Cilliacus, Connie

About ten years traveled around the world. He lived in Costa Rica, worked in journalism in Chicago. He lived in Japan (1894-1896) ^[1] , Egypt and Paris. In 1898 he returned to Finland.

In 1900 he began to publish the newspaper Fria Ord (Free Word) in Stockholm, edited first by Cilliacus himself and then by his friend Arvid Neovius . The newspaper supported the ideas of Finnish separatism and actively collaborated with Russian revolutionary publications.

For three years, Cilliakus himself also transported his newspaper and other revolutionary literature from Sweden to Finland on a specially constructed 20-meter yacht.

One of the organizers and leaders of the Finnish Active Resistance Party , who had wide connections in the Russian revolutionary movement.

Revolutionary Activities

Since 1902, he promoted through his newspaper the idea of ​​uniting with Russian opposition parties in the fight against the Russian autocracy. In 1903 he entered into negotiations with the leaders of the largest revolutionary parties in Russia. Engaged in the delivery of arms and illegal literature to Russia through smuggling. In February 1904, he met with the Japanese military attaché, Colonel Motojiro Akashi , and helped him establish contacts with Russian revolutionaries. Together with Akashi, he developed a plan for financing the activities of the Russian opposition. He received large sums of money from the Japanese for subversive work in Russia. Smuggled illegal literature and weapons into Finland . In September 1904, with Japanese money, he organized the Paris Conference of Russian Opposition Parties, at which a program was developed for a joint struggle against the autocracy. The program included both legal and illegal methods of struggle. The common goal of all parties was to “annihilate the autocracy and replace it with a free democratic regime on the basis of universal suffrage.” ^[2]

After the events of January 1905, he developed a new joint action plan for the Russian revolutionaries. To this end, in March 1905 organized a new Geneva conference of Russian revolutionary parties. The initiator of the conference was Priest George Gapon , but the preparation and financing of the conference was carried out by Tsilliakus in collaboration with Akashi. An action plan was developed at the conference, the ultimate goal of which was to raise an armed uprising in Russia. To prepare the uprising, a joint combat committee was created, the activities of which were financed from Japanese sources. The uprising was scheduled for the summer of 1905. To deliver weapons to Russia, Cilliakus and his staff purchased the John Grafton steamer, sent from London in August 1905. However, the steamer, not reaching its target, ran aground in the Gulf of Finland. The Russian Police Department received information about the activities of Tsilliakus and his associates through his agents E.F. Azef and I.F. Manasevich-Manuylov . ^[3]

Tsilliakus returned to Finland in 1906, but due to the exposure of his ties with Japanese intelligence in 1909, he was forced to leave for England. He finally returned to his homeland in 1918.

Connie Zilliakus was married to the American Lilian Greif (Lilian McLaurin Grafe, 1873-1938). The son of Zilliakus, born in 1894, who was also called Connie, became a left-wing British politician, a member of parliament from the Labor Party. He recalled the upbringing he received in the family:

“From childhood I took out two ideas that were firmly entrenched in my head: the first is that there will be a revolution in Russia someday, and it will be something great and good that all liberal and civilized people are waiting for. The second thing is that the Russians are a backward, barbaric and semi-Asian nation, with which the rest of the world has nothing to learn politically, although the revolution should free the Finns and Poles and allow Russia to start catching up with the West. ” ^[four]

In August 1905, Tsilliakus conducted negotiations in Stockholm with George Gapon , who was given an important role in organizing an armed uprising in St. Petersburg. The writer V. A. Posse, who took part in these negotiations , left this characteristic of the personality of Cilliacus:

“Ciliakus ... was a man of gigantic growth and build: he could compete with Bismarck himself in this respect. Despite his fifty-odd years, he amazed with his cheerfulness and inexhaustible energy. Tsiliakus spoke broken Russian, with a strong accent, but spoke a lot, lively, fun, sprinkling speech with jokes. He liked to tell Russian jokes of not quite modest content, and they seemed ridiculous mainly because they were pronounced in a distorted language ... This amazing man traveled and walked almost the entire globe. He lived in Japan and China, cut South America from ocean to ocean, traveled to Africa and felt at home everywhere. He was an adventurer of the highest mark. The revolution attracted him mainly to the adventures connected with it. In different countries, he probably hunted different animals, and now in his homeland he was fond of hunting for the Russian autocracy ...

Intending to leave, Ciliakus kissed us and, turning to Gapon, impressively said:

- Look, light there, in St. Petersburg, rather, you need a good spark. Don’t be afraid of the victims. Get up, rise, working people. Not a loss, if hundreds of five proletarians fall, freedom will be gained. Freedom for everyone. ” ^[5]

• Utvandrarehistorier (4 bd, 1890-99)
• Amerikas förenta stater (1893)
• Japanesiska studier och skizzer (1896)
• Det revolutionära Ryssland (1902)
  • The Russian revolutionary movement. By Konni Zilliacus. Tr. by the authority and at the request of the author. EP Dutton & Co., New York. 1905
  • Tsilliakus K. Revolutionary Russia. The emergence and development of the revolutionary movement in Russia. SPb. V.P. Yakovenko. 1906
  • Revolution und Gegenrevolution in Russland und Finnland. Autorisierte Übersetzung aus dem Manuskripte von Carl Morburger. München. 1912. Georg Müller.
• Från ofärdstider till oroliga år (2 bd, 1919-20)

• D. Pavlov. The Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905 Secret operations on land and at sea. Mainland, 2004 - ISBN 5-85646-127-4
• The first military organization of the Bolsheviks. Collection edited by S. M. Pozner. Ed. Old Bolshevik. Moscow, 1934
• Futrell M. Northern Underground: Episodes of Russian Revolutionary Transport and Communications through Scandinavia and Finland, 1863-1917. L .: Faber and Faber Ltd, 1963.