ATDTDA (3) Dynamitic mania, 80-86

[Heikki Raudaskoski]

Among other wonderful things, Bekah already gave us
a good overview of Finland in the 19th century.
Here's a bit longer one.

As part of a pact with Napoleon, Russia conquered
Finland - ruled by Sweden from the 12th century
- in 1808-1809. This proved a lucky turn for the
Finns. Alexander I gave Finland an autonomy as a
grand duchy under his throne. He promised to respect
the religion and fundamental laws of Finland, as
well as the privileges and rights of the inhabitants
(that, the Swedish constitution by which the regent
alone had the executive power while the consent of the
Diet was required for legislation and the imposition
of new taxes.)

The Diet, however, wasn't convened until 1863, so
an "era of bureaucracy" followed. A Metternichian,
reactionary period politically. It was, however, a
time of growing prosperity and favourable economic
conditions, as Finland enjoyed a privileged status
within the Russian Empire.

The Finnish national movement gained momentum.
The national epic Kalevala was published by
Lonnrot in 1835. However, as late as the mid-19th
century, Swedish was the only language allowed within
the Finnish administration. There was an almost total
lack of literature in Finnish, and teaching at both
the secondary and university levels was in Swedish,
The division between the two languages became not
only of national and cultural significance but
also a social distinction. Although only 1/7 of the
Finns spoke Swedish as their first language, Swedish
retained its dominant position until the beginning of
the 20th century.

The Finnish Diet was convened in 1863 after a break
of more than half a century. From then on, the Diet
met regularly, and active legislative work in Finland
began. The Conscription Act of 1878 gave Finland an
army of its own. Finland's privileged status had long
been a sore point to Russian chauvinists: a state within
a state, with its own Senate and its own Diet, its own
local officials, legislation, army, money (the mark)
and postage stamps. Suspicions about Finnish separatism
gained more plausibility with the rise of Finnish
nationalism.

The Russification became possible when Nicholas II
became the Tsar in 1894 after the Fennophile Alexander
III. Nikolai Bobrikoff became the new governor general
in 1898, and the Russification gained full force - for
example,

* The February Manifesto of 1899 asserted the imperial
government's right to rule Finland without the consent of
local legislative bodies
* The Language Manifesto of 1900 made Russian the state
language of Finland
* The conscription law of 1901 incorporated the Finnish
army into the imperial army

Faced with this situation, two opposing factions crystallized
out of Finland's political parties: the Constitutionalists
who demanded that nobody obey the illegal enactments and the
Compliers who were ready to give way in everything that did
not, in their opinion, affect Finland's vital interest. The
Constitutionalists were dismissed from their offices and
their leaders were exiled. Young Constitutionalist males
refused to report for service when called, and the Emperor
had to give in: the Finnish Army remained disbanded, but no
Finns were drafted into the Russian Army. A more extreme
group, the Activists, were prepared for violence, and
Bobrikoff was assassinated in 1904 by one of them, Eugen
Schauman.

1890s was, however, also an age of economical turmoil in
Finland. E.g., the wood market collapsed. Lots of people found
themselves unemployed. A huge number of Finns were exposed to
cold capitalism. This depression was the major catalyst for
emigration (from both language groups) to the US and elsewhere.
As the labor movement radicalized, the Finnish working class
was growingly exposed to socialism too - the Finnish-American
immigrants usually before they left Finland. The Social
Democrat Party favored the Constitutionalists, insofar as it
favored any middle-class party. They remained quite lukewarm
when it came to the Russification threat: it was the class
struggle that was essential, not a "bourgeois" political
struggle. The biggest opponents for them were domestic:
industrialists and great landowners. Not many of these were
Russian. Instead, the opponents were Swedish-speaking, and
growingly, Finnish-speaking Finns. The Russian aristocracy
was not very visible for most of the Finns.

Many studies have been written on why the Finns played such
a crucial part in American radicalism. I won't touch the
question now, as the novel itself doesn't seem to thematize it
(as it does the Finnish penchant for, e.g., booze and skiing...)

It is some views of Veikko Rautavaara that I don't find very
representative: the clear juxtaposition of the Tsar's
repressive regime and American capitalism. It's most plausible
that an immigrant like him hated the Tsar and his vassals, but
as I said, Finland was well exposed to Americanlike capitalism
by the 1890s already. And there were many other domestic tensions
blurring a clear juxtaposition like this. Veikko *can*, of course,
come from a Finnish middle or upper class or landowner family and
be fully radicalized only in the US, but somehow that does not
sound very likely.

The "minneskort" catch is great, Monte. It works only in Swedish
- in Finnish we have two different words: 'muistokortti' for
post cards, and "muistikortti" for the digital world. The motif
of "official" and "inauthentic" stamps reminds, of course, of
Lot 49.

By the way, "Aitisi nai poroja" (Your mother fucks reindeer) is
stiff written Finnish. It would never occur in any form of
colloquial Finnish.


Best,
Heikki

(P.S. I've only reached the page 880. I somehow got stuck in
the endless prairie sections, and started to read the novel
sporadically at best. But it's been getting better all the time
since the page 400 or so. I hope I'll be able to attend the
ATDTDA read once I've finished the book.)



On Sun, 25 Feb 2007, Monte Davis wrote:
>
> I hope Heikki Raudaskoski will weigh in on Veikko Rautavaara ("iron
> hills"??) and on Finland's restive status as a Grand Duchy within the
> tsarist empire since 1809. Note for the moment the deliberate emphasis on
> pictures of stamps and pictures of postmarks: representations of
> representations. _Minneskort_ is an anachronistic joke: a memory card is
> also what you put in your digital camera, PDA or Nokia cellphone.
>