Le Nord : revue internationale des Pays de Nord - 01.06.1943, Síða 188

170
LE NORD
within Finland after 1918 and also
the grand progress during the period
of 1918—39 and the background
of the heroic army recruited from
the people which during the winter
1939—40 struck the world with
amazement. Hirn’s book on the
Akademiska Bokhandeln naturally
leads on to Professor K. R. Bro-
therus’s excellent survey of the
scientific culture and Eino Sor-
munen’ s chapter in the Liberté
créatrice on the church and on
spiritual life in Finland.
To give an idea in this place of
scientific work in Finland during
the twenty good years with their
truly glorious continuation during
the years of war would carry us too
far. A reference to the unpretentious,
clear information offered by the
Liberté créatrice will have to suf-
fice. The figure 7,000, the number
of students in 1939 at the Univer-
sity of Helsingfors, to which we
should add those of various colleges,
the Academy and the Finnish Uni-
versity of Ábo, must, however, be
included in our picture. In its
eloquent way it affirms how aca-
demical studies in Finland have
grown into a factor popular beyond
all comparison during the years of
peace. Nobody who has been tra-
velling in Finland could help no-
ticing the spreading of the student’s
cap in all classes. How it contri-
butes to giving the atmosphere in
Sillanpaa’s description of Finnish
villages! How vigorously every-
thing has developed which it sym-
bolizes, in the school system of Fin-
land no less than in forestry and
agriculture (in the Liberté créatrice
there are expert accounts by Eino
Saari and N. Westermarck)! The
patience of Farmer Paavo in Rune-
berg’s poem has been replaced by
trained agriculturists’ and foresters’
persistent energy and active interest,
by AlV-methods, etc., with which
frost and scarcity of fodder and
others of the old enemies of Finnish
agriculture are fought. It is a new
actively fighting school of farmers
that have grown up. Their courage
during the war has proved not to
be second to that of any other
generation.
It is captivating to parallel the
peaceful and military effort with
the leisure time. “The Stage-Struck
Peasant” Kaarlo Marjanen has
called his remarkable chapter on
the Finnish theatre and the interest
in the theatre and theatricals in the
country. It shows us the popular
background to the theatres of Hel-
singfors and other towns. Towards
the end of the thirties it was cal-
culated that about 20,000 per-
formances of amateur theatricals
a year were launched — from
humorous pieces of the simplest
kind to heroic attempts at perform-
ing great dramatic works. It is a
characteristic feature of the picture
of rural Finland in peace. It should
not be forgotten in an account of
the background of the heroic
achievements of the country in
1939.