Franz Albert Seyn

Franz Albert Seyn (; 27 July 1862 – summer 1918) was a Russian general who served as the governor-general of Finland from 24 November 1909 to 16 March 1917. He was one of the main implementers of Russification policies from 1909 to 1917.

Biography

Early life and career Seyn came from the lower nobility of Vitebsk Governorate, where his father, Aleksandr Seyn, served first as an officer and later as a civil servant. The area was populated by Belarusians, Lithuanians, Poles and Jews of various religious affiliations. Seyn became familiar from a young age with the Russian government's way of dealing with national minorities, something he later encountered when he served as a second lieutenant in the Caucasus, after completing officer and artillery school. He was admitted to the Imperial Military Academy in 1885, where he distinguished himself through his diligence and conscientiousness.

In 1890, Seyn was transferred to Helsinki and the staff of the . There, he became acquainted with the practical problems caused by the fact that the armed forces in Finland were separate from the Russian one, and he was irritated by what he experienced as the Finns' sense of national superiority. There were also plans to detach parts of the Karelian Isthmus and attach them to Saint Petersburg Governorate, which caused protests among the population of the border areas. He was released after a while and applied for a pension from the Finnish state, which was denied. He was instead advised to apply for a pension from the Russian state because the office of governor-general had been changed to a Russian civil service at Seyn's own request. Seyn's life after that is unclear but it is believed that he was drowned in the Gulf of Finland, like many other imperial officers.

His wife Sofia Ivanovna Seyn, née Stewen, began working as Mikhail Borovitinov's housekeeper at some point after his death.

Awards Order of Saint Anna, 1st class Order of Saint Anna, 3rd class Order of the White Eagle Order of Saint Stanislaus, 1st class Order of Saint Stanislaus, 2nd class Order of Saint Stanislaus, 3rd class Order of St. Vladimir, 2nd class Order of St. Vladimir, 3rd class Order of St. Vladimir, 4th class