Journal Articles by Sami Suodenjoki
Studies on National Movements, 2023
This article examines the role of the print media in a campaign against political denunciations i... more This article examines the role of the print media in a campaign against political denunciations in the Grand Duchy of Finland from 1899 to 1917. It explores how the public condemnation of denunciations and denouncers evolved into a means for Finnish nationalist activists to raise national awareness and mobilise citizens against the integration policies of the Russian government. The source material includes Finnish newspapers and magazines, analysed through qualitative and computational methods, and a corpus of letters between citizens and the Governor-General. The article shows that the increase in the media coverage of denunciations was linked to the imperial integration policies, and that newspapers across party lines framed the denunciations as a national threat. The anti-denunciation campaign culminated during the revolutions of 1905 and 1917, when the nationalist news media published extensive name lists of denouncers based on findings from the confiscated papers of the imperial authorities. Overall, the article suggests that the media campaign against denunciations effectively suppressed the practice of denunciation in Finland, even if it also fostered an atmosphere of ubiquitous surveillance and may have inspired some individuals to become denouncers.
Idäntutkimus, 2022
This article addresses the transnational trajectory of the song Vapaa Venäjä (Free Russia) into a... more This article addresses the transnational trajectory of the song Vapaa Venäjä (Free Russia) into a communist anthem and an object of fierce political disputes in the interwar period. By using writings to the press and oral history as source materials, the article sheds light on how Free Russia shaped political experiences in both Finland and Finnish America. The melody of Free Russia was borrowed from the Russian military march Farewell to Slavianka, and its lyrics described the Russian Revolution. For these reasons, and for allegedly glorifying Bolshevism, the march aroused fierce criticism in the Finnish non-communist media. However, Finnish communists adopted Free Russia as their instrument for protest and for outmatching the Social Democrats. For some workers, the performance of the song also served to express unity and future hopes as they travelled from Finland or North America to the Soviet Union. However, this article shows that after being recorded by the Columbia company in 1924, Free Russia also sold well as a gramophone record and was spread to new settings such as the intimate sphere of home. This contributed to the partial transition of the march from a strictly ideological context to that of internationally produced “Finnish” popular music.
Ennen ja nyt: Historian tietosanomat, Dec 2019
Tarkastelen tässä artikkelissa ilmiantamista sosiaalisena käytäntönä Suomen suuriruhtinaskunnassa... more Tarkastelen tässä artikkelissa ilmiantamista sosiaalisena käytäntönä Suomen suuriruhtinaskunnassa vuosina 1899-1917. Kohdistan huomion ilmiantajiksi ryhtyneiden kansalaisten vuorovaikutukseen venäläisen virkavallan kanssa sekä tämän vuorovaikutuksen herättämiin reaktioihin julkisuudessa ja yleisemmin yhteiskunnassa. Esitän, että venäläisviranomaiset ja etenkin santarmihallinto osoittivat huomattavaa vastaanottavaisuutta suomalaisten tekemille ilmiannoille Nikolai Bobrikovin kenraalikuvernöörikaudesta lähtien. Santarmit käyttivät ilmiantoja tukemaan tiettyihin kansalaisiin kohdistuvia epäilyksiään ja varsinkin 1910-luvulla myös rekrytoivat ilmiantajia rahapalkkioin vakituisempiin palvelussuhteisiin. Ilmiantajille itselleen informaation välittäminen venäläisviranomaisille saattoi olla paitsi lisätulojen lähde myös väline sosiaalisen aseman vahvistamiseen ja kiusantekoon henkilökohtaisille vihamiehille. Pohdin myös viranomaisten harjoittaman painostuksen ja kiristyksen roolia ilmiantajaksi ryhtymisessä.
Ab Imperio, 2019
This article examines the way in which the widespread printed collections of songs reflected the ... more This article examines the way in which the widespread printed collections of songs reflected the developing revolutionary situation and fuelled political imagination in Finland during the years 1917 and 1918. The analysis shows that the Russian February Revolution of 1917 and the Finnish Civil War of 1918 became key events that stimulated the proliferation of popular song pamphlets and influenced the content of the songs. Acting as an affective medium, the song pamphlets contested old forms of political legitimacy and reinforced ideas of class solidarity, national unity, and ethnic stereotypes.
Резюме
В статье исследуется, как широко распространенные брошюры, в которых публиковались сборники финских песен, отражали развитие революционных событий и сами подпитывали политическое воображение в Финляндии в 1917–1918 гг. Автор показывает, что Февральская революция в России и финская гражданская война 1918 г. стали ключевыми событиями “аффективного опыта”, стимулировавшими распространение сборников песен и влиявшими на их содержание. В качестве аффективного медиума, сборники песен оспаривали старые формы политической легитимности и укрепляли идеалы классовой солидарности и национального единства, а также этнические стереотипы.
Irish Historical Studies, Nov 8, 2017
This article explores the comparative history of land agitation and how it evolved and intersecte... more This article explores the comparative history of land agitation and how it evolved and intersected with nationalism and socialism in Finland and Ireland between the Irish Land War and the Finnish Civil War of 1918. Drawing on current scholarship as well as contemporary newspapers and official records, the article shows that an organised land movement developed later and was markedly less violent in Finland than in Ireland. Moreover, while in Ireland the association of landlordism with British rule helped to fuse the land movement with nationalist mobilisation during the Land War, in Finland the tie between the land movement and nationalism remained weak. This was a consequence of Finnish nationalists’ strong affiliation with landowning farmers, which hindered their success in mobilising tenant farmers and agricultural workers. Consequently, the Finnish countryside witnessed a remarkable rise in the socialist movement in the early 1900s. The socialist leanings of the Finnish land movement were greatly influenced by the Russian revolutions, whereas in Ireland militant Fenianism, often emanating from Irish America, affected land agitation more than socialism. As to transnational exchanges, the article also indicates the influence of Irish rural unrest and the related land acts on Finnish public debates and legislation.
FinnForum 2016, 2016
Matti Kurikka (1863-1915) is a multi-dimensional
and controversial character in Finnish
history. ... more Matti Kurikka (1863-1915) is a multi-dimensional
and controversial character in Finnish
history. He was a playwright, a journalist, a socialist,
a Utopian and a Theosophist, as well as a
speaker for free love and women’s rights. Those
involved in the research project Fragmented
visions. Performance, authority and interaction
in early 20th-century Finnish oral-literary traditions
(funded by the Academy of Finland 2014-
2017, www.fragvis.net) singled out Matti Kurikka
because his life concretizes both ideological
tensions and performative practices in late-19th
and early-20th-century Finland. Members of
the project team presented their research at
the FinnForum XI conference in Turku, focusing
on the ethnic and transnational aspects
of Matti Kurikka’s career. Mikko-Olavi Seppälä
concentrated on Matti Kurikka as a playwright;
Sami Suodenjoki charted his political shipwreck
in 1899; Anne Heimo described his time
in Queensland; Mikko Pollari covered his unsuccessful
return to Finland in 1905–1909 and
his multi-phased transnational career; Anna
Rajavuori discussed “kurikkalaisuus” as a label
for dubious policies and ideals in the Finnish
labor movement; and Kirsti Salmi-Niklander
focused on Kurikka’s last years and how he is
remembered in the US.
