Publication of the February Manifesto, the purpose of which was to Russify Finland and put an end to the period of autonomy the country enjoyed under Alexander II. Nikolai Bobrikov is appointed Governor-General.

In 1894, Emperor Nicholas II gave his solemn affirmation that Finland’s autonomous status as Grand Duchy and its Constitution would be respected and upheld under his rule. Five years later, however, he was prepared to put his signature to the February Manifesto calling for an end to Finnish autonomy with its independent legislature, central bureaus and armed forces.

Thousands of Finns gathered in Helsinki in protest. Nicholas II had lost the respect of his Finnish subjects, and earned the epithet “the perjurous Emperor”. Governor-General Nikolai Bobrikov became the personification of the subsequent Russification practices, and was widely hated. He was shot dead on the steps of the Senate in June 1904 by Eugen Schauman.