. All the Russias: travels and studies in contemporary European Russia, Finland, Siberia, the Caucasus, and Central Asia. This reflection naturallyleads to the consideration ofthe one matter which theFinn regards as of vital im-portance to him—the ques-tion which keeps the littlenorthern land in the worldseye. I refer to the rela-tions between the GrandDuchy and the Russian Em-pire. At present, as everybodyknows, these are almost theworst possible. Twice with-in the last few months I have seen a capital where everywoman was in black. One was London, where the peoplewere mourning their dead Que
. All the Russias: travels and studies in contemporary European Russia, Finland, Siberia, the Caucasus, and Central Asia. This reflection naturallyleads to the consideration ofthe one matter which theFinn regards as of vital im-portance to him—the ques-tion which keeps the littlenorthern land in the worldseye. I refer to the rela-tions between the GrandDuchy and the Russian Em-pire. At present, as everybodyknows, these are almost theworst possible. Twice with-in the last few months I have seen a capital where everywoman was in black. One was London, where the peoplewere mourning their dead Queen; the other was Helsingfors,where people mourned their lost liberty. Every woman inHelsingfors bore the black symbols of personal woe. But per-sonal protest went much farther than this. When General Bobri-kof, the Russian Governor-General, who was sent to carry outthe new regime, took his walks abroad, every Finn who saw himcoming, crossed to the other side of the street. When he patron-ised a concert for some charitable purpose, the Finns bought allthe tickets, but not a single one of them attended. The hotels. Arhippaini Miihkali, the Finnish BlindBard. THE FINNS AND THEIR NEIGHBOURS 85 refused apartments to one of the Finnish senators who supportedthe Russian proposals. By the indiscretion of a porter he se-cured rooms at one of the principal hotels and refused to the hotel was boycotted and it is temporarily Russian authorities, intending to make the Russian lan-guage compulsory in all government departments, invited sev-eral young Finnish functionaries to St. Petersburg to learn Rus-sian under very advantageous conditions and with every prospectof ofihcial promotion. When the language ordinance was pub-lished and these Finns saw why they were desired to learn Rus-sian, they immediately resigned. The Russians took charge ofthe postal system of Finland and aboHshed the Finnish the Finns issued a mourning stamp, all black ex-cep
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjecttolstoy, bookyear1902
