ATDTDA (3) Dynamitic mania, 80-86

[bekah]

Thanks,  Heikki.   I've read a bit about this but,  my dad knew a lot 
more.   As a fan of  TCoL49.  I was very interested in the memory 
stamp part.   At first it almost didn't seem quite real but ... 
details,  details ...

This is a web-site of Finnish stamps from the period including some 
forged and fake ones of the times.   Great photos.   
<http://www.jiv.dk/finland/index.htm>

I have to think about the whole issue of memory of a memory - 
circles within circles,  courtyards within courtyards.

Bekah




At 3:55 PM +0200 2/27/07, Heikki Raudaskoski wrote:
>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.
>>
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