their duty, were treacherously
imprisoned and disarmed, while some had to endure
cruel insults, mockery and violence ; many had their
uniforms or their outward marks of rank, shoulder-straps,
buttons, etc., rudely torn off them; f men were stripped
naked and thrust out of their houses ; one sergeant of
gendarmes was killed under the most revolting circum-
stances. The armed rebels, who had taken into custody
the gendarmes from Kemi and Torneo, came in the night
when the poor fellows were morally and physically worn
out, and opened dn them a fire from their revolvers but only
succeeded in mortally wounding one unarmed man. In

* See Novoe Vremja, No. 10657. The letter of the Russian
police of the town of Helsingfors and the " dementi " of M.
Diderichs.

t As, for example, with the gendarmes expelled from Torneo
and Kemi.

55

general the details of the violence done to the gendarmerie
are so cruelly revolting as to be impossible of description,
and it is not to be wondered at that not a few of these
hapless victims to their devotion to their duty afterwards
went out of their minds from the nervous horrors they
had undergone. We recommend amateur defenders of
the high level of culture of Finland to make themselves
a little better acquainted with some of these abominable
deeds.* " Almost everywhere the police was displaced
and volunteers obedient to the local officials substituted
for them. At Tammerfors and Kotka where the police-
masters had been appointed from Russia, and the former
was even a native-born Russian, they were required to
take their departure immediately, and they sought
refuge with the nearest garrisons. The Russian Land-
Secretary of the Province of Abo-Bjerneborg, M. Kho-
zainov, succeeded only with the aid of a military escort

* At loensuu, a gendarme sergeant named Beljaev hid himself,
half naked, but keeping his arms in the wood, where he remained
for over nine hours and got his feet frozen. From Uleaborg
a dozen gendarmes were taken in the hold of a steamer belonging
to the pilot service, confined within a space of not more than
a couple of cubic sazhenes, a great part of which was already
filled up with cargo. The air was so vitiated that the men lost
their senses. In this cage they were kept for more than fifty-
two hours. At loensuu, after disarming a gendarme, the rebels
put him to the torture, pressing his fingers to the back of the
hand, one of them shouting meanwhile, " that's how the Finns
deal with the Russians ! " From Kaske and Kristinestad the
gendarme sergeants were expelled by armed bands under the
command of Finnish officers, and the last of them at the very
moment when his wife was giving birth to a child ! Little
wonder that there were gendarmes who went out of their minds 1

56

in getting safely to the barracks, and so escaping the
enraged mob who were ready to tear him in pieces. The
rebels wreaked their vengeance on his quarters, where they
ruined and scattered the greater part of all his possessions.
The Governor of Vasa, Knipovich, likewise found it safer
to take refuge with the troops ; so also did the Land-
Secretary of St. Michael's, the Finn Vuorinen. As to the
acting Governor of Uleaborg M. Botstrem, he simply
disappeared. The Governor of Kuopio, the Finlander
Berg, was ordered immediately to quit, but neither horses
nor train were provided for the purpose, and he fled the
town in a small boat.

At the head of the movement in the Province of Abo
was Count Armfeld, the friend of Governor Borgenstrem,
who had been with him the evening before. All the
efforts of this Governor were confined exclusively to
isolating the military authorities and keeping the troops
in barracks that they might not interfere with the course
of the revolution. The detachment for the protection of
the prison * was sent by order of the Governor, by a round-
about way some six or seven miles long ; other detach-
ments were sent off without rifles, in the presence of the
Governor the mob went through the performance of
bringing out from the Hofgericht (Court of Justice) the
Town Hall, the Police-station, and the schools, all portraits

* Where was confined Reinikka who had attempted to assassin-
ate the Governor of Viborg, M. Mjasoedov ; the mob had planned
to set him at liberty.

57

of the Emperor,* which were slashed and flung in the
river then and there ! The same fate attended the
portrait of the ex-President of the Hofgericht, Streng,
who had presided at the trial of the affairs of Schaumann,
while two members of the Court who had given their
opinions for the death sentence on Hogenthal were
dragged out into the street, and beaten, people spitting
in their mouths ! Rumours of all this reached the bar-
racks, and the news of the insults done to the portraits
of the Emperor caused among the soldiers, and particularly
among the Cossacks, extreme indignation and excitement ;
it cost their officers a great deal of trouble to keep them
from marching out on their own account.