Suomalaiset kansanihmiset lähettivät ensimmäisen maailmansodan vuosina runsaasti postia kenraalik... more Suomalaiset kansanihmiset lähettivät ensimmäisen maailmansodan vuosina runsaasti postia kenraalikuvernöörille, suuriruhtinaskunnan ylimmälle hallintovirkamiehelle. Mistä syistä tavalliset
kansalaiset lähestyivät kenraalikuvernööriä, ja miten maailmansodan poikkeusolot näkyivät heidän kirjeissään?
Historiallinen Aikakauskirja 112 (2), 2014
Maaseudun ihmisten kenraalikuvernöörin kansliaan lähettämät kirjeet yleistyivät Suomen suuriruhti... more Maaseudun ihmisten kenraalikuvernöörin kansliaan lähettämät kirjeet yleistyivät Suomen suuriruhtinaskunnassa vuosina 1899-1905. Routavuosien poliittisesti jännittyneessä tilanteessa kirjeet kuohuttivat kansallista sanomalehdistöä, sillä kirjeiden otaksuttiin sisältävän toisiin kansalaisiin kohdistuvia poliittisia ilmiantoja. Sami Suodenjoki syventyy artikkelissaan kirjeiden sisältöön ja lähettäjiin sekä pohtii, millä tavoin kansalaisten halu lähestyä kenraalikuvernööriä kytkeytyi venäläishallinnon pyrkimyksiin tiukentaa otettaan suomalaisesta yhteiskunnasta.
English abstract: Denunciation fomenting the atmosphere of surveillance in Finland, 1898-1905
At the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, an unprecedented number of Fínnish rural people sent letters to the Chancellery of the Governor-General of Finland. Amid the political turbulence caused by the Russian government's integration measures, these letters inflamed the Finnish-nationalist press because they were presumed to contain political denunciations against other citizens. The letters of denunciation and their senders were extensively covered in the contemporary media, and the alarmed views of nationalist newspapers were later adopted by national historiography, which tended to view denunciations as part of the increasing espionage and surveillance of the imperial regime. However, few scholars have examined the rural letters sent to the imperial government or the people who actually wrote them. This article fills the gap by analysing the content and senders of 206 letters sent from the Finnish countryside to the Governor-General between 1898 and 1905. The article examines the motives and social background of the senders and contemplates how citizens' urge to approach the Governor-General was fuelled by the attempts of the Russian government to tighten its grip over the Finnish civil society.
The article argues that a majority of the senders were lower-class rural inhabitants such as small farmers, tenants and agricultural workers whose letters were essentially motivated by experiences of mistreatment and not having a voice. Most of the letters can be called requests or complaints but many of them also contained denunciations concerning anti-government activity. Typical targets of the denunciations were civil servants, priests and landowners who were accused of circulating seditious literature, agitating against conscription or slandering the tsar or the Governor-General. The Chancellery of the Governor-General welcomed the letters from rural inhabitants as evidence of popular support to the imperial regime and occasionally launched investigations based on the denunciations. In some cases, the denunciations may even have contributed to the arrests and expulsions of nationalist activists. On the other hand, many of the senders ran into difficulties because information about their letters to the Governor-General leaked to the public, exposing them to discrimination by their nationalist fellow inhabitants.
Books by Sami Suodenjoki
Approaching subalternity from a broad Gramscian angle, this edited collection contributes to the ... more Approaching subalternity from a broad Gramscian angle, this edited collection contributes to the understanding of popular politics in parliamentary, autocratic, and colonial contexts.
The book explores individual stories and micro-histories of complaints, requests, rumors, and other mediated and unmediated interactions between political institutions and the subjects they claimed to govern or represent. It challenges the approaches of institutionally oriented political historiography and its attention to the top-down construction of political representation, citizenship, and power and powerlessness. The book discusses more subtle forms of agency and the spaces these pertained to, which could indicate contestation or resistance taking place within a framework of loyalty towards the existing political institutions. This research does not only bridge the divide between political and apolitical frames of reference, but it also provides a new perspective on the dichotomy between loyalty and resistance by acknowledging the nuances of these seemingly opposing stances. With case studies from Europe, North Africa, South America, and India, the chapters cover political communication in proto-democratic, democratic, imperial, and authoritarian contexts.
This volume is crucial reading for undergraduates, postgraduates, and scholars in history and social sciences who are interested in political culture and the mechanisms of negotiating local, national, or imperial identities.
Matti Kurikka (1863–1915) is a multi-dimensional and controversial character in Finnish history. ... more Matti Kurikka (1863–1915) is a multi-dimensional and controversial character in Finnish history. He was a playwright, a journalist, a socialist, and a theosophist, as well as a speaker for sexual emancipation and women's rights. Kurikka was born in Ingria, and his activities spanned not only Finland, but also Australia and North America, in both of which he led utopian communities. This biographical study explores Kurikka as a literary and political figure and a builder of utopias, whose life opens fascinating views on the societal and cultural currents of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The book critically re-evaluates earlier research on Kurikka and highlights forgotten phases of his life by using new source materials found in three continents. The sources include digitized newspapers and periodicals, Kurikka's plays and non-fictional books, oral history, and political cartoons.
Väki Voimakas, 2021
Kuri ja valvonta ovat keskeisiä näkökulmia työväen historiaan. Työväestön kontrollointi on ollut ... more Kuri ja valvonta ovat keskeisiä näkökulmia työväen historiaan. Työväestön kontrollointi on ollut monitasoista ja se on kohdistunut työväkeen työvoimana, poliittisen toiminnan subjektina, kuluttajana, paikallisyhteisön jäsenenä ja sosiaalipoliittisten järjestelmien huollon kohteena. Valvontaa ja rankaisua ovat harjoittaneet valtiovalta, työnantajat ja erilaiset kansalaisyhteiskunnan ryhmittymät – myös työntekijät ja työväenliike itse.
Vuosikirjan artikkelit tarkastelevat kuria ja valvontaa useista eri näkökulmista.Ne käsittelevät kontrollia muun muassa työpaikoilla, paikallisyhteisössä, viranomaisasioinnissa ja poliittisissa verkostoissa. Samalla artikkelit kuvaavat tapoja, joilla kuri ja kontrolli operoivat. Klassisen kurinpitovallan ohella artikkeleissa analysoidaan ohjailun, suostuttelun ja itsekontrollin mekanismeja sekä työntekijöiden keinoja vältellä ja vastustaa itseensä kohdistuvaa kontrollia.
