Second part: romanticism and Finnish nationalism
Finnish identity
Like in the whole Europe, the XIX
Century was characterized by the revolutions and the affectation of these on
the arts, besides an ideology was created to help subjugated nations to obtain
their independence and Finland was one of this nations. During the second half
of 19th century, the University of Helsinki was cradle of great
painters, writers, poets and musicians that would developed the Finnish
romanticism; those artists searched to create artworks and define an own
identity, something that characterized them as Finns.
To start with the Finnish identity
it’s necessary to set the country geographically: for Ángel Ganivet, Finland is
in disadvantage because of its geographical position, since on the right it has
to the “Colossus of the North” (Russia) and on the left it has the lion that
pounce over Europe (Sweden),[1]
but for me this is not a disadvantage, but the opposite, because Finland can be
influenced by the occidental culture represented by Sweden and by the oriental
culture by Russia, having a melting pot of cultures and a combination of them
that make of Finnish culture, an unique one.
The “russification”
Due to the huge attributions that
Finland had inside the Empire, the nationalists Russians started to criticize
this situation, also the relation that the Duchy had with the rest of Europe.[2]
This had as consequence the first period of russification;
in this period, Russia tried to attract the Great Duchy to the influence
sphere, that caused a confrontation between the Finnish elite and the Russian
government.[3] In
1899 tsar Nicholas II started an attack against Finnish sovereignty, that
wouldn’t stop until 1905,[4]
with the dissolution of its army, the establishment of Russian as an official
language, just as the decrease of the Finnish Diet power and at last the
repression.[5]
This brought with it the disappearing of the privileges and customs, under the
slogan of smoothness and russification of the territories.
National painting, literature and music
The painting as a mirror of nationalism
Along the 19th century
painting played an important role to the develop of nationalism; Albert
Edelfelt was a very important representative of this art, his capital work is
the portrait of Louis Pasteur, demonstrating with this the importance that Finland
had on the European sphere. Nevertheless on his works we can see the leading
nationalism in the country at the end of the century, as is viewed on the
painting Paris in the snow, where the
Parisian landscape is mostly alike a Finnish one, on the work snow plays an
important paper and we can see it even on the name, an artwork where the
buildings viewed aren’t typical from Paris and the landscape could be a city
inside the Nordic country. I can’t talk about the representative monument of
Paris, because when Edelfelt painted this artwork, the Eiffel tower was in the
beginning of its building.
Is in this period where the first
factories start to come to Finland and once again, this is seen on the painting
because of the economic-industrial development of the country, and also it’s
the start of the first nationalist signs, same that were shown in every
possible way.
Another figure on the Finnish
romanticism is Akseli Gallen-Kallela, with the frescos that he painted about Kalevala, the Finnish epic poem, those
artworks are colossal, and not only because of the size but for the technique
and nationalism, because even for the topic those are nationalist artworks.
Inside these pieces passages of Kalevala
can be viewed, that represent the fight of Finns against Russians, the first fighting
fo their independence and the second defending their interests. This painting
is The defense of the Sampo (Sammon
puolustus).
Another pictorial piece where this
fight is seen is The attack (Hyökkäys),
where the theory of nationalities is there, here the painter expressed Finland
as a beautiful lady being attacked by a two-headed eagle, the same that
represents the Russian Empire. In this work is illustrated in a clear and
direct way the trying to russification by the empire, and the protest was loud
and clear.
With their works “Finns wanted to
show also through their art that Finland could have an independent existence in
the concert of the European nations.”[6]
And this was reflected on the Universal Exposition, which took place in Paris
in 1899, where Finland was welcomed in its exclusive pavilion. There the
country “emphasize its own nature and its definition in relation with Russia
caused some conflicts […] the pavilion and Finland’s art caused an important
political attention, in whose background was the institutional conflict between
Russia and Finland.”[7]
Along this period Finland started to have a more active role inside the
European continent.