The Governor of Viborg, Baron Medem, unhesitatingly
performed all that the revolutionaries demanded of him,
and even went so far as to start sending, after the Manifesto
of September 22, documents to the Chancellery of the
Governor-General of Finland written in Finnish. All the
leaders of the insurrection in the Viborg Province whom
the gendarmes had arrested, the Governor released on
their arrival by train from Helsingfors,f and even returned
to them the- very important documents that had been

* These portraits it had been made obligatory, under Bobrikov,
to display in all public offices and schools precisely as is done
in Russia. Before this date it had been customary to display
only " patriots," benefactors or pictures of an allegorical and
anti-government meaning, such as the " Anfall " — the " Attack,"
which represents the two-headed Russian eagle falling upon a
poor maiden, Finland.

t 'This shows that the railways were working for the benefit
of the rebels.

58

taken by the gendarmes and proved the preparation of
the armed insurrection. It was only with the declaration
of the fortress as " in a state of war " (unhappily too late,
and then only for a single day) that the authority in the
town was wrested from the hands of the revolutionaries,
and the Commandant, General Vishnjakov, reinstated the
lawful police in their places, reinforcing them with armed
soldiers. The military authorities also replaced the
Russian flags that had been torn down. This act was
carried out at St. Michael's with special solemnity in the
presence of all the officials of the Provincial administration
and to the strains of the Russian hymn.

Of all the Provincial administrations the only one that
continued to perform its duties normally was that of
Tavasthus. The Landsman of Ekenas, Zhadvoin, and
of Lovisa, Sunneberg, were compelled to go on foot to
Helsingfors, abandoning their districts ; the same thing
occurred to certain gendarmes and to the secretary of the
Borgo police, Uotila. In the Province of Viborg fourteen
crown provosts and landsmen, the inspector of common
schools, Levedev, the priest Zotikov, several Russian
teachers of both sexes and merchants known to be devoted
to the Russian - cause, were expelled. At Serdobol the
Russian school with 30 pupils was dispersed, the school
treasury confiscated, and the president of the school direc-
tors, chief of the local military recruiting station, Lieut. -
Colonel Iltonov, was driven out with all his men and his
family ; he was compelled to go on foot all the way (100
miles) to Viborg, attempts were made to poison him on

59

the way, and he suffered several armed attacks, during
which his daughter was nearly killed and he lost his horse.*

On November 6, the mail train bore Adjutant-General
Prince Obolensky, no longer Governor-General of Finland,
away for ever from that country. He was accompanied
to the railway station by two or three intimates, the offi-
cials of the Chancellery by order of their Director, and one
single member of the ex-Senate. The military, as well as
both Finnish and Russian society, were conspicuous by
their absence. " Think kindly of me when I'm gone ! "
were the last words of the Prince as the train moved off.

These parting words sounded almost like an echo of
what was passing in the conscience of this magnate of
ancient lineage and, after all, of Russian birth. At any
rate it seems to us that so it ought to have been in fact.

However, for a Russian born it would be something
more than difficult to think kindly of Prince Obolensky
as Governor-General of Finland. Having now completed
the relation of the facts of the October revolution in Fin-
land it seems advisable to enlighten the Russian reader
somewhat as to the ground work of the unprecedented
success it attained, to cast a passing glance at the general
character of the administration of Finland during those
fourteen months that Prince Obolensky held the office
of Governor-General.

From the very day of his assuming this office the Rus-
sian residents in Finland, both the public servants and

> Iltonov's full official report on the matter was printed in
the Novoe Vremj'a and reprinted in a number of newspapers.