Palgrave Studies in the History of Experience, 2021
This open access book uses Finland in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries as an empirical case... more This open access book uses Finland in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries as an empirical case in order to study the emergence, shaping and renewal of a nation through histories of experience and emotions. It revolves around the following questions: What kinds of experiences have engendered national mobilization and feelings of national belonging? How have political and societal conflicts turned into new communities of experience and emotion? What kinds of experiences have been integrated into, or excluded from, the national context in different instances? How have people internalized or contested the nation as a context for their personal, family and minority-group experiences? In what ways has the nation entered and affected people’s intimate spheres of life? How have “national” experiences been transmitted to children in the renewal of the nation? This edited collection points to the histories of experience and emotions as a novel way of studying nations and nationalism. Building on current debates in nationalism studies, it offers a theoretical framework for analyzing the historical construction of “lived nations,” and introduces a number of new methodological approaches to understand the experiences of the nation, extending from the investigation of personal reminiscences and music records to the study of dreams and children’s drawings.
Väki Voimakas, 2017
Suomalaiset työläiset ja venäläiset sotilaat juhlivat yhdessä keisarivallan kaatumista keväällä 1... more Suomalaiset työläiset ja venäläiset sotilaat juhlivat yhdessä keisarivallan kaatumista keväällä 1917. Venäjän maaliskuun vallankumous synnytti Suomessa kuitenkin valtatyhjiön, jonka täyttämisestä käyty kamppailu sävytti koko loppuvuotta. Vallasta ja vapaudesta kamppailtiin kabineteissa, lehtien palstoilla, kaduilla, työpaikoilla – jopa kirkoissa. Samaan aikaan kypsyi ajatus itsenäistymisestä, jonka toteuttamista työväenliike ajoi olosuhteisiin nähden liiankin innokkaasti. Tämän teoksen kirjoittajat tutkivat, miltä kumousvuoden vapaushaaveet, aineellinen puute ja poliittiset jännitteet näyttivät työväestön silmin ja miten ne ajoivat itsenäistyvän valtion asukkaat lopulta sisällissotaan.
Valajan poika Rudolf Winter muutti Tampereelle 1870-luvun lopulla työskennelläkseen kasvavan tehd... more Valajan poika Rudolf Winter muutti Tampereelle 1870-luvun lopulla työskennelläkseen kasvavan tehdaskaupungin ensimmäisessä rautakaupassa. Seuraavina vuosikymmeninä Winter nousi yhdeksi Tampereen liike-elämän avainhahmoista. Rautakaupan ohella Winteristä tuli lukuisten teollisuusyritysten omistaja ja kunnallisvaikuttaja, jonka visiot jättivät pitkäaikaisen jäljen kaupunkikuvaan.
Kauppias Winter kuoli naimattomana ja lapsettomana vuonna 1912. Testamentissaan hän ohjasi pääosan omaisuudestaan sivistyksen ja kulttuurin edistämiseen. Winterin perintöä vaalii A. R. Winterin Muistosäätiö, joka tukee lahjoituksillaan Tampereen julkista taidetta, ympäristökuntien pienviljelystä, journalismin kehittämistä ja lukuisia yleishyödyllisiä järjestöjä.
This study addresses the breakthrough of the labour movement in the Finnish countryside during th... more This study addresses the breakthrough of the labour movement in the Finnish countryside during the first decade of the 20th century by focusing on one individual and his activity. The central figure of the research is shoemaker Vihtori Lindholm (1868–1918), who lived in Urjala, a municipality in the province of Häme, south-western Finland. In the early 20th century, Lindholm actively participated in the local labour movement. In addition to being politically active, he was a self-taught writer with a multifaceted literary work. Furthermore, he appears to have been regarded as a somewhat unusual person by the inhabitants of his local community. Hence, the term “village idiot” has proven useful in describing some of Lindholm’s actions.
The aim of this research is to use Lindholm as a prism that illuminates the forms and limits of contestation in the early labour movement of rural Finland. Firstly, the study addresses the following questions: which kind of political activity did the shoemaker engage in and what kind of a role did he adopt in the local labour movement? Secondly, the study examines the role of contestation or resistance towards the Establishment in directing Lindholm’s activity. Which forms of contestation did the shoemaker resort to and how did his fellow workers define the acceptable forms of contestation?
By examining Lindholm and his actions, the study addresses a more general question about the repertoire and ideological basis of collective action in rural Finland. Most importantly, which forms of resistance did the rural labour movement adopt during the first decade of the 20th century? What kind of boundaries and tensions appeared inside the movement?
The key source for the study is an autobiographical letter written by Vihtori Lindholm in 1909. In the letter, the shoemaker depicts his vicissitudes during the preceding ten years, focusing particularly on his political activity and family life. To outline Lindholm’s actions, the study also utilises district court records, for Lindholm appeared repeatedly in court as a claimant, defendant and witness. Moreover, Lindholm’s activities are elucidated by the local letters published in labour newspapers and by the minutes, annual reports and membership rolls of workers’ associations. The source material also includes various petitions, reports of the authorities, parish registers, and statistical documents about the economy and population in Urjala.
As mentioned above, Lindholm’s writings consisted of autobiographical narratives, newspaper reports and legal documents. These writings form a valuable source not only for examining the breakthrough of the labour movement, but also for studying the writing practices of common people, that is, the book culture “from below”. At the turn of the 20th century, less than half of the Finnish people aged 15 or over were able to write, and the number of active writers was still relatively limited. With this in mind, Lindholm as an active self-educated writer represents an all the more interesting case for study. By examining the shoemaker’s writing practices, the study gives a better understanding of the ways the lower classes utilised writing as a means of resistance against the elite. Furthermore, Lindholm’s personal writings give information on how common people internalised the national priorities and values promoted by the dominant classes. Evidently, the lower classes may have looked at the nationalistic ideas in ways which did not fit with the nationalistic elite’s point of view.
This study utilises microhistorical approaches originated by such scholars as Carlo Ginzburg, Giovanni Levi and Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie. Microhistory has introduced subjects, groups and people previously considered marginal to historical research, and microhistorical studies have often used exceptional persons and events to illuminate broader structures and phenomena. The term “exceptional typical”, often used in the context of microhistory, is very applicable to shoemaker Lindholm, who was a peculiar person both in his local community and in the labour movement. His exceptional behaviour has produced a wide range of sources which reveal such features of the local labour movement that have been inaccessible to studies relying on more established sources.
