directly against Finland. He remarked, for example, that national legislation did not fall into the competence of the Finnish Parliament, and he demanded that the Finns, like the rest of the minorities within the Russian Empire, elect representatives to a joint Duma. Two members of the opposition spoke up for Finland, but in vain. The majority of the Duma approved a decision according to which laws and statutes applicable to Finland would be made henceforth by Russia's lawmaking organs. One member of the Duma even raised a shout, "Finis Finlandiae!" In the Russian cabinet the matter was also approved with a large majority, and the Czar signed it into law on last day of June. Finnish protests had no effect, and it seemed as if Finland had

reached the end. 14

The second period of repression, then, was at its darkest. Even passive resistance seemed to have become paralyzed in the face of this superior power. But with the outbreak of war in 1914, it was hoped that Russia would be led into difficulties such as the war against Japan had brought it a decade earlier. Public opinion wavered between two extremes : there were those who believed that an Allied victory would bring a breakthrough to more liberal ideas, and who hoped that when peace came those ideas would be realized in Finland, too; there were those who believed that greater support should be given to the idea of cooperation with Russia's enemy, imperial Germany, for when someone fighting vastly superior forces has reached the end of his own resources and is about to perish he will use every opportunity and every ally he can call to his aid : mighty Germany was the strongest enemy of Russia and the only one whose armed victory could undermine the czarist regime, and only on the ruins of that system could a new day dawn for Finland. Finnish active resistance circles began to seek contact with the Central Powers, and in 1915 several hundred young men secretly fled the country, leaving their homes for patriotic reasons, and facing the dangers of going to Germany for military training. All classes of society, from university students to factory workers, were represented in this 'Jaeger' movement, and by 1917 the Jaeger Battalion had grown to a strength of two thousand men.

In Finland, repressive measures continued in all severity until the March, 1917 revolution toppled the czarist government and brought into power a provisional government. As soon as this situation seemed stabilized, there were Finnish-Russian negotia

14. op. cit. 0. Seitkari, "Eduskuntauudistus ja uusi sortokausi", II, pp. 372-420.

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