6o

others were made to feel that the Prince entertained for
them, as it were, a sort of indifference, not to say contempt,
highly offensive to the national feelings of a Russian.
Everything Russian seemed as if it no longer existed :
even the careless and indifferent attitude towards the
Russian charitable institutions, which under Bobrikov
as well as under his predecessors, Counts Adlerberg and
Hey den, had enjoyed the special patronage of the higher
authorities, could not but make a most unfavourable
impression on all Russians. Charity and the Russian
school affairs, also in the hands of the " Russian Charitable
Society in Finland," have for this country a very impor-
tant significance, not merely from the ethical but also
from the political point of view. No less important also
is the care taken of the Orthodox Church and a protecting
attitude towards its needs. All these aspects of the
activity of Governors-General of Finland had been cul-
tivated largely by former occupants of the post, while
N. Bobrikov and his wife, Elizaveta Ivanovna, may be said
to have sacrificed their own ease and comfort to devote
every spare minute that could be snatched from the labour
of administration to the interests of Russian charities,
the Russian Church, and the Russian school. And not
in vain ! For how many new churches arose in Finland
in those six years, how many nurseries of Russian culture
spread their influence abroad during that period ; how
much money was collected and utilised to the profit of
Russian interests ! Under Prince Obolensky all this was
changed ; how far may be asked of those poor wretches

6i

of Russian birth who applied to him for help. As to the
Prince's attitude towards the Russian Church, it will suffice
to note that he hardly ever attended the official services
of the church on great public holidays, and on the saint's
day of the cathedral (August 15) he arrived at church after
the service was over in the midst of the parting words of
the priest. This attitude lowered the prestige of Russian
authority very greatly especially in the eyes of the common
people. As to the school question it had to be content
with a vast expenditure of verbiage without making a
single step in advance. In making his obligatory official
tour of all Finland the Prince entirely ignored the Province
of Viborg — the concentration point of the Russian ortho-
dox populations of Finland, as it is the oldest Russian
province in that region — and confined his attention, like
a mere tourist, to the beauties of Imatra and observing
the effect of the waterfall on a number of wooden dolls
thrown into it. The Province of Viborg is the cradle of
orthodoxy in Finland ; there is to be found the seat
of the Archbishop of Finland, there are the ancient monas-
teries and holy places, Valaam and Konevo, there are the
towns of Kexholm (anciently Korela) and Serdobol. All
this was omitted, left on one side, in the Prince's official tour.
Indeed, the Archbishop he never visited at all, and only
on his first arrival to take up his post met him and received
him in his house, but in general he held aloof from the
orthodox clergy. Finally, the important question of the
systematic attempts to make Finns of the Karelians who
still lean towards Russia and the Russians, and the signi-

62

ficance in this connection of the seminary at Serdobol,
questions which had been most attentively studied under
Bobrikov, Prince Obolensky entirely disregarded, so that
not a hair's-breath of progress was made in this direc-
tion and not once did he show any kind of interest in it.
Side by side with this indifference to everything that is
•dear to the heart of the Russian, and, which is of more
importance, has enormous significance from the point of
view of State interests, Russians could not help noticing
a degree of friendliness and exquisite urbanity, hitherto
unparalleled and somewhat painful to the national
feelings of the Russians, which the Prince showed to all
Finlanders and particularly to the Swedes. This mani-
festation made its appearance from the first day of his
arrival, when the Russian officials were received more
than coolly and instead of hearing any expressions of
welcome, so dear to them after the loss they had just
sustained in the death of N. Bobrikov at the hands of an
assassin, were treated to a cursory remark merely to the
effect that there were too many of them, and an unfriendly
statement that each of them " who proved equal to his
post would be left in it." At the same time, while the
new Governor-General was extremely careless about the
visits to be paid and received of the Russians, he was very
punctilious in his visits to the Swedes, always putting
them first, and never omitting to return a visit to each one,
not excepting even notorious sedition-mongers. Yet he
could not find time, later, to visit on his sick bed even the
once Governor of Viborg, Mjasoedov, who had been struck

