993 resultados para suomen ja Pohjoismaiden historia
Resumo:
Salaiset aseveljet deals with the relations and co-operation between Finnish and German security police authorities, the Finnish valtiollinen poliisi and the German Reichssicherheitshauptamt (RSHA) and its predecessors. The timeframe for the research stretches from the Nazi seizure of power in 1933 to the end of German-Finnish co-belligerency in 1944. The Finnish Security Police was founded in 1919 to protect the young Finnish Republic from the Communists both in Finland and in Soviet Russia. Professional ties to German colleagues were maintained during the 1920 s, and quickly re-established after the Nazis rose to power in Germany. Typical forms of co-operation concentrated on the fight against both domestic and international Communism, a concern particularly acute in Finland because of her exposed position as a neighbour to the Soviet Union. The common enemy proved to be a powerful unifying concept. During the 1930 s the forms of co-operation developed from regular and routine exchanges of information into personal acquaintancies between the Finnish Security Police top personnel and the highest SS-leadership. The critical period of German-Finnish security police co-operation began in 1941, as Finland joined the German assault on the Soviet Union. Together with the Finnish Security Police, the RSHA set up a previously unknown special unit, the Einsatzkommando Finnland, entrusted with the destruction of the perceived ideological and racial enemies on the northernmost part of the German Eastern Front. Joint actions in northern Finland led also members of the Finnish Security Police to become participants in mass murders of Communists and Jews. Post-war criminal investigations into war crimes cases involving former security police personnel were invariably stymied because of the absence of usually both the suspects and the evidence. In my research I have sought to combine the evidence gathered through an exhaustive study of Finnish Security Police archival material with a wide selection of foreign sources. Important new evidence has been gathered from archives in Germany, Estonia, Latvia, Sweden and the United States. Piece by piece, it has become possible to draw a comprehensive picture of the ultimately fateful relationship of the Finnish Security Police to its mighty German colleague.
Resumo:
Like an Icebreaker: The Finnish Seamen s Union as collective bargaining maverick and champion of sailors social safety 1944-1980. The Finnish Seamen's Union (FSU), which was established on a national basis in 1920, was one of the first Finnish trade unions to succeed in collective bargaining. In the early 1930s, the gains made in the late 1920s were lost, due to politically based internal rivalries, the Great Depression, and a disastrous strike. Unexpectedly the FSU survived and went on promoting the well-being of its members even during World War II. After the war the FSU was in an exceptionally favorable position to exploit the introduction of coordinated capitalism, which was based on social partnership between unions, employers and government. Torpedoes, mines and confiscations had caused severe losses to the Finnish merchant marine. Both ship-owners and government alike understood the crucial importance of using the remaining national shipping capacity effectively. The FSU could no longer be crushed, and so, in 1945, the union was allowed to turn all ocean-going Finnish ships into closed shops. The FSU also had another source of power. After the sailors of the Finnish icebreaker fleet also joined its ranks, the FSU could, in effect, block Finnish foreign trade in wintertime. From the late 1940s to the 1960s the union started and won numerous icebreaker strikes. Finnish seamen were thus granted special pension rights, reductions on income taxes and import duties, and other social privileges. The FSU could neither be controlled by union federations nor intimidated by employers or governments. The successful union and its tactically clever chairperson, Niilo Välläri, were continuously but erroneously accused of syndicalism. Välläri did not aim for socialism but wanted the Finnish seamen to get all the social benefits that capitalism could possibly offer. Välläri s policy was successfully followed by the FSU until the late 1980s when Finnish ship-owners were allowed to flag their vessels outside the national registry. Since then the FSU has been on the defensive and has yielded to pay cuts. The FSU members have not lost their social benefits, but they are under constant fear of losing their jobs to cheap foreign labor.
