Such a state of affairs seemed unnatural and antagonistic to the
propaganda of the Panslavistic party. Instead of Russian ideals
pervading the province, provincial ideals, manners, and customs were
gradually spreading into the empire. But there seemed to be no
honorable way of checking the progress of the rapidly growing Finnish
nationality. The Finns maintained that their rights and privileges and
their laws rested upon an inviolable constitution, which could be
changed only by a vote of the four estates of the Landtag. That body
would never yield.

It was at this juncture that the Procurator of the Holy Synod conceived
the idea that the fundamental rights of the Finns can be curtailed in
so far as they interfere with those of the empire. Acting according to
this new idea the Imperial Government in 1899 took for its pretext the
army service of the Finns. Heretofore, according to a hereditary
privilege, the Finns had not been called upon to serve in the Russian
Army, and their army service had been only three years to the Russian's
five. The officers of the Finnish Army were to be Finns, and this army
could not be called upon to serve outside of the Grand Duchy. This was
the first fundamental right of the Finns to be attacked by the Russian
Government. In some mysterious way the very insignificant army of
Finland "interfered with the general welfare of the Russian Empire."

Immediately following the Czar's startling proposal for a disarmament
conference in 1899 came his call for a special session of the Finnish
Landtag to extend the laws of conscription and the time of regular
service from three to five years. Furthermore, the new law provided
that instead of serving in their own country, the Finnish soldiers were
to be scattered among the various troops of the empire. By this means
it was hoped to Russianize them.