SOCIAL A SSIMILA TION 8 1 1
to a grand international protest. But Russia is pursuing her policy regardless of public opinion. The present governor- general, Bobrikoff , was appointed for the express purpose of Rus- sifying Finland, and the new secretary of state for Finland, an office hitherto held by a native, is Privy Councilor von Plehwe, a member of Russian bureaucracy. The Czar has forbidden the formation of new societies for the advancement of culture in Finland ; Bobrikoff has already suppressed one newspaper and has suspended the publication of two others for a month. One of these, the Nya Pressen, is the most prominent in Finland, and has stood for law and justice in the present struggle. The country is overrun with spies and gendarmes. The Finns are, without question, the most intelligent of the Czar's subjects. Out of a total population of two and one-half millions in 1890 there were only 2^ per cent, who could not read and write, whereas out of the hundred million of European Russians there were 80 per cent. From their history and traditions the Finns have learned such a respect for law and order and such self-con- trol that their reaction to the oppression of Russia is slow. As yet no thought of rebellion has been entertained, and in spite of present conditions the University of Finland is the only one within the Czar's domains where work is carried on undisturbed. But national spirit is being strengthened by the oppression, and no headway is being made by Russia in her attempted vio- lent Russification of the Finns. 1
The resistance of the Armenians to Turkish oppression also offers a fine illustration of this point. Though the Armenians in Turkey are not formally united, yet they are a nation because of the feeling by which they are held together. Their race- consciousness is so strong that they make no response to Turkey's attempt to assimilate them through persecution. They cultivate their old Armenian language and literature, because they are the badges of a past national life, and keep fresh in their minds the picture of a glorious past. Another instance of the failure
1 See the following articles : EDWARD WESTERMARCK, " Finland and the Czar," Contemporary Review, May, 1899; "The Constitutional Conflict in Finland," North American Review, August, 1899 ; "The Downfall of Finland, An Object Lesson in Russian Aggression," Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, July, 1899.
