Finland’s Great Famine, 1856-68 303119473X, 9783031194733

Table of contents :
Translations and spellings
Acknowledgements
Contents
About the Author
List of Figures
Chapter 1: Finland’s Great Famine: Introduction
When Was the Great Finnish Famine?
Nineteenth-Century Finland: Geography and Rural Society
Famine in Finland: Terminology and Euphemisms
Chapter Overview
References
Bibliography
Official Reports
Newspapers
Printed Secondary Sources
Chapter 2: Famine in a Home Rule Land
“Sivistys Is the Only Salvation”—Autonomous Finland in the Russian Empire
“Finnishness” and Empire
Finland’s Economic Progress
“Famine Is Foreseen”: Entering the Great Hunger Years
“Skeleton-Like People Lying among Rags”. The Disaster of 1867–8
Conclusion
References
Bibliography
National Archives of Finland
Finnish Literature Society
Official Reports
Websites
Newspapers
Printed Secondary Sources
Chapter 3: Emergency Nutrition: Promoting Self-Sufficiency
Hunger Gaps and Surrogate Foods
“How Contemporary!”: The Use of Pine Bark Phloem
Education in Lichen Bread and Mushrooms
Panic and Patriotism: Food Propaganda, “Improvement” and the Impending Disaster
After the Frost Night
The Sea Doesn’t Compensate
Access to Foodstuffs
Conclusion
References
Bibliography
Finnish National Archives, Helsinki
Hull History Centre
UK National Archives, London
Snellman’s Correspondence
Official Reports
Newspapers
Printed Secondary Sources
Chapter 4: Domestic Charity: Nation Building in a Time of Crisis
Internal Aid in Finland—1856–7
Internal Aid in Finland—1862–3
Self-Sufficiency and Compassion Fatigue—1866–8
Helsinki in 1867–8
Other Parts of Finland
Conclusion
References
Bibliography
Official Reports
Newspapers
Printed Secondary Sources
Chapter 5: External Philanthropy 1856–1868
Overseas Aid to Finland 1856–1868: An Overview
Foreign Motivations for Charitable Interventions, 1856–1868
General Humanitarian Narratives
Imperial Connections
Scandinavian Connections
Other Ethnic and Linguistic Connections
Religious Connections
Business Connections
Knowledge of Finland and Personal Connections
Overseas Aid and the Fennomane Self-Sufficiency Narrative
Conclusion
References
Bibliography
National Library of Finland, Helsinki
National Board of Antiquities, Helsinki
Official Reports
Newspapers
Printed Secondary Sources
Chapter 6: Vagrancy and Perceptions of Crime
Migration in Nineteenth-Century Finland
Internal Migration and the Great Hunger Years
Overview 1856–1867
Bracing for the Worst
The Culmination of the Great Hunger Years
Conclusion
References
Bibliography
Snellman’s Correspondence
UK National Archives, London
Official Reports
Films
Newspapers
Printed Secondary Sources
Chapter 7: Relief Works Schemes
Relief Work in Finland
Road and smaller-scale local initiatives
Canal Work
Railway Work
Conclusion
References
Bibliography
Finnish Literature Society Archives, Helsinki
Finnish National Archives, Helsinki
Kuopio Museum
UK National Archives, London
Snellman’s Correspondence
Official Reports
Newspapers
Printed Secondary Sources
Chapter 8: Seeking Refuge Outside of Finland
Migration to Russia and the Russian Empire
Migration to Scandinavia
Migration to North America
Conclusion
References
Bibliography
Finnish National Archives, Helsinki
Official Reports
Newspapers
Printed Secondary Sources
Chapter 9: Conclusion
Contemporary Notions of Culpability
Counter-Hegemonic Narratives
Hard Times: The Work of Lost Generations
References
Bibliography
Snellman’s Correspondence
Newspapers
Websites
Printed Secondary Sources
Bibliography
Manuscript and Archival Sources
National Board of Antiquities, Helsinki
National Archives of Finland, Helsinki
National Library of Finland, Helsinki
Finnish Literature Society
Hull History Centre
Kuopio Museum
UK National Archives, London
Printed Sources
Snellman’s Correspondence
Official Reports
Films
Websites
Newspapers
Other Printed and Secondary Sources
Index

Citation preview

Finland’s Great Famine, 1856–68 Andrew G. Newby

Finland’s Great Famine, 1856–68

Andrew G. Newby

Finland’s Great Famine, 1856–68

Andrew G. Newby Department of History & Ethnology University of Jyväskylä JYVÄSKYLÄ, Finland

ISBN 978-3-031-19473-3    ISBN 978-3-031-19474-0 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-19474-0 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors, and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG. The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland

To Ossian and Ronan

Translations and spellings

Translations throughout the book are my own unless otherwise stated. On the advice of the publisher, alphabetisation follows English-language conventions, which (counter-intuitively for some) means that diacritics are being ignored, and the letters “Å”, “Ä” and “Ö” are treated as “A”, “A” and “O” respectively, rather than being at the end of the alphabet. In places where V and W were interchangeable in contemporary written Finnish/Swedish, and other than in quotations, I have used “V”. This is, of course, especially relevant to the references and bibliography.

Place Names Many of the Finnish place names mentioned in the text had different Finnish and Swedish forms. In the nineteenth century, and indeed for some time after independence in 1917, international observers tended to use the Swedish form. However, for the sake of clarity for researchers perhaps not familiar with Finland, I have used the modern forms of place names throughout the book. This “policy” means that a place with a Finnish-speaking majority in 2022 will be called by its Finnish name, and a majority Swedish-speaking place will be called by its Swedish name. The table below gives some of the most common examples, with an asterisk indicating the form used in the main text.

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Translations and spellings

Table 0.1  Selected Finnish/Swedish place names Finnish name

Swedish name

Hamina* Helsinki* Karjaa Kokkola* Kristiinankaupunki Lappfjärd* Maksamaa Närpiö Oulu* Pietarsaari Pori* Raahe* Turku* Uusikaupunki* Vaasa* (Waasa)

Fredrikshamn Helsingfors Karis* Gamla Karleby Kristinestad* Lapväärtti Maxmo* Närpes* Uleåborg Jakobstad* Björneborg Brahestad Åbo Nystad Vasa (Wasa)

Veteli* Viipuri*

Vetil Vyborg

Other notes

Swedish form Karleby from 1977.

Nicolainkaupunki/Nicolaistad 1855-1917. Yliveteli/Öfvervetil in nineteenth century. Also e.g. Wiborg, Viborg.

Acknowledgements

The number of intellectual debts I have accrued during the writing of this book, and putting together the exhibition that preceded it, are considerable. Encouragement to write a thematic overview of the 1860s Finnish famine came from several colleagues in the NWO (Dutch Research Council) funded Heritages of Hunger research consortium. Members of this group have provided wonderful company and stimulating collaborations, as well as reliable and forthright critiques of my work. So, huge thanks to: Marguérite Corporaal, Charley Boerman, Christopher Cusack, Peter Gray, Lindsay Jansen, Lotte Jensen, Jason King, Anne Lahtinen, Kersti Lust, Emily Mark Fitzgerald, Mark McGowan, Ruud van den Beuken, Anne van Mourik and Matleena Vepsäläinen. I’ve also been privileged to work with Cormac Ó Gráda and Antti Häkkinen over the last few years, and both have been very supportive and generous with their time and advice. And, because life isn’t neatly compartmentalised, I would also like to acknowledge colleagues from earlier in my academic career, but especially Laurence Gouriévidis (who as my undergraduate tutor introduced me to academic research, and with whom I’ve been delighted to collaborate once more under the Heritages of Hunger umbrella), and Alvin Jackson (who on a dark winter Helsinki evening, over a cup of coffee, gave me the firm but friendly kick needed to commit to this book project). Although I hope it will facilitate comparative research, this overview of Finland’s Great Hunger Years is not in itself meant as a comparative history in any scientific sense. It is, though, obviously written with an external (Irish) gaze. With this in mind, the decisions I have made with regard ix

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to themes were very much inspired by questions that arose before, during and after the Nälkä! The Great Finnish Famine exhibition’s time in Ireland, and hope that this will provide a basis for further comparative reflections and collaborations. Thanks therefore go to all my friends, family and colleagues in Ireland who have made direct or indirect contributions to the book, or otherwise looked after me, especially Caroilín Callery, Brian Casey, Denis Casey, Declan Curran, Steve Dolan, Barbara Foley, Róisín Healy, Anne Karhio, Liam Kennedy, Christine Kinealy, Jonathon Linklater, Ciaran McDonough, Gerard Moran, John O’Driscoll, Cathal Póirtéir and Ciarán Reilly. Further afield, thanks to Pertti Ahonen, Piia Einonen, Özge Ertem, Frederike Felcht, Pirkko Hautamäki, Tiina Hemminki, Anna Kuismin, Jana Lainto, Anna Luhtala, Timo Myllyntaus, Timo Särkkä, Heli Valtonen and Liesl Yamaguchi for their support, encouragement, translation advice and other valuable insights. I remain grateful to my former colleague Anu Lahtinen, whose gift several years ago of an old copy of Kun Halla Nälän Tuskan Toi has proved invaluable ever since. I have been lucky enough to work in Finland during a time when research into the Great Hunger Years has flourished, and I have been able to collaborate to various degrees with an inspiring new generation of scholars. In particular, Elisa (Eliza) Kraatari has always given me excellent advice on broader aspects of rural Finnish society, and has been a valued comrade in projects relating to famine memory. Miikka Voutilainen’s work on the social, economic and demographic impacts of the 1860s, particularly in his sharp identification of vulnerable social groups, has taken Finnish famine research to a new level. I also want to thank Miikka for his foresight in scanning a range of oral material from EPO/SHS prior to the March 2020 archival shutdowns, which meant that I had access to important primary sources that would otherwise have been off limits. Henrik Forsberg’s comparative work (on Finland/Ireland and more recently on the two sides of the Gulf of Bothnia) has provided welcome and overdue new perspectives. I’ve had valuable chats with, and pointers from, Elina Hakoniemi, Heidi Hirvonen, Tuomas Jussila, Heikki Kokko, Kaisa Kyläkoski, Pirjo Markkola, Lari Rantanen, Samira Saramo and Lotta Vuorio. Juuso Koskinen was an excellent research assistant in the run-up to the Nälkä! exhibition’s opening in 2017, especially in his collection of primary oral sources from the Finnish Literature Society’s archives. The research for this book has been supported by a number of organisations and foundations during various interrelated projects: The Royal Society of Edinburgh awarded me a Caledonian Research Foundation

 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 

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grant in 2007, which allowed me to spend the summer of 2008 going through, amongst other things, printed versions of J.V. Snellman’s letters in the late lamented Topelia library (University of Helsinki); Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies; Academy of Finland (grants 1264940 and 1257696); Aarhus Institute for Advanced Studies / Marie Skłodowska-­ Curie Actions (MSCA); Tampere Institute for Advanced Social Research / Kone Foundation; NWO / Dutch Research Council. The Nälkä! Finnish Famine Exhibition, on which this book is loosely based, was hosted at a variety of venues in Ireland and Finland. In this respect, it has been a privilege to collaborate with the Irish Heritage Trust / National Famine Museum, Strokestown Park; NUI Galway / Hardiman Library; Irish Workhouse Centre, Portumna; Oulu Irish Festival / Brent Cassidy; IASR / Tampere University. Special thanks also to Catherine O’ Brien (Think Studio, Newry) who took expert care of the exhibition’s graphic design. I want to express gratitude to the staff of the various libraries and archives I have used in researching this book. In particular: the National Library of Finland; Library of the Finnish Parliament; Finnish Literature Society Library; Finnish Heritage Agency Library; Helsinki University Library (Kaisatalo); Jyväskylä University Library (Lähde); Oulu City Library; Joensuu Main Library; Kuopio Museum; Lund University Library; Uppsala City Library; Finnish National Archives; Hardiman Library (NUI Galway); Jackie Clarke Collection Library, Ballina; Linen Hall Library, Belfast; National Library of Scotland; Bodleian Library, Oxford; British Library; National Archives (London); Hull History Centre Archives. I would like to highlight the earlier work of the National Library of Finland, the Royal Danish Library, the National Library of Sweden (KB) and National Archives of Finland, for digitising vast amounts of important material and allowing it to be accessed freely by all researchers. Finally, I want to pay special tribute to the HELMET library network in Finland’s capital region for its exceptional efforts in maintaining access to books during the global pandemic in 2020-22. Finland’s public library network is fantastic and should not be taken for granted. My family have been my main support during the writing process, tolerating often quite morbid observations and reflections. My mother, Bernadette, had the mad idea of me going to university in the first place, which ultimately led to this sort of caper. Latterly, my wee boys Ossian and Ronan, and my wife Elisa, have been subjected to regular wild goose chases through all of Finland’s historical provinces while I looked for a

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memorial or famine-related ruin. Elisa remains “the soul, the spark that drives me on”, and moreover her old, heavily annotated copy of Talous, Valta ja Valtio was my first introduction to Finland’s Great Hunger a couple of decades ago, and has been referred to regularly ever since. As well as the constructive criticism of colleagues and friends, I have benefitted from the comments of anonymous reviewers at different stages of this book’s development, comments for which I have been extremely grateful. Naturally, any errors of omission, commission, interpretation or translation are entirely mine. Jyväskylä, September 2022

Andrew G. Newby

Contents

1 Finland’s Great Famine: Introduction  1 2 Famine in a Home Rule Land 23 3 Emergency Nutrition: Promoting Self-­Sufficiency 69 4 Domestic Charity: Nation Building in a Time of Crisis101 5 External Philanthropy 1856–1868131 6 Vagrancy and Perceptions of Crime167 7 Relief Works Schemes199 8 Seeking Refuge Outside of Finland229 9 Conclusion263 Bibliography283 Index309

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About the Author

Andrew G. Newby  is Senior Lecturer in Transnational and Comparative History at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland. He has worked previously at the Universities of Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Helsinki, Aarhus and Tampere, and he holds two docentships: Docent in European Area and Cultural Studies (Helsinki, 2008) and Docent in Transnational and Comparative History (Tampere, 2021). His previous works include: The Life and Times of Edward McHugh 1853-1915: Land Reformer, Trade Unionist and Labour Activist (2005); Ireland, Radicalism and the Scottish Highlands c. 1870-1912 (2007); Michael Davitt: New Perspectives (2009, ed. with Fintan Lane); Language, Space and Power: Urban Entanglements (ed. with Jani Vuolteenaho, Lieven Ameel & Maggie Scott, 2012); Famines in European Economic History: The Last Great European Famines Reconsidered (2015, ed. with Declan Curran & Lubomyr Luciuk); Éire na Rúise: An Fhionlainn agus Éire ar thóir na Saoirse (2016); “The Enormous Failure of Nature”: Famine and Society in Nineteenth Century Europe (ed., 2017); and Lutheranism and Social Responsibility (ed. with Nina Javette Koefoed, 2022).

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List of Figures

Fig. 1.1

Fig. 1.2

Finland’s Provinces and Historical Regions, 1881. The map demonstrates how regional and provincial (denoted here with the Swedish LÄN) identities overlapped in the Grand Duchy of Finland. For example, the northernmost province (Uleåborg/ Oulu) contains the historical region of Lappmark as well as the northern part of Österbotten (Pohjanmaa/Ostrobothnia). Vasa (Vaasa) Province encompasses the southern part of Österbotten, the north-eastern extremity of Sadakunda (Satakunta) and a large part of northern Tavastehus (Häme). The eastern province of Kuopio was made up of parts of Karelen (Karjala/Karelia), Savolaks (Savo/Savonia) and Tavastehus (Häme). Moreover, it is also apparent why places such as Jyväskylä or Laukaa, although seemingly well connected by waterways to other parts of Finland, were considered “remote” in relation to their provincial seats (in this case, far-off Vaasa). The map also demonstrates (in the south-east) the relative proximity to Finland of the imperial capital, St. Petersburg. (Source: Gustaf Retzius, Finland i Nordiska Museet: några bidrag till kännedomen om finnarnes gamla ödling (Helsingfors, 1881), 177. Courtesy of the National Library of Finland) Provinces of Finland 1831–1918. (1) Turku & Pori; (2) Uusimaa; (3) Oulu; (4) Mikkeli; (5) Vaasa; (6) Kuopio; (7) Viipuri; (8) Häme. Place names (municipalities, villages etc.) in the main text are described in reference to the provinces in this map. (Map by Mapsed (10 Oct. 2016). Licensed under Creative Commons CC BY-SA 4.0)

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List of Figures

Fig. 1.3

Fig. 1.4

Fig. 2.1

Fig. 2.2

Annual Deaths per 1000 in the Grand Duchy of Finland 1809–1918. Finland’s existence as a Grand Duchy of the Russian Empire (1809–1917) was bookended by war, reflected in the elevated mortality at either end of this graph. Other spikes in death rates tended to be caused by harvest failure and subsequent famine conditions (including contagious diseases). The most notable occurrences are in 1833 (4.8% mortality), 1856 (3.4%), 1863 (2.9%), 1866 (3.4%), 1867 (3.8%) and 1868 (8%). Although international attention was drawn to famines in Finland again in 1892–1893 and 1902–1903, death rates were significantly lower as a result of prompt anti-famine measures and overseas aid. (Source: Antti Häkkinen, “Suomen 1860luvun nälkäkatastrofi—syitä ja seurauksia”, Duodecim 127:33 (2012), 2425–30) “When we came to pick her up, she was dead”. Image from Mme Fernande De Lysle, Au Pays Des Mille Lacs—Scènes De La Vie Rurale En Finlande (Paris, 1897). Illustration by F. Raffin. The story is set as “famine, the hideous monster” had visited Finland, “around 1850”. In a recurrent literary trope, an emaciated mother and her young daughter had migrated probably around six hundred kilometres from Ostrobothnia, before arriving at the village of Tervola, near Muolaa, in Viipuri Province. Here she sought the mercy of an Orthodox priest before collapsing. (Courtesy of the National Library of Finland) A representation of key socio-economic elements (rye prices, mortality rates, estimation of vagrancy rates, numbers employed on relief works, and amounts of charitable donations) of the final months of Finland’s Great Hunger Years (May 1867 to Feb. 1869). (Source: Antti Häkkinen & Andrew G. Newby, “Nälkäkriisi-Suomi: kansainvälinen apu ja kotimaiset panostukset”, in Juhani Koponen & Sakari Saaritsa (eds), Nälkämaasta Hyvinvointivaltioksi: Suomi kehityksen kiiniottajana (Helsinki, 2019), 93–110: 96, Fig 5.1. See fn. 16 for more details on sources. I am grateful to Antti Häkkinen for permission to reproduce this graph) Mortality rates in Finland, 1868. Darker colouring reflects higher mortality, with the black shading representing areas that lost more than a quarter of their inhabitants. The accompanying article, by Edvard Gylling, is a socialist interpretation of the events of the Great Hunger Years (see below, Ch. 9). Gylling was, however, a statistician by training and the patterns of mortality indicated on the map is supported by more recent

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  List of Figures 

Fig. 3.1

Fig. 4.1

Fig. 4.2

Fig. 5.1

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research by, for example, Miikka Voutilainen. Edvard Gylling, “Nälkävuodet 1867–68. Puolivuosisataismuisto”, Työväen kalenteri, XI 1918, Helsinki, 117. (Personal collection of the author)52 An interesting, sardonic, comment on national priorities and the scramble to find suitable sources of nutrition appeared in Hufvudstadsbladet in November 1867. A plan for a new and very costly chemistry building for Helsinki’s university—later called “Arppeanum”—was given the sarcastic subtitle: “project for a new national laboratory for chemical research into emergency bread ingredients”. The subtext was that, while Finland’s civic elites were constructing imposing assertions of “sivistys”, large swathes of the country were on the brink of starvation. The building, just off Senate Square in Helsinki, is said to have cost more than the nearby Russian Orthodox (Uspenski) Cathedral, which was being built at the same time. Illustration by Walter Forss. Hufvudstadsbladet, 25 Nov. 1867. (Courtesy of the National Library of Finland) 86 Vagrants waiting on the perimeter of a manor house during the Great Hunger Years, hoping for charity from the better-off members of society. From a short story by Rauma-born journalist Eva Charlotta Ljungberg (1850–1919), writing as “Draba Verna”. (Illustration by Laurell. “Draba Verna”, “Katowuodelta 1868”, in Kansanwalistus-Seuran Kalenteri 1888 (Helsinki, 1887), 91–8. Courtesy of the National Library of Finland) 117 Programme for Ida Basilier’s concert in Kaivohuone, Helsinki, 4 Jun. 1868. The entry charge of 2mk 50p. was “for the benefit of the distressed”. Hufvudstadsbladet, 3 Jun. 1868. (Courtesy of the National Library of Finland) 121 One of the few contemporary photographs from the famine years in Finland. It shows a meal provided by English donations on Good Friday (10 April) 1868, for hungry children in the town of Tampere. The photograph was taken to show English donors the good work that was being done with their money. “Nälkävuoden 1868 pitkäperjantaina sadalle köyhälle tarjottu päivällinen”. (National Board of Antiquities, Antell Collection, HK10002:474. Licensed under Creative Commons CC BY-SA 4.0) 142

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List of Figures

Fig. 6.1 Robert Wilhelm Ekman. Beggar Family on the Road, 1860. Oil on Canvas, 35.0 × 44.5 cm. Photo: Finnish National Gallery / Hannu Aaltonen. (Courtesy of the Finnish National Gallery / Ateneum Art Museum) Fig. 7.1 Construction works at the Taipale Canal worksite, 1868. Arnold Boos (photographer), Victor Barsokevitsch (developer). Courtesy of Kuopio Cultural History Museum KHMBV3258. Licensed under Creative Commons CC BY-SA 4.0 Fig. 7.2 Plan of the new railway’s route, engraving by Walter Forss. Hufvudstadsbladet, 17 Feb. 1868. Courtesy of the National Library of Finland Fig. 8.1 Juho Reijonen’s short story “On The Hunger Year: A Karelian Tale” (1893) follows the migration of a family from Kuohatti, North Karelia, as they struggle to reach Aunus during winter 1867-68. Illustration by Louis Sparre. Juho Reijonen, “Nälkävuonna: karjalainen kertomus”, Nuori Suomi 3 (1893), 6-21. Courtesy of the National Library of Finland Fig. 9.1 The “Christmas Goat” (a regional manifestation of e,g, Santa Claus) brings the gifts of sedulity and thrift to the Finnish people, in the middle of the “Hunger Winter” of 1867–1868. (Illustration by Walter Forss. Hufvudstadsbladet, 24 Dec. 1867. Courtesy of the National Library of Finland) Fig. 9.2 Panel from the 2017–2020 exhibition, Nälkä! The Great Finnish Famine. This panel features Louis Sparre’s cover illustration from K.A. Tavaststjerna’s Hårda Tider (1891). (Photo: Andrew G. Newby) Fig. 9.3 The memorial to the “Work of Lost Generations”, Asikkala (Vääksy), January 2017. (Photo: Andrew G. Newby)

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CHAPTER 1

Finland’s Great Famine: Introduction

In the spring of 1868, the Grand Duchy of Finland was firmly in the grip of a famine that, in terms of percentage mortality, remains one of history’s worst human disasters (Figs.  1.1 and 1.2).1 Hunger and the associated famine diseases were rife throughout the southern half of Finland, with over 8% of the total population perishing in 1868—an appalling national-­ level statistic that grew to over 23% in some municipalities.2 In Pielavesi (Savonia, Kuopio Province), some 2089 deaths—from a population of around 13,000—were recorded officially between 1866 and 1868.3 Here, eyewitnesses later described lines of coffins: …which flanked both sides of the road all the way from the rocks of Kirkkosaari beach, to the gates of the graveyard. Those who made it first to the church were able to place their dead by the gate of graveyard—it was quite a competition, over who would be first. So the coffins were laid on both sides of the road, side by side, coffin to coffin, and it has been said that 1  Cormac Ó Gráda, “The Great Famine and Today’s Famines”, in John Crowley, William J. Smyth & Mike Murphy (eds), Atlas of the Great Irish Famine (Cork, 2012), 650–7: 651, Fig. 1a; Cormac Ó Gráda, Famine: A Short History (Princeton, 2009), 23–4, Table 1.1. 2  Helsingfors Dagblad, 14 Oct. 1871; A.M., “Nödåren på 1860-talet”, Finland, 29 Feb. 1892; Oiva Turpeinen, Nälkä vai tauti tappoi? Kauhunvuodet 1866–1868 (Helsinki, 1986), 105, Fig. 13. 3  Suomenmaan Wirallinen Tilasto: VI—Väkiluvun-Tilastoa [1:n Vihko] (Helsinki, 1871), 40–1; Suomenmaan Wirallinen Tilasto: VI—Väkiluvun-Tilastoa [2:n Vihko] (Helsinki, 1871), 92–3.

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 A. G. Newby, Finland’s Great Famine, 1856–68, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-19474-0_1

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Fig. 1.1  Finland’s Provinces and Historical Regions, 1881. The map demonstrates how regional and provincial (denoted here with the Swedish LÄN) identities overlapped in the Grand Duchy of Finland. For example, the northernmost

1  FINLAND’S GREAT FAMINE: INTRODUCTION 

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Fig. 1.2  Provinces of Finland 1831–1918. (1) Turku & Pori; (2) Uusimaa; (3) Oulu; (4) Mikkeli; (5) Vaasa; (6) Kuopio; (7) Viipuri; (8) Häme. Place names (municipalities, villages etc.) in the main text are described in reference to the provinces in this map. (Map by Mapsed (10 Oct. 2016). Licensed under Creative Commons CC BY-SA 4.0)

Fig. 1.1  (continued) province (Uleåborg/Oulu) contains the historical region of Lappmark as well as the northern part of Österbotten (Pohjanmaa/ Ostrobothnia). Vasa (Vaasa) Province encompasses the southern part of Österbotten, the north-­eastern extremity of Sadakunda (Satakunta) and a large part of northern Tavastehus (Häme). The eastern province of Kuopio was made up of parts of Karelen (Karjala/Karelia), Savolaks (Savo/Savonia) and Tavastehus (Häme). Moreover, it is also apparent why places such as Jyväskylä or Laukaa, although seemingly well connected by waterways to other parts of Finland, were considered “remote” in relation to their provincial seats (in this case, far-off Vaasa). The map also demonstrates (in the south-east) the relative proximity to Finland of the imperial capital, St. Petersburg. (Source: Gustaf Retzius, Finland i Nordiska Museet: några bidrag till kännedomen om finnarnes gamla ödling (Helsingfors, 1881), 177. Courtesy of the National Library of Finland)

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there were days when those who arrived last from the furthest reaches of the parish had to leave their dead on the rocks of the shore. Therefore, the approximately three hundred metre journey to the gates of the graveyard, was completely full.4

In the Karelian parish of Lieksa (Kuopio Province), the death rates were even higher, and it was remembered that “young men were falling like rotten tree trunks…The church bell tower was full of these carcasses as coffins could not be made quickly enough”.5 From Ostrobothnia, came news that “hardly anywhere” in Finland was in a worse position than Alajärvi (Vaasa Province), where ten people a day [were] dying from hunger.6 From Upper Satakunta (Turku-Pori Province)—where Parkano suffered the worst death rates of any Finnish municipality in 1868—former Social Democratic MP Juhani Lautasalo recalled in 1929 the “starvation deaths” of the Great Hunger Years, and how victims collapsed into an “eternal sleep”. Lautasalo added that the hunger pains of 1868 were akin to those he suffered in the notorious Hennala prison camp during the Finnish Civil War of 1918.7 The unfolding disaster in Finland was reported widely throughout Europe. Great Britain’s consul in Helsinki, William Campbell, summarised Finland’s position in the winter of 1867–1868: One night’s frost blackened all the crops, and plunged the whole country into misery, famine and despair. To add to the distress, that dreadful malady—the “famine typhus”—soon made its appearance and, for the last six months, has been making fearful ravages among the starving thousands. No district, from the north of Finland to the south, has escaped it; and at this moment, even in Helsingfors, it is carrying off hundreds of both rich and poor.8

4  Testimony of Maria Tiitinen, born 1860 (quoted in Riitta Raatikainen, “Pielavedellä nälkään kuoli yli 2000 ihmistä”, Savon Sanomat, 5 May 2016). 5  I.M., “Muistitietoja Pielisjärven pitäjän entisyydestä”, Kotiseutu, 1 Oct. 1917. 6  “Alajärvi”, Helsingfors Dagblad, 23 May 1868. 7  Juhani Lautasalo, “Muistelmia nälkävuosien ajoilta Satakunnan pohjoisilta perukoilta, Parkanon, Karvian ja Hongonjoen kunnista”, Uusi Aika, 9 Jul., 11 Jul., 13 Jul. 1929. 8  William Campbell, “Report by Mr. Consul Campbell on the Trade of Finland for the Year 1867”, in Commercial Reports Received at the Foreign Office from Her Majesty’s Consuls in 1868 (London, 1868), 416–9: 416. Reprinted in various British newspapers in July 1868.

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In Denmark, meanwhile, it was reported that Finland represented “an image of the deepest lamentation and most heart-breaking distress. Typhus and other diseases are rampant like wildfire, and the overall lack of food is terrible”.9 Spanish readers learned of the “daily-increasing misery” among the Finns, and the fact that “the future appears even more threatening” because of the spread of diseases and the use of inappropriate substitute foods.10 And in the German state of Saxony, citizens of Dresden were presented with a letter from a doctor in an unspecified Finnish parish, which described the interior of a rural croft: At this misery… all human emotions are lost. Without a tear, without a sigh, one sees another sinking dead at his feet and thinks that soon, it will also be [their] lot. If I go into a hut where the father or mother or both are sick and offer them medicine, the first word there is always: get a drop of milk and a bite of bread for the starving children, but leave us alone to lay and die, because if we rise again from illness, we will just have to die of hunger.11

As alluded to by William Campbell in his report, the immediate trigger for this cataclysm was the notorious “Frost Night” of 3–4 September, 1867, when crops across swathes of Finland were destroyed by a persistent and familiar foe, early frosts.12 The sowing season had been late in 1867—the claim that lakes had remained iced over until June appears regularly in memoirs—and a long growing season was needed to ensure even an average harvest. Any such hopes were dashed by the Frost Night.13 The crisis, however, had been building for a much longer period, indeed for most of the 1860s and, in some parts of Finland, for a few years more.14 During 9  “Hungersnøden i Finland”, Sjællands Posten, 2 Apr. 1868. Based on the report of the relief committee in Haderslev, Haderslev Avis, 28 Mar. 1868. 10  Boletin de Comercio (Santander), 14 Feb. 1868. 11  “Hungersnoth in Finnland”, Dresdner Nachrichten, 3 Mar. 1868. Although not named in the German report, the doctor in question was Frans Edward Lybeck, and the report from Ikaalinen (Sanomia Turusta, 24 Jan. 1868). 12  Timo Myllyntaus, “Summer Frost: A Natural Hazard with Fatal Consequences in Preindustrial Finland”, in Christof Mauch & Christian Pfister (eds.), Natural Disasters, Cultural Responses: Case Studies Towards a Global Environmental History (Lanham, MD, 2009), 77–102; Miikka Voutilainen, Poverty, Inequality and the Finnish 1860s Famine (Jyväskylä, 2016), 78. 13  Arvi Raivio, “Syyshallat 70 vuotta sitten ja Nälkävuosi 1867–68”, Uusi Suomi, 21 Sep. 1937. 14  Kari Pitkänen, Deprivation and Disease: Mortality During the Great Finnish Famine of the 1860s (Helsinki, 1993), 51–68.