Resumo:
Tuure Junnila, PhD (1910-1999) was one of Finland's most renowned conservative politicians of the post-war period. Junnila is remembered primarily as a persistent opponent of Urho Kekkonen, a long-term Member of Parliament, a conspicuous opposition member and a prolific political writer. Junnila's ideologies and political views were conservative, and he is one of the most outstanding figures in the history of the National Coalition Party. Junnila also made an extensive career outside of politics, first as an economist and then as an executive of Finland's leading commercial bank Kansallis-Osake-Pankki. The Young Conservative is a partial biography written using traditional historical research methods, which examines Junnila's personal history and his activity in public life up to 1956. The study begins by investigating Junnila's background through his childhood, school years, university studies and early professional career. It also looks at Junnila's work as an economist and practical banker. Particular attention is paid to Junnila's political work, constantly focusing on the following five often overlapping areas: (1) economic policy, (2) domestic policy, (3) foreign and security policy, (4) Junnila and Urho Kekkonen, (5) Junnila, the Coalition Party and Finnish conservatism. In his economic policy, Junnila emphasised the importance of economic stability, opposed socialisation and the growth of public expenditure, defended the free market system and private entrepreneurship, and demanded tax cuts. This policy was very popular within the Coalition Party during the early 1950s, making Junnila the leading conservative economic politician of the time. In terms of domestic policy, Junnila demanded as early as the 1940s that a "third force" should be established in Finland to counterbalance the agrarian and labour parties by uniting conservative and liberal ideologies under the same roof. Foreign and security policy is the area of Junnila's political activity which is most clearly situated after the mid-1950s. However, Junnila's early speeches and writings already show a striving towards the unconditional neutrality modelled by Switzerland and Sweden and a strong emphasis on Finland's right to internal self-determination. Junnila, as did the Coalition Party as a whole, adopted a consistently critical approach towards Urho Kekkonen between 1951 and 1956, but this attitude was not as bluntly negative and all-round antagonistic as many previous studies have implied. Junnila was one of the leading Finnish conservatives of the early 1950s and in all essence his views were analogous to the general alignment of the Coalition Party at the time: conservative in ideology and general policy, and liberal in economic policy.
Resumo:
A Revival in a Village and its Households. The Village of Oravisalo in Rääkkylä Parish and the Renqvistist Revivalism in the 1820s. My purpose is to apply the science of religion and the study of past communities to the study of religious revivalism. Revivalism will be considered a religious phenomenon as well as a cultural and social phenomenon. What makes this study unique is the possibility to reconstruct a list of participating revivalists based on entries in the communion book of the time. The conflict between the revivalists and the chaplain of Rääkkylä also generated other documentary material. The community in Oravisalo was relatively stratified. People lived in complex and varying forms of households. They also had plentiful contacts both with unrelated inhabitants of Oravisalo and with the neighbouring villages. Through these contacts the inhabitants of Oravisalo were introduced to revivalism. In Oravisalo, the revival for the most part fell into a certain social stratum and did not severely damage existing relationships within families or among acquaintances. The revivalists formed a new community within the village but the community was neither very tightly-knit nor was it closed. The revival was an individual phenomenon affected by general factors. First, there were factors that brought about a quest for an applicable system of meanings. These factors included at least three important issues: the Great Partition of land, the crisis of slash-and-burn cultivation, and a population growth that increased the proportion of the landless in the village. As a result, many of the revivalists had low status and poor expectations for the future. Second, there were factors that appealed to the people in the message and character of the preacher, Henrik Renqvist. Third, the proximity of the village to Liperi, where the revival got its start, was crucial to revivalism s spread to Oravisalo. Culturally, the revival meant a change in the system of symbols or meanings, so it was not solely a matter of intensified religious fervour. For instance, Communion, prayer, reading, and perhaps baptism symbolised different things to the revivalists than to other villagers. However, the revivalists do not seem to have started any moral revolution in their village. The religious aspect defined the limits of the protest and the resistance towards authorities. The revivalists wanted only to have the right to follow their conscience. The freedom granted the female members was limited to the religious sphere. No social or economic claims were made. The revival altered the situation of its members only on a symbolic level, yet it also offered them status within their own group.
