Governor-General of Finland
In 1898, Emperor Nicholas II appointed Bobrikov as Governor-General of Finland as well as the Finnish Military District.
Upon appointment, he introduced a Russification programme into the Grand Duchy of Finland, the 11 main points were:
Unification of the Finnish army.
Restricting the power of the Minister–Secretary of State.
Introducing of a special programme for dealing with cases common to the empire and the grand duchy.
Adoption of the Russian language as the official language of the Senate, education and administration.
Bringing the University of Helsinki and secondary schools under tighter control of the Russian authorities.
Allowing Russian citizens to hold offices in Finland.
Discontinuation of the Finnish markka.
Removal of the customs border between Finland and Russia, as well as merging the Finnish Customs into that of Russia.
Introduction of Russian newspapers into Finland to spread the official viewpoint of the Russian government.
Redesign of the festive celebrations of the Diet of Finland.
Redesign of the directive of the Governor-General of Finland.
Bobrikov quickly became very unpopular and hated in Finland as he was an adamant supporter of the curtailing of the grand duchy's extensive autonomy, which had in the late 1800s come into conflict with Russian ambitions of a unified and indivisible Russian state. In 1899, Nicholas II signed the "February Manifesto" which marked the beginning of the first "Years of Oppression" (sortovuodet) from the traditional Finnish perspective. In this manifesto, the Emperor decreed that the Diet of the Estates of Finland could be overruled in legislation if it was in Russian imperial interest. Half a million Finns, considering the decree a coup against the Finnish constitution, signed a petition to Nicholas II, requesting to revoke the manifesto. The Emperor did not even receive the delegation bringing the petition.
In 1900, Bobrikov issued orders that all correspondence between government offices was to be conducted in Russian and that education in the Russian language was to be increased in schools. The Finnish army was abolished in 1901, and Finnish conscripts could now be forced to serve with Russian troops anywhere in the Russian empire. To the first call-up in 1902, only 42% of the conscripts showed up. In 1905, conscription in Finland was abolished since Finns were seen as unreliable. In 1903, Bobrikov was given dictatorial powers by the Emperor so that he could dismiss government officials and close newspapers.