This study on Lindholm and the local labour movement is also influenced by “the history from below” approach, which attempts to account for historical events from the perspective of common people. The pioneers of history from below, e.g. E. P. Thompson and E. J. Hobsbawm, have often focused on subjects such as the political mobilisation of the working-class and the early history of the labour movement. This study rests, in particular, on prior research done on the rural workers’ mobilisation in the era of industrialisation. To reveal special characteristics of the rural mobilisation in Finland, the findings of this study are contrasted with previous literature covering other European countries, the Russian empire and even some South-East Asian regions.
The central concept of the research is the “culture of contestation” originally formulated by folklorist Luigi Lombardi-Satriani. I apply this concept to the various forms of resistance and opposition expressed by the common people towards the dominant classes in rural Finland. In traditional rural society, the culture of contestation usually remained hidden in folklore, or was manifested in various forms of everyday resistance, such as slander, pilfering, sabotage and foot-dragging in the workplace. Only in exceptional conditions, such as the time of local turmoil or national revolution, was the contestation transformed into overt and public protest. Around 1900, the socialist labour movement taking root in the Finnish countryside opened up new channels for this overt resistance. Evidently, the movement’s ability to offer the rural workers new means of contestation contributed significantly to the movement’s success in the Finnish countryside.
Väki Voimakas, 2010
Mitä lukeminen ja kirjoittaminen merkitsivät 1800-luvulla ja 1900-luvun alussa eläneille ruumiill... more Mitä lukeminen ja kirjoittaminen merkitsivät 1800-luvulla ja 1900-luvun alussa eläneille ruumiillisen työn tekijöille? Ketkä tarttuivat kynään ja mistä syistä? Miten he pyrkivät kirjallisen tuotantonsa kautta vaikuttamaan yhteiskuntaan, jossa elivät? Miten itseoppineiden tekstit poikkesivat koulusivistystä saaneiden säätyläisten tuotannosta? Näihin ja moniin muihin kysymyksiin vastaa artikkelikokoelma Lukeva ja kirjoittava työläinen.
Viime vuosina yhä useammat tutkijat ovat perehtyneet arkistojen kätköistä löytämiinsä työläisten ja kansanihmisten käsikirjoituksiin, muistelmiin ja päiväkirjoihin. Nämä lähteet tarjoavat uusia mahdollisuuksia rahvaan maailmankatsomuksen, itseymmärryksen ja yhteiskunnallisten pyrkimysten tutkimukselle. Työväen historian ja perinteen tutkimuksen seuran vuosikirjassa 2010 tarkastellaan kirjallisuustieteen, historiantutkimuksen ja folkloristiikan näkökulmista maalais- ja työväestön kirjallistumista 1800-luvulla ja 1900-luvun alkupuolella. Tutkimuksen kohteena ovat niin kansankirjailijat, työläisälymystö kuin työväenliikkeen valistustoimintakin. Kirjan artikkelit osoittavat, että kirjallinen kulttuuri ei ollut "herrojen" yksinoikeus.
Sisällys
Kirsti Salmi-Niklander, Sami Suodenjoki & Taina Uusitalo: Johdanto 7
Kansankirjoittajat sääty-yhteiskunnassa
Anna Kuismin: Hänen itsensä kertomana – 1800-luvun kansanihmiset ja oman elämän kirjoitus 21
Kaisa Kauranen & Maria Virtanen: Sivistyksen ihanne torppari Kustaa Braskin elämässä ja teksteissä 48
Reija Lång: Kirjailijuus välitilassa. Mäkitupalaisen tytär 1800-luvun lopun ja 1900-luvun alun kirjallisella kentällä 80
Työläisälymystö
Jaana Torninoja-Latola: ”Minäkeskeisyyden pyhät kirjat” – Oman identiteetin etsintää Sylvi-Kyllikki Kilven ja Aira Sinervon nuoruuden päiväkirjoissa 115
Hanne Koivisto: Henkisiä aitureita – Jenny Pajunen ja Lauri Vilenius kirjailijoina ja työläisintellektuelleina 147
Suvi Leppämäki: ”Caliban puhuu” – Jean Guéhenno ja työläistaustaisen intellektuellin osa maailmansotien välisen ajan Ranskassa 186
Valistus, koulutus ja itseymmärrys
Taina Uusitalo: Äiti, nainen, toveri – Aatteellisuus velvoittaa naista työväenlehtien kirjoituksissa 1900–1923 213
Andreas McKeough: Vuoden 1918 sodan kokemus työläisten kertomana 228
Joni Krekola: Miten ja miksi Yrjö Sirolasta tuli SKP:n kaaderien isä? 253
Pia Koivunen: Neuvostoliiton Komsomol-nuoret lukutaidottomuutta likvidoimassa 274
The book outlines a history of the leftist labor movement in Pirkanmaa region, Finland, from the ... more The book outlines a history of the leftist labor movement in Pirkanmaa region, Finland, from the 1880s to the Civil War of 1918. The study examines workers' mobilization in Tampere, the largest industrial city in Finland, and its surroundings. The industrial and rural workers organized, first, into temperance movement and later into political associations led by the workers themselves. The mobilization was connected the breakthrough of socialism, and it increased social and political influence of the working class. As the study points out, Pirkanmaa region became the most powerful base of the labor movement in Finland. Tampere with its surroundings also played a decisive role in the Finnish Civil War of 1918, which resulted in from the deepening class conflicts linked with the collapse of the Russian empire in 1917.
The study analyzes the population, habitation and areal change in the industrial city of Tampere,... more The study analyzes the population, habitation and areal change in the industrial city of Tampere, Finland, in 1918-1940.
Book Chapters by Sami Suodenjoki
Kansallisesta ylirajaiseen: Kulttuuri, perinne ja kirjallisuus, 2023
Tarkastelen tässä artikkelissa Vapaan Venäjän marssia ylirajaisena kokemusyhteisöjen rakentajana.... more Tarkastelen tässä artikkelissa Vapaan Venäjän marssia ylirajaisena kokemusyhteisöjen rakentajana. Jäljitän kappaleen leviämistä, käyttöyhteyksiä ja merkityksiä Suomessa, Pohjois-Amerikassa ja Neuvosto-Venäjällä maailmansotien välisenä aikana ja toisen maailmansodan jälkeisinä vuosina. Havaintojeni perusteella yritän hahmottaa, millaisiin yhteiskunnallisiin kokemuksiin kappale kiinnittyi suomalaisyhteisöissä, miten kappale yhdisti ja erotti ihmisryhmiä, ja millaista roolia kappaleen ylirajaisuus näytteli kappaleeseen kytkeytyneissä kokemuksissa.
