The Finnish tradition. Essays on structures and identities in the North of Europe

The essays in this collection were written in the 80s and the 90s, having been prepared for various occasions or publications, but all reflect my present historical ideas. The book is to be seen as a follow-up to my previous collection of historical essays in English, Let us be Finns, 1990, 2nd edition 1992. These shorter pieces have been written parallel with my other books in Finnish and Swedish. Since 1981 I have published some nine shorter books in Finnish and five in Swedish, most of them composed as series of essays or studies around some central idea, in parallel with my project on the history of the University of Helsinki 1640-1990, on which I worked for most of the eighties. The history was published in three volumes 1987-1990, in Finnish and Swedish, and a compendious one-volume edition in German was printed in 1992.

Contents 

Finland and Russia 7 

The Nordic countries (Norden) and Europe 13 

Continuity in Finnish representation 37 

Helsinki and St. Petersburg — the cities of an historical route 63 

Finland and Europe before 1809 69 

The University of Helsinki 81 

The frontier 91 

Finland: from Napoleonic legacy to Nordic co-operation 99 

Runeberg's two homelands 119 

The opera and the spirit of the times 138 

The evolution of the linguistic situation in Finland 149 

A patriotic enterprise 175 

Mannerheim's ride to China 183 

The germanophile university 201 

St. Petersburg — a cultural city 215 

The north, nature, and poverty: some background to the Nordic identity 225 

Finnish russophobia in the twenties: character and historical roots 237 

To the reader 263