Kalevala
One on the first
nationalist-romantic demonstration is Kalevala,
the Finnish epic poem; according to Ángel Ganivet this creation is the most
important of the Finnish nationalism,[8]
and he has right because this is the world view of a subjugated people, this is
the origin of the population, is the fight between men and inhumane weather
predominant in Finland. The first edition of the book was in 1835 and it was
conformed by about 5,000 verses and in 1849 was edited definitely, con more
that 23,000 verses, gathered in 50 chants.[9]
This series of ancient chants were
compiled by a medic named Elias Lönnrot, who spent a long time of his life
going through the Karelian zones hearing and taking notes of all the poems,
these would get a capital importance, because with the Kalevala the existence and specific character of the Finns will be
known.[10]
Nevertheless, “what made Kalevala so meaningful wasn’t its
content and language but the fact that Finns were capable to realize such a
cultural achievement.”[11]
And this is right, because Finland was subjugated so much time and besides it
had a significant impact on the language, considering that after the publishing
of the book, J. V. Snellman, demanded the establishment of Finnish language as
the one of the administration and culture, which meant a compromise with
Finnish people.[12]
Maamme (Our Land)
The nationalism that we have been
talking about can be viewed also in the poem written by Johan Ludvig Runeberg,
although it was originally written in Swedish, is nowadays the national anthem
of Finland. As you can see in the first quote of this work, the poem talks
about Finnish nature, about how is Finland, and in resume, it is the exaltation
of a land that even if it was poor, it was the land that saw the Finns born,[13]
since although for Russians or Swedes this land didn’t give economic yields,
for Finns this is the best land of the world.
This is also reflected on the work
that Jean Sibelius composed at the end of 19th century, Finlandia. This musical piece is the creation
of an image of greatness, of a great Finland, full of gifts, where a great
prosperity is and above all, where Finns are, all of this through the sounds is.
As a conclusion
As we can see, the general
situation of Finland during the XIX century gave way to the birth of a well
justified nationalism, this is represented by a popular proverb of that period:
“Swedes we are not and Russians we do not want to be, let’s be Finns then.”[14]
With this words the huge feeling of love to the fatherland born in this century
can be noticed, since although the country and their inhabitants enjoyed of
enormous privileges under the Russian domain, Finns didn’t feel comfortable
being a part of Russian and the demonstrations appeared among the XIX century
and mainly during the second half were not spontaneous.
One of the reasons of these events
was the fact that Russia, seeing the growing and prosper relations between
Finland and the rest of Europe and besides the Finns started to have more
independence, Russians dedicated to “russificate” Finland. One of those
attempts to the Finnish autonomy was the establishment of Russian as an
official language, displacing Finnish and Swedish, this was an insult to the
elite, because they had worked so much establishing Finnish as an official
language.
Probably one of the mistakes of
Russia was give Finland many attributions, but the Empire had to secure the
loyalty of Finland Estate in some way and giving to the Finnish a better life
quality than the one they had with Sweden was an important manner to keep that
loyalty. Nevertheless, this was only in theory, because the most part of the
Finns kept living in precarious conditions:
“the rebirth of Finnish literature, the political constitution of
Finland, the foundation of the nationalist party or Finnish party, are result
of Russian domination, which couldn’t aspire to a quick integration of this
country to the mother country, it keeps neutral between the two constitutive
forces, the national and the Swedish, and allows that the first force became
proprietor of the situation.”[15]
Another fact that moved the Finns
to develop their own national identity was the language: during the whole
history of Finland, Finnish was the vulgar language, being Swedish the official
one. Nevertheless in the moment that Finland became a part of Russia, Swedish
stayed there, but Finnish started to have more presence caused by the
publishing of Kalevala; its compiler,
Elias Lönnrot was the first Finn of the elite that made Finnish his mother
tongue, being himself a conjuncture to the later publishes of books and poems
in Finnish. This is really important, because with the work of Lönnrot not only
the roots of Finland as a nation were taken up again, but also the language of
the country was developed, the one that always was the language of the people,
the vulgar language, and as Ángel Ganivet writes:
“Russian authority is convenient; the Swedish language could be
stay as an interim way of intellectual communication; but the spirit of the
country only can reach its highest height picking up itself and ‘thinking in
its natural language’, set and dignified by creations of great value like Kalevala.”[16]
And I agree with Ganivet, because
this work is beautiful, is an exaltation of the land, is the defense of the
national against the foreign, watching it from the romantic view, it doesn’t
simulate nothing that brags as romantic; through out all the verses, the main
idea is the fight between the sons of Kaleva, that can be the Finns, against
the army of Pohjola, that can be the Russians or the Swedes.