63

down at the post of duty by an attempt on his life ; and
this notwithstanding that the Prince several times passed
through Viborg at the time. On the official tour through
Finland, the first and only one, which partook rather of
the character of a prolonged picnic than an administrative
tour, the Prince took with him, not the Russian officials
whose immediate knowledge of affairs might have been
of assistance to him, but only a few that were officially
unconnected with current events, and, besides a private
friend, also some Finnish Senators who enjoyed his con-
fidence. He rarely resorted to the services of his Russian
subordinates, but principally utilised as his intermed-
iary Senator Bergbom, who had acquired, already
under Bobrikov, the rank of noble by Imperial grant, and
had changed his name to the Finnish Vuorenkheimo.
This Senator constantly served as interpreter, and whether
it was owing to his inadequate knowledge of Russian or
for some other reason, the Governor-General's speeches
in his translations never failed to depart very widely from
the authentic words, whether of the speeches uttered by
or made to the Prince.*

During the first months that the Prince was in
Helsingfors the Governor-General's official residence was
literally besieged by Swedes " of all kinds and dialects and
classes." Probably the consigne had been given by

* It was generally a matter of comment that the speeches of
Prince Obolensky to the deputations were subjected to a good
deal of amendment and abbreviation in the official Finland
Gazette, so that the texts did not correspond to the versions of
the local papers.

64

some good folks, but at any rate there they all came creep-
ing out of the holes they had hidden in : dismissed
Senators, Governors deprived of their office by Imperial
order, civil servants expelled the public service for sedition,
nay, even some well-known members of the revolutionary
organisations, who had been destined to exile by the
Prince's predecessor and whose fate hung by a hair. The
adjutant's list of visitors during this period would reveal
some very pretty facts : it was just as if all the archives
had been resuscitated at once and all the names unfavour-
ably mentioned therein suddenly called forth and scattered
about the reception rooms of the Governor-General like
peas on a plate. All these gentry frequented the Prince's
doorstep both at St. Petersburg and at Helsingfors ; every
visitor, provided only it was not a Russian but one of the
aborigines, was always received at once and honoured
with a prolonged conversation, without any regard for
the customary hours of reception or the calls of duty. Of
course, this manner of life reflected seriously on the course
of the public service, as the reader may easily imagine
Under N. Bobrikov the whole day was devoted to the
duties of the service, beginning from nine o'clock in the
morning till late in the evening, the only exceptions being
a walk before dinner and an hour's siesta after, work
beginning regularly at eight o'clock once more. With
Prince Obolensky the hour appointed for the public
service to begin was eleven o'clock, usually it began in
fact at half-past, and often at noon. Luncheon occupied
from one o'clock till half-past two and sometimes till

65

three, after which it was difficult to seize a minute for the
public service. Under such conditions it is not surprising
that the officials who had to present reports and take the
instructions, etc., of the Governor-General, found them-
selves in his waiting-room much in the situation of those
who " waited for the moving of the waters," and this
applied to all persons in the service with or without
portfolios.

In November, 1904, on his return from St. Petersburg
the Prince brought with him Baron Rausch von Trau-
benberg,* a son-in-taw of a former Governor-General of
Finland, Count Heyden, who had an extensive acquain-
tance among the Swedes of Helsingfors. After going the
round of all these friends and receiving their return visits,
the Baron arranged in the Prince's official residence for his
friends a banquet to which, besides his host and hostess,
were also invited some of the Senators of that day with
their Vice-President, afterwards Minister State Secretary
for Finland, K. Linder. The meeting between the Old
Finn Senators and their sworn foes the Swedes, 'many of
whom were ardent and energetic members of the " kagal,"f
could hardly have been marked by much " cordiality,'*

* Taking advantage of the Prince's hospitality the Baron,
among other things, took the opportunity of acquainting himself
with the secret report to the Emperor of Governor-General
Bobrikov for the years 1898-1902. Some time later this report
was printed in Swedish at Stockholm, and extracts from it were
published in the Helsingfors newspapers.

f The secret organisation among the Swedes of Finland which
practically, up to and after the period of Bobrikov's tenure of
the post of Governor-General of Finland, holds the entire country
in its hands. (Trans.)

66

and must have rather caused on both sides a good deal of
deep heart-searching.

