Hero or Terrorist? How a Finnish Swede Killed Governor-General Bobrikov
He had not only determined his own fate; he had done so a few months in advance.
He knew he would no longer be alive on Thursday. So, when he invited his colleague for lunch on Wednesday but the latter preferred Thursday, he had to say “no”.
“No way, I am already dead by then,” said the 29-year-old accountant.
It was a sunny morning on Thursday, June 16, 1904, in Helsinki. He was looking out of the upstairs window of the Senate building, waiting for his target.
The target was an old man who had earned utter contempt in the Grand Duchy of Finland for personifying oppression.
Dressed in a military overcoat, the aged man finally arrived at the entrance, stepped inside and started ascending the stairs. His walking stick was creating echoes in the stairway.
The assassinator then started walking down the stairs and they encountered each other on the second floor.
A moment passed. No words were exchanged.
Aiming at the target, the young man fired three shots from his Browning gun. The first two bullets did no harm but the third one hit the stomach, leaving the senior lethally injured.