Subaltern Political Subjectivities and Practices in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries: Between Loyalty and Resistance, 2023
The municipal assembly was a key institution of local self-government in the rural districts of t... more The municipal assembly was a key institution of local self-government in the rural districts of the Grand Duchy of Finland from 1865 to 1917. This chapter explores municipal assemblies as scenes of experience that shaped the ideas of local self-government, democracy, and exclusion from power among subaltern rural people. The vote in municipal assemblies was confined to taxpayers and was graduated according to income. This concentrated local power in the hands of wealthy landowners and left most adult people, including all married women, servants, and many workers, without a voice. However, by analyzing readers’ letters to newspapers, this chapter shows that disenfranchised people could appear in municipal assemblies and contribute to the debates on the democratization and rationalization of local government. Especially after the General Strike of 1905 and the following parliamentary reform in Finland, the municipal assemblies were increasingly affected by the mass pressure of subaltern people. In fact, in the decade before 1917 – the year when universal and equal suffrage was introduced in municipal elections – the municipal assembly institution found its most fervent supporters among socialist workers, who welcomed it as a form of participatory democracy and opposed its replacement with a representative system of local self-government.
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Journal Articles by Sami Suodenjoki
Резюме
В статье исследуется, как широко распространенные брошюры, в которых публиковались сборники финских песен, отражали развитие революционных событий и сами подпитывали политическое воображение в Финляндии в 1917–1918 гг. Автор показывает, что Февральская революция в России и финская гражданская война 1918 г. стали ключевыми событиями “аффективного опыта”, стимулировавшими распространение сборников песен и влиявшими на их содержание. В качестве аффективного медиума, сборники песен оспаривали старые формы политической легитимности и укрепляли идеалы классовой солидарности и национального единства, а также этнические стереотипы.
and controversial character in Finnish
history. He was a playwright, a journalist, a socialist,
a Utopian and a Theosophist, as well as a
speaker for free love and women’s rights. Those
involved in the research project Fragmented
visions. Performance, authority and interaction
in early 20th-century Finnish oral-literary traditions
(funded by the Academy of Finland 2014-
2017, www.fragvis.net) singled out Matti Kurikka
because his life concretizes both ideological
tensions and performative practices in late-19th
and early-20th-century Finland. Members of
the project team presented their research at
the FinnForum XI conference in Turku, focusing
on the ethnic and transnational aspects
of Matti Kurikka’s career. Mikko-Olavi Seppälä
concentrated on Matti Kurikka as a playwright;
Sami Suodenjoki charted his political shipwreck
in 1899; Anne Heimo described his time
in Queensland; Mikko Pollari covered his unsuccessful
return to Finland in 1905–1909 and
his multi-phased transnational career; Anna
Rajavuori discussed “kurikkalaisuus” as a label
for dubious policies and ideals in the Finnish
labor movement; and Kirsti Salmi-Niklander
focused on Kurikka’s last years and how he is
remembered in the US.
kansalaiset lähestyivät kenraalikuvernööriä, ja miten maailmansodan poikkeusolot näkyivät heidän kirjeissään?
English abstract: Denunciation fomenting the atmosphere of surveillance in Finland, 1898-1905
At the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, an unprecedented number of Fínnish rural people sent letters to the Chancellery of the Governor-General of Finland. Amid the political turbulence caused by the Russian government's integration measures, these letters inflamed the Finnish-nationalist press because they were presumed to contain political denunciations against other citizens. The letters of denunciation and their senders were extensively covered in the contemporary media, and the alarmed views of nationalist newspapers were later adopted by national historiography, which tended to view denunciations as part of the increasing espionage and surveillance of the imperial regime. However, few scholars have examined the rural letters sent to the imperial government or the people who actually wrote them. This article fills the gap by analysing the content and senders of 206 letters sent from the Finnish countryside to the Governor-General between 1898 and 1905. The article examines the motives and social background of the senders and contemplates how citizens' urge to approach the Governor-General was fuelled by the attempts of the Russian government to tighten its grip over the Finnish civil society.
The article argues that a majority of the senders were lower-class rural inhabitants such as small farmers, tenants and agricultural workers whose letters were essentially motivated by experiences of mistreatment and not having a voice. Most of the letters can be called requests or complaints but many of them also contained denunciations concerning anti-government activity. Typical targets of the denunciations were civil servants, priests and landowners who were accused of circulating seditious literature, agitating against conscription or slandering the tsar or the Governor-General. The Chancellery of the Governor-General welcomed the letters from rural inhabitants as evidence of popular support to the imperial regime and occasionally launched investigations based on the denunciations. In some cases, the denunciations may even have contributed to the arrests and expulsions of nationalist activists. On the other hand, many of the senders ran into difficulties because information about their letters to the Governor-General leaked to the public, exposing them to discrimination by their nationalist fellow inhabitants.
Books by Sami Suodenjoki
The book explores individual stories and micro-histories of complaints, requests, rumors, and other mediated and unmediated interactions between political institutions and the subjects they claimed to govern or represent. It challenges the approaches of institutionally oriented political historiography and its attention to the top-down construction of political representation, citizenship, and power and powerlessness. The book discusses more subtle forms of agency and the spaces these pertained to, which could indicate contestation or resistance taking place within a framework of loyalty towards the existing political institutions. This research does not only bridge the divide between political and apolitical frames of reference, but it also provides a new perspective on the dichotomy between loyalty and resistance by acknowledging the nuances of these seemingly opposing stances. With case studies from Europe, North Africa, South America, and India, the chapters cover political communication in proto-democratic, democratic, imperial, and authoritarian contexts.
This volume is crucial reading for undergraduates, postgraduates, and scholars in history and social sciences who are interested in political culture and the mechanisms of negotiating local, national, or imperial identities.
Vuosikirjan artikkelit tarkastelevat kuria ja valvontaa useista eri näkökulmista.Ne käsittelevät kontrollia muun muassa työpaikoilla, paikallisyhteisössä, viranomaisasioinnissa ja poliittisissa verkostoissa. Samalla artikkelit kuvaavat tapoja, joilla kuri ja kontrolli operoivat. Klassisen kurinpitovallan ohella artikkeleissa analysoidaan ohjailun, suostuttelun ja itsekontrollin mekanismeja sekä työntekijöiden keinoja vältellä ja vastustaa itseensä kohdistuvaa kontrollia.
Kauppias Winter kuoli naimattomana ja lapsettomana vuonna 1912. Testamentissaan hän ohjasi pääosan omaisuudestaan sivistyksen ja kulttuurin edistämiseen. Winterin perintöä vaalii A. R. Winterin Muistosäätiö, joka tukee lahjoituksillaan Tampereen julkista taidetta, ympäristökuntien pienviljelystä, journalismin kehittämistä ja lukuisia yleishyödyllisiä järjestöjä.
The aim of this research is to use Lindholm as a prism that illuminates the forms and limits of contestation in the early labour movement of rural Finland. Firstly, the study addresses the following questions: which kind of political activity did the shoemaker engage in and what kind of a role did he adopt in the local labour movement? Secondly, the study examines the role of contestation or resistance towards the Establishment in directing Lindholm’s activity. Which forms of contestation did the shoemaker resort to and how did his fellow workers define the acceptable forms of contestation?