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this time, repeated harvest failures, rising levels of debt among the free peasantry, and an increasing precariat composed of landless labourers, put intolerable pressure on social supports (either the customary short-term hospitality provided by farmhouses to vagrants, or more formal poor relief structures).15 Therefore, when the crops failed yet again in the autumn of 1867, it seemed as though an exhausted and distressed population were facing one final swing of the Grim Reaper’s remorseless scythe.16 Such scenes of distress were hardly unique to Finland in the 1860s, and indeed one London newspaper opined in January 1868 that “no phenomenon of the modern age is more remarkable than the enormous failure of nature in many countries of Europe, Africa and Asia. From all quarters we have heard, or still hear, the appalling cry of famine”.17 Unlike some of the other famines that afflicted societies around the globe in the middle of the nineteenth century, however, such as Ireland, Orissa, Bengal, or Algeria, Finland’s “Great Hunger Years” could not be attributed to “external” or colonial misgovernment. An autonomous administration in Helsinki had been responsible for Finland’s domestic affairs since 1809, when it had passed from Swedish rule to become a Grand Duchy in the Russian Empire. Rather, having overseen a self-governing society that was seeking to increase its autonomy, the Finnish elites at the time, and subsequently, promoted the idea that the main enemy in the 1860s was nature itself. As God was ultimately dictating these vagaries of nature, a secondary culprit was found in the “careless” nature of the rural proletariat (rahvas), which needed to be taught lessons in self-sufficiency and improvement. Rather than being dependent on the “Tsar’s purse”, the Finnish people needed to practise individual and national self-sufficiency, and the famine of the 1860s was a harsh reminder that building a nation could not be a painless exercise. Without any political capital to be made by attributing blame to outsiders, and following a relatively rapid economic and demographic 15  Miikka Voutilainen, “Feeding the Famine: Social Vulnerability and Dislocation during the Finnish Famine of the 1860s”, in Declan Curran, Lubomyr Luciuk & Andrew G. Newby (eds), Famines in European Economic History. The Last Great European Famines Reconsidered (Abingdon, 2015), 124–44; Antti Häkkinen, “On Attitudes and Living Strategies in the Finnish Countryside in the Years of Famine, 1867–68”, in Antti Häkkinen (ed.) Just a Sack of Potatoes? Crisis Experiences in European Societies, Past and Present (Helsinki, 1992), 149–66. 16  See e.g. Aatu Koskelainen, Leivän ja seikkailun haussa—Hämäläisen mökinpojan tarina (Helsinki, 1918), 78–9; W.F.  Ilmoni, “Sotamiehen Kaisa: Nälkätalven kuva v:lta 1867”, Etelä-Saimaa, 24 Apr. 1926. 17  Standard, 13 Jan. 1868.

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recovery, Finland’s Great Famine of the 1860s was gradually sidelined in the national master narrative.18 This historiographical aspect of the Great Hunger Years has prompted curiosity from outside of Finland, and particularly from those dealing with other historical famines. Cormac Ó Gráda, for example, characterised the Finnish 1860s famine as the “last great subsistence crisis of the western world”, but also noted that it had been “unduly neglected”.19 This perspective was bolstered by Ó Gráda’s fellow Irish historian, Mary Daly’s description (in the context of Ireland’s “Famine Fever” of the mid-1990s, the sesquicentenary of the Great Hunger) of the Finns’ “amnesia” regarding this period of their history.20 Daly suggested that this wilful amnesia was largely the result of Finland having, in Irish parlance, “home rule” during the nineteenth century, and this is an argument that has considerable merit.21 The man most associated with the management of the Finnish famine after 1863—Senator J.V. Snellman—was also the pre-eminent figure in the development of Finnish national identity, and primus inter pares among the so-called Fennomane movement. His allies and successors were those who produced the most influential histories of the period. By highlighting the power of God and nature, such narratives put the government’s own slow and inadequate response to the 1860s famine into the background. It was also important for the Fennomanes not to implicate Russia, the imperial power, as this would have undermined their key concept of national self-sufficiency.22 This narrative has remained persistent, even dominant, although it has been challenged in the last four decades especially by social science-­ oriented historians. Since Oiva Turpeinen’s Nälkä vai tauti tappoi? (1986), and especially in the aftermath of Kun Halla Nälän Tuskan Toi 18  “150 vuotta sitten alkoi katastrofi, jota Suomi ei juuri muistele—Miksi nälkävuodet ovat historiankirjoissa vain yksi luku muiden joukossa?”, Helsingin Sanomat, 16 Jul. 2017; Andrew G. Newby, “Overcoming Amnesia? Memorialising Finland’s ‘Great Hunger Years’”, in Emily Mark Fitzgerald, Oona Frawley & Marguérite Corporaal (eds), The Great Famine: Material and Visual Culture (Liverpool, 2018), 183–206: 205–6. 19  Cormac Ó Gráda, Ireland: A New Economic History (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1994), 208; Cormac Ó Gráda, “Markets and Famines: Evidence from Nineteenth Century Finland”, Economic Development and Cultural Change 49:3 (2001), 575–90: 576. 20  Mary E.  Daly, “Historians and the Famine: A Beleaguered Species?”, Irish Historical Studies, 30 (1997), 591–601: 596. 21  Daly, “Historians and the Famine”, 596. 22  The Finnish fennomaani can also rendered as Fennoman/-mans in English. I have followed H. Arnold Barton and Henrik Meinander is using Fennomane.

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(1991)—a groundbreaking and exhaustive analysis of many aspects of Finland’s Great Hunger Years, co-written by Antti Häkkinen, Kari Pitkänen, Vappu Ikonen and Hannu Soikkanen—historians of Finland have subjected the Great Hunger Years to analysis influenced by international famine studies. This research, however, has still not always seeped through into general histories of Finland, nor into the general national (and subsequently international) narrative. In their overview of the 1860s, Antti Häkkinen and Henrik Forsberg concluded that: “there is no single reason to explain the catastrophe satisfactorily. There was a chain of unfavourable conditions, supplemented by negative external factors, and exacerbated by ineffective relief measures on both central and local levels”.23 Most recently, Lari Rantanen has argued that Finland’s devolved status actually contributed to the 1868 disaster, not least because the harvest failures coincided with a period of vigorous nation-building. Rantanen notes that it was an “unclear division of responsibilities” between imperial and national administrations, along with ideology of the Finnish nationalists, that led to the slow and inadequate response to the cataclysmic crop failure in September 1867.24 More provocatively, as a part of his in-depth historical critique of Finnish nationalism’s “civilizing project” during the long nineteenth century, historian Juha Siltala has compared Finland’s Great Hunger Years with 1840s Ireland, and especially the idea prevalent in both cases that gratuitous aid would lead to dependency and demoralisation among the more desperate portions of society. Reflecting on the Irish nationalist historiography, Siltala argued that: In Finland it was not a question of the ethnic cleansing of a lower nationality, but the same sort of colonialist overtones can be seen in the attitudes of the national leaders towards their own people: if it was not directly cleansing the wrong people, then at least people were being cleansed of their false national characteristics.25

23  Antti Häkkinen & Henrik Forsberg, “Finland’s Famine Years of the 1860s: A Nineteenth-­ Century Perspective”, in Declan Curran, Lubomyr Luciuk & Andrew G.  Newby (eds), Famines in European Economic History: Europe’s Last Great Famines Reconsidered (London, 2015), 99–123: 118. 24  Lari Rantanen, “A Pitfall on a Nation’s Path of Politics? Government Response to the Finnish Famine of the 1860s”,  Jahrbücher für Geschichte Osteuropas 67 (2019/2), 83–102: 209. 25  Juha Siltala, Valkoisen äidin pojat: Siveellisyys ja sen varjot kansallisessa projektissa (Helsinki, 1999), 171.

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If this sounds like a harsh reading of how Finland’s ruling elite dealt with the 1860s crisis, then it is not too dissimilar from the nationalist interpretation. This narrative built up the image of an idealised Finnish-speaking free peasant, patient, frugal and stoical in the face of natural challenges. This image was then used to demonstrate to the rural proletariat that they were not living up to expectations, and that their laziness, profligacy and lack of modernisation had led to God’s harsh judgement.26

When Was the Great Finnish Famine? In contrast to the “Great Hunger” which had devastated Ireland two decades earlier, the death toll of Finland’s “Great” nineteenth-century famine years can be reckoned with a relative degree of accuracy. Death registers (including causes of death), as well as parish population tables, present a stark picture of individuals, families and whole communities being obliterated by hunger and disease. Out of a population of 1.8 million, almost 138,000 people perished in 1868 alone, a figure that grows to 200,000 if 1867 is included, and to 270,000 if 1866 is taken into account.27 This represents excess mortality of over 150,000 people between 1866 and 1868.28 What is not clear, though, is the timespan that constitutes Finland’s “Great Hunger Years”. Oiva Turpeinen stresses that although 1862 and 1867 were the years of most extensive harvest failures, there were really only two or three above average years (between 1859, 1860 and 1861) in the entire period 1856–1868.29 Turpeinen notes in particular that the combination of rapid population growth and the recurrent crop shortages in the northern regions meant that large swathes of Finland were especially vulnerable, and the decent harvests of 1859–1861 were insufficient

26  Eliza Kraatari, Domestic Dexterity and Cultural Policy: The Idea of Cottage Industry and Historical Experience in Finland from the Great Famine to the Reconstruction Period (Jyväskylä, 2016), 80–1. 27  Pitkänen, 51; Turpeinen, Nälkä vai tauti tappoi?, 22; Antti Häkkinen “Suomen 1860-­ luvun Nälkäkatastrofi: Syitä ja Seurauksia” Duodecim 128 (2012), 2425–30; Kraatari, Domestic Dexterity, 74–5. Cf. Miikka Voutilainen, Poverty, Inequality, 173. 28  Maria Jalava, J.V. Snellman—Mies ja Suurmies (Helsinki, 2006), 304. 29  Turpeinen, Nälkä vai tauti tappoi?, 29; Kraatari, Domestic Dexterity, 74–5.

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to allow a full recovery from the Crimean War, and the provincial harvest failures of 1856–1857.30 Building on Kari Pitkänen’s analysis for Finland, Miikka Voutilainen’s detailed cliometric research has noted that “the demographic crisis is considered to have begun in the spring of 1865 and continued through to the summer of 1869”.31 Between these dates, the mortality rates increase beyond the widely quoted 8% to between 10–12%. Nevertheless, Voutilainen also suggests that while a longer timescale for the 1860s famine is “disputable”, the mortality peak of 1862–1863, again following a frost-induced harvest failure, could be included to present a famine with “twin peaks”, incorporating a lull in 1864–1865 (Fig. 1.3).32 Therefore, just as Ireland’s mid-nineteenth-century catastrophe can be dated between 1845 and 1852 (though perhaps most usually to 1849), it is possible to acknowledge 1847 as a particularly grim year even within the history of the Great Hunger. In the Finnish case, 1868 represented a nadir, equivalent to “Black ‘47”, but it was the culmination of a long process of economic and social deterioration. Memorials to Finland’s 1860s famine, indeed, present a wide variety of timespans—between 1862 and 1869—though with the main focus on 1866–1868, implying different perceptions of the famine’s duration in different parts of the country.33 For the purposes of the current study, a still longer period has been chosen, comprising the “triple peak” famine suggested by Turpeinen (between 1856 and 1868).34 This is because many of the themes discussed in subsequent chapters (relating, for example, to poor relief / emergency relief works, charity, migration, and crime) are better contextualised by the  Turpeinen, Nälkä vai tauti tappoi?, 29.  Voutilainen, Poverty, Inequality, 195. 32  Voutilainen, Poverty, Inequality, 195. 33  Newby, “Overcoming Amnesia”, 204. 34  Turpeinen, Nälkä vai tauti tappoi?, 29. For a concise chronology of the 1850s and 1860s in Finland, and how socio-economic developments impacted on the eventual disaster of the mid- to late-1860s, see Voutilainen, Poverty, Inequality, 166–72. Occasional local studies have also adopted this timescale: “Lepolan wanhus”, “Kato, nälkä ja rutto Wiitasaarella w.w. 1857–1868”, Keski-Suomi, 2 Sep. 1911. In his collected memoirs, the same author (Konstantin Sarlin-Saraste), adopts the period 1857–1867 in the chapter “Nälkä” in Lepolan Wanhuksen Muistiinpanoja (2 Vols, Kuopio, 1910–1912), ii, 68–90. In their analysis of famines in “Nordic Europe” to 1875, Dribe, Olsson and Svensson note 1856–1857 and 1867–1868 as separate periods of famine-induced “elevated mortality” in Finland. See Martin Dribe, Mats Olsson and Patrick Svensson, “Nordic Europe”, in Guido Alfani & Cormac Ó Gráda (eds), Famine in European History (Cambridge, 2017), 185–211: 194 (Table 9.1), 197. 30 31

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90

Deaths per 1,000 inhabitants

80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 1809

1819

1829

1839

1849

1859

1869

1879

1889

1899

1909

Series1

Fig. 1.3  Annual Deaths per 1000 in the Grand Duchy of Finland 1809–1918. Finland’s existence as a Grand Duchy of the Russian Empire (1809–1917) was bookended by war, reflected in the elevated mortality at either end of this graph. Other spikes in death rates tended to be caused by harvest failure and subsequent famine conditions (including contagious diseases). The most notable occurrences are in 1833 (4.8% mortality), 1856 (3.4%), 1863 (2.9%), 1866 (3.4%), 1867 (3.8%) and 1868 (8%). Although international attention was drawn to famines in Finland again in 1892–1893 and 1902–1903, death rates were significantly lower as a result of prompt anti-famine measures and overseas aid. (Source: Antti Häkkinen, “Suomen 1860-luvun nälkäkatastrofi—syitä ja seurauksia”, Duodecim 127:33 (2012), 2425–30)

inclusion of the 1856–1857 “year of dearth”, which was proclaimed as a “famine” in the international press, and as a more regional crisis by the administration in Helsinki and by Finnish newspaper editors.

Nineteenth-Century Finland: Geography and Rural Society In European terms, Finland is a large country. In 1894, the authors of Finland in the Nineteenth Century—explicitly published to make the world aware of Finland’s distinct nationhood—provided a useful description:

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Exclusive of Finnish portions of the seas and Lake Ladoga, the area is 6,783 2/3 geographical square miles, corresponding to 373,604 square kilometres and including 41,659 square kilometres of lake. The extent therefore very nearly corresponds to that of England, Scotland, Ireland, the Netherlands and Belgium, its greatest length being 1,054 km from North to South, and its greatest breadth, 510 km from East to West.35

The 1800s also saw the economic and political core of Finland shift eastwards, in line with its position after 1809 as a part of the Russian Empire, and the relocation of its capital to Helsinki in 1812. Despite the vast distances and poor transport infrastructure, however, the northern half of the country—sparsely populated and largely forest, bog and fell—was relatively untouched by the famine. As will be seen below, the greatest levels of mortality were to be found in the south, especially in areas which had suffered many years of economic stress (owing to population growth, restructured local economies, and poor harvests), or where disease ran riot as a result of public works schemes or overcrowded poorhouses.36 Another significant factor in Finland’s vulnerability to famine in the nineteenth century was the structure of its rural society. At the pinnacle of this society was the free peasant—an inheritance from the days of Swedish rule— a class of owner-occupiers which tilled large farms and did not live under the yoke of private landlords.37 Indeed, and again reflecting Scandinavian heritage, this class was represented in the Finnish Estates.38 In the 1860s there were approximately 82,000 such peasant proprietors (known in Finnish as talolliset or talonpojat) in Finland. Below them, crofters (torpparit) who had been leased a small patch of the farmer’s land, numbered around 62,000. Rapid population growth, however, had led to a large sub-class of landless cottiers (mäkitupalaiset), who became increasingly vulnerable as economic conditions worsened through the 1850s and 60s.39

35  Leo Mechelin (ed.), Finland in the Nineteenth Century. By Finnish Authors. Illustrated by Finnish Artists (Helsingfors/London, 1894) 5. 36  Climate historian Reijo Solantie has also noted that the increasing population in Finland led to land being put to productive use, which was in areas prone to early frosts. This, in turn, made the farms in these areas more vulnerable to crop failures. Reijo Solantie, Ilmasto ja sen määräämät luonnonolot Suomen asutuksen ja maatalouden historiassa (Jyväskylä, 2012), 98–9. 37   For an overview, see F.  Skrubbeltrang, “The History of the Finnish Peasant”, Scandinavian Economic History Review 12:2 (1964), 165–80. 38  See below, 26. 39  Häkkinen & Forsberg, “Finland’s Famine Years”, 101–2.

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Famine in Finland: Terminology and Euphemisms The flexible, even somewhat vague, English-language concept of “famine” has been subject to considerable interrogation by academics and humanitarian practitioners in recent decades, and the differing scales of severity implied by this single word have been debated.40 As was common in many other societies, the most notorious famines in Finnish history had been given folk designations: thus, 1580 witnessed the “Great Year of Coughing”41 (Suuri Yskävuosi); the shortage experienced in 1600–1601 was the “Great Straw Year” (Suuri Olkivuosi); the late seventeenth-­century catastrophe became known as the “Great Death Years” (Suuret Kuolonvuodet); the period 1831–1833 as the “Dysentery Years” (Morunvuodet) and, in time, the 1860s became the “(Great) Hunger Years” ((Suuret) Nälkävuodet).42 It was only after the 1892 publication of Agathon Meurman’s Nälkävuodet 1860-luvulla [The Hunger Years of the 1860s] that the latter term became attached specifically to the 1860s, although previously it had been used more generally in reference to, for example, earlier Finnish famines, the Great Irish Famine of the 1840s, or biblical episodes.43 The expression, “as long as a hunger year”, was also in general use in Finnish prior to the 1880s, meaning something that was dull or apparently interminable. Contemporaries used a variety of euphemisms to describe what the Grand Duchy of Finland was experiencing in the years between 1856 and 1868. Although the majority of the population used Finnish in everyday speech, the formal official language remained Swedish until 1863, after which time Finnish was granted equal status. Thus, the terms relating to  Paul Howe & Stephen Devereux, “Famine Intensity and Magnitude Scales: A Proposal for an Instrumental Definition of Famine”, Disasters, 28:4 (2004), 353–72; Olivier Rubin, Democracy and Famine (London, 2011), 53–6. For a discussion of the term “famine” in English, see Alex de Waal, Famine that Kills. Darfur, Sudan, 1984–1985 (Rev. ed., Oxford, 2005), 9–20. 41  Helmi Breitholtz, “Suurista Nälkävuosista 1867–68”, Uusi Suomi, 8 Dec. 1935. 42  Mirkka Lappalainen, Pohjolan Leijona: Kustaa II Aadolf ja Suomi 1611–1632 (Helsinki, 2014), 49. The 1690s were described as “nälkävuodet” in several works written during the 1860s, including Yrjö-Koskinen, Oppikirja Suomen Kansan historiassa (Helsinki, 1869), 271. The term “nälkävuodet” was applied to the 1860s famine e.g. by Kaarlo Muttilainen in the Peasants’ Estate at the Diet of 1877–1878. Suomen Talonpoikaissäädyn Pöytäkirjat Valtiopäivillä v. 1877–1878. 1 vihko. (Helsinki, 1901), 346. 43  Inter alia: “Wanhoja kertomuksia Kajaanin kihlakunnasta ja kaupingista”, Kajaanin Lehti, 9 Feb. 1910; H. Em. Espelin, Lehtiä Waasan Kaupungin Historiasta (Helsinki, 1882), 25; K.O. Lindeqvist, Suomen Oloista Ison Vihan Aikana (Helsinki, 1886), 3–5; O. H---n, “Irlannin Olot, Osa. 3”, Valvoja, 1 Aug. 1882, 311–20: 313. 40

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the famine conditions had Finnish and Swedish variations, the most common of which equated to: famine;44 hunger;45 hunger year(s);46 distressed (people);47 year(s) of harvest failure;48 expensive time(s);49 frost year(s).50 Overall, commentators in Finland—especially those among the elite classes who in the 1860s were simultaneously responsible for managing the accelerating socio-economic crisis and constructing national identity and common spirit—preferred to allude to “harvest failure”, or a “year of dearth”.51 These terms contained enough historical and cultural significance that anyone reading or hearing them would know the potentially lethal implications. Similarly, “dear times” is a common global expression for the stage when basic foodstuffs increase in price, indicating scarcity and, in many cases, serving as a prelude to outright famine.

Chapter Overview From an external perspective, as noted by Mary Daly, one of the most interesting aspects of Finland’s “Great Hunger Years” is that they occurred in a land which had a significant amount of control over its own domestic affairs, and a relatively free public sphere and established civil society institutions.52 Despite this, there are various aspects of policy, and attitudes towards to distressed regions and individuals, which are familiar in other historical famine contexts.53 The attitudes of the Finnish elites, and the

 hungersnöd (Swe.), nälänhätä (Fin.).  hunger/svält (Swe.), nälkä (Fin.). 46  hungerår (-åren) (Swe.), nälkävuosi (-vuodet) (Fin.). 47  nödlidande (Swe.), hädänalaiset (Fin.). 48  missväxtår (-åren) (Swe.), katovuosi (-vuodet) (Fin.). 49  dyr tid / dyra tider (Swe.), kallis aika / kalliita aikoja (Fin.). 50  frostår (-åren), hallavuosi (-vuodet) (Fin.). 51  Voutilainen, Poverty, Inequality, 22. 52  Heidi Reese, “A Lack of Resources, Information and Will: Political Aspects of the Finnish Crisis of 1867–68”, in Andrew G. Newby (ed.), “The Enormous Failure of Nature”: Famine in Nineteenth Century Europe (Helsinki, 2017), 83–102: 87. See below, 26 fn 18, for a brief discussion of Amartya Sen’s ideas of the press and democracy in relation to the Finnish case. 53  Declan Curran, Lubomyr Luciuk & Andrew G. Newby, “Famines in European Economic History: Introduction”, in Declan Curran, Lubomyr Luciuk & Andrew G.  Newby (eds), Famines in European Economic History. The Last Great European Famines Reconsidered (Abingdon, 2015), 1–16: 5–8. 44 45

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ways in which they tried to deal with the famine while maintaining as much economic and political independence as possible in relation to the imperial power, are the main themes which run through the book. The book is generally a synthetic account, and where possible references to secondary sources, rather than archival sources, have been favoured to facilitate further reading (where the secondary source also refers to the original document). If translated versions of secondary sources are available in English, I have tended to use these in references ahead of their Finnish/Swedish equivalents. The main themes were selected after presenting overview lectures on the Great Finnish Famine, sometimes in comparison with 1840s Ireland, at different seminars and conferences in Europe and America. The feedback from these talks formed the basis for the Nälkä! The Great Finnish Famine exhibition which ran in Ireland and Finland from 2017 to 2020. The exhibition’s eight main panels focussed on themes which could be considered “universal” in historical famines, and addressed the extent to which these themes were distinctive in the Finnish context. That, in turn, provided the structure for Chaps. 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 of this book. Therefore, as this book is largely intended for a non-Finnish audience, the thematic chapters are preceded by a general overview (Chap. 2) of Finnish society from 1809 to 1868. That is, from the time it became a Grand Duchy of the Russian Empire, to the end of the Great Hunger Years. This chapter is divided into three parts, dealing respectively with the technical structure of Finland’s administrative autonomy and the growth of Finnish national identity in this context; the start of the series of harvest failures which increased Finland’s vulnerability throughout the 1860s; and finally an overview of the causes, responses and consequences of the final cataclysmic year of famine (1867–1868), which was the year of most extreme mortality, and the year which had drawn most attention in global famine studies. Moving on to the thematic essays, Chap. 3 deals with the emergency foods which were consumed by the Finnish people in times of crisis, and the cultural clash which occurred when the administration tried to introduce new elements into this famine diet. Here, it is possible to observe the frustration which the authorities felt towards the rural population, as initiatives promoting the use of lichens, mushrooms and other unfamiliar foodstuffs were only slowly adopted. This, in turn, allowed some among the Finnish elites to blame the hungry themselves for their plight, because they had chosen to ignore the instructions they had been given to see out the lean years.

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Chapters 4 and 5 examine the growth and use of private philanthropy in the context of Finland’s hard years between 1856 and 1868. Private funds were generally channelled into Finland’s poor relief structures and used to support, for example, workhouses or relief work projects, and were not given out as “free charity”, either as food or cash. From the donor perspective, the case of Finland provides interesting insights into the way in which Fennomanes could use the crisis to crystallise fairly diverse groups of people into a coherent nation, and promote national solidarity. The “telescopic philanthropy” which saw money and grain coming into Finland from outside, on the other hand, tends to highlight the sheer flexibility of Finnish identity (or identities) in the eyes of other communities around Europe, and demonstrates the role of geopolitics as well as culture in the humanitarian sphere. Chapters 6, 7, and 8 deal with, respectively, crime and vagrancy, the imposition of relief work, and emigration to places outside the Grand Duchy of Finland. All of these aspects of the famine—in Finland as elsewhere—are interlinked, and again expose the attitudes of the elites to many of the neediest members of society. In the Finnish contexts, this involved a strangely contradictory attitude towards crime and vagrancy. On the one hand, vagrancy was outlawed (until a relaxation of the laws in 1865), as it was thought to promote immorality, and hindered the social development and education of the individual, to the detriment of society (Fig. 1.4). And yet, at the same time as both vagrancy and crimes against property were rising in the 1860s, the autostereotype of the ideal Finn which was being developed by nationalist writers, suggested that criminality was alien to the Finnish people. This theme was developed in the decades after the Great Hunger Years, when the prevailing national narrative asserted that Finns would rather starve than commit crime against their neighbours. Unfettered migration was one of the reasons why J.V.  Snellman was reluctant to commit to large-scale relief works, a fear of sites being overwhelmed by the unemployed from all around the country, although he was eventually over-ruled on the matter. Thus, the building and improvement of canals, and the largest project of all—the construction of the Riihimäki to St. Petersburg railway—were used to provide some work and meagre wages for the starving. And, indeed, these sites did attract huge numbers of people, became overcrowded, and ended up as sites of disease

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Fig. 1.4  “When we came to pick her up, she was dead”. Image from Mme Fernande De Lysle, Au Pays Des Mille Lacs—Scènes De La Vie Rurale En Finlande (Paris, 1897). Illustration by F. Raffin. The story is set as “famine, the hideous monster” had visited Finland, “around 1850”. In a recurrent literary trope, an emaciated mother and her young daughter had migrated probably around six hundred kilometres from Ostrobothnia, before arriving at the village of Tervola, near Muolaa, in Viipuri Province. Here she sought the mercy of an Orthodox priest before collapsing. (Courtesy of the National Library of Finland)

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and death. And, again in common with other nineteenth-century famines, the work sites demonstrated the determination of the authorities not to “demoralise” the poor by offering free charity. Smaller, local road-­building projects, designed to keep people more or less in their home municipalities, were also in operation, leading to “famine roads” all around the southern half of Finland. The final thematic chapter deals with emigration outside of Finland’s borders, to the neighbouring parts of Russia, to extreme eastern parts of the Russian Empire and, although in very limited numbers in the 1860s, to North America. The patterns of emigration also demonstrate that the mental geographies of Finns differed in different parts of the Grand Duchy. In Finnish Karelia, for example, moving to Aunus in Russian Karelia, or even to St. Petersburg, followed a migratory path that had existed for generations. The same could be said for migration northwards to Finnmark in Norway, or from Ostrobothnia to parts of Sweden. Again, attitudes towards this type of movement were generally very negative, as the Fennomanes in particular hoped to retain the “children of the motherland” so that, once the hard years were over, the nation could flourish. In the conclusion, there is a reflection on the place of the Great Hunger Years in national history and memory, and on how that type of memory is affected by (a) self-government in the nineteenth century and (b) Finland’s subsequent history after independence in 1917. Unlike other historical famines, there was little appetite in Finland, either at the time or afterwards, to allocate blame to those overseeing relief policies. The “home rule” context of nineteenth-century Finland is the main factor in this distinctive remembrance. In choosing the book’s main themes, some important topics have been given less coverage because of pre-existing English language articles. In the last decade or so, some ground-breaking articles, books and theses in English have been published about Finland’s Great Hunger Years, including overviews,54 and more specific works relating to such themes as social

54  Antti Häkkinen, “The Great Famine of the 1860s in Finland: An Important Turning Point or Setback?”, in Journal of Finnish Studies, 21: 1&2 (2018), 156–77; Häkkinen & Forsberg, “Finland’s Famine Years”; Myllyntaus, “Summer Frost”.

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vulnerability,55 the mechanics of the autonomous Finnish government,56 memorials and memorialisation,57 cottage industries,58 and literary treatments of the period.59 I have consciously avoided replicating these themes as much as possible. Some other themes—such as the role of climate in the famine, and how the emotions of individuals or communities are presented in historical writings and literature—have so far mainly been published in Finnish, but demonstrate the potential for comparative studies.60 From an imperial comparative point of view, it will also be important that Lari Rantanen’s recent work lays the ground for more studies of the Finnish famine from the Russian perspective. It would be a realistic aspiration to believe that a Finnish equivalent of the Atlas of the Great Irish Famine could be produced some day, but that is well beyond the scope of the present study and, realistically, beyond the scope of any single author.61 Therefore, it is hoped that Finland’s Great Famine 1856–68 should raise as many questions as it answers, as one of its aims is to encourage comparative and collaborative work between this Finnish case and other historical famines.

