Le Nord : revue internationale des Pays de Nord - 01.06.1943, Side 191

REVUE LITTERAIRE
W 3
Erich, offers a masterly interpre-
tation of the idea of independence
and the firm passive resistance
against the lawless measures of russi-
fication practised by the Czarist
régime from the nineties to the first
Great 'W'ar.
History in a proper sense is found
in “The Background of the In-
dependence,” the chapter of the
Liherté créatrice, interesting in
many ways, written by Professor
Kaarlo Blomstedt, Keeper of the
State Archives. To me, however,
it stands somewhat remote from the
present time in spite of the fact
that it goes down to 1914. Per-
haps this is due to the author’s
eagerness for geographically di-
viding the activity of the state in
the old Swedish-Finnish realm be-
fore 1809 and here especially seek
the background of the independent
Finland of today.
The proofs adduced of the special
position of Finland within the realm
of the Vasas and the Carls, might
probably find parallels in any re-
mote part of the Swedish realm,
even though the continued develop-
ment did not place these in a par-
ticular light. This, in spite of local
characteristics in Finland as else-
where within the extensive realm,
also applies to the higher culture,
until the enthusiastic discovery of
the Finnish element at length gave
an impetus to the work at the
Academy of Ábo and elsewhere.
Ve miss in Blomstedt’s chapter
something of, e. g., an Eirik Horn-
borg’s free view of the unity as
a condition of this old realm, in
which all citizens from south and
west to “the Finn east on the moor”
were the King’s “good men and
true,” as said by Gunno Dahl-
stjerna towards the end of the 17th
century. All languages were alike
to him. One understands very well
Blomstedt’s endeavours to point out
what is characteristic of Finland,
her temper, her language, and con-
nect the free fatherland of the 20th
century with it. But his manner of
trying to do this on the plane of
public work is not convincing. In
a way it looks like patchwork.
Further we miss a clearer reference
to what seems decisive in the se-
paration of the Finnish upper
classes from Sweden: the Swedish
plans of defence, which in their
starting-point to some extent sacri-
ficed Finland in an imagined war
against Russia: all that which leads
to the opposition Klingspor:
Klercker in Fanrik Stal. Bruno
Lesch has excellently elucidated this
background and the reaction these
defence plans produced in Fin-
nish officer and patriot circles in
his book Jan Anders Jdgerhorn
(Helsingfors 1941). And still, it
seems to me, the most important
borderline between Swedish and
Finnish in the old realm on the
whole is not on the plane of
the higher ranks, even though the
direct releasing course of events
and the active politicians of course
are to be found there. What is