Resumo:
This dissertation analyses the notions of progress and common good in Swedish political language during the Age of Liberty (1719 1772). The method used is conceptual analysis, but this study is also a contribution to the history of political ideas and political culture, aiming at a broader understanding of how the bounds of political community were conceptualised and represented in eighteenth-century Sweden. The research is based on the official documents of the regime, such as the fundamental laws and the solemn speeches made at the opening and closing of the Diet, on normative or alternative descriptions of society such as history works and economic literature, and on practical political writings by the Diet and its members. The rhetoric of common good and particular interest is thus examined both in its consensual and theoretical contexts and in practical politics. Central political issues addressed include the extent of economic liberties, the question of freedom to print, the meaning of privilege, the position of particular estates or social groups and the economic interests of particular areas or persons. This research shows that the modern Swedish word for progress (framsteg) was still only rarely used in the eighteenth century, while the notion of progress, growth and success existed in a variety of closely related terms and metaphorical expressions. The more traditional concept of common good (allmänna bästa) was used in several variants, some of which explicitly related to utility and interest. The combination of public utility and private interest in political discourse challenged traditional ideals of political morality, where virtue had been the fundament of common good. The progress of society was also presented as being linked to the progress of liberty, knowledge and wealth in a way that can be described as characteristic of the Age of Enlightenment but which also points at the appearance of early liberal thought.
Resumo:
In the eighteenth century, the birth of scientific societies in Europe created a new framework for scientific cooperation. Through a new contextualist study of the contacts between the first scientific societies in Sweden and the most important science academy in Europe at the time, l Académie des Sciences in Paris, this dissertation aims to shed light on the role taken by the Swedish learned men in the new networks. It seeks to show that the academy model was related to a new idea of specialisation in science. In the course of the eighteenth century, it is argued, the study of the northern phenomena and regions offered the Swedes an important field of speciality with regard to their foreign colleagues. Although historical studies have often underlined the economic, practical undertone of eighteenth-century Swedish science, participation in fashionable scientific pursuits had also become an important scene for representation. However, the views prevailing in Europe tied civilisation and learning closely to the sunnier, southern climates, which had lead to the difficulty of portraying Sweden as a learned country. The image of the scientific North, as well as the Swedish strategies to polish the image of the North as a place for science, are analysed as seen from France. While sixteenth-century historians had preferred to put down the effects of the cold and claim a similarity of northern conditions to the others, the scientific exchange between Swedish and French researchers shows a new tendency to underline the difference of the North and its harsh climate. An explanation is sought by analysing how information about northern phenomena was used in France. In the European academies, new empirical methods had lead to a need for direct observations on different phenomena and circumstances. Rather than curiosities or objects for exoticism, the eighteenth-century depictions of the northern periphery tell about an emerging interest in the most extreme, and often most telling, examples of the workings of the invariable laws of nature. Whereas the idea of accumulating knowledge through cooperation was most manifest in joint astronomical projects, the idea of gathering and comparing data from differing places of observation appears also in other fields, from experimental philosophy to natural studies or medicine. The effects of these developments are studied and explained in connection to the Montesquieuan climate theories and the emerging pre-romantic ideas of man and society.
Resumo:
Consumption and the lifestyle of the high nobility in eighteenth-century Sweden This monograph is an analysis of the lifestyle, consumption and private finances of the Swedish high nobility during the eighteenth century (ca 1730 1795). It describes the lifestyle of one noble house, the House of Fersen. The Fersen family represents the leading political, economic and cultural elite in eighteenth-century Sweden. The analysis concentrates on Count Carl von Fersen (1716 1786) and his brother Count Axel von Fersen (1719 1794), their spouses and children. Carl von Fersen was a courtier whilst Axel von Fersen was an officer and one of the leaders of the Francophile Hat party. His son, Axel von Fersen the younger, was in his time an officer and a favourite of Gustavus III, King of Sweden, as well as a favourite and trusted confidant of Marie-Antoinette, Queen of France. The research is based upon the Fersen family s private archives, the Counts personal account books, probate inventories, letters and diaries. The study discusses the Fersens landed property and investments in ironworks and manufacturing, the indebtedness of the high nobility, high offices in civil administration, the militia and at court, as well as marriages as the foundations of noble wealth and power. It analyses the Count von