55  Voutilainen, Poverty, Inequality; Voutilainen, “Feeding the Famine”; Miikka Voutilainen, “Income inequality and famine mortality: Evidence from the Finnish famine of the 1860s”, Economic History Review (2022), 75 (2022), 503–29. 56  Rantanen “Pitfall on a nation’s path”, Reese, “Lack of Resources”. 57  Henrik Forsberg, Famines in mnemohistory and national narratives in Finland and Ireland c. 1850–1970 (Helsinki, 2020); Newby, “Overcoming Amnesia”; Eliza Kraatari & Andrew G. Newby, “Memory of the Great Hunger Years Revisited: Finland’s 1860s Famines Memorials, Mass Graves and a Commemorative Craft Initiative”, Thanatos 7:2 (2018), 90–126. 58  Kraatari, Domestic Dexterity. 59  Frederike Felcht, “The Nature of Hunger. Karl August Tavaststjerna’s Hårda Tider”, in Reinhard Hennig, Anna-Karin Jonasson & Peter Degerman (eds), Nordic Narratives of Nature and the Environment: Ecocritical Approaches to Northern European Literatures (Lanham, MD, 2018), 173–88. 60  On climate, e.g. Reijo Solantie, Ilmasto ja sen määräämät luonnonolot Suomen asutuksen ja maatalouden historiassa (Jyväskylä, 2012); Heli Huhtamaa, “‘Kewät kolkko, talwi tuima’: Ilmasto, sää ja sadot nälkävuosien taustalla”, in Tuomas Jussila & Lari Rantanen (eds), Nälkävuodet 1867–1868 (Helsinki, 2018), 33–65. On emotions, Riikka Rossi, “Nälkävuosien tunnehallinto, Z. Topeliuksen ‘Septembernatten’ (1867) ja K.A. Tavaststjernan Hårda Tider (1891)”, Joutsen, 4 (2020), 20–46. 61  John Crowley, William J. Smyth & Mike Murphy (eds), Atlas of the Great Irish Famine (Cork, 2012).

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References Bibliography

Official Reports William Campbell, “Report by Mr. Consul Campbell on the Trade of Finland for the Year 1867”, in Commercial Reports Received at the Foreign Office from Her Majesty’s Consuls in 1868 (London, 1868), 416–9. Suomen Talonpoikaissäädyn Pöytäkirjat Valtiopäivillä v. 1877–1878. 1 vihko. (Helsinki, 1901). Suomenmaan Wirallinen Tilasto: VI—Väkiluvun-Tilastoa [1:n Vihko] (Helsinki, 1871). Suomenmaan Wirallinen Tilasto: VI—Väkiluvun-Tilastoa [2:n Vihko] (Helsinki, 1871).

Newspapers Boletin de Comercio. Dresdner Nachrichten. Etelä-Saimaa. Finland. Helsingfors Dagblad. Helsingin Sanomat. Kajaanin Lehti. Keski-Suomi. Kotiseutu. Sanomia Turusta. Savon Sanomat. Sjællands Posten. Standard (London). Uusi Aika. Uusi Suomi.

Printed Secondary Sources Mary E.  Daly, “Historians and the Famine: A Beleaguered Species?”, Irish Historical Studies, 30 (1997), 591–601. Fernande De Lysle, Au Pays Des Mille Lacs—Scènes De La Vie Rurale En Finlande (Paris, 1897). Alex de Waal, Famine that Kills. Darfur, Sudan, 1984–1985 (Rev. ed., Oxford, 2005).

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Martin Dribe, Mats Olsson and Patrick Svensson, “Nordic Europe”, in Guido Alfani & Cormac Ó Gráda (eds), Famine in European History (Cambridge, 2017), 185–211. H. Em. Espelin, Lehtiä Waasan Kaupungin Historiasta (Helsinki, 1882). Frederike Felcht, “The Nature of Hunger. Karl August Tavaststjerna’s Hårda Tider”, in Reinhard Hennig, Anna-Karin Jonasson & Peter Degerman (eds), Nordic Narratives of Nature and the Environment: Ecocritical Approaches to Northern European Literatures (Lanham, MD, 2018), 173–88. Henrik Forsberg, Famines in mnemohistory and national narratives in Finland and Ireland c. 1850–1970 (Helsinki, 2020). O. H---n, “Irlannin Olot, Osa. 3”, Valvoja, 1 Aug. 1882, 311–20. Antti Häkkinen, “On Attitudes and Living Strategies in the Finnish Countryside in the Years of Famine, 1867–68”, in Antti Häkkinen (ed.) Just a Sack of Potatoes? Crisis Experiences in European Societies, Past and Present (Helsinki, 1992), 149–66. Antti Häkkinen “Suomen 1860-luvun Nälkäkatastrofi: Syitä ja Seurauksia” Duodecim 128 (2012), 2425–30. Antti Häkkinen, “The Great Famine of the 1860s in Finland: An Important Turning Point or Setback?”, Journal of Finnish Studies, 21: 1/2 (2018), 156–77. Antti Häkkinen & Henrik Forsberg, “Finland’s Famine Years of the 1860s: A Nineteenth-Century Perspective”, in Declan Curran, Lubomyr Luciuk & Andrew G. Newby (eds), Famines in European Economic History: Europe’s Last Great Famines Reconsidered (London, 2015), 99–123. Paul Howe & Stephen Devereux, “Famine Intensity and Magnitude Scales: A Proposal for an Instrumental Definition of Famine”, Disasters, 28:4 (2004), 353–72. Maria Jalava, J.V. Snellman—Mies ja Suurmies (Helsinki, 2006). Aatu Koskelainen, Leivän ja seikkailun haussa—Hämäläisen mökinpojan tarina (Helsinki, 1918). Eliza Kraatari, Domestic Dexterity and Cultural Policy: The Idea of Cottage Industry and Historical Experience in Finland from the Great Famine to the Reconstruction Period (Jyväskylä, 2016). Eliza Kraatari & Andrew G.  Newby, “Memory of the Great Hunger Years Revisited: Finland’s 1860s Famines Memorials, Mass Graves and a Commemorative Craft Initiative”, Thanatos 7:2 (2018), 90–126. Mirkka Lappalainen, Pohjolan Leijona: Kustaa II Aadolf ja Suomi 1611–1632 (Helsinki, 2014). K[arl] O[lof] Lindeqvist, Suomen Oloista Ison Vihan Aikana (Helsinki, 1886). Leo Mechelin (ed.), Finland in the Nineteenth Century. By Finnish Authors. Illustrated by Finnish Artists (Helsingfors/London, 1894). Timo Myllyntaus, “Summer Frost: A Natural Hazard with Fatal Consequences in Preindustrial Finland”, in Christof Mauch & Christian Pfister (eds.), Natural Disasters, Cultural Responses: Case Studies Towards a Global Environmental History (Lanham, MD, 2009), 77–102.

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Andrew G.  Newby, “Overcoming Amnesia? Memorialising Finland’s ‘Great Hunger Years’”, in Emily Mark Fitzgerald, Oona Frawley & Marguérite Corporaal (eds), The Great Famine: Material and Visual Culture (Liverpool, 2018), 183–206. Cormac Ó Gráda, Ireland: A New Economic History (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1994). Cormac Ó Gráda, “Markets and Famines: Evidence from Nineteenth Century Finland”, Economic Development and Cultural Change 49:3 (2001), 575–90. Cormac Ó Gráda, Famine: A Short History (Princeton, 2009). Cormac Ó Gráda, “The Great Famine and Today’s Famines”, in John Crowley, William J. Smyth & Mike Murphy (eds), Atlas of the Great Irish Famine (Cork, 2012), 650–7. Heli Huhtamaa, “‘Kewät kolkko, talwi tuima’: Ilmasto, sää ja sadot nälkävuosien taustalla”, in Tuomas Jussila & Lari Rantanen (eds), Nälkävuodet 1867–1868 (Helsinki, 2018), 33–65. Kari Pitkänen, Deprivation and Disease: Mortality During the Great Finnish Famine of the 1860s (Helsinki, 1993). Heidi Reese, “A Lack of Resources, Information and Will: Political Aspects of the Finnish Crisis of 1867–68”, in Andrew G. Newby (ed.), “The Enormous Failure of Nature”: Famine in Nineteenth Century Europe (Helsinki, 2017), 83–102. Gustaf Retzius, Finland i Nordiska Museet: några bidrag till kännedomen om finnarnes gamla ödling (Helsingfors, 1881). Riikka Rossi, “Nälkävuosien tunnehallinto, Z.  Topeliuksen ‘Septembernatten’ (1867) ja K.A. Tavaststjernan Hårda Tider (1891)”, Joutsen, 4 (2020), 20–46. Olivier Rubin, Democracy and Famine (London, 2011). [Konstantin Sarlin-Saraste] Lepolan Wanhuksen Muistiinpanoja (2 Vols, Kuopio, 1910–12). Juha Siltala, Valkoisen äidin pojat: Siveellisyys ja sen varjot kansallisessa projektissa (Helsinki, 1999) F. Skrubbeltrang, “The History of the Finnish Peasant”, Scandinavian Economic History Review 12:2 (1964), 165–80. Reijo Solantie, Ilmasto ja sen määräämät luonnonolot Suomen asutuksen ja maatalouden historiassa (Jyväskylä, 2012). Oiva Turpeinen, Nälkä vai tauti tappoi? Kauhunvuodet 1866–1868 (Helsinki, 1986). Miikka Voutilainen, “Feeding the Famine: Social Vulnerability and Dislocation during the Finnish Famine of the 1860s”, in Declan Curran, Lubomyr Luciuk & Andrew G. Newby (eds), Famines in European Economic History. The Last Great European Famines Reconsidered (Abingdon, 2015), 124–44. Miikka Voutilainen, Poverty, Inequality and the Finnish 1860s Famine (Jyväskylä, 2016), 20. Miikka Voutilainen, “Income inequality and famine mortality: Evidence from the Finnish famine of the 1860s”, Economic History Review, 75 (2022), 503–29. Yrjö Yrjö-Koskinen, Oppikirja Suomen Kansan historiassa (Helsinki, 1869).

CHAPTER 2

Famine in a Home Rule Land

The 1860s were, as demographic historian Kari Pitkänen has argued, a “decade of misery” for the Finnish people, even as the Grand Duchy’s leaders were optimistically setting the foundations of an increasingly self-­ sufficient and, they hoped, prosperous nation.1 It is notable that, in the Finnish case, self-government did not prevent the occurrence of one of history’s most devastating famines. Indeed, Lari Rantanen’s recent work has argued that a combination of nationalist ideology, and an unclear division of responsibilities between St Petersburg, Helsinki, and the Finnish provinces actually contributed to exacerbate the situation, leading ultimately to the crisis year of 1867–8.2 In this respect, Rantanen argues that while the 1860s certainly were a “decade of misery”, they could equally be designated as a decade of “confusion” in Finnish politics.3 This chapter outlines the nature of Finland’s autonomous governance, and the developments in society prior to the crop failure year of 1856–7. It then details the deteriorating situation up to 1866, before providing more information on the final year of the crisis, 1868, during which Finland suffered a national-level mortality rate of 8%. 1  Kari Pitkänen, Deprivation and Disease: Mortality During the Great Finnish Famine of the 1860s (Helsinki, 1993), 65–6. 2  Lari Rantanen, “A Pitfall on a Nation’s Path of Politics?”, Jahrbücher für Geschichte Osteuropas 67:2 (2019), 206–38. 3  Rantanen, “Pitfall on a nation’s path”, 209.

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 A. G. Newby, Finland’s Great Famine, 1856–68, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-19474-0_2

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“Sivistys Is the Only Salvation”—Autonomous Finland in the Russian Empire The wars that reverberated around Europe in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, had momentous consequences for Finland. After a year and a half of fighting Russia in the “Finnish War”,4 Sweden sued for peace in September 1809, and under the terms of the Treaty of Hamina (Fredrikshamn) seven centuries of Swedish rule in Finland came to an end. This presaged a permissive approach from Russia, a period subsequently known as the Pax Russica, during which Finns administered their own internal affairs, under an imperial umbrella.5 Rather than Russian language and laws being imposed on the Finns, the old Swedish/Lutheran social structures were maintained, based on the inherited constitution.6 There was no perception among the Russian authorities of Finland having a distinct sense of nationhood, and so there seemed to be no risk to the integrity of the empire in permitting the vast majority of Finns to keep using the Finnish language in everyday life. As a means of weakening any residual political loyalties to Sweden, the capital was relocated eastwards from Turku to Helsinki in 1812, an autonomous national bank was established in 1816, and in 1827 the Grand Duchy’s only university was moved to the new capital. The new head of state, Tsar Alexander I welcomed Finland to the “family of nations”, but from a constitutional-legal perspective this pronouncement was vague.7 The Tsar himself, in the guise of Grand Duke, sat at the pinnacle of Finland’s governance after 1809. The Grand Duke’s viceroy, his personal representative, was known as the Governor-General. The Governor-General was usually resident in St. Petersburg, though he also acted as chair of the Finnish Senate, and was able to promote imperial interests by adding his opinions to any proposals that the Senate might 4  This term is used in Swedish, Finnish and Russian. In a broader European context the Finnish War can be seen as a part of the Anglo-Russian conflict of 1807–1812. 5  Fred Singleton, A Short History of Finland (Cambridge, 1998), 60–1; Erkki Pihkala, “The Finnish Economy and Russia 1809–1917”, in Michael Branch, Janet M. Hartley & Antoni Ma ̨czak (eds), Finland and Poland in the Russian Empire (London, 1995), 153–66: 153. 6  Henrik Meinander, A History of Finland (London, 2011), 75–6. 7  Meinander, History of Finland, 77; Juhani Paasivirta, Finland and Europe: The Period of Autonomy and the International Crises 1808–1914 (London, 1981), 6–24; Jason Lavery, The History of Finland (Westport, CT, 2006), 52–5.

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forward to the Tsar.8 Each Finnish province also had a Governor, who had a dual purpose in representing the crown and senate to the people of his province, but also representing the people to the state.9 The Finnish Senate (known as the Imperial Governing Council until 1816) operated below the Governor-General.10 The Senate—which originally consisted of fourteen members, Finnish citizens selected in the Tsar’s name and subject to re-nomination every three years—became an important symbol of Finland’s self-government, but its original purpose was to manage business and legal affairs in the Grand Duchy. Business, including state finances, education and infrastructure projects, was the remit of the Senate’s Economic section, whereas legal issues were the responsibility of the Judicial section.11 As Finnish Governors-General were incapable of undertaking business in Swedish, the language of the Senate, the vice chairs of the Economic and Judicial sections took on increasingly important roles in Finnish life as the century progressed.12 It must also be noted that by the time of the Great Hunger Years, a party system had not yet evolved, meaning that the opinions of individual senators usually followed their own family, business or other personal interests.13 Nevertheless, collegiality was necessary as decisions were made on the basis of negotiations and consensus in the economic division’s plenary sessions.14 In St. Petersburg, Finland’s affairs were managed by a Minister-­ Secretary of State, who along with his assistants was required to be a Finnish citizen, and who was supposed to promote the Grand Duchy’s interests in the imperial capital. The Minister-Secretary, though essentially a diplomat, was a significant figure as his presence meant that Finnish affairs were not, at least in normal circumstances, subject to scrutiny or comment from the Russian ministries.15

 Rantanen, “Pitfall on a Nation’s Path”, 210.  Heidi Reese, “A Lack of Resources, Information and Will: Political Aspects of the Finnish Crisis of 1867–68”, in Andrew G. Newby (ed.), The Enormous Failure of Nature: Famine and Society in the Nineteenth Century (Helsinki, 2017), 83–102: 86. 10  Rantanen, “Pitfall on a Nation’s Path”, 209–10; David Kirby, A Concise History of Finland (Cambridge, 2006), 83–4. 11  Lavery, History of Finland, 52–5. 12  Lavery, History of Finland, 52–5; Singleton, Short History of Finland, 64. 13  Rantanen, “Pitfall on a Nation’s Path”, 209–10. 14  Rantanen, “Pitfall on a Nation’s Path”, 210. 15  Rantanen, “Pitfall on a Nation’s Path”; Paasivirta, Finland and Europe, 38. 8 9

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Back in Finland, another layer of autonomous governance was occupied by the Diet—a convocation of the four Estates (in the Scandinavian tradition, representing freeholder peasants, burghers, clergy and nobility). After being summoned to Porvoo in 1809 to ratify Tsar Alexander I’s position as Grand Duke of the newly autonomous Finland, the Diet was not summoned again until 1863—a gap of over half a century which has been presented as an important factor in Finland’s social and economic backwardness in the middle of the century.16 The Diet’s representation in the nineteenth was not “democratic” even by the standards of the day, with its male members attending as a result of family origin (Nobility), clerical rank (Clergy), profession and tax contributions (Burghers) and land ownership (Peasantry).17 Only after 1867 did the Diet meet, by law, at regular intervals, and its influence grew accordingly.18 “Finnishness” and Empire Finland was permitted to exist as an autonomous entity, as long as it did not cost the imperial authorities any money and as long as it remained demonstrably loyal to St. Petersburg.19 In tandem with the day-to-day administration of the Grand Duchy, important developments in relation to the development of Finland’s national identity were taking place in civil society and cultural circles. Explicit expressions of Finnish nationhood— especially in a Swedish or Scandinavian context—were not to be

16  Miikka Voutilainen, Poverty, Inequality and the Finnish 1860s Famine (Jyväskylä, 2016), 166–7. 17  Onni Pekonen, “Parliamentarizing the Estate Diet”, Scandinavian Journal of History 42:3 (2017), 245–72: 24, 248. 18  Amartya Sen has famously claimed that “no substantial famine has ever occurred in any independent country with a democratic form of government and a relatively free press”. Specifically he refers to countries which are “independent”, which go “to elections regularly”, that have “opposition parties to voice criticisms” and that “permits newspapers to report freely and question the wisdom of government policies without extensive censorship”. Finland did not meet these criteria in the 1860s. Despite the burgeoning press, imperial censorship and editorial self-censorship meant that the administration did not have the type of opposition or accountability which Sen posits as a pre-requisite for avoiding famine. See Amartya Sen, Development as Freedom (Oxford, 1999), 152–3; Olivier Rubin, Contemporary Famine Analysis (London / New York, 2016), 61–8; Reese, “Lack of Resources, Information and Will”, 87, 96. 19  Meinander, History of Finland, 87.

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tolerated.20 The idea that Finnish could become culturally significant, still less a language of governance, seemed so remote to the Russian authorities there appeared to be little harm in permitting the literary and cultural flourishes emanating from Helsinki. It was also clear to the Russians that, by taking a permissive approach to the development of Finnish, residual historical, cultural and political links to Sweden could be weakened.21 A number of individual scholars at the Imperial Academy (in Turku prior to 1827, then relocated to Helsinki as the Imperial Alexander University) pushed the “Finland Concept” forward as members of the Lauantaiseura (Saturday Society).22 These men would have a significant impact on both public discourse and national administration during the Great Hunger Years, and it is important that their broader role in Finland’s “national awakening” is emphasised, as it contextualises some of the economic and political decisions that were made in the 1860s, as well as how those famine years were remembered. Members of the Saturday Society— including Johan Ludvig Runeberg and Zachris Topelius (literature), Fredrik Cygnaeus (history, aesthetics), Johan Vilhelm Snellman (philosophy), Matthias Castrén (ethnology and linguistics) and Elias Lönnrot (a medic who became better known for his ethnological and folkloristic endeavours)—became the symbols of the so-called Fennomane national awakening of 1830.23 These men strove to develop the position of the Finnish language in society, ostensibly more through culture than politics, although these were interlinked phenomena. Runeberg edited the Helsingfors Morgonblad newspaper, and in 1831 the Finnish Literature Society (SKS) was established, becoming a “central forum for the nationalistic project”.24 In 1830, Runeberg’s poem Bonden Paavo (in Finnish, Saarijärven Paavo) identified and crystallised what these nationalists wanted to promote as the essence of the Finnish character (incorporating stoicism, honesty, piety and self-sufficiency), embodied in simple rustic—and Finnish-speaking— characters.25 Lönnrot, meanwhile, combined ethnographic fieldwork with  Meinander, History of Finland, 89.  Meinander, History of Finland, 89–90; Osmo Jussila, Seppo Henttilä & Jukka Nevakivi, Grand Duchy to a  Modern State: A Political History of Finland since 1809 (London, 1999), 39–40. 22  Jussila, Henttilä & Nevakivi, Grand Duchy to a Modern State, 39–40. 23  Jaakko Ahokas, A History of Finnish Literature (Bloomington, 1973), 38–40. 24  Meinander, History of Finland, 89–91. 25  Meinander, History of Finland, 89–90. 20 21

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his medical duties in Kainuu and Karelia, eventually compiling folk stories into the Kalevala (published first in Finnish 1835, Swedish and German during the early 1840s, and French in the 1850s).26 Kalevala was an important assertion of Finland’s national distinctiveness, and historical culture, and helped bring international attention to the Grand Duchy.27 The Saturday Society member with the most direct impact on Finland’s governance during the 1860s was the philosopher, teacher and journalist, Johan Vilhelm Snellman, a man remembered as the “pioneer of Finnishness and developer of civil society” in Finland.28 Taking Hegel as his starting point, Snellman promoted the idea that by raising the status of the Finnish language, improving general education, and reforming some of Finland’s outdated socio-economic structures, the Finnish people could crystallise into a genuine nation. Despite developing a radical reputation, Snellman believed that these aspirations could best  be achieved within imperial structures. A useful encapsulation of his views on the nation, and its relationship to the empire, can be found in a letter from 1840 in which he argued that “Finland cannot achieve anything through violence; the power of sivistys is its only salvation”.29 Sivistys was a key element in Snellman’s construction of Finnish identity, an idea which relates to the German concept of Bildung, but which does not have a direct English translation.30 Sivistys encapsulates self-improvement and self-realisation through education, including the possibility of being self-critical, or critical of one’s own society.31 Through sivistys, self-sufficiency and communality, he believed that individuals could flourish, and that as a result the nation would develop organically. Upon his elevation to the Senate in 1863, Snellman would have the opportunity to put some of his theoretical ideas into  Meinander, History of Finland, 91.  Juha Y.  Pentikäinen, Kalevala Mythology: Expanded Edition (Bloomington & Indianapolis, 1999), 22–3. 28  Raimo Savolainen, Sivistyksen Voimalla: J.V. Snellmanin elämä (Helsinki, 2006), preface. 29  Quoted in Matti Vainio & Pentti Savolainen, Suomi herää: Mistä on suomalaisuus tehty? (Jyväskylä, 2006), 116. 30  Despite the superficial similarity to the English verb “civilise”, Eliza Kraatari raises the etymological possibility that sivistys is the substantive form of the verb sivistää, which is “the process of refining flax hairs by brushing”. Eliza Kraatari, Domestic Dexterity and Cultural Policy: The idea of Cottage Industry and Historical Experience in Finland from the Great Famine to the Reconstruction Period (Jyväskylä, 2016), 81 (fn. 28), 84 (fig. 7). 31  Andrew G. Newby, “‘Neither do these tenants or their children emigrate’: famine and transatlantic emigration from Finland in the nineteenth century”, Atlantic Studies, 11:3 (2014), 383–402: 385. 26 27

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practice.32 The relatively slow progress of sivistys among the rural population was one of the sources of elite frustration during the famine period.33 An unelected administrative elite therefore developed in autonomous Finland, including not only governors and members of the senate, but also, more broadly, cultural figures, university academics, newspaper editors, merchants and wealthier members of the free peasantry, priests and doctors. This elite, the sivistyneistö (roughly speaking, the intelligentsia), drove the debates on Finland’s future. The most significant fissure within the elite level of Finland’s autonomous society developed between the advocates of Finnish as the main national language (who became known as Fennomanes), and those who insisted on the continued pre-eminence of Swedish (Svecomanes). The Svecomanes also became associated, loosely, with economic liberalism, and as Finnish newspapers developed in the mid-nineteenth century, these became the main points of difference.34 From the late 1840s, the wider phenomenon of Scandinavism—a “pan”ideology which aspired to a united Scandinavia—also impinged on Finland’s domestic debates. Although the Fennomanes were clear in their ambition to increase Finnish autonomy within the empire, their position was not yet dominant. Thus, Scandinavism offered alternative views of the future, such as Finland being politically reintegrated into Sweden, or even becoming an independent state within a federal Scandinavia.35 Finland’s Economic Progress Economic progress did not match the theoretical aspirations of the nation-­ builders, however. As Snellman promoted the Hegelian line of building a common national spirit in Finland, and Runeberg idealised the virtues of the Finnish-speaking peasantry, everyday life for many in the Grand Duchy was precarious. In the early nineteenth century, over ninety percent of  Savolainen, Sivistyksen voimalla, 306–9.  See e.g. Sakari Saaritsa, “Miten Suomi lakkasi olemasta kehitysmaa? Taloudellinen ja inhimillinen kehitys 1800- ja 1900-luvuilla”, in Juhani Koponen & Sakari Saaritsa (eds), Nälkämaasta Hyvinvointivaltioksi: Suomi Kehityksen Kiinniottajana (Helsinki, 2019), 33–50. 34  Meinander, History of Finland, 100–4. 35  Andrew G.  Newby, “‘One Valhalla of the Free!’ Scandinavia, Britain and Northern Identity in the Nineteenth Century”, in Jonas Harvard & Peter Stadius (eds) Communicating the North: Media Structures and Images in the Making of the Nordic Region (Farnham, 2013), 147–69. 32 33

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Finns made their living on the land, and in terms of GDP Finland was one of the poorest countries in Europe in the 1820s.36 Between the first appearance of Topelius’ Saarijärven Paavo (1830) and Lönnrot’s Kalevala (1835), a severe famine occurred as a result of harvest failures in many northern and eastern districts.37 Indeed, as a provincial doctor in Kajaani, Lönnrot himself observed conditions as close quarters, was bed-ridden for six weeks as a result of typhus, and there were even rumours that he had died.38 Industrialisation was slow, and based on small-scale iron works, the development of saws and the timber trade and, especially after the 1820s, a small but growing textile industry.39 The decline of tar exports coincided with an increased overseas demand for timber.40 The second half of the century saw increasing foreign investment in Finland’s forests, and larger areas of forest were privatised.41 In line with its domestic autonomy, as a Grand Duchy, Finland was able to develop its own international trade contacts. The growth of consular networks strengthened the international perception of Finland as an autonomous territory, and diplomatic links were intertwined with this overseas trade.42 As the population grew (from 837,000 in 1800 to 1,747,000 in 1860), so inequalities and divisions emerged in society, and especially important was the disproportionate increase in the number of the landless.43 Despite the development of industry in some places, urbanisation was slow, and by 36  Andrew G. Newby & Timo Myllyntaus, “‘The Terrible Visitation’: Famine in Finland and Ireland, 1845–1868”, in Declan Curran, Lubomyr Luciuk & Andrew G. Newby (eds), Famines in European Economic History. The Last Great European Famines Reconsidered (Abingdon, 2015), 145–65: 148. 37  Timo Myllyntaus, “Summer Frost: A Natural Hazard with Fatal Consequences in PreIndustrial Finland”, in Christof Mauch & Christian Pfister (eds), Natural Disasters, Cultural Responses: Case Studies Toward a Global Environmental History (Lanham, 2009), 77–102: 84; Kaisa Kauranen, Rahvas, kauppias & virkamiehet: Katovuodet Pohjois-Suomessa 1830-luvulla (Helsinki, 1999), 29–37. 38  K.A. Pfaler, Muistelmia Kuhmoniemen Seurakunnasta (Helsinki, 1909). 39  Singleton, Short History of Finland, 82–3. 40  Singleton, Short History of Finland, 84. 41  Singleton, Short History of Finland, 84. 42  William R. Mead, “The Birth of the British Consular System in Finland”, The Norseman, xv (1957), 101–11. 43  Oiva Turpeinen, Nälkä vai tauti tappoi? Kauhunvuodet 1866–1868 (Helsinki, 1986), 24–8; Antti Häkkinen & Henrik Forsberg, “Finland’s Famine Years of the 1860s: A Nineteenth-Century Perspective”, in Declan Curran, Lubomyr Luciuk & Andrew G. Newby (eds), Famines in European Economic History. The Last Great European Famines Reconsidered (Abingdon, 2015), 99–125: 104–6; Voutilainen, Poverty, Inequality, 79–80.

