retail personal gossip with respect to the hated Braganzas.




THE CRUSHING OF FINLAND

A.D. 1910

JOHN JACKOL BARON VON PLEHVE
BARON SERGIUS WITTE J.N. REUTER

In the midst of progress comes reaction. The far northern European
country of Finland had for a century been progressing in advance of its
neighbors. It was a true democracy. It had even established, first of
European lands, the full suffrage for women; and numerous women sat in
its parliament. But Finland was tributary to Russia; and Russia, as far
back as 1898, began a deliberate policy of crushing Finland,
"nationalizing" it, was the Russian phrase, by which was meant
compelling it to abandon its independence, adopt the Russian language,
and become an integral part of the empire under Russian officials and
Russian autocracy.

Under pressure of this repressive policy, the Finns began leaving their
country as early as 1903, emigrating to America in despair of
successful resistance to Russia's tyranny. Many of them were exiled or
imprisoned by the Czar's Government. Then came the days of the Russian
Revolution; and the Czar and his advisers hurried to grant Finland
everything she had desired, under fear that her people would swell the
tide of revolution. But that danger once passed, the old policy of