Fersens revenue and expenditure, their career options and personal expenses, their involvement in the building and decorating of palaces, and the servants in service of the Fersen family as well as the ideal nobleman and his consumption. Central themes are inheritance, children s education, marriages and ladies preparing their trousseaux, the nobility ordering luxury goods from France, the consumption of Counts and Countesses before and after marrying and having children, the pleasures of a noble life as well as the criticism of luxury and sumptuousness. The study contributes to the large body of research on consumption and nobility in the eighteenth century by connecting the lifestyle, consumption and private finances of the Swedish high nobility to their European context. Key words: nobility, Fersen, lifestyle, consumption, private finances, Sweden, eighteenth century
Resumo:
Material and immaterial security. Households, ecological and economic resources and formation of contacts in Valkeala parish from the 1630s to the 1750s. The geographical area of the thesis, Valkeala parish in the region of Kymenlaakso, is a very interesting area owing to its diversity, both in terms of natural setting and economic and cultural structure. The study begins by outlining the ecological and economic features of Valkeala and by analysing household structures. The main focus of the research lies in the contacts of the households with the outside world. The following types of contacts are chosen as indicators of the interaction: trade and credit relations, guarantees, co-operation, marriages and godparentage. The main theme of the contact analysis is to observe the significance of three factors, namely geographical extent, affluence level and kinship, to the formation of contacts. It is also essential to chart the interdependencies between ecological and economic resources, changes in the structure of households and the formation of contacts during the period studied. The time between the 1630s and the 1750s was characterized by wars, crop losses and population changes, which had an effect on the economic framework and on the structural variation of households and contact fields. In the 17th and 18th centuries Valkeala could be divided, economically, into two sections according to the predominant cultivation technique. The western area formed the field area and the eastern and northern villages the swidden area. Multiple family households were dominant in the latter part of the 17th century, and for most of the study period, the majority of people lived in the more complex households rather than in simple families. Economic resources had only a moderate impact on the structure of contacts. There was a clear connection between bigger household size and the extent and intensity of contacts. The jurisdictional boundary that ran across Valkeala from the northwest to the southeast and divided the parish into two areas influenced the formation of contacts more than the parish boundaries. Support and security were offered largely by the primary contacts with one s immediate family, neighbours and friends. Economic support was channelled from the wealthier to the less well off by credits. Cross-marriages, cross-godparentage and marital networks could be seen as manifestations of an aim towards stability and the joining of resources. It was essential for households both to secure the workforce needed for a minimum level of subsistence and to ensure the continuation of the family line. These goals could best be reached by complex households that could adapt to the prevailing circumstances and also had wider and more multi-layered contacts offering material and immaterial security.
Resumo:
Tutkielmani käsittelee Kokoomuksen suhdetta presidentti Urho Kekkoseen ja Neuvostoliiton Kommunistiseen puolueeseen NKP:hen. Tutkielmassa selvitetään, mitä kokoomuslaiset poliitikot tekivät näiden suhteiden kehittämiseksi ja puolueensa hallitusaseman saavuttamiseksi vuosina 1969-1981. Suomi solmi toisen maailmansodan jälkeen yya-sopimuksen Neuvostoliiton kanssa ja sitoutui noudattamaan ystävällismielistä politiikkaa Neuvostoliittoa kohtaan. Presidentti J. K. Paasikiven kaudella (1946-56) aloitettu ystävyyspolitiikka oli kehittynyt varsin pitkälle 1960-luvun loppuun mennessä. Vuonna 1956 presidentiksi valitun Urho Kekkosen johdolla hyvistä neuvostosuhteista muodostui Suomessa huipputason politiikan teon edellytys. Kekkonen vaati ehdotonta kuuliaisuutta Paasikivi-Kekkosen ulkopoliittiselle linjalle, niin puolueilta kuin yksittäisiltä poliitikoiltakin. Tämän linjan noudattaminen merkitsi Neuvostoliiton arvostelusta pidättäytymistä ja sitä kautta luottamusta Kekkosen ja NKP:n piirissä. Suomettumisen kaudeksi kutsuttuna aikana 1960-70-luvuilla Kokoomuksen asema oli erityisen vaikea, sillä tietyt puolueen poliitikot jatkoivat Kekkosen ja NL:n arvostelua. Muut keskeiset puolueet olivat päässeet Kekkosen ja Neuvostoliiton suosioon, mutta Kokoomusta ei näiden taholta hyväksytty hallituspuolueeksi vuoden 1966 jälkeen. Suurista puolueista SDP lunasti ulkopoliittisen luottamuksen Kekkoselta ja NKP:ltä 1966, eikä Kokoomusta enää välttämättä tarvittu enemmistöhallituksiin Keskustapuolueen pariksi. Kokoomuksen nuorempi polvi ymmärsi, että vaalimenestyksestä riippumatta hallitusasemaa ei enää saavuteta ilman Kekkosen ja NKP:n luottamusta. Vanhempi polvi puolestaan vastusti Urho Kekkosta ja hänen johdollaan kehittynyttä poliittista kulttuuria. Kokoomuksessa alkoi vuonna 1969 taistelu suhtautumisesta Kekkosen presidenttiyteen ja toiminta puolueen neuvostosuhteiden parantamiseksi. Tutkielma perustuu Porvarillisen Työn Arkiston lähdemateriaaliin, aiheesta julkaistuun kirjallisuuteen, Urho Kekkosen päiväkirjoihin ja arkistomateriaaliin sekä henkilöhaastatteluihin.