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the 1860s only six per cent of Finland’s population lived in towns.44 The rural part of the country was very sparsely populated, and indeed only around eight per cent of the land was under cultivation—forests and bogland covered the rest.45 The increase in the landless population had an impact on the Finnish Poor Law, which had been inherited from the Swedish era and which was based on Lutheran parish structures.46 This dovetailed with the patriarchal system of “legal protection”, whereby those members of society who were not members of the estates had to be employed, or otherwise kept, by social superiors.47 The landless population was not accommodated by the traditional legal protection, however, and so a new Poor Law was passed by the Senate in 1852, establishing local boards of guardians and taxation. This was accompanied by legislation to outlaw vagrancy and include a mandatory work task in return for poor relief.48 The 1852 reform attempted, in historian Pirjo Markkola’s words, “to re-establish the paternalistic order”, and solve the problems of landlessness and vagrancy,49 But this  only met with limited success, and was not suitable for times of increased general poverty, especially after harvest failures.50 Autonomous Finland’s economic development was, at least temporarily, disrupted by the outbreak of the Crimean War in October 1853.51 As the western borderland of the Russian Empire, holding a strategically important position in Northern Europe, the Grand Duchy of Finland was subjected to a concerted bombing campaign by the British navy in 1854–5,

 Pihkala, “Finnish Economy and Russia”, 153.  Cormac Ó Gráda, “Markets and Famines: Evidence from Nineteenth Century Finland”, Economic Development and Cultural Change, 49:3 (2001–4), 575–90: 576. 46  Johanna Annola & Riikka Miettinen, “Piety and Prayers: Religion in the Lives of the Indoor Poor in Finland, 1600s to 1900s”, in Nina Javette Koefoed & Andrew G. Newby (eds), Lutheranism and Social Responsibility (Göttingen, 2022), 129–52. 47  Häkkinen & Forsberg, “Finland’s Famine Years of the 1860s”, 111. Toivo Nygård, Irtolaisuus ja sen kontrolli 1800-luvun alun Suomessa (Jyväskylä, 1985). 48  Panu Pulma, “Köyhästäkö kansalainen”, in Pertti Haapala (ed.), Talous, Valta ja Valtio. Tutkimuksia 1800-luvun Suomesta (Tampere, 1990), 169–93: 174–5. 49  Pirjo Markkola, “Changing Patterns of Welfare: Finland in the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries”, in Steven King and John Stewart (eds), Welfare Peripheries: The Development of Welfare States in Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Europe (Bern, 2007), 207–30: 215. 50  Markkola, “Changing Patterns of Welfare”, 214–5. 51  Meinander, History of Finland, 94–6. 44 45

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referred to locally as the Oolannin Sota (the Åland War).52 Finland’s rather ambiguous constitutional position meant that, despite significant business links with Britain, the Royal Navy saw it as a part of Russia and therefore as a legitimate target.53 The damage done to Finland’s west coast, including the destruction of grain stores and other civilian sites, was seen as a contributory factor to the hardship which Finland’s northern provinces faced in 1856–7, and was the prompt for the British Quakers to instigate a “Famine Relief Fund” for the Finns. In the short term, the Crimean War experience likely strengthened the bond between Finland and Russia— despite the increasing influence of the Scandinavist movement in Sweden and internationally. Moreover, the accession of Tsar Alexander II in 1855, after the death of his father Nicholas I, helped to advance economic liberal reforms in the Grand Duchy.54

“Famine Is Foreseen”: Entering the Great Hunger Years As a way of aiding Finland’s post-war recovery, an economic reform package was announced during Tsar Alexander’s visit to Helsinki in early 1856.55 The main emphasis of the reforms was to improve trade by land and sea, this tying Finland more closely to the imperial economy.56 The completion of the Saimaa Canal in September 1856 allowed Finnish goods to be transported from eastern Finland’s inland waterways via Viipuri out into the Baltic and then on to destinations in the Russian Empire and Europe.57 Finland’s first railway line, from Helsinki to Hämeenlinna, was completed in 1862, which also linked the southern coast to wider sections of the interior.58 In addition, the programme covered state finances, the development of industry and communications, and the implementation of vocational

52  Oiva Turpeinen, Oolannin Sota: Itämäinen Sota Suomessa (Helsinki, 2003); Basil Greenhill and Ann Giffard, The British Assault on Finland 1854–55: A Forgotten Naval War (London, 1988). 53   Edgar Anderson, “The Scandinavian Area and the Crimean War in the Baltic”, Scandinavian Studies, 41:3 (1969), 263–75. 54  Meinander, History of Finland, 95. 55  Jussila, Henttilä & Nevakivi, Grand Duchy to a Modern State, 45. 56  Jussila, Henttilä & Nevakivi, Grand Duchy to a Modern State, 46. 57  Singleton, Short History of Finland, 84; Paasivirta, Finland and Europe, 109. 58  Singleton, Short History of Finland, 85.

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training and a new national school system.59 Before any of these initiatives could make a notable impact, however, the worst crop failure for several generations occurred in many parts of the three northernmost provinces. The significance of the 1856 crop failure was noted by contemporaries (referred to as the worst since the “Dysentery Years” of the early 1830s), and 1856–7 was included in lists of famine years in subsequent memoirs.60 As winter approached, it was reported in Uurainen (Vaasa Province) that “old folk talk about the ‘great frost year’, and how hunger and distress visited each house. The present generation have not experienced this for a good forty years”.61 In late June, torrential rain and hailstorms had “largely destroyed the cereal crop, particularly the rye” in many localities around Laukaa (Vaasa Province), leading a correspondent to conclude that “unless our gracious government supports these places, famine (hungersnöd) is foreseen”.62 By the time the British Quakers Thomas Harvey and Joseph Sturge “quitted Finland” after a fact-finding tour in September 1856, it seemed to be the consensus in Helsinki that a “a year of dearth, and hunger” lay ahead for many northern regions.63 In some of the places affected, the harvest was only around one tenth of a normal year, disease was spreading, the price of flour soaring, and bark/straw-bread consumption increasing.64 59  Pihkala, “Finnish Economy and Russia”, 155; Häkkinen & Forsberg, “Finland’s Famine Years”, 100, 102–4. 60  “P.T.”, “Katovuodet 1832 ja 1856”, Suometar, 9 Jan., 16 Jan., 23 Jan. 1857. Private letters sent to British correspondents noted that “the famine this year is worse than 1832”. See “Famine in Finland”, Leeds Intelligencier, 18 Apr. 1857. The curious article by poor law inspector Gustaf Helsingius in 1928 tries to fit the historical recurrence of famines into an eleven-year cycle (see “Missväxtårens periodiska förekomst i verkligheten”, Nyland, 12 May 1928). 61  Kuopio Tidning, 11 Oct. 1856. 62  Wasabladet, 26 Jul. 1856; See Santeri Seppälä, “Nälänhätää kärsivän väestön huoltoa tarkoittavasta toiminnasta Laihialla 1850- ja 1860-luvuilla sattuneina katovuosina”, ValvojaAika 6 (1928), 300–11. 63  Osmo Jussila, “Englantilaisten kveekarien Joseph Sturgen ja Thomas Harveyn matkakuvaus Suomesta v. 1856”, Historiallinen Arkisto lxi (1967), 430–40: 436–7; Finlands Allmänna Tidning, 3 Sep. 1856; Åbo Tidningar, 20 Oct. 1856, 3 Feb. 1857; Suometar, 10 Oct. 1856; Sanan-Lennätin, 15 Nov. 1856; Helsingfors Tidningar, 31 Dec. 1856. See also “Kirje Turusta”, Sanomia Turusta, 21 Oct. 1856. Initially, there was some distaste for these assertions from Helsinki. For example, Kuopio Tidning (8 Nov. 1856) claimed that the Suometar correspondent had plucked the information from thin air. 64  Suometar, 24 Oct. 1856; Oulun Wiikko-Sanomia, 29 Nov. 1856; Sanan-Lennätin, 13 Dec. 1856.

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The idea that morality was linked to suffering—or at least an individual’s right to be helped in hard times—was reiterated via stories about grain being wasted in liquor production.65 Priests and local officials were encouraged to investigate which areas needed the most assistance, and then what type of assistance might actually be available from the state.66 In this case, the “gracious government”, under the guidance of the Governor-General Friedrich von Berg, took the initiative in banning the export—and permitting the free import—of various foodstuffs (rye, oats, corn, peas, potatoes). At the same time, the Senate intervened to arrange for grain from Russian garrisons to be acquired at fixed prices by merchants in Oulu, Vaasa and Kuopio Provinces.67 This grain could then be sold at “significantly reduced prices for the lower classes of people”.68 Overall death rates in Finland in 1856–7 created a notable, if not dramatic, bump in the mortality statistics.69 On a national and even provincial level, civil society, and poor relief structures, including the distribution of relief funds sent from towns and from overseas, remained relatively stable. Locally, however, a much deeper crisis can be inferred from the archival sources. For example, in the areas that were sent donations in 1857 by the St. Petersburg-based British industrialist William Clarke Gellibrand— Paltamo, Hyrynsalmi and Sotkamo—deaths noticeably outnumbered births.70 The narrative of Finland as a land beset by devastating famine was arguably cemented in the international press by the Quaker intervention, and their formation of a “Committee for the Relief of Famine in Finland”, which in turn led to donations such as those by Gellibrand.71

 Wiborg, 9 Dec. 1856.  Suometar, 24 Oct. 1856. 67  Rantanen, “Pitfall on a Nation’s Path”, 216. 68  Finlands Allmänna Tidning, 7 Jan. 1857. 69  See above, Fig. 1.3. 70  “För de nödlidande”, Wiborg, 13 Mar. 1857. In 1857, for example: Paltamo 88 births to 119 deaths; Hyrynsalmi 52 births to 60 deaths; Sotkamo 178 births to 414 deaths. Kansallisarkisto / National Archives of Finland: Paltamo Parish Archive, Population Tables 1787–1877; Hyrynsalmi Parish Archive, Population Tables 1815–1863; Sotkamo Parish Archive, Statistics and Population Tables 1855–1948. 71  Andrew G. Newby, “‘Rather Peculiar Claims Upon Our Sympathies’: Britain and Famine in Finland, 1856–68”, in Marguérite Corporaal, Christopher Cusack, Lindsay Janssen & Ruud van den Beuken (eds), Global Legacies of the Great Irish Famine: Transnational and Interdisciplinary Perspectives (Bern, 2014), 61–80. 65 66

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The latest accounts from Finland continue to give a most distressing picture of the famine raging in that unhappy country… In the districts of Uleaborg, Wasa, and [Kuopio] alone, out of a population of 657,000 souls, no less than 250,000 have no other means of subsistence than begging, or else eating the unpalatable bread made from the bark of trees. The mortality is consequently very great, and daily on the increase, as the dreadful famine typhus has broken out with great malignity. The distress is so great that children have been seen who, for want of other food, have actually eaten off their own fingers.72

It is also clear that Finns themselves believed they were living through a famine period, even if it did not affect all parts of the country equally. In the summer of 1857, for example, Col. Otto Furuhjelm donated 100 silver rubles as a prize for “research into the famine that was raging in the northern districts at the time”, and especially how the causes and consequences of the famine could be prevented or mitigated.73 Although the recurrence of famine conditions in some parts of the Grand Duchy had been a shock, the general tone in Finnish politics was one of optimism, stimulated by the 1856 reform programme and the ongoing progress the Finnish language question. The financial instability which the Crimean War had brought to Finland had prompted discussions around a separate Finnish currency, which would inevitably increase Finland’s presence in the international money markets, as well as being an important symbol of self-government. Moreover, the questions around state funding that had arisen from the reform programme had led to calls for the Estates to be convened for the first time since 1809. Patriotic sentiment around this potentially momentous convocation grew in volume. And, while the Tsar would ideally have kept the Diet as a purely administrative body, the suppression of the Polish rebellion in 1863 had damaged his international reputation, meaning that he allowed the Finnish Diet to operate as a “shop window for Russian liberalism”.74 Finnish patriotism was enhanced by the launch of the mark (markka) in 1860—albeit only as a nominal currency which was pegged to the Russian

 “The Famine in Finland”, Morning Chronicle, 24 Apr. 1857. See below, Ch. 5.  S.G.  Elmgren, “Finska Litteratursällskapets årsberättelser”, Litteraturblad för Allmän Medborgerlig Bildning, Mar. 1858, 97–100. 74  Jussila, Hentilä & Nevakivi, Grand Duchy to a Modern State, 46–7. 72 73

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ruble.75 Moreover, the Fennomanes—led by Snellman and his new “spiritual shield-bearer” Georg Forsman (otherwise known by his Finnish name, Yrjö Koskinen)—spoke out increasingly assertively about Swedish influences in Finland.76 This underlined the Finns’ loyalty to the empire, but also essentially formalised a split within the Finnish elites (between Fennomanes and Svecomanes), and meant that the language question, too, would be prominent in the lead up to the Estates meeting, which eventually took place in 1863–4.77 Having been closely involved in the organisation of the Diet, Snellman was elevated to the position of Senator, as head of the finance department, in 1863.78 Among his early successes was the Language Edict of 1863, which meant that the Finnish Language would eventually take on equal status with Swedish within the administration of the Grand Duchy, and which was later referred to as a “Magna Carta for the Finnish-speaking part of the nation”.79 Moreover, the Estates would henceforward meet on a regular basis, and become an important driver of democracy and liberalisation in Finland.80 Two more formalised political groupings, the Fennomanes and the Liberals, eventually emerged in this context.81 The short-lived Helsingin Uutiset newspaper was founded in 1863 by Yrjö-Koskinen, his brother Jaakko Forsman, and Agathon Meurman, and heralded the arrival of a still more assertive shade of nationalist opinion in Finland—the so-called Young Fennomanes.82 As it looked back on 1862, the situation in the Grand Duchy of Finland seemed, for its ruling administrative elite, simultaneously ripe with possibilities, and fraught with peril. The Finnish-language edition of the official state newspaper proclaimed that:

75  Voutilainen, Poverty, Inequality, 167; Rantanen, “Pitfall on a nation’s path”, 219. The rate was four marks to one ruble. 76  Savolainen, Sivistyken Voimalla, 839–43; Ilkka Liikanen, Fennomania ja kansa— Joukkojärjestäytymisen läpimurto ja Suomalaisen puolueen synty (Helsinki, 1995), 148–9. 77  Paasivirta, Finland and Europe, 112–3. 78  Maria Jalava, J.V. Snellman - Mies ja Suurmies (Helsinki, 2006), 269–79. 79  Quoted in Singleton, Short History of Finland, 90. 80  Pekonen, “Parliamentarizing the Estate Diet”, 247. 81  Meinander, History of Finland, 100. 82  Jungfennomaanit. See e.g. Jussi Kurunmäki & Ilkka Liikanen, “The formation of the Finnish Polity within the Russian Empire: Language, Representation, and the Construction of Popular Political Platforms, 1863–1906, Harvard Ukrainian Studies 35: 1–4 (2017–2018), 399–416: 400–4; Savolainen, Sivistyken Voimalla, 839–43; Meinander, History of Finland, 101.

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The year now ending has been much more notable than many others. It has had, among others, two things—one brighter, one gloomier, dimmer than all the others. That bright star is the decision of our Grand Duke to summon the Estates in the coming year. But that gloom of grief is the famine in the north, and the common misery it has spread throughout the whole of Finland…83

The optimism was generated by the great strides that had been made in confirming Finland’s autonomy within the Russian Empire: the estates had been called for the first time since 1809; a new currency had been launched; the Finnish language seemed to be reaching parity with Swedish. A loan of 14 million marks had been arranged with M.A. Rothschild & Söhne in Frankfurt am Main to guarantee the successful transition to an independent markka based on the silver standard.84 On the other hand, the autumn of 1862 had seen another harvest failure, which underlined the economic precarity of the Grand Duchy’s position, and especially the increasingly large proportion of the population who were indebted or landless. The crisis, though, could be used as a means of forging a common identity onto the whole of the Finnish people, helping each other through adversity. The famine may have demonstrated, in the administration’s opinion, that not all Finns were yet adopting the necessary “national” traits of self-sufficiency, hard work, forbearance and enlightenment that they had been demanding. If, however, want persuaded the rural proletariat of the value of those virtues, and Finland was able to cope without imperial handouts, then a short-term regional famine could be a sharp but necessary lesson on an individual and national level. The first stage of what Kari Pitkänen has characterised as a “decade of misery” was triggered by the general crop failure of 1862, which led to widespread indebtedness among farmers and increased unemployment among agricultural labourers, although in general (while allowing for regional disparities) there was sufficient food to support the national population.85 The frosts hit early—at the beginning of August—and there was talk of rising prices, a “hunger year”, and indeed a “threatened famine” in  “Sananen 1862 Wuoden Lopulla”, Suomen Julkisia Sanomia, 29 Dec. 1862.  Rantanen, “Pitfall on a nation’s path”, 219. 85  Kari Pitkänen, Deprivation and Disease: Mortality During the Great Finnish Famine of the 1860s (Helsinki, 1993), 65–6. See also the letter “Nöden i landet” (dated Kuopio, 24 Dec. 1865), printed in Helsingfors Dagblad, 2 Jan. 1866, and the follow-up “Nöden i landet”, Helsingfors Tidningar, 5 Jan. 1866. 83 84

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various parts of the country.86 This threat was realised in several districts.87 The British Consul General in Viipuri, Herman Lorentz, noted that this crisis was “worse even than in 1856”, and added that people had “flocked” to the south to find work, because even though food was available in the northern provinces, people had no money with which to purchase it.88 The Senate had reacted relatively quickly, and interest-free loans were offered to merchants in order to stimulate private grain imports. Moreover, import tariffs on important foodstuffs were suspended until the next year, and negotiations were held which aimed to secure grain from Russian garrisons in Finland.89 A nationwide disaster was averted, however, largely as a result of significant private grain imports by merchants (indeed more than was actually required, leading to a depressed market for grain), limited short-term migration, and prompt charitable activity both within Finland and overseas.90 The famine crisis of 1862, however, meant that the money was largely spent on relief operations, and the proper launch of the markka was delayed until 1865.91 International observers were presented with a dismal picture, although the comments in British newspapers such as The Spectator were also intended to present a humiliating picture of Russian imperial administrative incompetence:

86  Inter alia: “Porin paikkakunnan nälkäwuosi”, Porin Kaupingin Sanomia, 2 Aug. 1862; “Landsorten”, Finlands Allmänna Tidning, 14 Aug. 1862; “Kiuruwedeltä”, Suometar, 15 Aug. 1862; Helsingfors Dagblad, 20 Aug. 1862; “Nattfrosterna”, Finlands Allmänna Tidning, 23 Aug. 1862; “Wuoden tulos”, Otawa, 29 Aug. 1862; “Wiipurista”, Otawa, 29 Aug. 1862. 87  “Finland”, Standard, 10 Oct. 1862; “The Harvest in Finland”, Morning Post, 27 Oct. 1862. See also e.g. “Hädän laweudesta Kuopion läänissä”, Suometar, 10 Oct. 1862; “Katowuosi Karjalassa”, Suometar, 10 Oct. 1862. 88  Lorentz (Wiborg, March 31, 1863). “Report by Mr. Consul Herman Lorentz on the Trade of Viborg for the Year 1862”, in Commercial Reports received at the Foreign Office from Her Majesty’s Consuls Between July 1st, 1862 and June 30th, 1863 (London, 1863), 373–9: 379. 89  Rantanen, “Pitfall on a Nation’s Path”, 216–7. 90  Vappu Ikonen, “‘Tervaa… vastaan saatiin Oulun kauppiailta ennakkona viljaa, suolaa ja muutakin’—Kauppahuoneiden rooli hätäaikana”, in Antti Häkkinen, Vappu Ikonen, Kari Pitkänen & Hannu Soikkanen, Kun Halla Nälän Tuskan Toi: Miten suomalaiset kokivat 1860-luvun nälkävuodet (Porvoo, 1991), 114–25: 116–19; Pitkänen, Deprivation and Disease, 60–1. 91  Voutilainen, Poverty, Inequality, 167; Rantanen, “Pitfall on a nation’s path”, 219.

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Babies die on the breasts of their mothers for want of nourishment; children, with ghastly faces and hollow eyes, are met with everywhere attempting to stifle the cravings of hunger by chewing roots and the bark of trees; and old people, helpless to move in the general shipwreck, crouch down in holes and corners to die a lingering, fearful death.92

Reports of the Medical Officers highlighted the fact that most people in the Grand Duchy were able to obtain sufficient nutrition to survive the year, and cases of outright starvation were not encountered, although Herman Lorentz observed that “wet corn furnished an unwholesome food, and produced a singular form of sickness from which many have died”.93 The autumn of 1862 was described four years later, in a public appeal by a group of upper-class Helsinki men, as the “worst year of harvest failure in human memory”, but although the “distress was great in many places”, yet “not even a single person died of starvation”.94 The symbolic importance of the new currency was such, that Snellman and his senators prioritised low public spending and restricted loans to farmers and merchants in order to avoid more foreign loans and allow the markka to be tied to the silver standard.95 Vappu Ikonen has stressed that, given the government’s determination to push forward with the currency reform, it was faced with two unpalatable options, and farmers used to taking loans to provide seed, were presented with an extremely difficult situation. When the currency was launched formally in 1865, tied to the silver standard, it was revalued by 20%, which also exacerbated bankruptcies and general lack of resources in society at large.96 In opting for a tight monetary policy, the administration increased general indebtedness and this, when allied to a succession of harvest failures, contributed to the eventual collapse in 1867–8.97 In Lari Rantanen’s assessment, the Senate  “Famine in Finland”, The Spectator, 10 Jan. 1863.  Pitkänen, Deprivation and Disease, 60–1; Lorentz “Trade of Viborg for the Year 1862”, 379. 94  “Yleisölle”, Suomalainen Wirallinen Lehti, 28 Feb. 1866. 95  Antti Kuusterä, “1860-luvun epäonnistunut talouspolitiikka”, in Kari Pitkänen (ed.), Nälkä, Talous, Kontrolli: Näkökulmia Kriisien ja Konfliktien Syntyyn, Merkitykseen ja Kontrolliin, ed. Kari Pitkänen (Helsinki, 1987), 43–57; Mika Arola, Foreign Capital and Finland: Central government’s first period of reliance on international financial markets, 1862–1938 (Helsinki, 2006), 42–6, 53. 96  Häkkinen & Forsberg, “Finland’s Famine Years”, 107. 97  Vappu Ikonen, “Kaksi 1800-luvun nälkäkriisiä—Suomi ja Irlanti”, in Antti Häkkinen, Vappu Ikonen, Kari Pitkänen & Hannu Soikkanen, Kun Halla Nälän Tuskan Toi: Miten Suomalaiset Kokivat 1860-luvun Nälkävuodet (Porvoo, 1991), 273–82: 280. 92 93

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chose “to ignore the possible short-term side effects on the economy”, preferring to aim for medium- to long-term fiscal autonomy.98 Harvests were again poor in 1863 and 1864, however, and the next stage (“phase 2”) in Pitkänen’s famine chronology relates to the lack of any national surplus in these years, which hindered economic recovery. During this stage, indebtedness increased to the point where farmers had to sell livestock or other assets, grain stores suffered depletion, national economic performance became notably sluggish, unemployment continued to increase, although poor law structures endured and those who migrated temporarily in search of work were offered help by inhabitants in urban areas.99 At the end of April 1864, in his bulletin from Viipuri, Herman Lorentz confirmed that the state of the northern provinces remained critical: Distress, though not to the extent of the famine year 1862, is again existing among the poorer classes in the north of Finland, and when the navigation on the Saimaa Canal reopens, large supplies of Russian corn will have to be sent up as a relief to the sufferers.100

Even before midsummer 1865, sobering reports indicated fears for the coming harvest, and indeed from Paltamo (Oulu Province) it was reported that they were expecting the “consecutive fourth year of dearth”.101 Frost again attacked crops over consecutive nights in August.102 A correspondent in Jyväskylä bemoaned that “the week’s weather has been awful for farmers, as almost every night frost has threatened to grab even the final hopes for some scarce bread…”103 The poor relief guardian in the Karelian parish of Pielisjärvi, Mich. Adolf Pelkonen, noted that frost-­ induced crop failures in 1856 and 1862 had been significant challenges, but that they had been overcome. In October 1865, he feared that things were now “quite different”.104 Despite some limited optimism from a  Rantanen, “Pitfall on a Nation’s Path”, 220.  Pitkänen, Deprivation and Disease, XX. 100  Herman Lorentz (dated Wiborg, April 30, 1864), “Report by Mr. Consul Herman Lorentz on the Trade of Wiborg for the Year 1864”, in Commercial Reports received at the Foreign Office from Her Majesty’s Consuls (London, 1865), 359–66, 365. 101  “Paltamosta”, Oulun Wiikko-Sanomia, 8 Jul. 1865. 102  Suometar, 26 Aug. 1865; “Frosten”, Hufvudstadsbladet, 31 Aug. 1865. 103  “Jyväskylä”, Koti ja Koulu, 26 Aug. 1865. 104  Mich. Adolf Pelkonen, “Hallan tekemät vahingot Pielisjärvellä”, Suometar, 4 Oct. 1865. 98 99

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couple of regions, Pelkonen represented the prevalent narrative in 1865, although the focus was still very much on the danger of famine in “northern Finland” rather than taking a national perspective.105 A pronouncement from the Senate in the name of the Tsar invoked the harsh biblical famines described by the Prophet Joel.106 The proclamation reminded Finns that the latest famine was only the latest of many “tests” that they had been sent by God, and looked back on the previous year. The responsibility to help was put on the shoulders of all citizens of the Grand Duchy of Finland, and those in the most immediate danger were perceived as being in the Provinces of Oulu, Kuopio and parts of Vaasa.107 This latest failure plunged Finland into “phase three” of the famine, with the harvest in the south unable to meet the deficit in the north.108 With farmers increasingly indebted, it became impossible for many to purchase grain as a way of overcoming shortfalls. Municipal poor relief structures, in the process of reform, became overwhelmed in the worst hit areas, both farmers and agricultural labourers started to use food surrogates, and migration increased substantially, although deaths by outright starvation did not yet occur.109 By spring 1866, it was reported from Nilsiä (Kuopio Province), the “cry of famine” meant that people were eating their livestock, in the absence of any grain.110 Meanwhile, in Pulkkila (Oulu Province) it “felt like war-time”, as hunger and disease fought violently against the local population.111 Herman Lorentz seemed exasperated by the ongoing famine situation, and condemned the Helsinki administration’s response as utterly inadequate: I am sorry I have to report the same sad story [as] in my last preceding three annual Reports; the harvest in the northern districts of this Grand Duchy has last year again been a total failure, and the accounts of the distress in the Governments of Kuopio, Uleaborg, and Wasa, are truly heart-rending. It is 105  Maiden ja merien takaa, 1 Aug. 1865; “Den instundande vintern”, Helsingfors Dagblad, 18 Nov. 1865; “Tämän wuotinen katowuosi Pohjois-Suomessa ja sen auttaminen”, Suometar, 20, 22 Nov. 1865. 106  “Officiela Afdelningen”, Finlands Allmänna Tidning, 23 Nov. 1865. 107  “Mietteitä katowuosista (i) Onko katowuosi syy maakunnan köyhyyteen?”, Suometar, 5 Oct. 1865. 108  Pitkänen, Deprivation and Disease, 52, 66. 109  Pitkänen, Deprivation and Disease, 52. 110  “A. M---n”, “Nilsiästä”, Tapio, 28 Apr. 1866. 111  Oulun Wiikko-Sanomia, 30 Jun. 1866.

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much to be regretted, and, in fact, our authorities cannot be too strongly be censured for it, though that timely enough warned of the coming calamity, they have not taken measures toward checking it. In the way of private collections large sums have been made up for the relief of the poor sufferers in the North, and it remains to be hoped that Government on their part will not be loth [sic.] to mend their former carelessness by sending up a sufficient supply of corn to the famine districts as soon as navigation reopens.112

A story from Ähtäri (Vaasa Province) in June 1867 highlighted the “increasingly serious character” of the crisis in the Finnish countryside.113 Here, a local landless labourer,114 Josef Isaksson Lamminmäki had been found dead by the side of the road, presumed starved, with a lump of mud115 in his hand and some more in his mouth. Lamminmäki had been begging food from local farmers during the day but had been told to report instead to the municipal poor relief board, giving another example of the increasing inability or reluctance of the better-off members of society to help. It should also be noted that the country was practically a state of emergency even in early 1867, although this state of affairs is easily overshadowed by the events of spring 1868.116

“Skeleton-Like People Lying among Rags”. The Disaster of 1867–8 If the Helsinki administration had been hoping for several years that a single decent harvest could set the Grand Duchy back on a positive economic course, these hopes were crushed by the capricious Finnish climate—once more—in the spring of 1867. Even an average harvest would hardly have assuaged the crisis, with internal migration beginning to reach crisis proportions, and grain reserves almost empty.117 Thus, while the Frost Night of 3–4 September 1867 is often presented 112  Herman Lorentz (dated Wiborg, April 30, 1866), “Wiborg”, in Commercial Reports, Received at the Foreign Office from Her Majesty’s Consuls in 1866 (London, 1866), 291–6: 296. 113  “A. S---g”, “Korrespondens från Österbotten”, Hufvudstadsbladet, 26 Jul. 1867. 114  Inhyseman. 115  Mörja. 116  Kari Pitkänen, “Kärsimysten ja ahdingon vuosikymmen—1860 luvun yleiskuva”, in Antti Häkkinen, Hannu Soikkanen, Vappu Ikonen & Kari Pitkänen, Kun Halla Nälän Tuskan Toi (Porvoo, 1991), 36–77: 64. 117  Pitkänen, “Kärsimysten ja ahdingon vuosikymmen”, 64.

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the natural “cause” of the 1867–8 Great Hunger Year in Finland, in reality it was a final trigger for disaster after years of structural socioeconomic decay (Fig. 2.1).118 In the days following the Frost Night, reports came in from around the country that crops had been laid waste, indicating that other than in a few areas (Viipuri, and parts of Turku-Pori, Uusimaa and Mikkeli provinces), there had been an almost complete crop failure.119 This pushed the Grand Duchy into the fourth, lethal phase set out by Pitkänen, in which municipal poor relief collapses under the relentless pressure, larger farmers adopt surrogate foods, vagrants are increasingly less tolerated, and despite the ongoing charitable efforts at home and abroad, deaths by outright starvation increase.120 The reaction of the Helsinki administration to the latest crop failure has been criticised as being slow and inadequate, owing to a combination of practical and ideological factors.121 Practical Problems: It is true that sudden frosts could be highly localised and notoriously hard to predict, but the long winter of 1866–7 had meant that seeds were sown notably later than usual, and so even if early autumn frosts had been avoided, the chances of crops ripening before freezing nights arrived were slim.122 Provincial Governors, however, sent relatively optimistic reports in August, and this may have had an influence on the Senate’s apparent lack of preparedness.123 The true extent of the crop failure dawned on the administration—the harvest shortfall was estimated at around 45 million marks, more than three times the Grand Duchy’s anticipated annual revenue—and in September 1867 Snellman negotiated another loan with the Frankfurt bank of M.A. von Rothschild. The loan of 5.4 million marks was to be used entirely for emergency relief, and some lives were surely saved as a result, but in Snellman’s own colourful words,  Myllyntaus, “Summer Frost”, 78.  Turpeinen, Nälkä vai tauti tappoi?, 20–2; Kari Pitkänen, “The Road to Survival or Death? Temporary Migration During the Great Finnish Famine in the 1860s”, in Antti Häkkinen (ed), Just a Sack of Potatoes? Crisis Experiences in European Societies, Past and Present (Helsinki, 1992), 87–118: 93. 120  Pitkänen, Deprivation and Disease, 65; Pitkänen, “Kärsimysten ja ahdingon vuosikymmen”, 47–52, 64, 67–9. 121  Reese, “Lack of Resources, Information and Will”, 97–99; Rantanen, “Pitfall on a Nation’s Path”, 233; Ó Gráda, “Markets and Famines”, 588. 122  Heidi Hirvonen, “Tiedon, tahdon tai resurssien puutetta? Suomen hallinto ja syksyn 1867 elintarvikriisi”, (MA Thesis, University of Helsinki, 2013), 70; Turpeinen, Nälkä vai tauti tappoi?, 19; Myllyntaus, “Summer Frosts”, 90. 123  Reese, “Lack of Resources, Information and Will”, 98–9. 118 119

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120

100 80 60 40 20 0

Charity / Relief Aid 1000 mk. Rye average price mk/barrel (countryside) Mortality (per thousand) Employed in relief work (1000 people)

Vagrants (1000 people)

Fig. 2.1  A representation of key socio-economic elements (rye prices, mortality rates, estimation of vagrancy rates, numbers employed on relief works, and amounts of charitable donations) of the final months of Finland’s Great Hunger Years (May 1867 to Feb. 1869). (Source: Antti Häkkinen & Andrew G. Newby, “Nälkäkriisi-Suomi: kansainvälinen apu ja kotimaiset panostukset”, in Juhani Koponen & Sakari Saaritsa (eds), Nälkämaasta Hyvinvointivaltioksi: Suomi kehityksen kiiniottajana (Helsinki, 2019), 93–110: 96, Fig 5.1. See fn. 16 for more details on sources. I am grateful to Antti Häkkinen for permission to reproduce this graph)

the funds furnished him only with a syringe of water in a city surrounded by flames.124 The money was forwarded as loans to municipal authorities and private farmers, who were then supposed to provide work for their distressed populations. Some believed that the local administrators were 124  Turpeinen, Nälkä vai tauti tappoi?, 148–9; Myllyntaus, “Summer Frost”, 91. For Snellman’s quote (from 1872), see below, 278. [J.V.S.], “Till Redaktionen af Morgonbladet”, Morgonbladet, 1 May 1872.

