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- Title
Ruotsalainen ja suomalainen, mutta ei koskaan venäläinen Suomen ja suomalaisuuden rakentaminen 1900-luvun alkupuolen tietokirjoissa.
- Authors
Räihä, Antti; Karonen, Petri
- Abstract
In this article, the uses of the past in the construction of the conception of Finland and Finnish nationhood in Finnish nonfiction books during the first half of the 20th century will be examined. The focus of the analysis is on the interpretation of Finnish history, and hence also of the period concerned, particularly with regard to the national identity vis-a-vis Sweden and Russia that was presented to the Finnish public in the early and mid-20th century. A series of nonfiction works entitled Oma Maa (three editions, published at the beginning of the 1900s, in the 1920s and in the 1950s) was the most important publication addressed to the Finnish-speaking population. It satisfied the call for Finnish nonfiction literature, and above all it concomitantly constructed the Finnish (nationalist) interpretation of history. In addition to the editors-in-chief of Oma Maa Professor Ernst Gustaf Palmén (first edition) and Professor Edwin Linkomies, a former prime minister (third edition) whose political backgrounds and activities were well known, most of the major authors of the texts were historians and historically oriented political scientists and legal scholars. This article investigates three themes (war, repression and "internal" independence) to demonstrate that the past was used not only textually but also visually in a continual, deliberate, and conscious way in constructing the conception of Finland and Finnish nationhood in Finnish nonfiction books during the first half of the 20th century. Finland and Finnish nationhood were linked using the past and commonly shared historical examples to Western Europe and the Western cultural identity. At the same time, the problematic relationship between Finland and Russia/the Soviet Union was portrayed in terms continuing enmity and existing threats to Finland and Finnish nationhood.
- Publication
Faravid, 2016, Vol 42, p63
- ISSN
0356-5629
- Publication type
Article