Resumo:
Vuoden 1917 maaliskuun vallankumous kaatoi tsaarinvallan Venäjällä ja synnytti autonomiseen Suomeen järjestysvaltatyhjiön. Sortuneen venäläisen järjestysvaltakoneiston tilalle muodostettiin suomalaisvoimin kunnallisia miliisilaitoksia yhteiskuntarauhaa turvaamaan. Tutkielmassa tarkennetaan ja havainnollistetaan aiemman kirjallisuuden kuvaa Helsingin miliisilaitoksen käytännön toiminnasta muistitietoon sekä Helsingin poliisilaitoksen arkiston aineistoihin tukeutuen. Erityisesti syvennytään kuitenkin Helsingin miliisilaitoksen palvelukseen joukolla hakeutuneisiin ylioppilaisiin. Ylioppilasmiliisien ryhmää tarkastellaan nk. Miliisikirjan eli miliisilaitoksen miehistömatrikkelin sekä ylioppilasmatrikkelin tarjoamien tietojen valossa. Lisävalaistusta opiskelijoiden käsityksiin ja käytännön toimiin vuonna 1917 on saatu ylioppilaslehdistä sekä ylioppilasaktiivien muistelmista. Monipuolinen, mutta sirpaleinen lähdeaineisto on mahdollistanut laaja-alaisen tutkimusotteen tilastollisesta tarkastelusta tekstien tulkintaan. Ylioppilasmiliiseissä heijastuivat opiskelijoiden pitkät perinteet järjestyksenpidossa ja työväen kanssa tehdyssä yhteistyössä. Taustalla vaikuttivat myös opiskelijoiden voimakkaat vasemmistosympatiat. Ylioppilaat pyrkivät sinnikkäästi ylläpitämään sovinnollista suhdetta työväestöön aina vuoden 1918 sisällissodan kynnykselle saakka. Opiskelijoiden ensisijaisena tavoitteena oli luoda oikeiston ja vasemmiston poliittiset kiistat ylittävä kansallinen rintama Suomen itsenäisyyden saavuttamiseksi ja turvaamiseksi.
Resumo:
Tutkielma käsittelee vanhoillislestadiolaisen herätysliikkeen suhteutumista yhteiskunnan modernisaatioprosessiin nälkävuosista 2000-luvulle. Aihepiiriä tarkastellaan lähinnä Etelä-pohjanmaan itäosissa Järviseudulla sijaitsevan Alajärven kunnan alueesta käsin. Alajärven puitteissa käsitellään myös lestadiolaisuuden laajempaa kontekstia sekä sen suhteutumista Suomen historiaan ja yhteiskunnan rakenteisiin ja niiden muutoksiin. Yksilön, joukkoliikkeen ja yhteiskunnan suhteita ja merkityksiä avataan tutkielmassa psykohistoriallisten teorioiden kautta. Historiallista muutosta jäsennetään puolestaan modernisaation määrittelyillä. Tutkielman lähdemateriaali perustuu arkistoaineistoon, jossa keskeisessä osassa ovat Alajärven seurakunnan arkisto, sekä Alajärven rauhanyhdistyksen arkisto. Myös herätysliikkeen lehtiä ja muistitietoa käytetään lähdemateriaalina. Lestadiolaisuus saapui Alajärvelle suurten nälkävuosien jälkeen 1870-luvulla. Liikkeen saapumisvaihe voidaan käsittää osana laajempaa yhteiskunnallista muutosta, jossa yksilön kasvava vastuu esimerkiksi rahatalouden muodossa muutti yksilön asemaa ja minuuden rakentumisen ehtoja. Herätysliikkeen ensimmäiset saarnamiehet näyttäytyvät lähteissä murrosprosessin eläjiksi. Lestadiolaisten saarnamiesten nimiä löytyy varsin paljon esimerkiksi kirkkokurinalaisten luettelosta, erilaisista