Sweden

At first when the groups of Stockholmers were small they were causing unrest but soon formed an angry mob that had to be dispersed by the police who managed arrested some of them. Luckily for the mob, king Oscar was returning from the opera and after hearing their grievances ordered for the arrested to be released. There was great rejoice. However, the unrest in Stockholm grew towards the evening and a large manifestation had taken place near the Royal Palace whilst another were wandering around the streets throwing rocks at windows where one specific target was the archbishop Wingård. Soon the wandering mobs were rioting in the streets and clashing with the militia who opened fire to disperse the people.

Sju av Republikens föreståndare skjutna med fackla och rov i hand

The headline said in the morning news, it was the old newspaper that were quite conservative in both language and form of reporting. It highlighted the ill-mannered rioters and their deeds of crushing windows, threatening a citywide fire and robbing stores. The police militia were of course heroes who held their fire until the crowd had approached them by throwing rocks and clubs, the mob was dispersed. Another approach to the riots was the flier released 13^th May simply called REPUBLIKEN, and with images of police and police militia attacking their heroes they wrote a romantic view of the events where the people were planning to protest outside the royal palace although being hindered by the overly violent police militia. Of course, even here it was mentioned about the looting of stores, but it was blamed on criminals taking advantage of a situation out of control.

After nearly three weeks of riots and barricades being erected in Stockholm king Oscar had enough. The people of Stockholm were behaving beyond reason. He ordered a royal guard hussar platoon along with some police militia to disperse the mobs first by cavalry chock and then if necessary, by gunfire as well. The town squares were to become safe again and Storkyrkobrinken was to be emptied of rioters.

A company of royal guardsmen, 100 men, were sent to storm a barricade and dismantle it if possible. They were to engage the largest one and make a show of force that would hopefully encourage the others to dismantle theirs without a fight.

Finland

The unrest in Finland was a deeply misunderstood one indeed, it was believed not too widespread, and it was unrest under some new ideology perhaps. The most prominent documentation of the occurrence was outside of Sveaborg where Helsinki was located where the Swedish flag was lowered and changed into a red Finnish flag on the city town hall. The officers in the fort were quite confounded and first ordered a group of men to investigate and have them raise the Swedish flag again, but this was met with hostile compliance only to have the Swedish flag be taken down again later in the evening.

A letter was sent to king Oscar,

Eders Majestät konung Oscar,

It is indeed troubling that the Finland presents itself with a great unrest. However, they are neither violent or protesting in any significant manner. We will need to observe and use the police to disband any mobs forming during the unrest. They hung a red flag on the city hall in Helsingfors which is so near Sveaborg that is deeply troubling and they have until recently disobeyed orders to again raise the Swedish flag, if they were to revolt we will send out a cavalry squadron and some troops to disperse them with force.

The garrisons in Åbo, Svartholm, Tammerfors, Vasa and Uleåborg has been sent a letter to inform them and their police force on what actions to take. They are ordered to disperse rioting crowds if possible and to try and maintain order. If the Finns were to revolt their garrisons are to wait until a larger force could arrive to help put an end to the revolting crowd who would hopefully back down at the mere sight of the soldiers.

Commandant Gustav Erik Frölich