By examining Lindholm and his actions, the study addresses a more general question about the repertoire and ideological basis of collective action in rural Finland. Most importantly, which forms of resistance did the rural labour movement adopt during the first decade of the 20th century? What kind of boundaries and tensions appeared inside the movement?
The key source for the study is an autobiographical letter written by Vihtori Lindholm in 1909. In the letter, the shoemaker depicts his vicissitudes during the preceding ten years, focusing particularly on his political activity and family life. To outline Lindholm’s actions, the study also utilises district court records, for Lindholm appeared repeatedly in court as a claimant, defendant and witness. Moreover, Lindholm’s activities are elucidated by the local letters published in labour newspapers and by the minutes, annual reports and membership rolls of workers’ associations. The source material also includes various petitions, reports of the authorities, parish registers, and statistical documents about the economy and population in Urjala.
As mentioned above, Lindholm’s writings consisted of autobiographical narratives, newspaper reports and legal documents. These writings form a valuable source not only for examining the breakthrough of the labour movement, but also for studying the writing practices of common people, that is, the book culture “from below”. At the turn of the 20th century, less than half of the Finnish people aged 15 or over were able to write, and the number of active writers was still relatively limited. With this in mind, Lindholm as an active self-educated writer represents an all the more interesting case for study. By examining the shoemaker’s writing practices, the study gives a better understanding of the ways the lower classes utilised writing as a means of resistance against the elite. Furthermore, Lindholm’s personal writings give information on how common people internalised the national priorities and values promoted by the dominant classes. Evidently, the lower classes may have looked at the nationalistic ideas in ways which did not fit with the nationalistic elite’s point of view.
This study utilises microhistorical approaches originated by such scholars as Carlo Ginzburg, Giovanni Levi and Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie. Microhistory has introduced subjects, groups and people previously considered marginal to historical research, and microhistorical studies have often used exceptional persons and events to illuminate broader structures and phenomena. The term “exceptional typical”, often used in the context of microhistory, is very applicable to shoemaker Lindholm, who was a peculiar person both in his local community and in the labour movement. His exceptional behaviour has produced a wide range of sources which reveal such features of the local labour movement that have been inaccessible to studies relying on more established sources.
This study on Lindholm and the local labour movement is also influenced by “the history from below” approach, which attempts to account for historical events from the perspective of common people. The pioneers of history from below, e.g. E. P. Thompson and E. J. Hobsbawm, have often focused on subjects such as the political mobilisation of the working-class and the early history of the labour movement. This study rests, in particular, on prior research done on the rural workers’ mobilisation in the era of industrialisation. To reveal special characteristics of the rural mobilisation in Finland, the findings of this study are contrasted with previous literature covering other European countries, the Russian empire and even some South-East Asian regions.
The central concept of the research is the “culture of contestation” originally formulated by folklorist Luigi Lombardi-Satriani. I apply this concept to the various forms of resistance and opposition expressed by the common people towards the dominant classes in rural Finland. In traditional rural society, the culture of contestation usually remained hidden in folklore, or was manifested in various forms of everyday resistance, such as slander, pilfering, sabotage and foot-dragging in the workplace. Only in exceptional conditions, such as the time of local turmoil or national revolution, was the contestation transformed into overt and public protest. Around 1900, the socialist labour movement taking root in the Finnish countryside opened up new channels for this overt resistance. Evidently, the movement’s ability to offer the rural workers new means of contestation contributed significantly to the movement’s success in the Finnish countryside.
Viime vuosina yhä useammat tutkijat ovat perehtyneet arkistojen kätköistä löytämiinsä työläisten ja kansanihmisten käsikirjoituksiin, muistelmiin ja päiväkirjoihin. Nämä lähteet tarjoavat uusia mahdollisuuksia rahvaan maailmankatsomuksen, itseymmärryksen ja yhteiskunnallisten pyrkimysten tutkimukselle. Työväen historian ja perinteen tutkimuksen seuran vuosikirjassa 2010 tarkastellaan kirjallisuustieteen, historiantutkimuksen ja folkloristiikan näkökulmista maalais- ja työväestön kirjallistumista 1800-luvulla ja 1900-luvun alkupuolella. Tutkimuksen kohteena ovat niin kansankirjailijat, työläisälymystö kuin työväenliikkeen valistustoimintakin. Kirjan artikkelit osoittavat, että kirjallinen kulttuuri ei ollut "herrojen" yksinoikeus.
Sisällys
Kirsti Salmi-Niklander, Sami Suodenjoki & Taina Uusitalo: Johdanto 7
Kansankirjoittajat sääty-yhteiskunnassa
Anna Kuismin: Hänen itsensä kertomana – 1800-luvun kansanihmiset ja oman elämän kirjoitus 21
Kaisa Kauranen & Maria Virtanen: Sivistyksen ihanne torppari Kustaa Braskin elämässä ja teksteissä 48
Reija Lång: Kirjailijuus välitilassa. Mäkitupalaisen tytär 1800-luvun lopun ja 1900-luvun alun kirjallisella kentällä 80
Työläisälymystö
Jaana Torninoja-Latola: ”Minäkeskeisyyden pyhät kirjat” – Oman identiteetin etsintää Sylvi-Kyllikki Kilven ja Aira Sinervon nuoruuden päiväkirjoissa 115
Hanne Koivisto: Henkisiä aitureita – Jenny Pajunen ja Lauri Vilenius kirjailijoina ja työläisintellektuelleina 147
Suvi Leppämäki: ”Caliban puhuu” – Jean Guéhenno ja työläistaustaisen intellektuellin osa maailmansotien välisen ajan Ranskassa 186
Valistus, koulutus ja itseymmärrys
Taina Uusitalo: Äiti, nainen, toveri – Aatteellisuus velvoittaa naista työväenlehtien kirjoituksissa 1900–1923 213
Andreas McKeough: Vuoden 1918 sodan kokemus työläisten kertomana 228
Joni Krekola: Miten ja miksi Yrjö Sirolasta tuli SKP:n kaaderien isä? 253
Pia Koivunen: Neuvostoliiton Komsomol-nuoret lukutaidottomuutta likvidoimassa 274
Book Chapters by Sami Suodenjoki
Резюме
В статье исследуется, как широко распространенные брошюры, в которых публиковались сборники финских песен, отражали развитие революционных событий и сами подпитывали политическое воображение в Финляндии в 1917–1918 гг. Автор показывает, что Февральская революция в России и финская гражданская война 1918 г. стали ключевыми событиями “аффективного опыта”, стимулировавшими распространение сборников песен и влиявшими на их содержание. В качестве аффективного медиума, сборники песен оспаривали старые формы политической легитимности и укрепляли идеалы классовой солидарности и национального единства, а также этнические стереотипы.