siveellisyysrikkomuksista syytettynä. Lestadiolaisuuden leviäminen liittyy läheisesti myös siirtolaisuuteen. Lestadiolaisuuteen liittyy varhaisvaiheista lähtien niin sanotut liikutukset, jotka voidaan tulkita minäintegraation katoamiseksi ja tiedostamattomien hahmojen nousemiseksi hallitsemaan käyttäytymistä uskonnollisen, olemassaolon ahdistusta symboloivan, puheen seurauksena. Uuden vuosisadan alkupuoliskolla lestadiolaisuus loi asemansa seudun suurimpana hengellisenä liikkeenä ja ylipäätään suurimpana joukkoliikkeenä. Joukkoliikkeellä oli minuuden ja maailman suhteita jäsentävä rooli, ja siihen sulautuminen koettiin usein paluuna turvallisen seurakuntaäidin helmaan. Metaforat voidaan tulkita psykohistoriallisesti paluuna varhaislapsuuden menetettyyn tai saavuttamattomaan asetelmaan. Vanhoillislestadiolaisuus paalutti vuosisadan alkupuoliskolla arvomaailmansa voimakkaasti valkoisen Suomen arvomaailmaan ja ihanteisiin. Toisen maailmansodan jälkeinen yhteiskuntarakenteen nopea muutos maatalousvaltaisesta kunnasta palvelu- ja teollisuusvetoiseksi yhteiskunnaksi, sekä yleinen muuttoliike maalta kohti suurempia keskuksia aiheuttivat suomalaisessa yhteiskunnassa laajan kulttuuri- arvo ja elämäntapamurroksen. Tämä murros näkyy vanhoillislestadiolaisessa herätysliikkeessä kriisitilana, jonka alkusysäys oli liikkeen sivistysporvariston erkaantuminen herätysliikkeestä etenkin suuremmissa kaupungeissa 1960-luvun alussa. Alajärvellä varsinaista hajaantumista ei tapahtunut, mutta yhteiskunnan muuttuminen heijastui voimakkaasti vanhoillislestadiolaiseen kulttuuriin ja vanhoillislestadiolaisuus kääntyi voimakkaasti sisäänpäin modernisaation elementtien levitessä laajemmin liikkeen agraarisille ydinalueille 1960- ja 1970-luvuilla. Tästä kumpuaa liikkeessä voimakas kuohunta, jossa uskonnollinen todellisuus ja pahuuden lohkominen "maailmaan" nousevat keskeiseen asemaan. Henkilöitä, jotka eivät jakaneet ryhmän yhteisiä ihanteita ja kokemuksia pyrittiin saamaan kuriin niin sanotuissa hoitokokouksissa. Yksimielisyys ja "yhteinen rakkaus" suhteessa kollektiiviin on keskeinen piirre vanhoillislestadiolaisen liikkeen itsemäärittelyissä 1970-luvulla. Alajärven suurimman hengellisen liikkeen jäsenmäärä kääntyy laskuun 2000-luvun alussa. Kasvun pysähtyminen selittyy pitkälti yleisellä muuttoliikkeellä jonka myötä vanhoillislestadiolaisuuden painopiste on siirtynyt kohti Etelä-Suomea ja suurien kaupunkien ympäristöön. Postmoderni kulttuuri on asettanut vanhoillislestadiolaisen herätysliikkeen uudenlaiseen asemaan. Yksilön vapauden ja individualismin korostuksissa traditionaalinen liikkeen sisällä on heränneet kysymykset etenkin yhteisön roolista yksilön suhteellisen toimintavapauden määrittelijänä. Vanhoillislestadiolainen joukkoliike kantaa vielä 2000-luvullakin merkityssisältöjä, joissa yksilö ikään kuin uhrautuu yhteisön hyväksi ja kannattelee kollektiivisia rakenteita.