The Finnish identity is permeated
by the fact that this people doesn’t belong to the Baltic race, nor
Indo-European, the Finn race and also the language is odd and the only
relatives they have in Europe are the Hungarians and Estonians, this made that
Finns didn’t feel identified with the Russians, nor the Swedes, this took them
to search an own identity, something that made them different from other
people. Besides failing Russia on establishing its dominance over an ethnic and
linguistic basement, they couldn’t homogenize the population. Because of this
“Finnish nationalism had as basement the national language and culture, a
strong estate and vigorous national identities.”[17]
Something that must be cleared is
the fact that the work of Jean Sibelius was highly accepted by the people (even
more than Runeberg), but strongly criticized and suppressed by Russins and the
were right, because through all the verses of the poem (written years later
than the musical composition) there are lines full of nationalism, there is
Finland; Finns didn’t want to belong to Russia, and that, along the great
relations the intellectual class had all over Europe, and the influence of
European ideas, took them to shelter on the theory of nationalities and search
for the independence and according to this, Finland was already prepared to
search it because they had an own language, an own religion, an own literature
and arts. And it’s because of that when the Finnish independence was threatened
in Second World War, this feeling was present once again:
“Oh,
rise, Finland, rise up high!
Your head, wreathed with great memories
Oh, rise, Finland, show to the world
The you drove away the slavery,
And that you didn’t give up to oppression
Your day has come, land of birth.”[18]
To me there is no better way to
call a subjugated people to search for independence than through the music,
because music is universal and it doesn’t understand about borders, and it’s
because of this that the Opus no. 26
of Sibelius is more loved in Finland than Mamme,
and even when Runeberg’s poem is a nationalist work, Finlandia is even more because this was written in Finnish and not
in Swedish, so the people was called in their own language and not in one that
doesn’t belong to them. Besides the call was really direct, if this poem never
mention about Russians, it does about oppression and slavery, this was not only
the calling to defend the father land, but also the extension of social reality,
is in this moment when the sovereignty is threatened at the Second World War
and it was necessary to escape from Russians.
To close this work, Finland played
an important role to the security of the Russian Empire in XIX century, besides
it has a huge intellectual and ideological development, which easily could
compete with other European powers. All of this is result of the great autonomy
the country had under Russian dominance, autonomy that led the country to be
the first European nation in giving the vote to women, led Finland to develop
industries as important nowadays as Nokia; same development that made of
Finland nowadays one of the most prosper nations economic, politic, educative
and socially.
[1] Ganivet, op. cit., p.16.
[4] Sumner,
op. cit., p. 105.
[5] S.A., op.
cit, p. 20.
[6] Sakari
Saarikivi, “El arte moderno”, en V.V.A.A., Finlandia,
ayer y hoy, Madrid, Espasa-Calpe, trad. Alfonso Reta y Felipe Ximénez de
Sandoval, 1973, p. 154.
[9] Elias Lönnrot,
Kalevala, Madrid, Alianza Editorial,
prol. Agustín García Calvo, trad. Joaquín Fernández y Úrsula Ojanen, 2004, p.
34.
[10] Klinge, op. cit., p. 70-72.
[12] S.A., op. cit., p. 19.
[13] Runeberg, op. cit., p. 6.
[14] Juva, op. cit., p. 66.
[15] Ganivet, op. cit., p. 66.
[18] S.A., Finlandia Hymni, (DE 7 de octubre de
2011, 08:01 p.m., en http://www.suomifanit.com/pages.php?page=laulukirja) text translated from Finnish by Anahí Sandoval: Oi nouse, Suomi, nosta korkealle/pääs' seppelöimä suurten muistojen,/oi nouse, Suomi, näytit maailmalle/sa että karkoitit orjuuden/ja ettet taipunut sa sorron alle,/on aamus' alkanut, synnyinmaa.
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