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syphoning off grain for their own use or for re-sale, which may have been true in some instances, but it is also worth remembering that the local government reforms of the 1860s meant that duties formerly carried out by church ministers were now the responsibility of, often quite inexperienced, local farmers. In order to get a better idea of the impact of the harvest failure, the Senate despatched two of its members—Samuel Henrik Antell and Oscar Norrmén—to the distressed regions in late 1867.125 Upon returning to Helsinki in January 1868, the senators’ testimony was shocking. The general suffering was worse than had been anticipated, the government’s cottage industry programme was not working effectively, and local authorities were either unwilling or unable to provide adequate levels of assistance for the needy. By this time, however, winter had set in and the Baltic Sea was frozen and unnavigable, which severely hindered the potential for grain to get into the Grand Duchy.126 Without rail transport, Finland was not even able to get quick relief from Russia, and so the critically low municipal and crown granaries could not be replenished.127 Cottage Industries: The development of cottage industries was another of Snellman’s initiatives that he believed would have the double effect of helping Finland out of its economic malaise and developing the native genius of its individual citizens.128 He hoped that local products would be sold via newly established supply chains, preferably in overseas markets. While he considered forest work to be for the brutish and ignorant, cottage industries required the development of both practical and technical skills.129 Finland’s Assistant Minister-Secretary in St. Petersburg, Emil Stjernwall-Walleen, feared that Snellman’s ideas were little more than “charades”, which utterly misread the dire situation facing Finland.130 Progress was slow, and the small loans which were granted to municipalities for stimulating handicraft production often lost money rather than 125  “Understöd från S:t Petersburg för Finland”, Helsingfors Dagblad, 28 Feb. 1868; Antti Häkkinen, “On Attitudes and Living Strategies in the Finnish Countryside in the years of famine 1867–68”, in Antti Häkkinen (ed.), Just a Sack of Potatoes? Crisis Experiences in European Societies, Past and Present (Helsinki, 1992), 149–66: 158; Häkkinen & Forsberg, “Finland’s Famine Years”, 107. 126  Myllyntaus, “Summer Frost”, 90; Pitkänen, “Road to Survival or Death”, 93–6. 127  Myllyntaus, “Summer Frost”, 91. 128  Finlands Allmänna Tidning, 28 Aug., 23 Sep. 1867. 129  Kraatari, Domestic Dexterity, 76. 130  Rantanen, “Pitfall on a Nation’s Path”, 223.

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making a profit. As Eliza Kraatari notes, “the beauty of [the] ‘Hegelian logic’ of using cottage industry as income generation and compensation for relief appear[s] to have been in striking contrast with the realities of the famine”.131 Moreover, along with foraging for emergency food ingredients, cottage industry was increasingly used more as a “tool of coercion” in the poor- or workhouses in 1868.132 If an inmate did not produce craft items for sale, they could expect no food. The potential markets in Britain or Germany were hardly clamouring for such products.133 The Day of Prayer and Repentance: One of the first large-scale initiatives which, it was hoped, might alleviate the crisis, was to organise a nation-­ wide day of “Fasting, Repentance and Prayer”, which had been an idea already proposed by the Ostrobothnian poet and churchman Lars (Lauri) Stenbäck in the summer of 1867.134 Stenbäck could see that an unprecedented year of famine lay ahead, and even if a prayer day did not convince God to provide Finland with a good harvest, such a day would have a unifying and fortifying effect on the people.135 The idea was taken up by F.L. Schaumann, the Bishop of Porvoo, who made the formal petition to the Senate on behalf of “all of the Christian inhabitants” of Finland.136 In this way, the proposal was later presented by Fennomane commentators such as Yrjö Koskinen and Agathon Meurman as a grassroots initiative, rather than as a top-down imposition on a dispirited people.137 The Senate passed the proposal, with support from Snellman and Yrjö Koskinen although—ironically as it turned out, given his subsequent investigations in the north—Oscar Norrmén opposed having an additional Prayer Day as he thought it would scare the common people and make them think the situation was worse than it really was.138 Yrjö Koskinen, on the other hand, believed that the day would promote communality and national spirit, and cause the people to reflect on diligence, improvement and the best ways to  Kraatari, Domestic Dexterity, 77; Turpeinen, Nälkä vai tauti tappoi?, 171.  Kraatari, Domestic Dexterity, 77. 133  Rantanen, “Pitfall on a Nation’s Path”, 223. 134  Stenbäck’s poem, “Finland i Nöd”, was published in the Axet charity collection (see below, Ch. 4), and reprinted in Hufvudstadsbladet, 7 Dec. 1867, the day prior to the Prayer Day. 135  Paavo Virkkunen, Agathon Meuman: Henkilö ja Elämäntyö. II: 1855–1880 (Helsinki, 1938), 297. 136  V.T. Rosenqvist, Frans Ludvig Schaumann. Senare Delen (Helsingfors, 1928), 245. 137   These lines of debate were especially clear in Agathon Meurman’s rebuttal of Tavaststjerna’s novel, Hårda Tider. See Virkkunen, Agathon Meuman II, 295–7. 138  ——— “Kuinka Suomen kansa otti vastaan katovuodet v. 1867–68? Eräs Suomen kansan katumus- ja rukouspäivä”, Heräävä Nuoriso (7–8, 1936), 155–8. 131 132

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ensure that Finland would not be put in the same position again in the future. In a letter to Meurman he referred to the emergency bread that had become a staple of many Finns’ diets, he also referred to the Prayer Day as a “kind of spiritual bread” which could be used to lift the general depression and torpor of the land.139 The formal command for the Finnish people to attend church was framed in apocalyptic terms. The decree noted that the “hand of the Lord” was weighing heavily over the Finnish people, and that the distress was now so great that it had spread from the “slothful and careless” farmers to impact even on the “careful and diligent”. Each individual citizen was commanded to observe the fasting and prayer day, do everything possible to please God through “pious care and honest work”, and not to allow “hopeless doubt” to lead to listlessness and lack of application and thus hinder the national recovery.140 Twenty years earlier, during “Black ’47” and the darkest days of the Great Irish Famine, a “national day of fast and humiliation” had been called by the British Government in order to free Great Britain and Ireland from “those heavy judgements which our manifold sins and provocations have most justly deserved”.141 As Mary Mullen has argued, that day was as much about controlling public discourse and “popularizing Providentialist understandings of the Famine” as a practical relief measure, and it is helpful to see the Finnish equivalent as a similar “public transaction”.142 Whatever the immediate effects of the Prayer Day, the Fennomane narrative indeed stressed its importance, and the packed churches of that second Sunday of Advent. Bishop Schauman’s biographer, V.T. Rosenqvist, called it a “great day” for the people: “from the black-clad churches, where they in devotion confessed their sins, they returned to their homes, to poverty, to misery with strengthened forces and rekindled hope”.143 139  Quoted in Voitto Vuola, Yrjö Sakari Yrjö-Koskisen Kristillisyyden Käsitys (Helsinki, 1981), 45–6. 140  “Wirallinen Osasto”, Suomalainen Wirallinen Lehti, 18 Oct. 1867. 141  Peter Gray, “National humiliation and the Great Hunger: fast and famine in 1847”, Irish Historical Studies, 32:126 (Nov. 2000), 193–216. 142  Mary L.  Mullen, “‘A Great Public Transaction’: Fast Days, Famine, and the British State”, Victorian Studies 61:3 (Spring, 2019), 446–66: 446. Mary L.  Mullen, “‘A Great Public Transaction’: Fast Days, Famine, and the British State”, Victorian Studies 61:3 (Spring, 2019), 446–66: 446–7. 143  Rosenqvist, Frans Ludvig Schauman. Senare Delen, 245. The Fast- and Prayer Day was the subject of a radio programme in 1949: J. L. Birck (narrator), “Nödårsminnen och böndagen den 8 december 1867”. See Jakobstads Tidning, 12 Jan. 1949. Based on a lecture from the previous year (Jakobstads Tidning, 8 Jan. 1948).

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Public Works and the Railway Controversy: If a candle of hope was rekindled by the Prayer Day, it did not glow for very long. The small-scale cottage industries and municipal worksites could barely compensate for such a universal lack of work and food in the Finnish countryside. Vagrancy began to reach alarming levels, and larger canal work projects had to be instigated. The largest-scale construction project, however, was the railway from Riihimäki to St. Petersburg, which connected to the existing Helsinki-Hämeenlinna line and therefore opened up rail communication between the national and imperial capitals.144 Snellman did not want to commence the railway-building project while Finland was in the midst of such a deep crisis. He feared, correctly, that that worksite would accelerate vagrancy rates as people from all over the Grand Duchy arrived, desperately seeking work. This type of “wandering life” was anathema to the Fennomane construction of Finnishness, as it was believed the contribute to demoralisation. Even more urgently, such migration during famine times was likely to contribute to the spread of disease. In addition, after years of emphasising Finnish self-sufficiency, on a micro- and macro level, Snellman had no wish now to approach Russia with any request that might be construed as crisis relief.145 In the end, however, it was Governor-General Nicolai Adlerberg who took the initiative. Despite the opposition of Snellman and his allies, Adlerberg facilitated negotiations between Finnish senators and Russian ministers.146 Ultimately, the Russian side contributed extra funds and agreed a share of future profits on the railway. In the Spring of 1868, with a desperate shortage of seed grain throughout Finland, the All-Russian relief committee which had been established to tackle widespread famine elsewhere in the empire, agreed an interest free loan of 300,000 rubles with Adlerberg, as a “good-will” gesture.147 This embarrassment to Snellman—a development which apparently brought an unwelcome amount of Russian influence into Finnish financial affairs—was compounded by the Senate’s decision to take a loan from the banking house of Raphael von Erlanger, rather than Rothschild. Although it was claimed that Erlanger offered better terms, it seems that Snellman’s personal friendship with Rothschild was

 Rantanen, “Pitfall on a Nation’s Path”, 227.  Rantanen, “Pitfall on a Nation’s Path”, 227. 146  Rantanen, “Pitfall on a Nation’s Path”, 229–30. 147  Rantanen, “Pitfall on a Nation’s Path”, 230. 144 145

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a major factor in the Senate looking elsewhere on this occasion.148 Snellman’s resignation—not directly as a result of the hunger deaths that were growing out of control but rather from accumulated frustrations in the Senate and St. Petersburg—brought his five-year stint as finance minister to an end.149 Workhouses: Along with emergency bread, and the prevalence of vagrancy, workhouses and relief work sites became symbols of the Great Hunger Years in Finland.150 In the crisis periods of the mid-1860s, and even more urgently in the hunger winter of 1867–8, Snellman wanted to ensure that people remained as much as possible in their home parishes, not only to reduce the spread of disease, but mainly to prevent the moral degeneration that was associated with the vagrant “lifestyle”.151 The workhouses (variously and often interchangeably referred to as poorhouses, “hospitals”, “dairies” and other euphemisms) developed an appalling reputation, as Eliza Kraatari has noted, “partially due to the degrading discipline applied, but possibly more so because of the alarmingly high risk of death of the inmates caused by inadequate nutrition and overcrowding together with contagious diseases”.152 These institutions generally reflected locally based ad hoc crisis management rather than any rigorous, centralised model. Indeed, a formalised “workhouse” system for the able-bodied poor, modelled explicitly on examples from overseas, was only introduced in Finland in the years immediately following the Great Hunger Years.153 After 1865, poor relief in Finland was hindered by a fatal combination of depleted resources, hugely increased need, and a lack of clarity over which organisations were actually responsible for organising any such

148  Arola, Foreign Capital and Finland, 73–4; Jalava, J.V. Snellman, 310–12; Savolainen, Sivistyksen Voimalla, 816. 149  Raimo Savolainen, J.V. Snellman ja Nälkävuodet (Helsinki, 1989), 63; Reese, “Lack of Resources, Information and Will”, 86–7. 150  Häkkinen, “On Attitudes and Living Strategies”, 163. 151  Rantanen, “A Pitfall on a Nation’s Path”, 227. 152  Eliza Kraatari, Domestic Dexterity, 75–7. 153  Markkola, “Changing Patterns of Welfare”, 217–8.

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relief.154 Adding to the growing sense of chaos, Local Government reforms in 1865 removed the operation of poor relief from the church and under municipal control. In practice, as noted above, this often meant administration by large farmers with no previous experience of local government, ill equipped to deal with the increasing pressures that the repeated harvest failures were putting on the system.155 The rules and regulations of the workhouse in Oulu, from May 1867, demonstrate how a municipality might attempt to take control of the deteriorating situation.156 The committee’s first resolution, before moving on to the actual “house rules”, set out the purpose of the institution in a formulation that would have been familiar in Ireland twenty years earlier. Thus, stated purposes of the workhouse, as set out in the first resolution, included “eradicating begging”, and correcting the rejection of “human dignity” caused by the inmates’ “unemployment or laziness”. Moreover, citizens of Oulu were instructed not to assist anyone outside the formal poor law structures, the better to ensure the success of the workhouse. The practical rules for the workhouse included a workday from 5 a.m. to 9 p.m., bookended by prayers, rewarded with small portions of food (which in most places got ever smaller as resources became increasingly scanty).157 By 1868, makeshift workhouses had been established in almost all Finnish municipalities, often using existing buildings such as barns and sheds. Other than the public work schemes, these were often the only places where food was given out, and as the national situation deteriorated in the springtime inmates were forcibly prevented from leaving, on pain of a flogging, and the overcrowded conditions led to increases in mortality

154  As might be expected, donations by parishioners to the wooden pauper statues which are a feature of many Finnish churches, especially in Ostrobothnia, fell noticeably in the 1860s. Moreover, at least in some cases, the meagre funds that were raised in this way were used by the parish to employ gravediggers for large mass graves—giving the dead some level of posthumous dignity—rather than as emergency food relief for the living. Ville Vauhkonen, Vaivaisukot: Perusturvan Pioneerit (Helsinki, 2022), 50–3; Ville Vauhkonen, “Miten Soinin Seurakunnan Vaivaiskassa Toimi 1800-luvun Puolivälissä”, in Otso Kantakorppi (ed.) Vaivaisukkojen paluu (Helsinki 2013), 44–55: 50–4. 155  Jalava, J.V. Snellman, 303. 156  “Ehdotus”, Oulun Viikko Sanomia, 18 May 1867. 157  For a summary of the resolutions, and also the example of Laihia Workhouse, see Antti Häkkinen, “Pernaan Lapuan Tie Tehtiin Jauhonaaloolla Nälkävuosina: Hätäaputyöt: Epäonnistuitko Valtiovalta?”, in Antti Häkkinen, Vappu Ikonen, Kari Pitkänen & Hannu Soikkanen, Kun Halla Nälän Tuskan Toi (Porvoo, 1991), 129–57: 141–4.

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rates.158 Antti Häkkinen has calculated that some 50,000 people were accommodated in these local institutions, and those who survived often had traumatic memories of their ordeal.159 One such inmate was an old woman from near Perho (Vaasa Province) who died before her granddaughter was able to come and take her home. The granddaughter, Maria Kivelä, later recalled the scene: Inside, I was confronted with a miserable sight. The sexton’s room, which had dark, bare, walls, was filled with beds, and in those beds there were poor skeleton-like whining people lying among rags, and some even on bare straw. Some were crying for food in their raving fever, with their eyes locked in a terrible glassy stare, skinny cheekbones purpled by fever. Some were praying, and in turn cursing.160

Maria Kivelä’s graphic account of the conditions in Perho supplements the reports of district doctors from all around Finland, where, variously, the workhouses were described as “murder scenes that needed to be closed down” (Ikaalinen), or “beyond imagination” (Raahe).161 Historian Oiva Turpeinen, in his examination of these “years of horror”, referred to workhouses as “concentration camps” of hunger and disease.162 Regional Patterns of Mortality in 1867–8: The extended field of excess mortality in Finland in 1867–8 is the main reason why this year was framed as a “national” disaster, in comparison with the more “regional” crises of 1856–7 and 1862–3 (Fig. 2.2). The hunger, poverty and vagrancy that the inhabitants of the southern coastal regions in Finland had been reading about for the previous decade, now became a stark reality. Anders Ramsay, an industrialist who lived in the south-west of the Grand Duchy, recalled that once the “vanguard” of vagrants reached the southern towns, “only then did the inhabitants of the south wake up to see the naked distress, which was no longer in doubt,

158  Häkkinen, “Attitudes and Living Strategies”, 158–64; Turpeinen, Nälkä vai tauti tappoi?. 159  Häkkinen, “Attitudes and Living Strategies”, 158–64. 160  Finnish Literature Society: “A Memory from the Spring of Hunger”. Väinö Laajala, SKS 4, Perho (Interviewee: Maija Kivelä), 1932. 161  Reports by Dr. Lybeck (Ikaalinen) and Dr. Ehrström (Raahe), both quoted in Eliza Kraatari, Domestic Dexterity, 77. 162  Turpeinen, Nälkä vai tauti tappoi?, 184.

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Fig. 2.2  Mortality rates in Finland, 1868. Darker colouring reflects higher ­mortality, with the black shading representing areas that lost more than a quarter of their inhabitants. The accompanying article, by Edvard Gylling, is a socialist

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when it had to be seen eye to eye”.163 The spread of disease meant that mortality rates also increased in the south. William Campbell wrote to his superiors in London, just as the death rates were reaching their peak in late April 1868: No district from the north of Finland to the south has escaped [the “famine typhus”], and at this moment, even in Helsingfors, it is carrying off hundreds of both rich and poor. It is stated on authority that during the past winter one-tenth of the population of Finland have fallen victim to this epidemic.164

The peak mortality of the Great Hunger Years was reached in April-May 1868, with the areas showing the highest mortality equating generally to those which had suffered longer-term economic problems.165 Twenty-­ seven municipalities in Finland (designated by Oiva Turpeinen as “disaster municipalities”) lost over one-seventh of their populations in the calendar year 1868.166 Of these, seventeen were in the three northern provinces of Kuopio, Vaasa and Oulu, but ten were spread across the provinces of Turku-Pori and Häme. Of these latter cases, contagious diseases were rife in the districts around Tampere, while two municipalities (Hausjärvi and Hollola) hosted railway worksites.167 Fig . 2.2  (continued)  interpretation of the events of the Great Hunger Years (see below, Ch. 9). Gylling was, however, a statistician by training and the patterns of mortality indicated on the map is supported by more recent research by, for example, Miikka Voutilainen. Edvard Gylling, “Nälkävuodet 1867–68. Puolivuosisataismuisto”, Työväen kalenteri, XI 1918, Helsinki, 117. (Personal collection of the author) 163  Kari Pitkänen, “Leipää kansalle, sirkushuveja herroille—armeliaisuuden januskasvot”, in Antti Häkkinen, Hannu Soikkanen, Vappu Ikonen & Kari Pitkänen, Kun Halla Nälän Tuskan Toi (Porvoo, 1991), 158–75: 171–2. 164  “Report by Mr. Consul Campbell on the Trade of Finland for the Year 1867”, in Commercial Reports received at the Foreign Office from Her Majesty’s Consuls in 1868 (London, 1868), 416–19. 165  Kari Pitkänen, “‘Ruumiita kuin puita pinossa’—Kuoleman satoiset vuodet”, in Antti Häkkinen, Vappu Ikonen, Kari Pitkänen & Hannu Soikkanen, Kun Halla Nälän Tuskan Toi: Miten Suomalaiset Kokivat 1860-luvun Nälkävuodet (Porvoo, 1991), 207–23: 215–8; Pitkänen, “Road to Survival or Death”, 93–6. 166  Turpeinen, Nälkä vai tauti tappoi?, 105, fig. 13. 167  Turpeinen, Nälkä vai tauti tappoi?, 82–3.

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Antti Häkkinen has characterised the worst-hit districts in 1867–8 as forming a “horseshoe” from Häme and northern Satakunta in the west, up to Ostrobothnia and Kainuu and then through Karelia and Savonia in the east.168 Economic historian Miikka Voutilainen also alludes to the “horseshoe of death” but through a longer-term analysis of (i) excess mortality and (ii) averted births, demonstrates the developing mortality crisis after 1865.169 Additionally, Voutilainen draws attention to the fact that, even in neighbouring parishes, local factors could result in noticeable differences in mortality.170 How Did People Die? In his analysis of famine mortality, Cormac Ó Gráda has argued that “few die of starvation in the literal sense during famines”, for three main reasons, all of which are relevant to 1860s Finland: First…diseases such as dysentery, relapsing fever, typhus and even food poisoning do the damage first, often when the worst of the food shortage is over… Second, paupers who lived alone and died of hunger left no survivors to tell the tale to the enumerators. Third, one may well imagine some element of stigma in survivors ascribing a death in the family to famine…171

The stigma arises in large part from the notion that for an individual to starve to death, all the available resources for survival have been exhausted, including the moral obligation of neighbours or other societal actors to intervene. So as with the Great Irish Famine, where in 1847 some 6000 out of 250,000 deaths were attributed to “starvation”, the equivalent official figures for Finland (approximately 2–3%) are also likely to be underestimates.172 As early as March 1866, a correspondent in the Kuopio-based newspaper Tapio, responding to reports of famine-related deaths in Karelia, 168  Most recently see Antti Häkkinen, “The Great Famine of the 1860s in Finland: An Important Turning Point or Setback?”, in Journal of Finnish Studies, 21: 1&2 (2018), 156–77: 158; 166–7. 169  Voutilainen, Poverty, Inequality, 179, Map 16. 170  E.g. in the neighbouring Ostrobothnian parishes of Kaustinen and Ullava, death-rates were 5.7% and 22.1% respectively. Voutilainen, Poverty, Inequality, 180. 171  Cormac Ó Gráda, Ireland Before and After the Famine: Explorations in Economic History, 1800–1925 (2nd ed., Manchester & New York, 1993), 4. 172  Joel Mokyr & Cormac Ó Gráda, “What do people die of during famines: the Great Irish Famine in comparative perspective”,  European Review of Economic History, 6 (2002), 339–63: 340; Voutilainen, Poverty, Inequality, 177; Myllyntaus, “Summer Frost”, 88.

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highlighted the fallacy that just because someone might have been offered food shortly before death, that they could not therefore have died of hunger. The writer added that it would be “quite natural” in such times of scarcity that poor and deficient nutrition would lead to “all kinds of diseases, and then death”, and also asked: “who dares to go and say officially that [someone] starved to death?”173 The case of Juuka, a North Karelian parish in the province of Kuopio, seems to provide an interesting example of this taboo around “starvation”. In the early summer of 1868, the newspaper Kyrkligt Veckoblad reported: “Death from Hunger: from Juuka, the rector of the parish writes to us that of the 450 who died there this year, 166 died of starvation”.174 The official population tables for the parish reveal that in 1868, there were 718 deaths in Juuka (and only 117 births), and that 203 of these deaths were the direct result of hunger (svält). This fits well with the contemporary report in Kyrkligt Veckoblad, but at some point later in the year the minister responsible for recording these figures decided to change the cause of death from “hunger” to “accidents” (olyckshändelser), and moved the starvation deaths into the previous row.175 There is no possibility of finding out definitively the motivation for altering the official record in this way. As the original designation of death by hunger had to be entered specifically into the “causes” row, however, it cannot be a question of the minister simply erroneously writing in the wrong place. It seems highly likely that, on reflection, the attribution of “hunger death” was too great a stigma for the parish or the individual deceased parishioners or their families.176 As with other famines, the interrelationship (or “synergy”) between hunger and disease can hinder the precise identification of causes of death.177 Historians have failed to reach a consensus on the extent to which the contagious diseases that raged through Finland in the 1860s were initially exacerbated by extensive migration and cramped conditions in private farmhouses or municipal poor-/workhouses, or whether the diseases were coincidentally present in society in the early 1860s and then  Tapio, 17 Mar. 1866.  Kyrkligt Veckoblad, 5 Jun. 1868. 175  National Archives: Juuka Parish Archive, Population and Death Tables 1857–1876. 176  Henrik Forsberg, Famines in Mnemohistory and National Narratives in Finland and Ireland, c. 1850–1970 (Helsinki, 2020), 56–7. 177  Mike Davies, Late Victorian Holocausts: El Niño Famines and the Making of the Third World (New York & London, 2001), 22; Pitkänen, Deprivation and Disease, 112–15. 173 174

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took hold more seriously as the socio-economic conditions deteriorated.178 Antti Häkkinen has noted that the peaks of typhus mortality occurred more or less concurrently between the third week of February and the turn of April/May 1868 in places with no connection by migration.179 At this time, mortality had reached a “tipping point”, as communicable diseases raged, exacerbated by overcrowded workhouses, hospitals, etc.180 At least in terms of mortality, the peak of the crisis occurred in May 1868. A total of 25,248 people died in the country at the time, at least half of whom died of “typhus”.181 While allowing for the unreliability of “typhus” as an indicator, Häkkinen concluded that this pattern demonstrates that potentially lethal diseases such as smallpox and rubella, were breaking out and spreading as a result of overcrowded poorhouses and other facilities, such as ad hoc hospitals. These were overcrowded in the first place as a result of a malnourished population, the diseases were not necessarily carried from one parish to another by vagrants—and to suggest so ends up putting “blame” onto those who migrated, rather than those who let the situation develop so negatively in the 1860s. In the case of 1860s Finland, although the relationship between synergistic and social factors in mortality cannot be discerned precisely, Kari Pitkänen concludes that his calculations “demonstrate that a synergy between malnutrition and infectious disease may have been of prime significance in raising mortality”.182 Contemporaries were aware of a causal link between harvest failures and diseases, but medical knowledge in Finland in the 1860s was generally not yet sufficiently advanced to distinguish between these diseases, nor sometimes whether the ailments were bacterial or contagious.183 Therefore, the term “typhus” was often ascribed by ministers to any death that followed a persistent fever.184 Josef Wihelm Durchman, minister at Ruovesi  Pitkänen, Deprivation and Disease, 113; Turpeinen, Nälkä vai tauti tappoi?, 237.  Antti Häkkinen, “Suomen 1860-luvun Nälkäkatastrofi: Syitä ja Seurauksia”, Duodecim 128 (2012), 2425–30: 2429. 180  Häkkinen, “Suomen 1860-luvun Nälkäkatastrofi”, 2427. 181  Turpeinen, Nälkä vai tauti tappoi?, 21, graph 1. 182  Pitkänen, Deprivation and Disease, 115. 183  “Liikuvia tautia”, Suometar, 10 Oct. 1862; “Ylitemmekselta”, Oulun Wiikko-Sanomia, 13 Dec. 1862. 184  Pitkänen, Deprivation and Disease, 70–1. For a useful tabulation of historical causes of death with Finnish and English equivalents of the Swedish originals, see the Historismi.net local history and genealogy website: http://www.saunalahti.fi/hirvela/historismi_sivut/ deathsivu.html (accessed 30 Sep. 2021). 178 179

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(Häme Province), about seventy kilometres north of Tampere, noted the various forms of famine death in March 1868, by which time two hundred of his parishioners had died since the start of the year. Of these victims, he wrote: 18 died of smallpox, 60 of typhus, and about the same number poor nutrition and hunger, in other words, famine. This death begins with swollen feet, from where the tumour spreads to the entire body. And eventually a light, translucent line is seen under the eyes, and that is a sign that death is near. How many people are actually sick is difficult even to contemplate. The sure thing is that it can be reckoned in hundreds. Yes—really! Those who have not seen with their own eyes, will have a hard time grasping and believing, to what awe-inspiring height the distress and misery here has risen.185

Durchman therefore provided a useful source for the physical description of famine death in 1860s Finland—reminiscent in many respects of Elihu Burrit’s depictions of the starving population of Skibbereen during the Great Irish Famine—but also demonstrates the lack of precision in distinguishing between the different possible causes of death, attributing many to “famine”.186 This seems to equate to oedema (or “dropsy” as it was called in 1840s Ireland).187 By twenty-first-century definitions, therefore, famine oedema (generally designated as svullnad in the 1860s Finnish statistics) would be included as “death by outright starvation”. Moreover, 11,500 deaths in Finland in 1868 resulted from an “unknown” cause, which is approximately twice as many as during the early 1860s.188 Who Died? In March 1868, in response to the death of Carl Birger Agricola, a 34-year-old military officer, Hufvudstadsbladet noted that “the raging typhus epidemic reaps victims in all social classes”.189 While it was true that some upper-class members of Finnish society succumbed to the famine-related diseases, general vulnerability during the Great Hunger

185  Report from the minister J.W. Durchman, sent from Ruovesi 23 Mar. 1868, printed in Helsingfors Dagblad, 2 Apr. 1868. 186  Elihu Burrit, A Journal of a Visit of Three Days to Skibbereen and its Neighbourhood (London & Birmingham, 1847), 10. 187  Mokyr & Gráda, “What do people die of during famines”, 340. 188  Pitkänen, Deprivation and Disease, 69–70. 189  “Dödsfall”, Hufvudstadsbladet, 24 Mar. 1868.