and controversial character in Finnish
history. He was a playwright, a journalist, a socialist,
a Utopian and a Theosophist, as well as a
speaker for free love and women’s rights. Those
involved in the research project Fragmented
visions. Performance, authority and interaction
in early 20th-century Finnish oral-literary traditions
(funded by the Academy of Finland 2014-
2017, www.fragvis.net) singled out Matti Kurikka
because his life concretizes both ideological
tensions and performative practices in late-19th
and early-20th-century Finland. Members of
the project team presented their research at
the FinnForum XI conference in Turku, focusing
on the ethnic and transnational aspects
of Matti Kurikka’s career. Mikko-Olavi Seppälä
concentrated on Matti Kurikka as a playwright;
Sami Suodenjoki charted his political shipwreck
in 1899; Anne Heimo described his time
in Queensland; Mikko Pollari covered his unsuccessful
return to Finland in 1905–1909 and
his multi-phased transnational career; Anna
Rajavuori discussed “kurikkalaisuus” as a label
for dubious policies and ideals in the Finnish
labor movement; and Kirsti Salmi-Niklander
focused on Kurikka’s last years and how he is
remembered in the US.
kansalaiset lähestyivät kenraalikuvernööriä, ja miten maailmansodan poikkeusolot näkyivät heidän kirjeissään?
English abstract: Denunciation fomenting the atmosphere of surveillance in Finland, 1898-1905
At the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, an unprecedented number of Fínnish rural people sent letters to the Chancellery of the Governor-General of Finland. Amid the political turbulence caused by the Russian government's integration measures, these letters inflamed the Finnish-nationalist press because they were presumed to contain political denunciations against other citizens. The letters of denunciation and their senders were extensively covered in the contemporary media, and the alarmed views of nationalist newspapers were later adopted by national historiography, which tended to view denunciations as part of the increasing espionage and surveillance of the imperial regime. However, few scholars have examined the rural letters sent to the imperial government or the people who actually wrote them. This article fills the gap by analysing the content and senders of 206 letters sent from the Finnish countryside to the Governor-General between 1898 and 1905. The article examines the motives and social background of the senders and contemplates how citizens' urge to approach the Governor-General was fuelled by the attempts of the Russian government to tighten its grip over the Finnish civil society.
The article argues that a majority of the senders were lower-class rural inhabitants such as small farmers, tenants and agricultural workers whose letters were essentially motivated by experiences of mistreatment and not having a voice. Most of the letters can be called requests or complaints but many of them also contained denunciations concerning anti-government activity. Typical targets of the denunciations were civil servants, priests and landowners who were accused of circulating seditious literature, agitating against conscription or slandering the tsar or the Governor-General. The Chancellery of the Governor-General welcomed the letters from rural inhabitants as evidence of popular support to the imperial regime and occasionally launched investigations based on the denunciations. In some cases, the denunciations may even have contributed to the arrests and expulsions of nationalist activists. On the other hand, many of the senders ran into difficulties because information about their letters to the Governor-General leaked to the public, exposing them to discrimination by their nationalist fellow inhabitants.
The book explores individual stories and micro-histories of complaints, requests, rumors, and other mediated and unmediated interactions between political institutions and the subjects they claimed to govern or represent. It challenges the approaches of institutionally oriented political historiography and its attention to the top-down construction of political representation, citizenship, and power and powerlessness. The book discusses more subtle forms of agency and the spaces these pertained to, which could indicate contestation or resistance taking place within a framework of loyalty towards the existing political institutions. This research does not only bridge the divide between political and apolitical frames of reference, but it also provides a new perspective on the dichotomy between loyalty and resistance by acknowledging the nuances of these seemingly opposing stances. With case studies from Europe, North Africa, South America, and India, the chapters cover political communication in proto-democratic, democratic, imperial, and authoritarian contexts.
This volume is crucial reading for undergraduates, postgraduates, and scholars in history and social sciences who are interested in political culture and the mechanisms of negotiating local, national, or imperial identities.
Vuosikirjan artikkelit tarkastelevat kuria ja valvontaa useista eri näkökulmista.Ne käsittelevät kontrollia muun muassa työpaikoilla, paikallisyhteisössä, viranomaisasioinnissa ja poliittisissa verkostoissa. Samalla artikkelit kuvaavat tapoja, joilla kuri ja kontrolli operoivat. Klassisen kurinpitovallan ohella artikkeleissa analysoidaan ohjailun, suostuttelun ja itsekontrollin mekanismeja sekä työntekijöiden keinoja vältellä ja vastustaa itseensä kohdistuvaa kontrollia.
Kauppias Winter kuoli naimattomana ja lapsettomana vuonna 1912. Testamentissaan hän ohjasi pääosan omaisuudestaan sivistyksen ja kulttuurin edistämiseen. Winterin perintöä vaalii A. R. Winterin Muistosäätiö, joka tukee lahjoituksillaan Tampereen julkista taidetta, ympäristökuntien pienviljelystä, journalismin kehittämistä ja lukuisia yleishyödyllisiä järjestöjä.
The aim of this research is to use Lindholm as a prism that illuminates the forms and limits of contestation in the early labour movement of rural Finland. Firstly, the study addresses the following questions: which kind of political activity did the shoemaker engage in and what kind of a role did he adopt in the local labour movement? Secondly, the study examines the role of contestation or resistance towards the Establishment in directing Lindholm’s activity. Which forms of contestation did the shoemaker resort to and how did his fellow workers define the acceptable forms of contestation?
By examining Lindholm and his actions, the study addresses a more general question about the repertoire and ideological basis of collective action in rural Finland. Most importantly, which forms of resistance did the rural labour movement adopt during the first decade of the 20th century? What kind of boundaries and tensions appeared inside the movement?
The key source for the study is an autobiographical letter written by Vihtori Lindholm in 1909. In the letter, the shoemaker depicts his vicissitudes during the preceding ten years, focusing particularly on his political activity and family life. To outline Lindholm’s actions, the study also utilises district court records, for Lindholm appeared repeatedly in court as a claimant, defendant and witness. Moreover, Lindholm’s activities are elucidated by the local letters published in labour newspapers and by the minutes, annual reports and membership rolls of workers’ associations. The source material also includes various petitions, reports of the authorities, parish registers, and statistical documents about the economy and population in Urjala.
As mentioned above, Lindholm’s writings consisted of autobiographical narratives, newspaper reports and legal documents. These writings form a valuable source not only for examining the breakthrough of the labour movement, but also for studying the writing practices of common people, that is, the book culture “from below”. At the turn of the 20th century, less than half of the Finnish people aged 15 or over were able to write, and the number of active writers was still relatively limited. With this in mind, Lindholm as an active self-educated writer represents an all the more interesting case for study. By examining the shoemaker’s writing practices, the study gives a better understanding of the ways the lower classes utilised writing as a means of resistance against the elite. Furthermore, Lindholm’s personal writings give information on how common people internalised the national priorities and values promoted by the dominant classes. Evidently, the lower classes may have looked at the nationalistic ideas in ways which did not fit with the nationalistic elite’s point of view.