Resumo:
The doctoral thesis deals with Finnish and foreign expert s analyses of Finland s military strategic position and defence capability, dating back to the early years of the Cold War. Finland s military high command prepared assessments of the country s strategic position and of the capability of the Defence Forces as grounds for defence planning. Since Finland was located on the Cold War dividing line, the foreign powers were also monitoring the development of Finland s situation. The research carried out had access to the armed forces internal assessments, as well as to analyses prepared by the military intelligence services of Sweden, Britain and the United States. One of the working hypotheses was that after the WWII the ability military leadership to estimate the security political needs of the country and the organisation of its defence was severely weakened so that the dangers of the international development were not perceived and the gradual erosion of defence capability was partly unnoticed. This hypothesis proved to be wrong. Even if the Finnish military intelligence was much weaker than during the war, it was able to provide the military leadership with information of the international military development for the most part. The military leadership was also fully aware of the weakening of the defence capability of the country. They faced the difficult task of making the country s political leadership, i.e. President Paasikivi and the government, also understand the gravity of the situation. Only in the last years of his term in office Paasikivi started to believe the warnings of the military. According to another hypothesis, outside observers considered the Finnish armed forces to primarily act as reinforcements for the Soviet Red Army, and they believed that, in the event of a full-scale war, the Finns would not have been able or even willing to resist a Soviet invasion of Sweden and Norway through Finland. The study confirmed that this was approximately the view the Swedes, the British and the Americans had of the Finnish forces. Western and Swedish intelligence assessments did not show confidence in Finland s defence ability and the country was regarded almost as a Soviet satellite. Finland s strategic position was, however, considered slightly different from that of the Soviet-occupied Eastern European countries. Finland had been forced to become part of the Soviet sphere of interest and security system and this was sealed by the Finno-Soviet Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation, and Mutual Assistance in 1948. Finland had little importance to the military interests of the Western powers. In Sweden s defence planning, however, Finland played a significant role as an alarm bell of a possible Soviet surprise attack, as well as defensive frontline and buffer zone.
Resumo:
This dissertation deals with the notions of sacrifice and violence in connection with the Fin¬nish flag struggles between 1917 and 1945. The study begins with the basic idea that sacrificial thinking is a key element in nationalism and the social cohesion of large groups. The method used in the study combines anthropological notions of totemism with psychoanalytical object relation theory. The aim is to explore the social and psychological elements of the Finnish national flag and the workers flags during the times of crisis and nation building. The phenomena and concepts addressed include self-sacrifice, scapegoating, remembrance of war, inclusion, and exclusion. The research is located at the intersection of nationalism studies and the cultural history of war. The analysis is based primarily on the press debates, public speeches and archival sources of the civic organizations that promoted the Finnish flag. The study is empirically divided into three sections: 1) the years of the Revolution and the Civil War (1917 1918), 2) the interwar period (1919 1938), and 3) the Second World War (1939 1945). The research demonstrates that the modern national flags and workers flags in Finland maintain certain characteristics of primitive totems. When referred to as a totem the flag means an emotionally charged symbol, a reservoir of the collective ideals of a large group. Thus the flag issue offers a path to explore the perceptions and memory of sacrifice and violence in the making of the First Republic . Any given large group, for example a nation, must conceptually pursue a consensus on its past sacrifices. Without productive interpretation sacrifice represents only meaningless violence. By looking at the passions associated with the flag the study also illuminates various group identities, boundaries and crossings of borders within the Finnish society at the same time. The study shows further that the divisive violence of the Civil War was first overcome in the late 1930s when the social democrats adopted a new perception of the Red victims of 1918 they were seen as part of the birth pains of the nation, and not only the martyrs of class struggle. At the same time the radical Right became marginalized. The study also illuminates how this development made the Spirit of the Winter War possible, a genuine albeit brief experience of horizontal brother and sisterhood, and how this spirit was reflected in the popular adoption of the Finnish flag. The experience was not based only on the external and unifying threat posed by the Soviet Union: it was grounded in a sense of unifying sacrifice which reflected a novel way of understanding the nation and its past sacrifices. Paradoxically, the newly forged consensus over the necessity and the rewards of the common sacrifices of the Winter War (1939 1940) made new sacrifices possible during the Continuation War (1941 1944). In spite of political discord and war weariness, the concept of a unified nation under the national flag survived even the absurdity of the stationary war phase. It can be said that the conflict between the idea of a national community and parliamentary party politics dissolved as a result of the collective experience of the Second World War.