On December 6, the Namesday of His Majesty the
Emperor, at the conclusion of the service in church
Adjutant-General Bobrikov was in the habit of inviting
all who had been present in the cathedral to a gala
luncheon, at which the health of His Majesty was solemnly
drunk. Prince Obolensky acted very differently : so far
from inviting anybody, he himself accepted an invitation
to lunch from the Director of the Pilot Department,
N. Sheman, who in the presence of a large gathering of his
friends, all Swedes, made a special speech in which he
likened the Prince " to the rising sun which had lighted
up the Finnish land, driving off the darkness and dis-
persing the clouds." In the evening of the same day
at the Diet banquet given in the Imperial Palace at
Helsingfors in the name of the Emperor there were present
among the persons invited by Prince Obolensky, Governors
removed by His Majesty from their offices, dismissed
Senators and other persons of known anti-government
tendencies. On the other hand the number of Russian
military and civil officials invited was curtailed, even the
holders of independent military commands being omitted,
and those that were present had the pleasure of sitting
down to table alternately with the sedition-mongers.

All these facts, taken as samples, and by no means
exhaustive, explain why the Russians in Finland held
such a very poor opinion of the Prince. Their disappoint-
ment was the more poignant, inasmuch as the coming of

6;

Prince Obolensky was heralded by a fanfare in the Press,
which represented him as a thorough Russian and a man
perfectly capable of dealing with Finlander sedition.
As such he was welcomed by papers which have always
stood firm for a strong policy in Finland, the Novoe
Vremja, the Moscow Gazette and the Svet.*

It was thus natural that when the Prince, here following
the example of N. Bobrikov, on Easter night arranged a
general " breaking of the fast " at his residence, the
Russians responded to his invitations with great reluct-
ance and it cost no small pains to the intimates of the
Prince to secure enough Russians to make his apartments
appear decently filled. Even so the majority of those
present stayed in the Governor-General's official residence
only so long as strict etiquette demanded, and after all the
greatest part of the liberally provided viands remained
untouched,

By the labours of Bobrikov and the Russian Governors
the local police force had been brought to such a state,
as regards its composition, that the Russian power was
in a position to count securely on it as a faithful weapon
upon which to rely. It was very difficult for the Fin-
landers to root up this sound foundation, so they began
by disorganising and demoralising the police, baiting them
in the newspapers and starting in the law courts a series of
charges against them of political " provocation."

* The Finlanders, on the other hand, met the announcement
of Bobrikov's successor in the foreign press with an universal
wail of indignation, accounting it a plain symptom of the intention
to continue what they called the " policy of violence."

68

Among the matters of this kind that made a great
deal of noise over all Finland was that of the assistant
police-master of Helsingfors, Androsov, and Commissary
Pavlutsky, who were charged with having suborned a
lot of boys during the January disorders to go and break
the windows of the editorial offices of the Uusi Suometar,
and even with themselves taking part in this operation
disguised in civil clothes. The main object of the prose-
cution was to throw a " shade " on the higher Russian
authorities who would appear to have knowingly abetted
the police in this " provocative " act. Instead of either
entirely cutting off any possibility of making profit out
of knowingly false charges against the police made by the
Helsingfors town procurator from purely political motives
and by order of the revolutionaries, or else transferring
the case to Russian officers of the law so as to bring the
whole plot to the light of day, Prince Obolensky arranged
a very painful little comedy humiliating to the Russian
authorities, by facilitating the non-appearance at court of
the two police officers above-mentioned, who were both
very shortly afterwards transferred to other posts in Russia.
Obviously this course of action only confirmed local public
opinion in the truth of the charges and the actively spread
rumours and suspicions, while it disorganised the Russian
police, who lost all confidence in their chiefs and in the
security of their own positions in the service.

It must be added also that during the hunt which the
town -procurator instituted after the police whom he
thought fit to prosecute, it came out that he had at his

69

disposal a sort of police, or detective force of his own, the
members of which at the time of the October disorders
undoubtedly served as the cadre for the self-styled " pro-
tective police " which was then formed in the town of
Helsingfors.