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Years exposed clear class lines in Finland.190 When compared with pre-­ famine figures, it is reckoned that a peasant farmer (talonpoika) had double the likelihood of death, whereas for a crofter (torppari) the risk quadrupled, and for a landless labourer the increase was nearly fivefold. The proportion of landless labourers, comprising the lowest rung of Finland’s agricultural classes and more vulnerable in times of harvest failure or economic downturns, had been increasing from 1815, and would continue to do so for the rest of the century.191 This hugely increased precariat was one factor in the great mortality of the 1860s.192 Overall, working-age people, and especially men, were in greater danger than children and women, owing to what Kari Pitkänen describes as “behavioural patterns which have either exposed males to infectious diseases or subjected them to harder physical stress”.193 In other words, men were required to undertake the more onerous relief works, and often provide for a family, a fact which also helps to account for the high levels of typhus among male causes of death.194 Some of the Finnish elites, of course, were more exposed to risk—in Kari Pitkänen’s phrase, a “point of contact between the two Finlands”.195 Yrjö-Koskinen, in a letter to his Hungarian colleague Pál Hunfalvy in mid-1868, wrote: Here we have wandered in the “Shadow of Death”. … I’m not even talking about the many thousands of my destitute citizens who have fallen to the left, and fallen to the right; even in those sections of society that have not experienced hunger and deprivation, death has raged fiercely. Ministers and

190  Miikka Voutilainen, “Feeding the famine: social vulnerability and dislocation during the Finnish famine of the 1860s”, in Declan Curran, Lubomyr Luciuk & Andrew G. Newby, Famines in European Economic History: the last great European famines reconsidered (Abingdon, 2015), 124–44: 126; Voutilainen, Poverty, Inequality, 184. 191  Häkkinen & Forsberg, “Finland’s Famine Years”, 105, Fig. 4.2. 192  Miikka Voutilainen, “Income inequality and famine mortality: Evidence from the Finnish famine of the 1860s”, Economic History Review, 75:2 (May 2022), 503–29. 193  Kari Pitkänen, “Famine Mortality in Nineteenth-Century Finland: Is there a Sex Bias?”, in Tim Dyson & Cormac Ó Gráda (eds), Famine Demography: Perspectives from the Past and Present (Oxford, 2002), 65–92: 88. 194  Häkkinen, “Suomen 1860-luvun Nälkäkatastrofi”, 2429. 195  Pitkänen, “Leipää kansalle”, 173.

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doctors have stood in the frontlines, but in general there are few families where typhus has not taken victims.196

Doctors and pastors, indeed, had close contact with the dead and the dying, and often fell victim to contagious disease themselves. One tenth of Finland’s doctors (twelve of 120) died in 1868, which is a higher proportion than the population at large.197 While it was true, however, that by April–May 1868, famine-related deaths were carrying off members of almost all social classes, it is not the case that everyone in Finland was equally at risk, whether in terms of hunger or even in terms of exposure to disease.198

Conclusion In his 2016 analysis of the economic and social background to Finland’s catastrophic 1860s famine, Miikka Voutilainen observes that “[h]istorians seem to be divided over whether blaming Snellman and other officials of the time for [the] slow and inadequate response is anachronistic or not”.199 In quoting Matti Klinge’s claim that Finnish administration did “everything possible” to alleviate the famine once the severity of the situation became obvious in late 1867, Voutilainen adds: “it seems that Snellman has attracted more sympathy in general works, but not in famine studies”.200 This is indeed a fair assessment, and speaks to the idea that general, national histories have tended to see the disaster—despite the (plural) label of the “Great Hunger Years”—as a single-year event that took place between September 1867 and 1868. In such circumstances, it might be argued, a government of any hue could be taken unawares, and fail to address the crisis either through a lack of experience, or a lack of resources. On the other hand, famine studies—historical and contemporary—stress that large-scale hunger catastrophes and significant excess mortality cannot generally be caused by a single factor such as climate. And in the case 196  Yrjö-Koskinen to Pál Hunfalvy, 22 Jun. 1868. Reproduced in Yrjö Wichmann, “Paavali Hunfalvyn suomalaista kirjeenvaihtoa”, Suomi: Kirjoituksia Isänmaallisista Aineista, 5:2 (1923), 380–429: 397. 197  Turpeinen, Nälkä vai tauti tappoi?, 180–1. 198  Voutilainen, Poverty, Inequality, 2–6. 199  Voutilainen, Poverty, Inequality, 20. 200  Voutilainen, Poverty, Inequality, 20, fn. 24. Quoting Matti Klinge, Keisarin Suomi (Helsinki, 1997), 239.

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of 1860s Finland, it is important to note that the final disastrous year was merely the culmination of a very long period of socio-economic degradation, leading to eventual collapse. After an assessment of how markets operated in Finland during the 1860s, Cormac Ó Gráda concluded that “the backwardness of Finnish agriculture coupled with the lack of an adequate policy response from the authorities, rather than poorly functioning grain markets, were primarily responsible for the Great Finnish Famine”.201 While it is true that such a succession of poor harvests was particularly unlucky, the nationalist ideology of the Helsinki administration, especially after Snellman’s elevation to the Senate, and the recalling of the Diet in 1863, prioritised financial reforms as a medium-term plan to facilitate Finland’s passage to statehood. The rural proletariat needed to learn the elements of self-denial and self-sufficiency inherent in being a Finn, and face the hard years with stoicism in the expectation of a brighter future. The growing sense of trepidation after the famine year of 1862–3, when most areas of the country continued to experience poor harvests and the Grand Duchy’s resources became ever more depleted, was over-ridden by the sense that the Tsar’s permissiveness towards Finland would not last forever, especially as he was being criticised in some quarters in Russia for the special treatment he seemed to be giving the Finns. The tight fiscal policy was a pre-requisite for preparing Finland’s new currency, the markka, and each year it was felt that a good harvest would set the economy back onto an even keel. It was this “betting”—as Assistant Minister-­ Secretary of State Emil Stjernwall-Walleen described it to Snellman upon the latter’s resignation from the Senate in 1868—that was responsible for the apparent lack of an emergency response, or a timely negotiation of adequate foreign loans.202 The gamble only paid off in the long run, and although Snellman claimed that the deaths of so many people under his leadership pained him for the rest of his life, his reputation as the awakener of the national spirit, and important financial reformer, survived intact.203 The good harvest of 1868 and a very rapid demographic recovery allowed the Fennomanes to present a narrative in which the government did what it could, while the people learned valuable lessons for the future, a narrative which has remained influential in the national historiography ever since.

 Ó Gráda, “Markets and Famines”, 588.  Quoted in Rantanen, “Pitfall on a nation’s path”, 231. 203  Jalava, J.V. Snellman, 307. 201 202

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References Bibliography

National Archives of Finland Hyrynsalmi Parish Archive, Population Tables 1815–1863. Juuka Parish Archive, Population and Death Tables 1857–1876. Paltamo Parish Archive, Population Tables 1787–1877. Sotkamo Parish Archive, Statistics and Population Tables 1855–1948.

Finnish Literature Society "A Memory from the Spring of Hunger". Väinö Laajala, SKS 4, Perho (Interviewee: Maija Kivelä), 1932.

Official Reports William Campbell, “Report by Mr. Consul Campbell on the Trade of Finland for the Year 1867”, in Commercial Reports Received at the Foreign Office from Her Majesty’s Consuls in 1868 (London, 1868), 416–19. Herman Lorentz (Wiborg, March 31, 1863). “Report by Mr. Consul Herman Lorentz on the Trade of Viborg for the Year 1862”, in Commercial Reports received at the Foreign Office from Her Majesty’s Consuls Between July 1st, 1862 and June 30th, 1863 (London, 1863), 373–9. Herman Lorentz (dated Wiborg, April 30, 1864), “Report by Mr. Consul Herman Lorentz on the Trade of Wiborg for the Year 1864”, in Commercial Reports received at the Foreign Office from Her Majesty’s Consuls (London, 1865), 359–66. Herman Lorentz (dated Wiborg, April 30, 1866), “Wiborg”, in Commercial Reports, Received at the Foreign Office from Her Majesty’s Consuls in 1866 (London, 1866), 291–6.

Websites Historismi.net local history and genealogy website: http://www.saunalahti.fi/ hirvela/historismi_sivut/deathsivu.html (accessed 30 Sep. 2021).

Newspapers Åbo Tidningar. Finlands Allmänna Tidning.

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Förre och Nu. Helsingfors Dagblad. Helsingfors Tidningar. Heräävä Nuoriso. Hufvudstadsbladet. Jakobstads Tidning. Koti ja Koulu. Kuopio Tidning. Kyrkligt Veckoblad. Leeds Intelligencier. Maiden ja merien takaa. Morning Chronicle. Morning Post. Nyland. Oulun Wiikko-Sanomia. Otawa. Porin Kaupingin Sanomia. Sanan-Lennätin. Sanomia Turusta. Spectator. Standard (London). Suomen Julkisia Sanomia. Suometar. Tapio. Uusi Suometar. Wasabladet. Wiborg.

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Mike Davies, Late Victorian Holocausts: El Niño Famines and the Making of the Third World (New York & London, 2001). S.G.  Elmgren, “Finska Litteratursällskapets årsberättelser”, Litteraturblad för Allmän Medborgerlig Bildning, Mar. 1858, 97–100. Henrik Forsberg, Famines in Mnemohistory and National Narratives in Finland and Ireland, c. 1850–1970 (Helsinki, 2020). Peter Gray, “National humiliation and the Great Hunger: fast and famine in 1847”, Irish Historical Studies, 32:126 (Nov. 2000), 193–216. Basil Greenhill and Ann Giffard, The British Assault on Finland 1854–55: A Forgotten Naval War (London, 1988). Edvard Gylling, “Nälkävuodet 1867–68. Puolivuosisataismuisto”, Työväen kalenteri, XI (1918), 110–21. Antti Häkkinen, “Pernaan Lapuan Tie Tehtiin Jauhonaaloolla Nälkävuosina: Hätäaputyöt: Epäonnistuitko Valtiovalta?”, in Antti Häkkinen, Vappu Ikonen, Kari Pitkänen & Hannu Soikkanen, Kun Halla Nälän Tuskan Toi (Porvoo, 1991), 129–57. Antti Häkkinen, “On Attitudes and Living Strategies in the Finnish Countryside in the years of famine 1867–68”, in Antti Häkkinen (ed.), Just a Sack of Potatoes? Crisis Experiences in European Societies, Past and Present (Helsinki, 1992), 149–66. Antti Häkkinen “Suomen 1860-luvun Nälkäkatastrofi: Syitä ja Seurauksia” Duodecim 128 (2012), 2425–30. Antti Häkkinen, “The Great Famine of the 1860s in Finland: An Important Turning Point or Setback?”, in Journal of Finnish Studies, 21: 1&2 (2018), 156–77. Antti Häkkinen & Henrik Forsberg, “Finland’s Famine Years of the 1860s: A Nineteenth-Century Perspective”, in Declan Curran, Lubomyr Luciuk & Andrew G.  Newby (eds), Famines in European Economic History. The Last Great European Famines Reconsidered (Abingdon, 2015), 99–125. Antti Häkkinen & Andrew G. Newby, “Nälkäkriisi-Suomi: kansainvälinen apu ja kotimaiset panostukset”, in Juhani Koponen & Sakari Saaritsa (eds), Nälkämaasta Hyvinvointivaltioksi: Suomi kehityksen kiiniottajana (Helsinki, 2019), 93–110. Heidi Hirvonen, “Tiedon, tahdon tai resurssien puutetta? Suomen hallinto ja syksyn 1867 elintarvikriisi”, (University of Helsinki, MA Thesis, 2013). Vappu Ikonen, “‘Tervaa… vastaan saatiin Oulun kauppiailta ennakkona viljaa, suolaa ja muutakin’—Kauppahuoneiden rooli hätäaikana”, in Antti Häkkinen, Vappu Ikonen, Kari Pitkänen & Hannu Soikkanen, Kun Halla Nälän Tuskan Toi: Miten suomalaiset kokivat 1860-luvun nälkävuodet (Porvoo, 1991), 114–25. Vappu Ikonen, “Kaksi 1800-luvun nälkäkriisiä—Suomi ja Irlanti”, in Antti Häkkinen, Vappu Ikonen, Kari Pitkänen & Hannu Soikkanen, Kun Halla

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Nälän Tuskan Toi: Miten Suomalaiset Kokivat 1860-luvun Nälkävuodet (Porvoo, 1991), 273–82. Maria Jalava, J.V. Snellman - Mies ja Suurmies (Helsinki, 2006), 269–79. Osmo Jussila, “Englantilaisten kveekarien Joseph Sturgen ja Thomas Harveyn matkakuvaus Suomesta v. 1856”, Historiallinen Arkisto lxi (1967), 430–40. Osmo Jussila, Seppo Hentilä & Jukka Nevakivi, From Grand Duchy to a Modern State: A Political History of Finland since 1809 (London: Hurst, 2nd ed., 1999). Kaisa Kauranen, Rahvas, kauppias & virkamiehet: Katovuodet Pohjois-Suomessa 1830-luvulla (Helsinki, 1999). David Kirby, A Concise History of Finland (Cambridge, 2006). Eliza Kraatari, Domestic Dexterity and Cultural Policy: The Idea of Cottage Industry and Historical Experience in Finland from the Great Famine to the Reconstruction Period (Jyväskylä, 2016). Jussi Kurunmäki & Ilkka Liikanen, “The formation of the Finnish Polity within the Russian Empire: Language, Representation, and the Construction of Popular Political Platforms, 1863–1906”, Harvard Ukrainian Studies 35: 1–4 (2017–2018), 399–416. Antti Kuusterä, “1860-luvun epäonnistunut talouspolitiikka”, in Kari Pitkänen (ed.), Nälkä, Talous, Kontrolli: Näkökulmia Kriisien ja Konfliktien Syntyyn, Merkitykseen ja Kontrolliin, ed. Kari Pitkänen (Helsinki, 1987), 43–57. Jason Lavery, The History of Finland (Westport, CT, 2006). Ilkka Liikanen, Fennomania ja kansa—Joukkojärjestäytymisen läpimurto ja Suomalaisen puolueen synty (Helsinki, 1995). Pirjo Markkola, “Changing Patterns of Welfare: Finland in the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries”, in Steven King and John Stewart (eds), Welfare Peripheries: The Development of Welfare States in Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Europe (Bern, 2007), 207–30. William R.  Mead, “The Birth of the British Consular System in Finland”, The Norseman, xv (1957), 101–11. Henrik Meinander, A History of Finland (London, 2011). Joel Mokyr & Cormac Ó Gráda, “What do people die of during famines: the Great Irish Famine in comparative perspective”, European Review of Economic History, 6 (2002), 339–63. Mary L. Mullen, “‘A Great Public Transaction’: Fast Days, Famine, and the British State”, Victorian Studies 61:3 (Spring, 2019), 446–66. Timo Myllyntaus, “Summer Frost: A Natural Hazard with Fatal Consequences in Pre-Industrial Finland”, in Christof Mauch & Christian Pfister (eds), Natural Disasters, Cultural Responses: Case Studies Toward a Global Environmental History (Lanham, 2009), 77–102. Andrew G. Newby, “‘One Valhalla of the Free!’ Scandinavia, Britain and Northern Identity in the Nineteenth Century”, in Jonas Harvard & Peter Stadius (eds.) Communicating the North: Media Structures and Images in the Making of the Nordic Region (Farnham, 2013), 147–69.

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Andrew G. Newby, “‘Neither do these tenants or their children emigrate’: famine and transatlantic emigration from Finland in the nineteenth century”, Atlantic Studies, 11:3 (2014), 383–402. Andrew G. Newby, “‘Rather Peculiar Claims Upon Our Sympathies’: Britain and Famine in Finland, 1856–68”, in Global Legacies of the Great Irish Famine: Transnational and Interdisciplinary Perspectives, ed. Marguérite Corporaal, Christopher Cusack, Lindsay Janssen & Ruud van den Beuken (Bern, 2014), 61–80. Andrew G.  Newby & Timo Myllyntaus, “‘The Terrible Visitation’: Famine in Finland and Ireland, 1845–1868”, in Declan Curran, Lubomyr Luciuk & Andrew G.  Newby (eds), Famines in European Economic History. The Last Great European Famines Reconsidered (Abingdon, 2015), 145–65: 148. Toivo Nygård, Irtolaisuus ja sen kontrolli 1800-luvun alun Suomessa (Jyväskylä, 1985). Cormac Ó Gráda, Ireland Before and After the Famine: Explorations in Economic History, 1800–1925 (2nd ed., Manchester & New York, 1993). Cormac Ó Gráda, “Markets and Famines: Evidence from Nineteenth Century Finland”, Economic Development and Cultural Change, 49:3 (2001–4), 575–90. Juhani Paasivirta, Finland and Europe: The Period of Autonomy and the International Crises 1808–1914 (London, 1981). Onni Pekonen, “Parliamentarizing the Estate Diet”, Scandinavian Journal of History, 42:3 (2017), 245–72. Juha Y.  Pentikäinen, Kalevala Mythology: Expanded Edition (Bloomington & Indianapolis, 1999). K.A. Pfaler, Muistelmia Kuhmoniemen Seurakunnasta (Helsinki, 1909). Erkki Pihkala, “The Finnish Economy and Russia 1809–1917”, in Michael Branch, Janet M. Hartley & Antoni Ma ̨czak (eds), Finland and Poland in the Russian Empire (London, 1995), 153–66. Kari Pitkänen, “Kärsimysten ja ahdingon vuosikymmen—1860 luvun yleiskuva”, in Antti Häkkinen, Hannu Soikkanen, Vappu Ikonen & Kari Pitkänen, Kun Halla Nälän Tuskan Toi (Porvoo, 1991), 36–77. Kari Pitkänen, “Leipää kansalle, sirkushuveja herroille—armeliaisuuden januskasvot”, in Antti Häkkinen, Hannu Soikkanen, Vappu Ikonen & Kari Pitkänen, Kun Halla Nälän Tuskan Toi (Porvoo, 1991), 158–75. Kari Pitkänen, “‘Ruumiita kuin puita pinossa’—Kuoleman satoiset vuodet”, in Antti Häkkinen, Vappu Ikonen, Kari Pitkänen & Hannu Soikkanen, Kun Halla Nälän Tuskan Toi: Miten Suomalaiset Kokivat 1860-luvun Nälkävuodet (Porvoo, 1991), 207–23. Kari Pitkänen, ‘The Road to Survival or Death? Temporary Migration During the Great Irish Famine in the 1860s’, in Antti Häkkinen (ed), Just a Sack of Potatoes? Crisis Experiences in European Societies, Past and Present (Helsinki, 1992), 87–118.

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Kari Pitkänen, Deprivation and Disease: Mortality During the Great Finnish Famine of the 1860s (Helsinki, 1993). Kari Pitkänen, “Famine Mortality in Nineteenth-Century Finland: Is there a Sex Bias?”, in Tim Dyson & Cormac Ó Gráda (eds), Famine Demography: Perspectives from Past and Present (Oxford: 2002), 65–92. Panu Pulma, “Köyhästäkö kansalainen”, in Pertti Haapala (ed.), Talous, Valta ja Valtio. Tutkimuksia 1800-luvun Suomesta (Tampere, 1990), 169–93. Lari Rantanen, “A Pitfall on a Nation’s Path of Politics? Government Response to the Finnish Famine of the 1860s”, Jahrbücher für Geschichte Osteuropas 67 (2019/2), 206–38. Heidi Reese, “A Lack of Resources, Information and Will: Political Aspects of the Finnish Crisis of 1867–68”, in Andrew G. Newby (ed.), The Enormous Failure of Nature: Famine and Society in the Nineteenth Century (Helsinki, 2017), 83–102. V.T. Rosenqvist, Frans Ludvig Schaumann. Senare Delen (Helsingfors, 1928). Olivier Rubin, Contemporary Famine Analysis (London / New York, 2016). Sakari Saaritsa, “Miten Suomi lakkasi olemasta kehitysmaa? Taloudellinen ja inhimillinen kehitys 1800- ja 1900 luvuilla”, in Juhani Koponen & Sakari Saaritsa (eds), Nälkämaasta Hyvinvointivaltioksi: Suomi Kehityksen Kiinniottajana (Helsinki, 2019), 33–50. Raimo Savolainen, J.V. Snellman ja Nälkävuodet (Helsinki, 1989). Raimo Savolainen, Sivistyksen voimalla: J.V. Snellmanin elämä (Helsinki, 2006). Amartya Sen, Development as Freedom (Oxford, 1999). Santeri Seppälä, “Nälänhätää kärsivän väestön huoltoa tarkoittavasta toiminnasta Laihialla 1850- ja 1860-luvuilla sattuneina katovuosina”, Valvoja-Aika 6 (1928), 300–11. Fred Singleton, A Short History of Finland (Cambridge, 1998). Oiva Turpeinen, Nälkä vai tauti tappoi? Kauhunvuodet 1866–1868 (Helsinki, 1986). Oiva Turpeinen, Oolannin Sota: Itämäinen Sota Suomessa (Helsinki, 2003). Matti Vainio & Pentti Savolainen, Suomi herää: Mistä on suomalaisuus tehty? (Jyväskylä, 2006). Ville Vauhkonen, “Miten Soinin Seurakunnan Vaivaiskassa Toimi 1800-luvun Puolivälissä”, in Otso Kantakorppi (ed.) Vavaisukkojen paluu (Helsinki, 2013), 44–55. Ville Vauhkonen, Vaivaisukot: Perusturvan Pioneerit (Helsinki, 2022). Paavo Virkkunen, Agathon Meuman: Henkilö ja Elämäntyö. II: 1855–1880 (Helsinki, 1938). Miikka Voutilainen, “Feeding the famine: social vulnerability and dislocation during the Finnish famine of the 1860s”, in Declan Curran, Lubomyr Luciuk & Andrew G.  Newby, Famines in European Economic History: the last great European famines reconsidered (Abingdon, 2015), 124–44.

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Miikka Voutilainen, Poverty, Inequality and the Finnish 1860s Famine (Jyväskylä, 2016), 20. Miikka Voutilainen, “Income inequality and famine mortality: Evidence from the Finnish famine of the 1860s”, Economic History Review, 75:2 (May 2022), 503–29. Voitto Vuola, Yrjö Sakari Yrjö-Koskisen Kristillisyyden Käsitys (Helsinki, 1981). Yrjö Wichmann, “Paavali Hunfalvyn suomalaista kirjeenvaihtoa”, Suomi: Kirjoituksia Isänmaallisista Aineista, 5:2 (1923), 380–429.

CHAPTER 3

Emergency Nutrition: Promoting Self-­Sufficiency

Along with migration, rising grain prices and an increase in crime, the use of surrogate and emergency foodstuffs is a common theme—indeed a “classic coping strategy”—during famines throughout history.1 As political scientist Jenny Edkins noted in her seminal book Whose Hunger? (2000): “It is not possible to read accounts of famines and the hardships and inhumanities to which people are driven during such periods without coming across accounts where things are eaten that under normal circumstances would in no sense count as food”.2 This can mean scouring the local countryside for berries, and fruits that might not ordinarily be considered palatable, using carrion or weeds, or indeed, to use Alex de Waal’s example: “refuse, fleas, ground up skins, some roots and leaves,

1  Cormac Ó Gráda, “Famine is not the Problem: A Historical Perspective”, Historical Research, 88: 239 (Feb. 2015), 20–33: 29; Alex de Waal, Famine That Kills: Darfur, Sudan (Rev. Ed., Oxford, 2005), 135. 2  Jenny Edkins, Whose Hunger? Concepts of Famine, Practices and Aid (Minneapolis, 2000), 63. As a part of his wider argument that “[surrogate] inventions are not the cure for starvation”, Sorkin presents a comprehensive list of historical famine-period foodstuffs. Pitirim A. Sorokin, Hunger as a Factor in Human Affairs (Gainesville, 1975), 165. More recently, Paul E. Minnis has made a comprehensive examination of famine foods, and examines e.g. lists of surrogates used during Indian famines, and the Dutch “Hunger Winter”. Paul E. Minnis, Famine Foods: Plants We Eat to Survive (Tucson, 2021), 122–40; 141–52.

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 A. G. Newby, Finland’s Great Famine, 1856–68, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-19474-0_3

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[or] the bark of trees”.3 The last-named example is particularly germane in the Finnish case. In Finland during the 1850s and 1860s, the various types of food surrogates that were adopted formed an important part of both the domestic and the international narrative. In many cases, supplements that had traditionally been used in periods of food shortages—especially flour made from ground pine phloem—were consumed. Otherwise, topdown government propaganda about the potential bounty to be found in the Finnish forests (arguably more effective as a longer-term strategy than as a response to a “sudden” harvest failure in 1867) was employed in an effort to mitigate the impending disaster.4 Using surrogate foods to overcome the harvest failures was a means of individual and, by extension, national subsistence. If such self-sufficiency could be achieved, Finland would not be put in the humiliating position of needing aid from outside. At worst, through its efforts, it would have shown itself to be a “deserving” recipient of any such aid.

Hunger Gaps and Surrogate Foods The normal diet in the Finnish countryside was monotonous, based on grain, and prone to shortages—either as a result of a pre-harvest “hungry gap”, or of harvest failures leading to regional, one-year crises.5 Rye and barley were the main grain crops, although wheat and buckwheat was also produced. Oats, other than in the south-east, were generally used as fodder.6 Apart than grain, turnips were the mainstay of the human diet, along 3  de Waal, Famine That Kills, 135. The description of Chinese peasants “eating their own homes” in Shandong in 1876 also highlights similarities with the Finnish case in terms of surrogates. See Mike Davies, Late Victorian Holocausts: El Niño Famines and the Making of the Third World (London, 2001), 67. 4  Marie C. Nelson, Bitter Bread: The Famine in Norrbotten 1867–1868 (Uppsala, 1988), 151–58; Ingvar Svanberg, “The use of wild plants as food in pre-industrial Sweden”, Acta Societas Botanicorum Poloniae, 81:4 (2012), 317–27; Ingvar Svanberg & Marie C. Nelson, “Bone-meal porridge, Lichen Soup, or Mushroom Bread: Acceptance of Rejection of Food Propaganda in Northern Sweden in the 1860s”, in Antti Häkkinen (ed.), Just a Sack of Potatoes? Crisis Experiences in European Societies, Past and Present (Helsinki, 1992), 119–47: 130–40. Petri Palu, “Jäkälän paluu: Jäkälävalistus ja Tekstien Uudelleenkäyttö Historiallisen Tutkimusteeman Jäsentäjänä”, Ennen ja Nyt, 19 (2/2019). 5  Ilmar Talve, Suomen kansankulttuuri: historiallisia päälinjoja (Helsinki, 1979), 123; Ilmar Talve, Finnish Folk Culture (Helsinki, 1997), 123–9; 133. 6  Arvo M.  Soininen, Vanha Maataloutemme: Maatalous ja Maatalousväestö Suomessa Perinnäisen Maatalouden Loppukaudella 1720-luvulta 1870-luvulle (Helsinki, 1974), 166.

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with peas, beans and cabbage, and although potato cultivation increased during the nineteenth century, general adoption of the crop was slow and regularly fell victim to blight or frost (including in 1867).7 Berries—with the exception of lingonberries, which could be frozen in outhouses for use during the winter—were only eaten during the summer months.8 Fishing and hunting could not make up for the shortfall in the harvest during the 1860s, other than in a few areas, because of a lack of equipment, land access and general skills.9 Popular or folk strategies for coping with food shortages, the “stored knowledge” of generations, has been described by Cormac Ó Gráda as a part of the “social capital of any famine-prone society”, and Finland was certainly no exception to this.10 In nineteenth-­ century Finland, the use of food surrogates was a common occurrence in some parts of the country (and only completely unknown in south-­western Finland and the Åland Islands) even if outright famine was not experienced.11 Historian Mirkka Lappalainen has noted of Finland’s 1690s “Great Years of Death”, that as people got weaker and more desperate, they resorted to famine foods, including bark bread, the roots of bog arum,12 reindeer lichen, and others which made up (quoting the Governor of Turku-Pori province) an “unnatural and ghastly diet”.13 All of these 7  “Hämeenlinnasta”, Suomalainen Wirallinen Lehti, 17 Sep. 1867; Soininen, Vanha Maataloutemme, 176–7, 185, 403; Talve, Finnish Folk Culture, 120–38; Aulis J.  Alanen, Ilmajoki Vuoden 1809 Jälkeen (Ilmajoki, 1953), 152. 8  Talve, Finnish Folk Culture, 127. 9  Antti Häkkinen, “Kuolema tulee jäkäläleiwästä: Hätäravinto, hätäleipävalistus ja sen vastanotto”, in Antti Häkkinen, Vappu Ikonen, Kari Pitkänen & Hannu Soikkanen, Kun halla nälän tuskan toi: Miten suomalaiset kokivat 1860-luvun nälkävuodet (Porvoo, 1991), 91–113: 94–5; Jan Kunnas, “1860-luvun nälkävuodet: absoluuttinen ruokapula vai niukkuuden epätasainen jakautuminen”, Kansantaloudellinen aikakauskirja, 3/2018, 335–55: 340. 10  Cormac Ó Gráda, Famine: A Short History (Princeton, 2009), 75; Ó Gráda, “Famine is not the Problem”, 28–9. 11   Häkkinen, “Kuolema tulee jäkäläleiwästä”, 99; Niilo Liakka, “Suomen rahvaan jokapäiväinen leipä”, 19:nnen vuosisadan ensi kymmenillä”, Historiallinen Aikakauskirja 21 (1923), 177–84: 178–9; Allmogens i Wiborgs län ekonomiska ställning : såvidt densamma beror af jordbruket och dermed förenade näringar. Första delen, första häftet, Lappvesi härad, Walkeala socken (Wiborg, 1856), 31–2. For a useful visualisation of this situation, see Miikka Voutilainen, Poverty, Inequality and the Finnish 1860s Famine (Jyväskylä, 2016), 90 (Map 5). 12  Calla palustris. 13  Mirkka Lappalainen, “Death and Disease During the Great Finnish Famine 1695–1697”, Scandinavian Journal of History, 39:4 (2014), 429.

