BOBRIKOV, NIKOLAY (IVANOVICH)

born Jan. 27 [Feb. 8, Old Style], 1839, Strelna, near St. Petersburg, Russia died June 17 , 1904, Helsinki ruthless ultranationalist Russian governor-general of Finland from 1898 until his assassination. After a career in the Russian Army, which he left with the rank of general, Bobrikov was named governor-general of the grand duchy of Finland in 1898. Under his regime Finland experienced its first intense wave of Russification, including the forced introduction of Russian practices into many different areas of Finnish life, the abrogation of Finnish constitutional rights, and the abolition of the Finnish Army. Supported by Tsar Nicholas II, who granted him dictatorial powers in 1903, Bobrikov met the large-scale Finnish passive resistance campaign with arrests, banishments, press censorship, dismissal of officeholders, and personal close control of the Finnish government. He was assassinated by the son of a Finnish senator who also killed himself.