Without going into the details of the Prince's bearing
during the session of the Diet it will be sufficient to note
that the principal leaders of sedition whom he and Erstrem
had brought back from exile, having got the upper hand
in the Diet entirely ignored the presence in Finland of a
Russian Governor-General, who apparently seemed quite
content with such a state of things. His intervention
began and ended with a demand that the talman of the
Diet should curtail a speech quite inadmissible in tone
which he made at the ceremonial opening of the Diet.
Concerning the inactivity of the Diet, which went " on
strike " in expectation of the response to the " Grand
Petition " the Prince made no report to the Emperor
•except as noted in his letters, but he offered no suggestions
as to the means to be taken to meet such a situation. So
far as is known the Prince had at his disposal a document
which gave him the right to dissolve the Diet before the
«nd of the session (as laid down in the Statutes of the
Diet) ; he is said to have even shown this document to
Mechelin, but no doubt the Finlanders had good grounds
for their confidence that the Prince, whether from want
of courage or for some other reasons, would never make
-use of it, for they continued their tactics without troubling
themselves about it at all.

70

In general it must be said that Mechelin from the
moment of his return from exile became not only an
intimate of the Adjunct Minister State Secretary Erstrem
but also a constant visitor of Prince Obolensky.* He used
to sit for whole hours with the Prince especially when the
latter was in St. Petersburg, where it was still more con-
venient to converse far from the indiscreet eyes of the
" people of the Bobrikov regime." What they found to
talk about all this time is a matter of conjecture only.
Possibly they may have been concocting the clauses of a
new " Portsmouth " Treaty to take the place of the Fredrik-
shamn Treaty. We must wait for the disclosure of the secret
for another half century when some future historian will
have access to the records of the jealously guarded archives.

The foregoing sketch of the October events in Finland
is convincing in one respect, namely, that in these disorders
the great mass of the Finnish people took no part whatso-
ever, and that they were not even so much as acquainted
with the intentions of the revolutionaries. The latter
assured themselves merely of the co-operation of the
intelligentia, and a part of the working classes of the
towns. The village people almost everywhere remained
quiet ; the leaders of the mob were usually Swedes and
among them many former officers of the Finnish troops.
All the returned exiles played the part of revolutionary
delegates each directing operations in his own district.*

* Just before his appointment to the post of Premier of Finland,
Mechelin was also frequently a visitor at Count Witte's.

* Many of the members of the new Senate belong to the ranks
of these revolutionary agitators.

n

As to the working classes, the movement among them was
somewhat distinct from the general movement ; they had
for their object certain private ends of their own about
which the authorities, if they had taken the trouble to
ascertain them, would probably have found it not difficult
to come to some arrangement. The organised workmen
of Finland are as yet little infected with " anarchism,"
though they are almost to a man Social Democrats ; the
deep mistrust which they feel towards the ruling class of
" masters," the Swedes, who are also the most hostile
element in the country to the idea of unification with
Russia, makes this class rather the allies of the Russian
Government, inasmuch as the genuine Finns, the mass
of the population, and consequently its strength, will
always prefer a peaceable modus vivendi with the Russians
to the restoration of the former tyranny of the Swedes.

In any case the surrender of all Russia's interests in
Finland which Prince Obolensky made on the demand
of representatives of isolated political parties can in no
way be justified. The circumstances, given but a crumb
of energy and self-sacrificing devotion on the part of the
highest representative of the Russian power, were not
such as to demand any concessions. The conduct of the
Prince is logically inexplicable. If no further back than
the preceding December he had reported to the Emperor
that any concessions whatsoever to Finland at any time
and particularly at a time of crisis such as Russia was then
passing through, could only be productive of irreparable
harm to the State and would be understood by the