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i­ngredients were again prominent during the nineteenth-century famines. During the Great Hunger Years, this knowledge was harnessed, in part, by scientific investigations into emergency foods—maybe most famously by Elias Lönnrot who, as well as being an active folklorist and compiler of Finland’s national epic, Kalevala, was provincial doctor in Kainuu, one of the districts hit worst by famine. And yet, some of the popular resistance to the government’s food propaganda—dismissed as backwardness or conservatism by many in the administration—represented a perfectly rational reluctance to consume materials which had long been considered poisonous or otherwise inappropriate.14

“How Contemporary!”: The Use of Pine Bark Phloem Bark bread was the best known of these surrogates.15 In the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, travellers to Finland and Scandinavia made frequent references to the presence of bark bread in the regional diet. Edward Daniel Clark, a widely travelled chemistry professor from England, noted during his stay in northern Finland in 1799: In [Palojoensuu] the bread of the poor peasants was worse than any we had yet seen: it consisted of the inner bark of the fir-tree, mixed with chaff and a very little barley. It seemed to us almost inconceivable that such bread should contain nourishment. We brought some of it to England; where it has remained since, unaltered, and in the same state in which it was offered to us for food.16

14  Heidi Hirvonen, “Tiedon, tahdon tai resurssien puutetta? Suomen hallinto ja syksyn 1867 elinarvikekriisi”, (MA Thesis, University of Helsinki, 2013), 94–98; Kunnas, “1860-­ luvun nälkävuodet”, 341. See also Minnis, Famine Foods, 48–9. 15  “Sahajauhoista Ravintoaineita”, Tie Vapauteen, Oct. 1936. 16  Edward Daniel Clark, Travels in Various Countries of Europe, Asia and Africa. Part The Third—Scandinavia (London, 1819), 425. Clark adds in a footnote that: “many years afterwards, at an auction of minerals, a piece of this bread, which the author had given to a friend, was offered for public sale, as a specimen of Rock Leather, one of the sub-varieties of Asbestus. The fact is well-known in the University of Cambridge, several of its Members being present at the time”. British travellers later in the nineteenth century also highlighted the role of bark bread in the Finnish famine diet, and the associated memory. See e.g. E.B.  Lanin, Russian Characteristics. Reprinted, with amendments, from the Fortnightly Review (London, 1892), 420; A.M. Clive-Bayley, Vignettes from Finland; or, Twelve Months in Strawberry Land (London, 1895), 262–5.

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Such bread also became an ingredient in the Finnish national narrative of perseverance. In J.L. Runeberg’s poem Saarijärven Paavo (1830), the eponymous hero explained to his wife how they could endure a period of harvest failures until, by God’s grace, good times returned.17 Cutting bread with the dried, ground flour of Scots Pine phloem was a key element of Paavo’s survival strategy.18 In the mid-1850s, international commentators noted the Finns’ used of “borkbrod” [sic], and even occasional references to the consumption of raw pine phloem.19 Although bark bread was commonplace in different parts of Finland, it was still quite startling to outsiders, and suggestive of intolerable social conditions. As such, news of its consumption was used to elicit charitable donations in Sweden and Britain during the winter of 1856–1857.20 It is sometimes unclear whether contemporaries abroad—or possibly even in urban parts of Finland— understood the methods adopted in the preparation of this bread, or whether the Finns were believed to be gnawing at the bark either while on the tree, or ripped directly from the tree.21 Ferdinand Uhde, of Tampere, told his English Quaker correspondents in February 1857 that there were “forty or fifty” weekly burials in one parish near Kajaani (Oulu Province), mainly due to poor nutrition rather than starvation, and that the bread mixed with “the bark of Pinus abies22…. is black and hard as charcoal”.23 In order to reinforce the sense of crisis in 1857, Erik Julin of Turku sent a sample of bark bread from Pudasjärvi (Oulu Province) to the Quaker fundraising committee in Britain.24 Even as the crisis (temporarily) subsided 17  Johan Ludvig Runeberg, “Idyll och Epigram”, in Samlade Skrifter (Tredje Bandet) (Örebro, 1852), 65–85: 80–1. 18  Preparing the “bark” for consumption is not a quick process, nor one that can simply be resorted to as an immediate response to a harvest failure. The inner phloem must be separated from the bark after soaking (usually in the springtime when there are the most nutrients), then laid out to dry, and finally ground to be stored in the event of an emergency. 19  “What We Eat”, Harpers Magazine, No. LXII, Vol. XI (Jul. 1855), 205. For a description of a “famine meal” in Finland in 1857, see Bayard Taylor, Northern Travel: Summer and Winter Pictures of Sweden, Denmark and Lapland (New York, 1857), 92–3. 20  The Times, 28 Feb. 1857. 21  York Herald, 25 Apr. 1857. 22  Picea abies (European Spruce). 23  Essex Standard, 15 May 1857. The British consul in Helsinki, H.W.  Crowe, also forwarded samples of bark and lichen bread to the Earl of Clarendon, some of which was then sent to the Museum of Economic Botany at Kew. H.W. Crowe to the Earl of Clarendon, 16 Jun. 1857 (reproduced in The Working Farmer, 1 Nov. 1857). 24  Åbo Tidningar, 28 Apr. 1857; Report of the Committee for the Relief of Famine in Finland (London, 1858), 15–16.

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in 1858, geologist Anders Johan Wathén, made the following observation during his Tour Through Oulu and Kajaani Provinces: In the areas closest to Lake Simojärvi, bark bread is a [part of the] daily diet even during better years. One is so accustomed to it that even in the wealthier estates, which could certainly prepare the bread without it, and where even pure rye bread was available, it was considered an unforgivable gluttony, if one neglected the useful gift from God offered in the pine bark. I also had the opportunity to see bread mixed with straw, but lichen bread was unknown.25

The ubiquity of this surrogate did not diminish in the 1860s. A correspondent to Helsingfors Dagblad wrote sarcastically from London’s “Great Exposition” in 1862, wondering how Finland could best be represented, and imagining visitors proclaiming “bark bread from Ostrobothnia—how contemporary!”26 Writing in his journal from Raahe in the summer of 1864, John Good, the Hull ship-owner, noted the increasing sense of desperation in Finland: “…the poor are so accustomed to eat this mixed bread (rye & the bark of the tree) that they do not make that ill cheer of it as they once did”.27 While the collection of emergency food has been noted one of the signifiers of imminent famine, the use of surrogates can be subject to social stigma.28 Some Finns certainly held bark bread in disdain, perceiving that many of their compatriots chose to live a precarious lifestyle, bolstered by this bread, as an alternative to hard work or general agricultural development.29 The administration’s mantra of self-sufficiency was meant to encourage personal improvement, for the overall good of the nation, rather than certain parts of the population choosing to cling to an outdated lifestyle. Not only was the widespread use of pine bark phloem representative of a pre-modern society, antithetical to the kind of Finland that 25  Anders Johan Wathén, “Berättelse i följd af en resa inom Uleåborgs och Kajana län”, Finlands Allmänna Tidning, 11 Dec. 1858. Wathén was eventually bergskonduktören / vuorikonduktöri. The full account was divided between seven issues of Finlands Allmänna Tidning, (8, 11, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18 Dec. 1858). 26  Helsingfors Tidningar, 27 Sep. 1862. 27  John Good’s Diary, Hull History Centre, U DGO/36. 28  de Waal, Famine That Kills, 135. 29  Anne Ruuttula-Vasari, “Herroja on epäiltävä aina—metsäherroja yli kaiken”: metsähallituksen ja pohjoissuomalaisten kanssakäyminen kruununmetsissä vuosina 1851–1900 (Oulu, 2004), 200.

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Snellman and his colleagues were trying to develop, it was an inefficient emergency food—damaging to the trees and of dubious nutritional value. 30 Thus, in the years after 1857, national and provincial authorities’ efforts were increasingly focussed on providing education on the potential of different sources of nutrition.31

Education in Lichen Bread and Mushrooms As Wathén had noted in his 1858 account, lichen bread was not as commonplace as bark bread as an emergency dietary supplement, despite pamphlets being published on the subject from at least the 1830s.32 The 1856–1857 famine year, however, did prompt individual interventions on the matter (for example by Chaplain Krank from Kajaani—the “Lichen Priest”), and a Governor’s Directive was issued explaining that students from Helsinki would circulate in North Savo to instruct the local population in using lichens in breadmaking.33 This was confirmed by Elias Lönnrot, a doctor at the time in Kajaani, who reported that various parishes in Kainuu, Northern Karelia and North Savo were receiving instruction in lichen bread preparation.34 Still further north, in Kemijärvi, it was reported that medical candidate Edwin Nylander had taught people how to make lichen bread that was “quite edible… and perhaps could perfectly well be eaten even with less rye flour”.35 These efforts to persuade the wider population of the benefits of lichen, in the form or bread or gruel,

30  Voutilainen (Poverty, Inequality, 90) notes that an average human would need to consume 1.5 kg of bark flour per day to get sufficient nutrition. See also Kunnas, “1860-luvun nälkävuodet”, 347–9. 31  Tapio, 11 Oct. 1862. Also e.g. Suometar, 17 Oct. 1862; Suomen Julkisia Sanomia, 20 Oct. 1862. 32  For example, throughout the 1850s and 60s, Advice on how to prepare bread from lichens [Neuwoja kuinka leipää jäkälistä walmistetaan]—originally published in the 1830s—was sold in Finnish bookshops. Sanomia Turusta, 29 Jan. 1856, 27 Jan. 1865. 33  “E.B.”, “Kiannolta”, Suometar, 24 Jul. 1857; P.T., “Leipää jäkälistä”, Suometar, 17 Apr. 1857; Suometar, 17 Jul. 1857; William R. Mead, “The Conquest of Finland,” The Norseman, ix (1951), 14–22, 98–104: 102–3; H.M. Consul, H. W. Crowe, to the Earl of Clarendon, dated—British Consulate, Helsingfors, 16th Jun. 1857. Reproduced in The Working Farmer (New York), 1 Nov. 1857; Lady’s Newspaper, 15 Aug. 1857. 34  Suometar, 17 Jul. 1857. 35  Suometar, 28 Aug. 1857.

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were stepped up in the 1860s, but it was to be a slow and ultimately unsuccessful campaign.36 As distinct from bark and moss, by the time of the Great Hunger Years, mushrooms were a relative newcomer to the range of emergency foods that Finland’s vast forests were supposed to provide for its people. Although they had historically been used in parts of Karelia, there was little mention of fungi during the crisis of 1856–1857.37 Scientific interest in the potential of mushrooms had developed by 1861, as demonstrated by the publication of a long article on the “Benefits and Uses of Mushrooms” in that year’s Almanac, and the availability in Finnish bookshops of the illustrated publication, Sweden’s Edible and Poisonous Mushrooms.38 The hope was that, by promoting the widespread acceptance of fungi—and overcoming the general public ignorance and fear of mushrooms—dependence on bark bread could be reduced relatively simply.39 Propaganda efforts escalated in late 1862, in the wake of yet another harvest failure, when the Finnish Economic Society produced a relatively cheap but well-illustrated guide to mushrooms—Kalle Skog swamphuggare.40 …even if it would take even longer before the common people become accustomed to using mushrooms as food, it should not be too long before they realize the benefit of gaining a profitable industry through these products, which are so abundant in our forests, through sales to the cities and especially to Russia, not counting that a lot of money that now goes abroad for e.g. morchella, champignons, etc. then comes to stay in our own pockets. By the way, we also recommend Kalle Skog to every housewife in the educated social classes, and above all to the large crowd of Kajsa Warg’s41 successors in the kitchen and pantry.42  Kunnas, “1860-luvun nälkävuodet”, 341.  Oiva Turpeinen, Nälkä vai tauti tappoi? Kauhunvuodet 1866–1868 (Helsinki, 1986), 162. 38  Elias Fries, Sveriges Ätliga och Giftiga Svampar (Stockholm, 1860); “Swampars nytta och begagnande”, Almanack för Året efter wår Frälsares Kristi Födelse 1861 (Helsingfors, 1861), supplement, 1–8. 39  Kunnas, “1860-luvun nälkävuodet”, 342. 40  Eduard Hisinger, Kalle Skog swamphuggare: eller Anwisning till de matnyttiga swamparnes igenkännande och anwändande (Helsingfors, 1862). 41  Cajsa Warg (sometimes spelled as Kajsa) was an eighteenth-century Swedish author of cookery books and housekeeping guides. 42  Åbo Underrättelser, 11 Dec. 1862. 36 37

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It was hoped that mushrooms, therefore, could be a potential boost to Finland’s export economy, as well as contributing to household self-­ sufficiency within the Grand Duchy. A Finnish translation was published the next year, in the hope that it would reach more people in those areas most likely to be affected by harvest failure.43 Despite the propaganda around edible mushrooms, which had been increasing through the 1860s, and particularly in the summer of 1867, there was little chance of using them in the crisis of 1867–1868.44 Even if they had been prepared in time for the coming of the early frost, the quantities required to sustain life would have been far beyond anything likely to have been gathered by an individual household. 45 Therefore, in the short term, at least, the Finnish Economic Society’s ambitions were unfulfilled, a general suspicion of mushrooms persisted (at least outside of Karelia), and there was “widespread resistance and disgust” at the thought of consuming fungi.46

Panic and Patriotism: Food Propaganda, “Improvement” and the Impending Disaster The state’s food propaganda can also be seen as part of the longer-term “patriotic” process of agricultural improvement, which had been initiated in the previous century, when Finland was a part of the Swedish kingdom.47 The economic patriotism of the Finnish Economic Society may have been increasingly overshadowed by cultural organisations such as the Finnish Literature Society, and yet its role in public debate in the 1860s

43  E[duard] H[isinger], Sieni-kirja; eli Sieni-kallen Osviitta tuntemaan ja käyttämään Syötäviä Sieniä (Turku, 1863); Helsingfors Dagblad, 18 Feb. 1863. 44  Åbo Underrättelser, 7 Apr. 1863; Folkwännen, 20 May 1863; Oulun Wiikko-Sanomia, 20 Oct. 1866. 45  Häkkinen, “Kuolema tulee jäkäläleiwästä”, 94. 46  Sara Itkonen, “Ruoka ja Rikos: Ruokapulasta hätäravintoon ja varkauksista väkivaltaan Suomessa 1684–1700”, (University of Helsinki, MA Thesis, 2019), 23. I am grateful to Lotta Vuorio, University of Helsinki, for alerting me to this reference. 47  Jani Marjanen, Den ekonomiska patriotismens uppgång och fall: Finska hushållningssällskapet i europeisk, svensk och finsk context 1720–1840 (Helsingfors, 2013). Koen Stapelbroek & Jani Marjanen, “Political Economy, Patriotism and the Rise of Societies”, in Koen Stapelbroek & Jani Marjanen (eds), The Rise of Economic Societies in the Eighteenth Century: Patriotic Reform in Europe and North America (Palgrave, 2012), 1–25.

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demonstrates vestiges of its former importance.48 Indeed, the propaganda around lichens and mushrooms, in particular, seem to have been influenced by contemporaneous events in Sweden.49 The patriotic ideal of general economic progress, however, was subsumed by a degree of panic in the summer of 1867, as the administration was surely aware—after the late sowing of that spring’s seeds—of the high probability of yet another harvest failure.50 As early as 1866, there had been reports that shortages of food for both humans and animals had led to livestock being slaughtered: “some have eaten their cow, some their horse, anything they can think of to keep them going”.51 The drastic action that farmers needed to take was a sure indicator of the widespread and increasing distress. Given the ongoing depletion of Finland’s resources over the previous decade, a renewed harvest failure was likely to be catastrophic, and so efforts to promote alternative nutrition were intensified. Indeed, the sheer volume of meetings, conferences, newspaper articles and pamphlets which were organised or published prior to the Frost Night of September 3–4 is one of the clearest public indications that the government realised that disaster was merely a question of time.52 Erik Julin, the Turku merchant who had been an important contact for the English Quaker deputation, and subsequent Famine Relief Committee, in 1856–1857, was alive to the likely ramifications of another “year of dearth”.53 Julin wrote to J.V. Snellman in June 1867, stressing that the government needed to address the ongoing reluctance of the Finnish people to use all of the potential food sources they had at their disposal.54 48  Lari Rantanen, “A Pitfall on a Nation’s Path of Politics?”, Jahrbücher für Geschichte Osteuropas 67:2 (2019), 206–238: 213; Jani Marjanen, “Between ‘Public’ and ‘Private’ Economy: The Finnish Economic Society and the Decline of Economic Patriotism 1797–1833”, in Koen Stapelbroek & Jani Marjanen (eds), The Rise of Economic Societies in the Eighteenth Century: Patriotic Reform in Europe and North America (Palgrave, 2012), 313–38: 314. 49  Svanberg & Nelson, “Bone-meal porridge”, 130–40; Donald Harman Akenson, Ireland, Sweden and the Great European Migration, 1815–1914 (Montréal, 2011), 141. 50  Heidi Reese, “A Lack of Resources, Information and Will: Political Aspects of the Finnish Crisis of 1867–68”, in Andrew G. Newby (ed.), “The Enormous Failure of Nature”: Famine and Society in the Nineteenth Century (Helsinki, 2017), 83–102: 92. 51  A. M—n, “Nilsiästä”, Tapio, 28 Apr. 1866. 52  e.g. “Wielä muistutuksia hätäleiwästä”, Oulun Wiikko-Sanomia, 10 Aug. 1867; “Apu-­ ruoka-­neuvoin toimikunta”, Tapio, 31 Aug. 1867. 53  Häkkinen, “Kuolema tulee jäkäläleiwästä”, 98–100. 54  Hirvonen, “Tiedon, tahdon tai resurssien puutetta?”, 94.

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Despite the fact that pamphlets on these topics have been published almost every year and the Finnish people have seen Russian soldiers collect and eat mushrooms for more than fifty years, and have been instructed in how to cook healthier food by peripatetic “friends of the people”, nonetheless nothing has so far been able to overcome the reluctance of the Finnish people to do anything new, whatever that may be. So I am very bold in proposing now that this sensitive issue be addressed; however, I am firmly of the mind that in this case, as in many others, perseverance gradually brings victory in battle on behalf of the public good.55

The paternalistic hectoring intensified, with instructions for emergency bread—including potato-based flour—appearing in Finland’s official state newspaper.56 Many delegates at the Vaasa Province Agricultural Meeting, which took place in Kokkola on 11–12 July, expressed similar views, and the sense of urgency was just as apparent as in Julin’s letter. Anders Svedberg,57 reporting the Kokkola meeting in his newspaper Österbotten, evoked Runeberg’s character Saarijärven Paavo and the crofter’s innate sense of caution and frugality in thinning out his flour with pine bark.58 Delegates in Kokkola listed almost every conceivable alternative to grain, and stressed to the “poorer members of society” the importance of self-­ help over state intervention: We would only like to mention that the meeting unanimously considered it of the utmost importance for the common people to be prepared for the acquisition of some preservatives (surrogates) for bread, in the event that frost this summer should haunt the country, because all of both the crown and individual stores are now so depleted, that a terrible famine and starvation would occur.59

Delegates also proposed that the peasantry should adopt foodstuffs such as carrots, turnips and other root vegetables, as well as berries, not only in emergency years, but as part of a diversified everyday diet.  E. Julin to J.V. Snellman, 17 Jun. 1867.  “Leipää perunoista”, Suomalainen Wirallinen Lehti, 14 May 1867. 57  1832–1889, a prominent and outspoken figure during the Great Hunger Years, Svedberg was a teacher and, during the 1870s, became a member of the Peasantry Estate in the Finnish Diet. 58  “Ute och hemma”, Österbotten, 20 Jul. 1867. 59  “Landtbruksmötet i Gamla Karleby”, Hufvudstadsbladet, 25 Jul. 1867. See also “Ute och Hemma”, Österbotten, 20 Jul. 1867. Österbotten edited by Anders Svedberg at this time. 55 56

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Furthermore, it was resolved that teachers—“preferably women”—should be sent out to inform the “common people” on how to collect and prepare these foods, and that provincial authorities should invest resources in general education on the matter.60 Gottfried Edvard Boehm, a local teacher, in response to the chair J. Holm’s opening speech, questioned the widespread use of bark phloem as a means of eking out meagre stocks of rye flour.61 His tone—like that of his colleagues—suggested doubts not only about the nutritional value of bark bread, but also that its continued use prevented the peasantry from developing its knowledge and skills in the use of other, more effective, foodstuffs (or “treasures of nature”, as he lyricised). Boehm argued that the benefits of bark bread were illusory: “Because of its tannic acid content”, he argued, “it has an astringent effect on the stomach and intestinal tract, and can therefore assuage hunger pangs, just as it does… among the Hottentots of Africa… [but] it causes diseases and should be completely rejected as a foodstuff.”62 Following Boehm, Pharmacist Schauman described in detail some of the more worthy food surrogates: bog arum; Iceland lichen; reindeer lichen; sorrel; and berries, including lingonberry, blueberry, cloudberry, raspberry, and field berries—“which contain so much nutrition but which take so little effort to prepare, and can be stored for years”. The diverse foodstuffs presented as dietary supplements by the Kokkola conference were published in brochure form, entitled What should be done to ward off distress, if harvest failure haunts our country again this year?— initially with 4000 copies printed in Swedish, and subsequently 8000 in Finnish.63 The idea of “teaching the people”, and the need for elites to “lead by example” was again apparent.64 In Turku, Erik Julin established a committee, and then a “Lichen Bread Bakery”, with the intention of training up to one hundred instructors who would then go off into the 60  “Landtbruksmötet i Gamla Karleby”, Hufvudstadsbladet, 25 Jul. 1867. See also e.g. “Kuuhoilija”, “Vanhoista kätköistä. Muistelmia nälkävuosilta”, Etelä-Pohjanmaa, 17 Mar. 1939. 61  His obituaries in 1894 noted Boehm as “one of our country’s best-known educators” after his long career at Vasa Gymnasium. See e.g. Wasa Tidning, 1 Mar. 1894; Karjalatar, 3 Mar. 1894. 62  Wasabladet, 10 Aug. 1867. 63  “Hwad hör tillgöras till nödens afwärjande, om misswext äfven innewarande år hemsöker wårt land?” 64  Wasabladet, 10 Aug. 1867.

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rest of Turku-Pori province to “teach the common people how to prepare healthy and tasty food”.65 This, it was hoped, “may, if not avert, to some extent reduce the unfortunate consequences which are likely to be borne by the feared harvest failure”.66 The committee stressed the patriotic motivation for the initiative: Only with lasting and tireless diligence will this work be successful for those patriotic friends who are now rushing to the aid of their troubled citizens, to some extent to eliminate hunger and misery, and thus in good spirits we announce that a committee was set up here last Friday in Turku, whose work is to disseminate information on making emergency bread from lichens, collecting and cooking mushrooms, and emergency feed for animals.67

Again, women were the primary targets of this education programme, in the hope that they would then return to their communities and spread the knowledge more widely.68 A demand that this was to be referred to as “lichen bread, not emergency bread”, smacks of an early branding exercise and an attempt to separate the lichen bread from bark bread in the minds of the common people.69 Snellman had taken Julin’s initiative on board. On July 31, 1867, the Finance Committee suggested to the Treasury that the people should give up unhealthy ingredients like bark, straw or the husks of cereals, and be persuaded to resort to lichens, bog arum and mushrooms.70 He then sent letters to the provincial governors in Oulu, Vaasa, Kuopio, Mikkeli and Häme on the collection of mushrooms and other food, which prompted the establishment of several “bakeries” based on Julin’s Turku model.71 In the coming weeks, the provincial governors furnished Snellman with enthusiastic reports of the progress that was being made. Newspaper 65  “Hätäleipää”, Sanomia Turusta, 2 Aug. 1867; “Mossbröd, som ej är nödbröd”, Åbo Underrättelser, 5 Sep. 1867; Sanomia Turusta, 4 Oct. 1867. 66  Åbo Underrättelser, 27 Jul., 10 Aug. 1867. 67  “Hätäleipää”, Sanomia Turusta, 2 Aug. 1867. 68  Folkwännen, 7 Aug. 1867. 69  “Mossbröd, som ej är nödbröd”, Åbo Underrättelser, 5 Sep. 1867. 70  Häkkinen, “Kuolema tulee jäkäläleiwästä”, 100. 71  Hirvonen, “Tiedon, tahdon tai resurssien puutetta?”, 95; T-o A-o, “Isien jäljillä: Kunnallisen elämän alkutaivalta Kauhajoella”, Vaasa, 17 Aug. 1934; (UK) National Archives, London. Foreign Office: Embassy and Consular Archives. Russia: Helsingfors (Helsinki). Correspondence of William Campbell 1866–1870. FO768/6/73. Campbell to Buchanan, 11 Oct. 1867; Suomalainen Wirallinen Lehti, 11 Oct. 1867.

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e­ditors and correspondents also joined in this crusade, although their impact may have relied more on pastors and municipal officials presenting this information in  local meetings, then people reading the propaganda directly. This line was reinforced in a letter from “Veikko”, a Tampere-based correspondent to the official state  newspaper, Suomalainen Wirallinen Lehti, in late August.72 Published a week before the Frost Night, “Veikko’s” folksy missive noted that the administration was no longer willing to provide any assistance, and that crisis faced the “lowest classes” who had become used to a comfortable life, and who apparently preferred starvation to eating lichens and mushrooms. He urged “parish pastors, sextons, schoolteachers and other ‘comprehending men’” to encourage the peasantry to subscribe to newspapers, where they could get the latest information and advice on surviving the hard times. Moreover, all municipal officials should “send a student to Turku”, as a way of inculcating the food propaganda into the general population. Even at this late stage of the summer, there was hope for a “moderate harvest”, hopes which were soon to be dashed.73 Much of the rhetoric that appeared in newspaper columns and letters might be seen in a Finnish context as self-flagellatory or austerely stoical. In other historical scenarios, though, it would more likely be construed as colonial, or at best as a sneering metropolitan attitude towards the “lazy”, “careless”, and “incompetent” masses.74 The headline message was that “we must replace what nature has denied us through strenuous activity and energetic efforts, we must get hold of other nutrients”.75 Provincial governors did indeed forward circular letters to the clergy, poor law guardians and local bureaucrats, to pass on the news that teachers would be sent out to give some help on nutrition, but that finding ways to survive the impending crisis was the parishioners’ “own responsibility”, and that they should “not expect assistance from the government”.76

 “Maakunasta”, Suomalainen Wirallinen Lehti, 27 Aug. 1867.  “Maakunasta”, Suomalainen Wirallinen Lehti, 27 Aug. 1867. 74  See e.g. Hämäläinen, 8 Aug. 1867; “Vielä muistuksia hätäleivästä”, Oulun Wiikko-­ Sanomia, 17 Aug. 1867; “Hvad bör göras”, Helsingfors Dagblad, 3 Aug. 1867. All quoted in Hirvonen, “Tiedon, tahdon tai resurssien puutetta?”, 95. 75  “Hvad bör göras!”, Helsingfors Dagblad, 3 Aug. 1867. Italics in the original. 76  See e.g. Tampereen Sanomat, 27 Aug. 1867. 72 73

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The mushroom propaganda that had taken off in the mid-1860s also accelerated in the summer of 1867.77 An enthusiastic correspondent in Turku provided the following—potentially very dangerous—recommendation: “they are a good and nutritious food, even though they become useless due to a lack of understanding and inaction… poisoning is not a fear [as long as] they are carefully handled and prepared”. As well as implying that all mushrooms were potentially edible, the tone of the article was more akin to an upper-class recipe book (it was stressed that mushrooms could provide “a delicacy that even the biggest gourmet would not despise”) despite the concluding exhortation for the poor to invest a mark in purchasing the Finnish translation of Kalle Skog svamphuggare,78 “necessary for everybody in this time of poverty”.79 Indeed, the Finnish Economic Society decided to distribute 1850 free copies of the pamphlet in the same month, but it is unlikely that it was possible for anyone to take advantage of that initiative before the frosts came.80

After the Frost Night The Frost Night had a severe impact on the availability of mushrooms, but the propaganda continued, to the extent that some of the messages about edible fungi seemed to imply a tasty meal rather than a food of final resort for a starving population.81 William Campbell, Britain’s Consul General in Helsinki reported that “mushrooms are also being picked at these [baking] establishments for the purpose of furnishing soup for the poor during the winter”, which indicates a municipal effort to provide food via poor houses rather than large-scale individual foraging.82 The primary focus remained on persuading the masses to adopt lichens. In the aftermath of the “Frost Night”, the Turku committee sent out a “message to the 77  Hämäläinen, 15 Aug. 1867. Continued in 29 Aug. 1867; Åbo Underrättelser, 5 Sep. 1867. 78  In Finnish, “Sieni-Kalle”. Kejserliga Finska Hushållningssällskapets Handlingar för åren 1874, 1875 och 1876 (Åbo, 1877), 80. 79  “Sienet ruoka-aineena”, Sanomia Turusta, 23 Aug. 1867. 80  “Landsorten”, Finlands Allmänna Tidning, 11 Sep. 1867. 81   “Några enklare sätt att af swampar tillreda en wälsmaklig och närande föda”, Hufvudstadsbladet, 16 Sep. 1867. 82  (UK) National Archives, London. Foreign Office: Embassy and Consular Archives. Russia: Helsingfors (Helsinki). Correspondence of William Campbell 1866–1870. FO768/6/73. Campbell to Buchanan, 11 Oct. 1867.