Resumo:
A Breakthrough of Welfare State. The inter-relationships of the civic movement, political transformation, and eroding of a hegemony based on small scale farming in the Finnish society in the late 1950's. The unusually rapid and powerful structural change; the non-parliamentary civic movements of 1956 - 1963; and the left majority in the Finnish parliament between 1958 - 1962 all took place as the Finnish welfare state started to develop. The aim of my research is to analyse the inter-relationships of these processes. The research describes the way the former semi self-sufficient, semi-proletarian and labour-intensive form of production - a simple and discriminatory system in itself - made it possible for the majority of the population to survive through hard work. For some it even provided a possibility to prosper. The waning vitality of semi self-sufficiency and small scale agriculture triggered a political ferment and started a period of searching for something new. The process was so intense that it broke up most of the parties and tore down the old consensus that was based on the power of economic and political elite. The most crucial battle of the great transformation was waged over the nature of the state: Should we build a welfare state and construct social security systems, or should we revert to the old night watchman state and, for example, cancel the modest forms of redistribution of income carried out in the 1950's? The people joining the civic movements were either cottagers of the impoverishing countryside or, quite often, people who had come from the countryside and thus had grown up under conditions of some form of solidarity that included taking care of one's own family. The Finnish social insurance developed in the midst of a change in the structure of production of the society, and it became a compromise to satisfy the needs of both the waning society of small scale agriculture and the rising proletarian society based on wage labour. The hodgepodge of political schemes and use of power became a battle between different notions of the economy and the state; the distribution of national income; and the position of Finland in the international context. This battle created a shape of an interregnum - a period of transformation including two notions of society, two alternative paths for the future and the logic of a correctional move. The transformation of Finland from a poor developing country into a prosperous society has been praised as a success story. In 1956 - 1959, when the old form of governance based on the interests of small scale agriculture and wood processing industry was in decay, and when the future seemed uncertain, the projects to reduce social benefits and efforts to distribute national income even more unequally than before led to a powerful counter-movement by citizens and started an hegemonic change and a equal socia development.
Resumo:
Matti Laurila (1895 1983) This is a biographical research of a Jaeger officer, a Civil Guard Chief, a Field Commander Matti Laurila. A broader practice of qualitative methods was utilized in the research. The main aim is a permanent reconstruction and reinterpretation of past events through the experiences of the study object. The life and times of Laurila are intertwined with the crucial events that led to the Finnish Declaration of Independence. Afterwards he helped to ensure that the young republic also stayed independent. As a Jaeger in the winter of 1917 Laurila witnessed an incident he would never forget. After disobeying a direct order, Sven Saarikoski from Lapua was shot dead by his commanding officer, K. A. Ståhlberg, on the ice of the river Aa. Laurila faced the horrors of war at closer quarters, for he lost his father and his brother in the battle of Länkipohja on 16th March 1918. This battle was a major turning point for Laurila and profoundly influenced the rest of his life. The relationship between Laurila and his superiors was problematic almost throughout his military career, haunted as he was by the memory of Sven Saarikoski's execution and the losses in Länkipohja The position of Laurila as an authority in South Ostrobothnia was a key factor in preventing the extreme right from rallying enough Civil Guard troops to escalate the embryonic Mäntsälä rebellion of 1932. After the rebellion Laurila routinely opposed anything he saw as a threat to the independence of the Civil Guard. He would flatly refuse to even consider the integration of the Civil Guard into the national defence force. His uncompromising stand in this matter annoyed some among the higher ranking officers. After the Winter War Laurila got himself into a dispute with Jaeger Colonel H. E. Hannuksela that would have long-lasting consequences. The conflicts between them became widely known in the attack phase of the Continuation War in 1941 at the latest. Laurila had to give up his military career at the end of 1944. In the years that followed he did what he could to ensure that the South Ostrobothnia Civil Guard patrimony remained in the province. Laurila's position as a respected authority in South Ostrobothnia remained unchanged until his death.