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Abstract
This article connects notions of collective memory to the notion of cultural memory. Special interest is given to the role of national myths and other cultural reservoirs in organizing Finnish collective memories during the period from the Civil War of 1918 until the beginning of the Second World War. First the author seeks to uncover the ways both sides of the conflict utilized cultural reservoirs in their memory cultures. Then the author looks into ways in which the Social Democrats especially tried in the late 1930s to transform divisive and even traumatic experiences resulting from the Civil War into socially productive narratives. The transformation of the memory of the internal and reciprocal violence into unifying self-sacrifices proved to be the most crucial act in Finnish memory culture during the first half of the 20th century. This interpretation dates the first acts of public reconciliation to the late 1930s, or the time before the Winter War.
Notes
1 Edkins, Trauma; Scheff, Bloody Revenge; Alexander, et al., Cultural Trauma; for theoretical overviews see e.g. Bell, ‘Mythscapes’, 63–81; Bell, ‘Introduction’, 345–60.
2 Schivelbusch, Culture of Defeat; Forlenza, ‘Sacrificial Memory’, 73–116; Kivimäki and Tepora, ‘Meaningless Death’; for research stressing the connection between small group collective memory and recovery contrary to large group memory politics, see Winter, Sites of Memory; Winter and Sivan, War and Remembrance in the Twentieth Century.
3 Alapuro, State and Revolution, 191–6; Siltala, Sisällissodan psykohistoria, 21–254.
4 For basics, see Upton, Finnish Revolution.
5 Comprehensive statistics on the number and the causes of the casualties can be retrieved from the webpage supported by the Finnish National Archives. War Victims in Finland. http://vesta.narc.fi/cgi-bin/db2www/sotasurmaetusivu/main?lang=en; Tikka, ‘Sodan kokonaistappiot’.
6 Tikka, Kenttäoikeudet.
7 Alapuro, ‘Coping’, 171; Alapuro, ‘What is Western’, 88–94.
8 Jalonen, ‘On Behalf of the Emperor’, 468–94; Laitila, Finnish Guard.
9 Peltonen, Muistin paikat; Kormano, ‘Amputoidun maan pirstoutuneet puut’.
10 Roselius, Kiista, eheys, unohdus; see also Roselius, ‘Commemoration’.
11 Peltonen, Punakapinan muistot, 414–37; Peltonen, ‘Civil War Victims’, 189.
12 For prominent works see Peltonen, Muistin paikat and Roselius, Kiista, eheys, unohdus; see also Ahonen, Coming to Terms, 59–84.
13 Assmann, Religion and Cultural Memory.
14 Ahto, Talvisodan henki; Tepora, Lippu, uhri, kansakunta, 235–46; see also Tepora, Sinun puolestas, 251–64.
15 Alapuro, ‘What is Western’, 94–6.
16 Siltala, Lapuan liike.
17 Soikkanen, Kansallinen eheytyminen.
18 Tikka, Valkoisen hämärän maa.
19 On Communist politics of memory, see Saarela, Suomalaisen kommunismin synty; Saarela, Suomalainen kommunismi; on the politicized role of the Red orphans in the leftist commemorations of the Civil War, see Kaarninen, Punaorvot; on the middle-class politics of memory and the Civil Guards, see Roselius, Kiista, eheys, unohdus.
20 Frevert, Emotions in History, 215; Reddy, Navigation of Feeling, 3–137; Rosenwein, Emotional Communities, 1–31; neither are the emotions treated as secondary subjects in the fashionable neurosciences, as during the last two decades they have risen to the fore of current scientific research; see e.g. Damasio, Descartes’ Error; LeDoux, Emotional Brain; Edelman, Second Nature.
21 Reddy, Navigation of Feeling, 14–15.
22 LeDoux, Emotional Brain; Reddy, Navigation of Feeling.
23 Rosenwein, Emotional Communities, 20–9. Rosenwein does not explicitly state her concept’s closeness to the concept of collective memory.
24 I have decided to use the term collective memory although I am well aware of the term’s shortcomings. By referring to collective memory I do not endorse a monolithic view of one memory shared by everyone in a given society, but instead acknowledge the debate within and between many lines of collective memories. I have been influenced by the classic texts of Maurice Halbwachs, La mémoire collective and On Collective Memory stressing the importance of a specific group memory in interpreting the past. In recent historiography the term collective memory has been replaced with collective remembrance or simple commemoration in order to emphasize the agency of the people and the politics involved in public remembrance, see Winter and Sivan, ‘Setting the Framework’. Further on the nuanced differences in methodology and terminology of collective and social memory, collective remembrance and commemoration, see Fentress and Wickham, Social Memory for the concept of social memory and its social distribution; Winter, ‘Forms of Kinship’, for small group agency in remembrance practices; Confino, ‘Collective Memory’, 1386–403 for the difficulties arising from the application of the concept of ‘collective’ to heterogeneous memories; Misztal, Theories of Social Remembering for a general overview on the various approaches to collective memory.
