Eugene Schauman
Eugen Schauman (born May 10, 1875 in Charkiw , then Russia , † June 16, 1904 in Helsinki ) was a Finnish nationalist. He shot and killed the Tsarist governor general of Finland, Nikolai Ivanovich Bobrikov , in the Senate before he committed suicide .
Early years
Eugen Schauman's parents, Lieutenant General and Privy Councilor Fredrik Waldemar Schauman (1844–1911) and his wife Elin Maria (1850–1884), were Finland-Swedes . Eugen's brother Rafael was born in 1873, his sister, the artist Sigrid Schauman , in 1877 . Eugen Schauman's father often had to move within Russia because of his military service, so that the boy developed a longing for the Finnish homeland of his parents since childhood. Eugen Schauman became a supporter of the Finnish nationalists who opposed the Russification of Finland begun by Tsar Nicholas II early on .
In 1878 the father moved with the family to Poland with the rank of colonel in the Russian army. In 1885, Waldemar Schauman became the Russian Defense Minister's advisor on Finnish affairs. In 1888 he took over a post with the General Staff in Finland and then became a member of the Chamber of Commerce of the Finnish Senate in Helsinki . Eugen Schauman finally found a job himself as an assistant chamberlain in the Finnish Senate.
In 1900 his father, Waldemar Schauman, was dismissed from the Senate when he openly opposed the Tsar's language manifesto, which made Russian a compulsory subject in all Finnish schools. The dismissal had a strong effect on Eugen.
Finnish nationalism
In the period that followed, Eugen Schauman became more and more involved in Finnish nationalist circles. He participated in meetings at the monument to the patriotic poet Johan Ludvig Runeberg and supported anti-Russian writings. He spoke more and more often with friends of his fellow students and like-minded people about an end to passive resistance and the beginning of a Finnish popular uprising against the tsarist measures.
Assassination of Bobrikov
Eugen Schauman probably already had the plan in 1902 to draw attention to the Finnish cause through a spectacular murder. On June 16, 1904, in the Senate building in Helsinki, he shot three shots to the Russian Governor General Nikolai Bobrikov , who was hated by the Finnish population , before killing himself with two shots. Eugen Schauman died immediately, Bobrikov died a day later after an emergency operation in the hospital in Helsinki.
Schauman left a suicide note in which he gave detailed reasons for his act. He addressed this letter directly to the Russian tsar. With the murder of Bobrikov, he wanted to draw attention to the oppression of the Finnish people, but also to the injustice against Poland and the Baltic States . He stressed that he had acted as a lone perpetrator.
effect
Eugen Schauman was first buried in a mass grave. In 1906 the remains were transferred to the family grave in Porvoo .
At that time, Schauman became the hero of the Finnish nationalists. Just a year after Bobrikov's murder, Nicholas II was forced to make concessions to Finnish demands. He was revered in Finland well into the middle of the 20th century.
Today, Eugen Schauman's act is controversial. Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen condemned the 2004 murder as unjustifiable terrorism .
literature
- Eugen Schaumann. In: The True Jacob . No. 500 of September 19, 1905, p. 4808 ( digitized version ).
- Seppo Zetterberg : Viisi laukausta senaatissa. Eugen Schaumanin elämä ja teko. Otava, Helsinki 1986, ISBN 951-1-09266-9 .
Web links
- Newspaper article on the 100th anniversary of the assassination of Bobrikov ( Memento from December 31, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Schauman, Eugene |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Finnish nationalist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | May 10, 1875 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Kharkiv , then Russia |
| DATE OF DEATH | June 16, 1904 |
| Place of death | Helsinki |