72

Finlanders not as the desire of promoting their welfare or
as a gracious act, but solely and simply as a proof of the
weakness of Russian authority and a pretext for new and
still more insolent demands, how could Prince Obolensky
bring himself to petition the throne for the issue of the
Manifesto of December 22 according to the version con-
cocted by Mechelin ? This Manifesto by its whole content
and even its form of expression, not excepting its title " on
the restoration of order in the country in accordance with
law," and its concluding passage concerning the union
of the Finnish people only with their Monarch (without
any mention of Russia), amounted to an unprecedented
concession and a definite break with the policy of the
immediate past. Had the Prince been really that heaven
born administrator which he loved to fancy himself, he
would have long before been compelled to settle in prin-
ciple the question of the necessity of yielding to the
demands of the " Grand Petition " or the possibility of
these concessions. In the event of his deciding on the
former, it is impossible to understand how he arrived at
the method approved by him of examining the Petition
piecemeal and passing on isolated questions in it to the
Tagantsev Commission, unless this method was a mere
effort to gain time ; in the event of the latter decision,
it was impossible to amend it even under pressure of
altogether extraordinary circumstances — and the October
events by no means came under that category.

As K. Skalkovsky very justly pointed out (v. Novoe
Vremja, No. 10668) " Finland is not merely the property

73

of the dynasty : it has been bought at the price of Russian
blood poured forth like water over its rugged soil ; by the
Fredrikshamn Treaty of Peace it became ' the property
and sovereign possession of the Russian Empire ' and not
merely of the Russian Emperor."

It remains only to hope that the State Duma in virtue
of the rights of control conferred upon it will not fail to
attend to this matter and will regulate Russo-Finnish
relations on principles profitable to the whole State, not
merely in the interests of Finlander separatism, as the
Finlanders are endeavouring to do, by their efforts to
secure all that is to be got out of the fact that the Finnish
Diet existed before the State Duma.

The error in statecraft of which Prince Obolensky was
guilty was stupendous. At the present moment the only
possible hope of retrieving his blunders lies in the State
Duma,* for his successor in the post of Governor-General,
N. Gerhardt, a protege of Count Witte's, is already well
stricken in years, a man who has lost all his energy and
confessedly, as he himself declared to a Finlander inter-
viewer soon after he took up his post, utterly ignorant of
all matters relating to Finland.

N. Skalkovsky, who knew Gerhardt well, expresses
the general apprehensions on his appointment (Novoe
Vremja, No. 10671) in the following words : " How
could anyone have thought it possible to find in him the

* By the law of June 17/30, 1910, these hopes have been
realised. Finland retains its local self:government to the full,
but is subjected to the legislative Chambers of the State in all
matters that concern the whole State, including Finland. (Trans.}

74

qualities needed to reconquer, if only by peaceful means,
a border-land that had fallen away as Finland did by
rebellion," and if he failed to hold more than a few months
the very much less exacting post of Director of His
Majesty's Privy Chancellery for the Institutions of the
Empress Marie, from which he was dismissed, what hopes,
says K. Skalkovsky, can be placed in him in his present
extremely difficult and responsible post, so all-important
from the point of view of the State ? It looks very much
as if the appointment had been made to please the " un-
crowned king " Leo Mechelin, who will doubtless find no
difficulty in ruling Finland through the new Governor-
General.*

* Gerhardt held the post of Governor-General but a short
time and was succeeded by General Beckman, who gave place
to the present holder of the post, General Sein, whose name has
been mentioned in a subordinate capacity above. (Trans.)

BERENDTS. The rights of Finland according to Europeai
Scholars : a rejoinder. St. Pe'tersbourg 1910.

P. SOOVOROFF. The Finnish question. Equal rights. The
position of Russians in Finland and of Finns in the
rest of the Russian Empire. St. Pe'tersbourg 1910.

K. VALISZEVSKY. The Finnish question. The Ostrich!
and the Sparrow. St. Petersbourg 1910.

N. KOREWO. The Finnish question. A. Lecture read I
before the United Nobility of the Russian Empire]
St. P6tersbourg 1911.

CHURBERG, W. The Situation of Finland. St. Petersburg!
1911.

FEDOROFF. The Finnish Revolution in Preparation 1899-
1905, as disclosed by secret documents. Trans, by G.
Dobson. St. Petersburg 1911.

BORODKIN. Finland, its Place in the Russian State. St.
Petersburg 1911.

FINLAND. The question of Autonomy and Fundamental!
Laws. By the late N. D. SergSevsky. London 1911.