25 The literature is vast; see e.g. Gillis, Commemorations.
26 Winter and Sivan, ‘Setting the Framework’.
27 Alexander, et al., Cultural Trauma.
28 Bell, ‘Mythscapes’, 74–8.
29 Schwartz, Abraham Lincoln, ix–xi, 6–7, 9–20; Schwartz, Zerubavel, and Barnett, ‘Recovery of Masada’, 164–74.
30 Winter, Sites of Memory, 40, 43–4; Winter and Sivan, ‘Setting the Framework’; Winter 2006, Remembering War, 4, 150–3.
31 Tepora, ‘Redirecting Violence’, 153–70. Obviously the intersection between the high and the low is not possible in totalitarian societies, where collective memories – and collective emotions – are claimed solely by the state. See Merridale, ‘War, Death, and Remembrance’; Figes, Whisperers.
32 Schachter, Gutchess, and Kensinger, ‘Specificity of Memory’, 104–5.
33 Assmann, Religion and Cultural Memory, 3, 24–30; Assmann, ‘Collective Memory’, 129; Forlenza, ‘Sacrificial Memory’, 76–7.
34 Fonagy, et al., Affect Regulation, 3–8.
35 The term established after the war was vapaussota, literally the War of Liberation. The Reds used a variety of names for the war afterwards, notably kansalaissota, which is close to the Civil War, luokkasota, which translates into the Class War, or plain kapina, the Rebellion. The term used most widely today in the historiography and in public discourse is neutral sisällissota, which is used in the same meaning as the English language civil war, but would translate literally into ‘domestic war’.
36 Roselius, Kiista, eheys, unohdus, passim.
37 Siltala, Lapuan liike, 441–53, 497–500.
38 Sillanpää, Hurskas kurjuus (English transl. Meek Heritage).
39 Hemmer, En man och hans samvete (Finnish transl. Mies ja hänen omatuntonsa, English transl. A Fool of Faith).
40 Uusi Suomi, 16 May 1920 and 16 May 1922.
41 Tepora, Lippu, uhri, kansakunta, 145–52, 156–78.
42 On the debate between the extreme right-wing press and the moderate middle-class press concerning commemorative practices beside the military graves of 1918, see Lahden Suunta, 3 January 1935; Pohjolan Suunta, 4 January 1935 and 8 January 1935; Helsingin Sanomat, 10 January 1935.
43 The government illegalized the public display of political flags in 1934 although in practice the flying of workers’ banners had been sanctioned previously; see Tepora, ‘Redirecting Violence’, 160.
44 There are several English translations of Kalevala; for the tale of Kullervo, see e.g. the translation by W.F. Kirby, Kalevala, vol. 2, 68–125.
45 Speech given by Lauri Saariaho in the Flag Day ceremony on Midsummer Day 1932. Uusi Suomi, 26 June 1932.
46 Runeberg, Fänrik Ståls sägner. This campaign between Sweden and Russia resulted in the formation of the Imperial Grand Duchy of Finland.
47 For the late-1930s press debates on the problems of uncompromising War of Liberation interpretation, see Helsingin Sanomat, 8 December 1937; Ajan Suunta, 8 December 1937.
48 The peasant uprising in 1596–1597 in the eastern part of the Kingdom of Sweden, today’s Finland, had its roots in war-weariness and in the military’s and the nobility’s exploitation of the local resources.
49 Ahonen, Coming to Terms, 66–7.
50 Roselius, Teloittajien jäljillä, 69–77.
51 KA. EK-Valpo I Archives. Amp, file 389: V. 1918 kapinallisten haudat; Tikka, Valkoisen hämärän maa, 95–110, 173–9, 196–200.
52 This is based on the parliamentary elections, although the Communists participated in them under cover organizations. For almost all of the 1930s the Communists were banned from nominating candidates to Parliament (eduskunta).
53 KA. EK-Valpo I Archives. Amp, file 390: Vapaussodan ja kapinan 10-vuotismuisto. Oulun alaosaston tilannek. ajalta 1.1–30.1.1928; Saarela, Suomalainen kommunismi.