This study utilises microhistorical approaches originated by such scholars as Carlo Ginzburg, Giovanni Levi and Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie. Microhistory has introduced subjects, groups and people previously considered marginal to historical research, and microhistorical studies have often used exceptional persons and events to illuminate broader structures and phenomena. The term “exceptional typical”, often used in the context of microhistory, is very applicable to shoemaker Lindholm, who was a peculiar person both in his local community and in the labour movement. His exceptional behaviour has produced a wide range of sources which reveal such features of the local labour movement that have been inaccessible to studies relying on more established sources.
This study on Lindholm and the local labour movement is also influenced by “the history from below” approach, which attempts to account for historical events from the perspective of common people. The pioneers of history from below, e.g. E. P. Thompson and E. J. Hobsbawm, have often focused on subjects such as the political mobilisation of the working-class and the early history of the labour movement. This study rests, in particular, on prior research done on the rural workers’ mobilisation in the era of industrialisation. To reveal special characteristics of the rural mobilisation in Finland, the findings of this study are contrasted with previous literature covering other European countries, the Russian empire and even some South-East Asian regions.
The central concept of the research is the “culture of contestation” originally formulated by folklorist Luigi Lombardi-Satriani. I apply this concept to the various forms of resistance and opposition expressed by the common people towards the dominant classes in rural Finland. In traditional rural society, the culture of contestation usually remained hidden in folklore, or was manifested in various forms of everyday resistance, such as slander, pilfering, sabotage and foot-dragging in the workplace. Only in exceptional conditions, such as the time of local turmoil or national revolution, was the contestation transformed into overt and public protest. Around 1900, the socialist labour movement taking root in the Finnish countryside opened up new channels for this overt resistance. Evidently, the movement’s ability to offer the rural workers new means of contestation contributed significantly to the movement’s success in the Finnish countryside.
Viime vuosina yhä useammat tutkijat ovat perehtyneet arkistojen kätköistä löytämiinsä työläisten ja kansanihmisten käsikirjoituksiin, muistelmiin ja päiväkirjoihin. Nämä lähteet tarjoavat uusia mahdollisuuksia rahvaan maailmankatsomuksen, itseymmärryksen ja yhteiskunnallisten pyrkimysten tutkimukselle. Työväen historian ja perinteen tutkimuksen seuran vuosikirjassa 2010 tarkastellaan kirjallisuustieteen, historiantutkimuksen ja folkloristiikan näkökulmista maalais- ja työväestön kirjallistumista 1800-luvulla ja 1900-luvun alkupuolella. Tutkimuksen kohteena ovat niin kansankirjailijat, työläisälymystö kuin työväenliikkeen valistustoimintakin. Kirjan artikkelit osoittavat, että kirjallinen kulttuuri ei ollut "herrojen" yksinoikeus.
Sisällys
Kirsti Salmi-Niklander, Sami Suodenjoki & Taina Uusitalo: Johdanto 7
Kansankirjoittajat sääty-yhteiskunnassa
Anna Kuismin: Hänen itsensä kertomana – 1800-luvun kansanihmiset ja oman elämän kirjoitus 21
Kaisa Kauranen & Maria Virtanen: Sivistyksen ihanne torppari Kustaa Braskin elämässä ja teksteissä 48
Reija Lång: Kirjailijuus välitilassa. Mäkitupalaisen tytär 1800-luvun lopun ja 1900-luvun alun kirjallisella kentällä 80
Työläisälymystö
Jaana Torninoja-Latola: ”Minäkeskeisyyden pyhät kirjat” – Oman identiteetin etsintää Sylvi-Kyllikki Kilven ja Aira Sinervon nuoruuden päiväkirjoissa 115
Hanne Koivisto: Henkisiä aitureita – Jenny Pajunen ja Lauri Vilenius kirjailijoina ja työläisintellektuelleina 147
Suvi Leppämäki: ”Caliban puhuu” – Jean Guéhenno ja työläistaustaisen intellektuellin osa maailmansotien välisen ajan Ranskassa 186
Valistus, koulutus ja itseymmärrys
Taina Uusitalo: Äiti, nainen, toveri – Aatteellisuus velvoittaa naista työväenlehtien kirjoituksissa 1900–1923 213
Andreas McKeough: Vuoden 1918 sodan kokemus työläisten kertomana 228
Joni Krekola: Miten ja miksi Yrjö Sirolasta tuli SKP:n kaaderien isä? 253
Pia Koivunen: Neuvostoliiton Komsomol-nuoret lukutaidottomuutta likvidoimassa 274
denunciations written around the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Particular attention is given to how the rural inhabitants justified their letters to the Governor-General and to the rhetoric strategies they used to furnish the addressee with a rationale to heed their requests. In doing so, the chapter highlights broader questions about the citizens’ uses of letter writing to fashion their identities and to negotiate their relationship with authorities.
The Russian-speaking merchants formed a prominent group in Tampere. This group was influenced by the first period of Russification 1899-1905. The growing Finnish resistance to the Russian administration hampered the chances of the Russian-speaking merchants to carry on trading in the local marketplaces. However, despite a few confrontations of an ethnic nature, no overt racism erupted among inhabitants. The dissatisfaction of the public was directed against the Russian administration, not against Russian people in general.
There was no military presence in Tampere, until the establishment of a garrison in 1913. A force of several thousand Russian soldiers, officers and their families made the presence of the Russian regime more visible. Relations between the Russian soldiers and the Finnish inhabitants remained fairly harmonious until 1917. Henceforward, the two Russian revolutions and a growing unrest among the soldiers increased people's resistance to the military. The public mood became anti-Russian with devastating impacts on Russians during the Finnish Civil War in 1918. Hundreds of Russian soldiers and a number of non-combatant civilians were killed pending the battle of Tampere. Nevertheless, several dozen Russian-speaking inhabitants survived the war and stayed on in Tampere. Preserving a Russian identity was not unproblematic, thus many translated their names into Finnish and acquired Finnish citizenship.
In this paper, I examine this hunt for collaborators in Finland and juxtapose it with the treatment of collaborators of old regimes or enemy powers elsewhere in Europe during and after the First World War. First, I examine the media exposure of the denouncers in 1917 and draw parallels to a similar campaign that had taken place after the General Strike of 1905. I also elucidate the social background of the denouncers, the nature of their contacts with the Russian authorities and the consequences to them of being stigmatized as a collaborator. The sources include documents uncovered from the archives of the gendarme administration, denunciation letters submitted by Finnish citizens to the Governor-General’s office, and press reports on denunciations and collaborators.