54 Saarela, Suomalainen kommunismi, 671–2. On the mythological status of the Paris Commune as the forerunner of the world revolutions and its celebration in international Communism, see Schivelbusch, Culture of Defeat, 112.
55 Soikkanen, Kohti kansanvaltaa, vol. I, 309–36; Tuomioja, K. H. Wiik, vol. II, 36.
56 For a succinct overview on ethno-symbolism, see Smith, Ethno-symbolism and Nationalism.
57 Roselius, Teloittajien jäljillä, 69–77.
58 Suomen Sosialidemokraatti, 19 April 1919; K. J. ‘Suomen työväestön ikimuistoinen vappu’, 29–32.
59 Suomen Sosialidemokraatti, 19 April 1919, especially the memorial speech by Taavi Tainio published in the issue; Roselius, Teloittajien jäljillä, 69–77.
60 Kallinen, Hälinää ja hiljaisuutta.
61 Suomen Sosialidemokraatti, 24 September 1923, 28 September 1923 and 2 October 1923; Saarela, Suomalainen kommunismi, 42–3.
62 Suomen Sosialidemokraatti, 17 May 1939; Helsingin Sanomat, 18 May 1939.
63 Parikka, ‘Viimeinen taisto’, 1938.
64 Suomen Sosialidemokraatti, 27 April 1938; Hämeen Kansa, 26 April 1938.
65 Rintamamies, 30 July 1937. For the detailed account of the debate, see Tepora, Lippu, uhri, kansakunta, 179–86. Eventually the flags remained out of the streets until 1940–1941.
66 Kansanvallan puolesta, 1939. The next time the Social Democrats printed the national colours in their electoral advertisement was in 1979.
67 Halonen, Valtiopäivätanssiaisista itsenäisyyspäivän iltajuhliksi, 132–8.
68 Speech given by Emil Cedercreutz in flag ceremony on Midsummer Day in 1939. Suomen Sosialidemokraatti, 26 June 1939.
69 KA. Itsenäisyyden Liitto Archives. File 67: Suomen lipun päivä. Tervehdyssanat Suomen lipun päivänä 24.6.1938. Cf. Speech given by Lauri Saariaho in flag ceremony on Independence Day 1930. Uusi Suomi, 8 December 1930.
70 Väinö Kivisalo, Niiden muistoksi; Suomen Sosialidemokraatti, 22 May 1939; Kivimäki and Tepora, ‘Meaningless Death’, 240–1.
71 Claiming victimhood is not, evidently, a uniquely Finnish quality in the Second World War commemoration. Unique, however, in the Finnish memory culture is the centrality of the Second World War in collective memories and state commemoration at present, only perhaps matched by Russia; see Kivimäki and Tepora, ‘Meaningless Death’, 273.
72 Kainuun Sanomat, 27 January 1938.
73 See e.g. Aamulehti, 27 January 1938; Ilta-Sanomat, 27 January 1938; Svenska Pressen, 27 January 1938.
74 Uusmaan Kunnallislehti, 4 February 1938. This Social Democratic paper quoted an unidentified Conservative paper as evidence on changing attitudes even among White protagonists.
75 Arbetarbladet, 16 May 1938.
76 Helsingin Sanomat, 20 May 1941; Suomen Sosialidemokraatti, 7 December 1942; Uusi Suomi, 16 May 1943; Peltonen, Muistin paikat, 226–7.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Tuomas Tepora
Tuomas Tepora is a postdoctoral fellow at the Department of Philosophy, History, Culture and Art Studies at the University of Helsinki. During the academic year of 2012–2013 he worked as a visiting scholar at the Centre for the History of the Emotions at Queen Mary College, University of London. In 2011, he defended his dissertation at the University of Helsinki on the notions and symbols of sacrifice in early 20th-century Finland, titled ‘The Flag, Sacrifice and the Nation: Collective Experiences and Group Boundaries in Finland, 1917–1945’. Tepora’s book based on his dissertation titled Sinun puolestas elää ja kuolla: Suomen liput, nationalismi ja veriuhri 1917–1945 (Living and Dying for the Nation: The Finnish Flag, Nationalism, and Blood Sacrifice, 1917–1945) received the Finnish ‘Academic Book of the Year 2011’ award in 2012. His current research funded by the Academy of Finland deals with emotions and the cultural history of war in Finland during the Second World War with a particular interest in the formation and the disintegration of the so-called spirit of the Winter War. Address: History Researchers, P. O. Box 4, 00014 Helsingin yliopisto, Finland.