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Finnish people”, essentially reinforcing the idea (supported by biblical quotations) that, as they had been given an opportunity to learn how to make nutritious bread from lichens, it was now their own responsibility to survive the winter.83 Provincial governors, through a variety of interventions, also promoted this line into the autumn and winter of 1867. Clas Herman (H.) Molander, Governor of Häme province announced the establishment of a temporary “Baking Institute” in Hämeenlinna, which attracted students from thirty different parishes (including from Korpilahti, over 150 km distant, and four parishes from “out of province”, in Uusimaa).84 Some of the students lived on-site for the duration of the course, while others were given lodgings in the town. Those who boarded also got to eat the foods that they were learning to prepare, including “emergency bread, moss gruel, mushroom soup” as well as potatoes and herring. The students were also informed of the different species of edible and poisonous mushrooms, and methods of salting. On completion of the course they were given an oral examination, and grades, before being provided with further reading, and examples of emergency bread, salted mushrooms and moss flour to take back to their home parishes. Passers-by were also encouraged to visit and take a sample of the bread, and a booklet (in Finnish, for the benefit of the “masses”) was published to further the process of education. As a final stage of the propaganda, the different types of bread—with labels detailing their ingredients—were displayed in Barck’s House, by Hämeenlinna’s main church, for the rest of October.85 The report of Johan August von Essen, the Governor of Kuopio Province, exemplified the general mindset of the administration, as well as the extent to which language still provided something of a class barrier in Finnish society:

83  “Hätäleipä-komitean Turussa sananen Suomen kansalle”, Oulun Wiikko-Sanomia, 21 Sep. 1867. See also, “Kerjäläisille työtä”, Oulun Wiikko-Sanomia, 7 Sep. 1867. 84  See e.g. Tampereen Sanomat, 27 Aug. 1867; Hämäläinen, 3 Oct. 1867; Finlands Allmänna Tidning, 11 Oct. 1867; Helsingfors Dagblad, 12 Oct. 1867; Hannu Voipaala, “Viljan Puutteesta ja Hätäravinnosta Nälkävuosina 1866–68 Ala-Sääksmäen kihlakunnassa”, in Kaikuja Hämeestä X (Helsinki, 1938), 147–72: 159–62; H.A.  Turja, “Suurten Nälkävuosien Korvikeravintokysymyksestä”, Historiallinen Aikakauskirja (1939), 93–109: 99–101. 85  Hämäläinen, 10 Oct. 1867.

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If the emergency bread ingredients are not gathered in time, the fault is not mine. Mayor Thoreld,86 who works hard for, and is interested in, the public, is the first to start his own experiment to try the use of Iceland and reindeer lichen and moss, and he kindly gave me a small supply when I left for Savo. In all the meeting places, I spread my schöne Raritäten like a travelling peddlar and I preached about it as well as I could in my bad Finnish language.87

Von Essen also mentioned that he “was not used to staring directly into the eyes of an emergency”, and hinted to Snellman that he was on the verge of depression as he considered imminent devastation of his province. No matter how much they may have believed they had done everything possible, Von Essen and his colleagues in the administration failed to persuade most of the Finnish population of the efficacy of these “schöne Raritäten”. By March 1868, von Essen’s counterpart in Mikkeli, Theodor Thilén, also reported back to Snellman that he had visited the worst hit villages under his authority.88 During these excursions, he sought to persuade locals to try a “wide variety of breads”, testing his own Finnish-­ language abilities by explaining that “kyllä tällä leivällä elää” (“yes, you can live on this bread”), and giving a “decent sermon on poor housekeeping”. Nevertheless, he seemed to doubt the efficacy of his own missionary work, and stressed to Snellman that the crisis, which was now moving into its final, most devastating, weeks, was a result a widespread failure of the people to use bread substitutes.89 Members of the Turku Committee had been alive to the popular complaints and—in their minds—“superstitions” around the adoption of lichen. By early October 1867, it had arranged an experiment with two prisoners at Turku Castle, whereby they would eat only bread made from reindeer lichen, especially to test claims that such bread might lead to “dizziness, nausea, stomach aches and diarrhoea”.90 After ten days, the committee concluded that despite “sluggish stools” and “weakness at the knees”, the prisoners had not demonstrated sufficiently negative symptoms that the bread should be rejected (and they also implied that the 86  Anders Ferdinand Thoreld (1817–1882) was a senior functionary in the vuorihallitus, an official body concerned primarily with mining, and not a “mayor” in the conventional sense. 87  J.A. von Essen to J.V. Snellman, 23 Sep. 1867. Von Essen retains the German phrase “schöne Räritäten” (“lovely rarities”) in the original Swedish-language letter. 88  T.S. Thilén to J.V. Snellman, 16 Mar. 1868. 89  T.S. Thilén to J.V. Snellman, 16 Mar. 1868. 90  Åbo Underrättelser, 3 Oct. 1867; Häkkinen, “Kuolema tulee jäkäläleiwästä”, 100.

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Fig. 3.1  An interesting, sardonic, comment on national priorities and the scramble to find suitable sources of nutrition appeared in Hufvudstadsbladet in November 1867. A plan for a new and very costly chemistry building for Helsinki’s university—later called “Arppeanum”—was given the sarcastic subtitle: “project for a new national laboratory for chemical research into emergency bread ingredients”. The subtext was that, while Finland’s civic elites were constructing imposing assertions of “sivistys”, large swathes of the country were on the brink of starvation. The building, just off Senate Square in Helsinki, is said to have cost more than the nearby Russian Orthodox (Uspenski) Cathedral, which was being built at the same time. Illustration by Walter Forss. Hufvudstadsbladet, 25 Nov. 1867. (Courtesy of the National Library of Finland)

prisoners could be exaggerating negative effects). Along with news from Oulu Province, which confirmed that “reindeer moss had been used without detrimental effect” in many parishes, particularly by children, the committee concluded that this bread was an acceptable surrogate (Fig. 3.1).91  Åbo Underrättelser, 3 Oct. 1867.

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The reaction to moss and lichens was not universally hostile, and it seems possible that the lichens were used in parts of Ostrobothnia more than elsewhere in the country. The Kuopio-based newspaper Tapio assured its readers in eastern Finland that “where fear and superstition of lichen has been overcome”, such as in Vaasa province, then conditions were much better than in their region.92 It was reported in April 1868 that supplies of “mosses” which had been collected extensively in Alahärmä had now been exhausted.93 On the whole, though, the central propaganda campaign seems to have failed, and lichen bread was eaten only in dire emergencies, or prepared by households only so that it could be given to passing vagrants.94 Lichen foraging was also one of the tasks imposed on inmates at certain workhouses, and assistance would only be given upon the presentation of a pre-arranged amount of the lichens.95 Ad hoc advice on survival foods continued to appear in newspapers around the country, reflecting increasing desperation. Breads and porridge made from potato stalks and nettles were reported, and ideas about making bark bread more palatable (such as mixing it with berries) put forward.96 Food-related crime, such as thefts of seed-potatoes or the surreptitious milking of cows, also increased.97 Writing to a French colleague in June 1868, Lorenz Lindelöf, a renowned mathematician and astronomer, suggested that a “number of substances” had been tested, and the best results so far had been from the butomus umbellatus, which “makes a flour that looks and tastes like wheat”.98 He did concede, however, that in a winter such as 1867–1868 (when the ice cover would have been considerable), it was “difficult” to retrieve this flower from the bottom of lakes.99  “Hätäleiwästä”, Tapio, 16 May 1868.  Tampereen Sanomat, 28 Apr. 1868. 94  Häkkinen, “Kuolema tulee jäkäläleiwästä”, 98, 109–10; Kirsi  Nevala, “Kerjäläisiä ja jauhomattoja—1860-luvun nälkävuodet muistitietoaineistoissa”  (University of Tampere, MA Thesis, 2015), 57. 95  Voipaala, “Viljan Puutteesta”, 159–62. 96  “Maaseuduilta”, Tampereen Sanomat, 3 Sep. 1867. 97  “Jokioisilta”, Sanomia Turusta, 6 Sep. 1867. 98  “Famine en Finlande”, in M. l’abbé Moigno (ed.), Les Mondes: Revue hebdomadiare des sciences et de leurs applications aux arts et a l’industrie, 16 (Jan.—Apr. 1868), 179–80. 99  “Report by Mr. Consul Campbell on the Trade of Finland for the Year 1867”, in Commercial Reports received at the Foreign Office from Her Majesty’s Consuls in 1868 (London, 1868), 416–419. Campbell’s report, which was then used in fundraising material by English Quakers, claimed that butomus umbellatus had been tried with “great success”. Friends Intelligencier, xxv no. 24 (8th Month, 15) (1868), 384. 92 93

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In some places, quicklime seems to have been used as an additive, generally for use in emergency food distribution centres rather than in a domestic context.100 Different types of meat were also proposed, and there were some efforts to break down the taboos against eating horses—which had long been considered the “duke of the farmyard”.101 In some cases, this meant adding old horsemeat or bones to soup in order to add flavour or nutrition.102 The propaganda around “healthy and tasty” horsemeat echoed the similar efforts to encourage the people to eat mushrooms, although it was obviously an expensive and unsustainable dietary modification.103 Proponents noted that it was eaten in Sweden and France, and that popular reluctance to its adoption was the result of “negligence” or “old useless prejudice”.104 In late February 1868, the Senate voted funds to establish a slaughterhouse for horses in Helsinki, and it was reported that those who had tried the meat generally approved.105 Nevertheless, despite sporadic reports of the “progress” of horsemeat in Finland, the idea appeared to be a desperate measure on the part of a detached administration, and although it might have saved a few lives, it could never have been a large-scale solution to the unfolding disaster.106 Resourceful correspondents also suggested eating more freely available meat, such crows or frogs, as the hardship increased into the spring of 1868.107 Indeed, the enthusiastic reports of frog-meat which emanated from Tampere, not only questioned the “superstitious” reluctance of the people commit the “sin” of eating the amphibians, but also (as with mushrooms and horses) suggested that such

100  Finnish Historical Society, “Tietoja nälkä vuosilta 1867–68 Jaakkiman pitäjän Kortelan kylästä, koonut kansanopistolainen Matti Sihvonen. Kertojat Heikki Soininen ikä 74 vuotta maanviljeliä; Heikki Kuokka ikä 76 vuotta työmies”, (submitted 23 May 1918). The respondents recalled feeding such bread to a crow, which then promptly died. 101  Soininen, Vanha Maataloutemme, 225. 102   “P.”, “Muistelmia Kuhmoniemen Seurakunnassa” (pt. III), Kajaanin Lehti, 13 Dec. 1899. 103  Sanomia Turusta, 23 Aug. 1867. Reprinted in Suomalainen Wirallinen Lehti, 3 Sep. 1867. 104  “Weikko”, “Parikkalasta”, Suomalainen Wirallinen Lehti, 1 Oct. 1867; “Hevosen liha”, Oulun Wiikko-Sanomia, 11 Jan. 1868; “Alatorniosta”, Oulun Wiikko-Sanomia, 18 Apr. 1868. 105  Sanomia Turusta, 28 Feb. 1868. 106  “Kärsämäeltä”, Oulun Wiikko-Sanomia, 18 Apr. 1868. 107  “---ik---wala”, “Wareksen lihan syöntiä”, Oulun Wiikko-Sanomia, 28 Mar. 1868.

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food might be considered a “delicacy”, as they were eaten by upper-classes in other parts of Europe.108 Taboos and superstitions which restricted the consumption of particular animals, applied even more strongly to the desperation which could drive members of a famine-stricken community to cannibalism.109 It is interesting to note that there were no suggestions of cannibalism in the contemporary reports of Finland’s 1860s famine. This is a (limited) contrast with the 1690s, where at least one case of cannibalism was recorded by the courts in eastern Finland.110 Moreover, even in the nineteenth century, there were reports of cannibalism during famines in, inter alia, Ireland (1848, 1849), Orissa (1866), and Ethiopia (1889–1891).111 As Finland was suffering its worst weeks of famine in April 1868, stories appeared in the Finnish and international press that cannibalism was taking place during the French colonial famine in Algeria.112 It is probably worth noting, however, that the reports of the Irish, Orissan, Algerian and Ethiopian cases were initiated by “external others” that tended to promote an orientalist narrative of the suffering people being barbaric or sub-­ human. Such an external gaze was never truly present during the Finnish 1860s famine, either from the Russian Imperial authorities, missionaries, or from any other foreign reporters who might have had an interest in representing the Finns as “backwards”.113

108  “--ll--” “Tampere”, Suomalainen Wirallinen Lehti, 12 May 1868; H.H. “Hätärawintoa”, Tampereen Sanomat, 5 May 1868. Reprinted in Suomalainen Wirallinen Lehti, 22 May 1868; “Tampereelta”, Oulun Wiikko-Sanomia, 6 Jun. 1868. 109  Cormac Ó Gráda, Eating People is Wrong, and Other Essays on Famine: its Past and Its Future (Princeton, 2015), 35–6; Lappalainen, “Death and Disease”, 437. 110  Mirkka Lappalainen, Jumalan Vihan Ruoska: Suuri Nälänhätä Suomessa 1695–1697 (Helsinki, 2012), 174–6. 111  Ó Gráda Famine: A Short History, 68; Ó Gráda, Eating People is Wrong, 20; Nihar Ranjan Patnaik, Economic History of Orissa (New Dehli, 1997), 360; Richard Pankhurst, “The Great Ethiopian Famine of 1888–1892: A New Assessment”, Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences, 21:2 (1966), 95–124: 120, 123. 112  Inter alia, “Frankrike”, Finlands Allmänna Tidning, 28 Apr. 1868; “Nöden i Algier”, Helsingfors Dagblad, 26 Jun. 1868. 113  Davies, Late Victorian Holocausts, 131–2. Minnis claims that “cannibalism is common during the severest food shortages”. Minnis, Famine Foods, 35.

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The Sea Doesn’t Compensate As with the Great Irish Famine, it can seem surprising that a starving people in a country (essentially) surrounded by water—and in the Finnish case in the proximity of thousands of lakes—did not seem to be able to save themselves by consuming fish. In a few local contexts, it is claimed that the bounty to be found in nearby lakes did indeed mitigate some of the worst effects of the famine. In Pälkäne, about 40 kilometres south-east of Tampere, for example, a local adage runs, jos pelto lastaa, kyllä meri vastaa—if nothing comes from the fields, then the sea will compensate. Local history recalls that this was particularly appropriate during famine times.114 In Ristiina (Mikkeli Province), similarly, fish consumption is posited as one of the factors in the municipality’s relatively low mortality rates.115 As in the Irish case, however, fishing equipment in Finland was often in poor shape, or has been sold in the years leading up to 1868. Most people were not skilled hunters or fishers, and many were debilitated in any case by disease or encroaching hunger. Finland’s coastal fishing communities, no less than farming communities, also found their livelihood hindered by the weather in 1867–1868. Sea ice in the Gulf of Bothnia led to poor catches in the autumn of 1867, meaning that communities barely had enough fish for subsistence, let alone for the markets. Similarly, seal hunting failed—meaning a dearth of salted seal meat for the spring, and of blubber for sale. The sea remained frozen well into 1868, exacerbating the problems.116 Governors’ reports from around the country allowed for occasional local optimism, but in general the fishing conditions in 1867–1868 remained poor.117 A particularly grim report in 1868 from Merijärvi, in the south of Oulu Province, described how “the fish catch is very meagre this summer, as all the fish died during the winter, and the flood waters brought their corpses floating down the river like logs”.118 Therefore, it seems that although some accounts describe fishing (and the 114  U.  Peltoniemi, ”Metsästyksestä ja kalastuksesta Pälkäneellä”, Kotiseutu (Hämäläis-­ Osakunnan Erikoisnumero) (1933), 31–56: 39. 115  Hannele Wirilander, Ristiinan Historia II: Kunnallisuudistuksesta (1865) Sotien jälkeisen aikaan (1945) (Ristiina, 1994), 115. 116  S.R. “1867–1868. Puolivuosisataismuistoja”, Uusi Aura, 24 May 1917. 117  Suomalainen Wirallinen Lehti, 29 Oct., 19 Nov. 1867, 1 Aug., 29 Oct. 1868 (report of Vaasa maakanseli). 118  Oulun Wiikko Sanomia, 20 Jun. 1868.

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use of dried/ground fish in emergency bread) as a factor in a particular region escaping the worst of the famine years, for the vast majority of Finland’s inhabitants plundering the seas or lakes was not an option.119

Access to Foodstuffs In their account of twentieth-century famine vulnerability, Blaikie et  al highlighted the general use of substitute foods before and during famines, adding that “here the significance of common property allowing access to these foods is important”.120 In Finland in the 1860s, access to many of the emergency foods was denied by the climate. Sea ice limited fishing and seal hunting, but the early frosts in 1867 killed off some of the proposed food surrogates, and the more useful aquatic plants like butomus umbellatus were below thick ice at the bottom of lakes. Nature itself could restrict access to foodstuffs, but so too could private landowners and the state. The Finnish Forestry Board, for example, had been established as recently as 1859, partly to protect the ongoing depletion of the forests, and represents another example of a clash between traditional practices and the encroachment of the developing Finnish state. As historian Anne Ruuttula-Vasari argues: “the restrictions placed on the use of state lands were felt most by the people who were least well off economically, those who prior to the appearance of the Forestry Board had relied on age-old rights and privileges for their livelihood”.121 Juho Reijonen’s brutal literary account of conditions in North Karelia in 1867–1868 opens with Perttu, his tragic hero, returning to his home parish of Kuohatti after a stint in Kuopio prison, a sentence he received for clearing a piece of crown forest in order to make room for a croft.122 Later, as conditions deteriorated further into the winter of 1867–1868, Perttu ponders the iniquities of society: “But a Karelian can take suffering,” thought Perttu whilst tossing the last handful of bark flour into his dough, which after being baked did not seem to be holding together, as it held hardly a grain of rye to bind it. After a 119  Jakob Näs, “Kalankäytöstä nälkävuosina 1867–1868”, Suomen Kalastuslehti (5–6 / 1918), 23–4. 120  Piers Blaikie, Terry Cannon, Ian Davis & Ben Wisner, At Risk: Natural Hazards, people’s vulnerability, and disasters (London & New York, 1994), 69. 121  Ruuttula-Vasari, Herroja on epäiltävä aina, 292, 308. 122  Juho Reijonen, “Nälkävuonna. Karjalainen kertomus”, Nuori Suomi, 3 (1893), 6–21:8.

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while he added: “If only one would dare to take some pine bark from the crown forests, or if they were even given a couple of cups of rye, there would be no talk of having nothing for a long time, and maybe after seeing some food the workforce would take action so that some work could actually be done.”123

In this case, then, the crofter is being denied even the chance to make bark bread. While Reijonen is using some degree of artistic license, there are enough allusions to similar circumstances in contemporary sources to give it a ring of authenticity. A memoir from Pielavesi (Kuopio Province), for example, describes how “not even bark was permitted for those who possessed no land or forest. Those who owned forests did not want outsiders to ravage them. One was forced to rely on bread made of straw and ground roots of water arum”.124 While crofters often did have an agreement to use forest, landless labourers did not.125 Aaro Vällinmäki—the younger brother of “father of the Finnish agrarian movement” Santeri Alkio—recalled an angry sermon during the Great Hunger Years, when a pastor condemned those parishioners who had been using his forest without permission.126 These restrictions were not universal. Indeed, in some part of Finland the state forest workers were called upon, not only to allow access but also to instruct people in the use of lichens.127 In Laihia (Vaasa Province), for example, a municipal announcement of 14th October 1867 instructed “one man from each house” to accompany poor house officials to go into the forests and gather emergency bread ingredients”.128 And yet, there are various references in the contemporary record and folk memoirs—as well as in literature—to suggest that any moral right of starving people to use trees, moss, or mushrooms could be restricted by landowners or their functionaries, or by crown officials. This is also linked to the accelerating

 Reijonen, “Nälkävuonna”, 11.  Quoted in Kari J. Pitkänen, Deprivation and Disease: Mortality during the Great Finnish Famine of the 1860s (Helsinki, 1993), 67. 125  Nevala, “Kerjäläisiä ja jauhomattoja”, 55. 126  Quoted in Nevala, “Kerjäläisiä ja jauhomattoja”, 55–6. 127  Ruuttula-Vasari, “Herroja on epäiltävä aina”, 200. 128   Santeri Seppälä, “Nälänhätää kärsivän väestön huoltoa tarkoitavasta toiminnasta Laihialla 1850- ja 1860-luvuilla sattuneina katovuosina”, Valvoja-Aika, (7–8, 1928) 300–11: 305. 123 124

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vulnerability to famine on a societal and individual level by the increased numbers of unemployed and landless labourers in Finland in the 1850–1860s.129 It also seems likely that the growth of the landless population, and widespread vagrancy together with the increased desperation, made any attempts at covert use of private land—whether for taking bark phloem, or lichens, mushrooms or anything else—more obvious. Landowners may thus have been more alive to trespassers. Very soon after the Frost Night of 1867, a “well-known, philanthropic” citizen of Viipuri took a (seemingly quite large) group from the town poor house to the local countryside in order to forage—for mushrooms and particularly lichens—and in turn learn to prepare the government-endorsed lichen bread.130 Having a respectable chaperone was not always a guarantee of access, because although the group were accommodated in most cases: The next morning, while I was still asleep… the labour-force returned from the forest and woke me up, saying that a gentleman had driven them out of the crown forest, promising a good hiding if they did not leave. This gentleman was a petty canal “lord” who probably wanted to demonstrate his power.

When challenged later over his right to deny access, the official claimed that the foraging group were damaging a section of his fence. In that case, the author of the account responded, “wouldn’t the life of a hundred hungry people be worth more than one fence post?” He concluded by saying that he recounted this story not to humiliate the belligerent “canal lord”, but rather to highlight this issue in case anyone else thought of denying starving people access to natural resources.131 Especially during the peak of the crisis years, therefore, the administration applied moral pressure in two ways: firstly, it demanded that the Finnish folk took the opportunities provided to gather and prepare lichen-­ based flour or gruel to see them through this desperate time; and secondly, private landowners and their managers were encouraged to turn a blind eye to “trespassers” seeking the ingredients they had been mandated by the government to adopt. Neither demand was completely successful,

129   Antti Häkkinen & Henrik Forsberg, “Finland’s Famine Years of the 1869s: A Nineteenth-Century Perspctive”, in Declan Curran, Lubomyr Luciuk & Andrew G. Newby (eds), Famines in European Economic History (Routledge, 2014), 99–123: 105, fig. 4.2. 130  A. R—n, “Muistelmia jäkälämatkalta”, Ilmarinen, 29 Sep., 4 Oct. 1867. 131  A. R—n, “Muistelmia jäkälämatkalta”, Ilmarinen, 29 Sep. 1867.

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and the instances where access was restricted highlight some of the social divisions that had been growing in Finland in the preceding decades, as well as a fear of the growing number of vagrants.

Conclusion The issue of emergency foods plays a rather complex role in the management and memory of the Great Hunger Years. Firstly, the apparently appalling notion of eating bark bread was one of the most regularly repeated tropes about Finland, especially by outside observers. This was true in general travel writing, but it was often used specifically to paint a picture of distress and encourage donations during the charity campaigns of the 1850s and 1860s. Secondly, this surrogate was often needed in many parts of the country and therefore a strong folk attachment developed to this “self-sufficient” coping strategy. The symbolic importance to Finns of bark and lichen bread remained significant, especially as these substances were used again regularly in hard times: for example, 1892–1893, 1902–1903 and most notably during the civil war period of 1917–1918. Thirdly, bark bread seemed to imply the wrong kind of self-­ sufficiency in the opinions of the elites in the national and provincial capitals. Hence, an intensive campaign of food propaganda was undertaken, regionally from the 1856 onwards but more urgently and on a national level after the summer of 1867. There was considerable suspicion, however, about the top-down initiatives that were supposed to replace the long-held folk traditions around subsistence. From Ähtäri (Vaasa Province), for example, it was recalled that: “Straw bread was harmful to the internal organs, bog arum bread was unhealthy, and lichen bread caused blindness”, and so “bark phloem was found to be the best”.132 If there was frustration among the Finnish elites about the slow popular uptake of lichen, though, historians have argued that there was a sound basis for the general scepticism. As Jan Kunnas has pointed out, “lichen seems to do more harm than good” in the sense that the nutritional benefits were outweighed by the toxicity that remained even after treating the lichens as advised.133 Antti Häkkinen has argued that lichens probably increased mortality among the poorest households,134  Quoted in Nevala, “Kerjäläisiä ja jauhomattoja”, 55.  Kunnas, “1860-luvun nälkävuodet”, 341. 134  Häkkinen, “Kuolema tulee jäkäläleiwästä”, 109–10. 132 133

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and Heidi Hirvonen concluded that, rather than a rustic reluctance to adopt a new diet, the people were simply taking care of their own and their relatives’ health by avoiding lichens.135 With famine approaching again in 1917, Iida Yrjö-Koskinen (a Finnish Party MP, newspaper editor, and daughter-in-law of Yrjö Yrjö-Koskinen) used her childhood memories of the 1860s to ensure that people would use surrogate foods as widely as possible, but with caution: “I still remember from the famine year of 1867, when all the inhabitants of a small croft died, when in distress they cooked poisonous roots.”136 The campaign, which left too little time to gather natural nutrients before the winter, let alone enough time to challenge inter-generational ideas about appropriate food surrogates—apparently had a three-fold purpose: (a) a genuine attempt to make the most of Finland’s natural resources and bolster domestic and national-level self-­ sufficiency; (b) attempt to contain, to any degree possible, the calamity that it seemed to country was facing in summer 1867; and (c) to make it clear that it was the people’s own responsibility to survive this crisis, having been given the appropriate tools (through education) to do so.

References Bibliography

Finnish National Archives, Helsinki Finnish History Society, Nälkävuositoimikunta [Hunger Year Committee].

Hull History Centre John Good’s Diary, Hull History Centre, U DGO/36.

UK National Archives, London Foreign Office: Embassy and Consular Archives. Russia: Helsingfors (Helsinki). Correspondence of William Campbell 1866–1870. FO768/6/73.

 Hirvonen, “Tiedon, tahdon tai resurssien puutetta?”, 98.  Iida Yrjö-Koskinen, “Ravintoaineista ja kalliin ajan taloudesta”, Kyläkirjaston Kuvalehti 7–8/1917, 125–6. 135 136

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Snellman’s Correspondence http://snellman.kootutteokset.fi/fi. E. Julin to J.V. Snellman, 17 Jun. 1867. J.A. von Essen to J.V. Snellman, 23 Sep. 1867. T.S. Thilén to J.V. Snellman, 16 Mar. 1868.

Official Reports William Campbell, “Report by Mr. Consul Campbell on the Trade of Finland for the Year 1867”, in Commercial Reports Received at the Foreign Office from Her Majesty’s Consuls in 1868 (London, 1868), 416–9.

Newspapers Åbo Tidningar. Åbo Underrättelser. Björneborg. Essex Standard. Etelä-Pohjanmaa. Finlands Allmänna Tidning. Folkwännen. Friends Intelligencier. Hämäläinen. Helsingfors Tidningar. Hufvudstadsbladet. Kajaanin Lehti. Karjalatar. Lady’s Newspaper. Österbotten. Oulun Wiikko-Sanomia. Sanomia Turusta. Suomalainen Wirallinen Lehti. Suomen Julkisia Sanomia. Suometar. Tampereen Sanomat. Tapio. Times (London). Wasa Tidning. Wasabladet. Working Farmer. York Herald.

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Printed Secondary Sources ———, Allmogens i Wiborgs län ekonomiska ställning: såvidt densamma beror af jordbruket och dermed förenade näringar. Första delen, första häftet, Lappvesi härad, Walkeala socken (Wiborg, 1856). ———, “Famine en Finlande”, in M. l’abbé Moigno (ed.), Les Mondes: Revue hebdomadiare des sciences et de leurs applications aux arts et a l’industrie, 16 (Jan.–Apr. 1868), 179–80. ———, Kejserliga Finska Hushållningssällskapets Handlingar för åren 1874, 1875 och 1876 (Åbo, 1877). ———, Report of the Committee for the Relief of Famine in Finland (London, 1858). ———, “Swampars nytta och begagnande”, Almanack för Året efter wår Frälsares Kristi Födelse 1861 (Helsingfors, 1861), supplement, 1–8. ———, “What We Eat”, Harpers Magazine, No. LXII, Vol. XI (Jul. 1855). T-o A-o, “Isien jäljillä: Kunnallisen elämän alkutaivalta Kauhajoella”, Vaasa, 17 Aug. 1934. Donald Harman Akenson, Ireland, Sweden and the Great European Migration, 1815–1914 (Montréal, 2011). Aulis J. Alanen, Ilmajoki Vuoden 1809 Jälkeen (Ilmajoki, 1953). David Arnold, Famine: Social Crisis and Historical Change (Oxford, 1988). Piers Blaikie, Terry Cannon, Ian Davis & Ben Wisner, At Risk: Natural Hazards, people’s vulnerability, and disasters (London & New York, 1994). A.M. Clive-Bayley, Vignettes from Finland; or, Twelve Months in Strawberry Land (London, 1895). Alex de Waal, Famine That Kills: Darfur, Sudan (Rev. ed., Oxford, 2005). Edward Daniel Clark, Travels in Various Countries of Europe, Asia and Africa. Part The Third—Scandinavia (London, 1819). Mike Davies, Late Victorian Holocausts: El Niño Famines and the Making of the Third World (London, 2001). Jenny Edkins, Whose Hunger? Concepts of Famine, Practices and Aid (Minneapolis, 2000). Elias Fries, Sveriges Ätliga och Giftiga Svampar (Stockholm, 1860). Antti Häkkinen, “Kuolema tulee jäkäläleiwästä: Hätäravinto, hätäleipävalistus ja sen vastanotto”, in Antti Häkkinen, Vappu Ikonen, Kari Pitkänen & Hannu Soikkanen, Kun halla nälän tuskan toi: Miten suomalaiset kokivat 1860-luvun nälkävuodet (Porvoo, 1991), 91–113. Antti Häkkinen & Henrik Forsberg, “Finland’s Famine Years of the 1869s: A Nineteenth-Century Perspective”, in Declan Curran, Lubomyr Luciuk & Andrew G. Newby (eds), Famines in European Economic History (Routledge, 2014), 99–123. Heidi Hirvonen, “Tiedon, tahdon tai resurssien puutetta? Suomen hallinto ja syksyn 1867 elintarvikekriisi”, (MA Thesis, University of Helsinki, 2013).

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Eduard Hisinger, Kalle Skog swamphuggare: eller Anwisning till de matnyttiga swamparnes igenkännande och anwändande (Helsingfors, 1862). E[duard] H[isinger], Sieni-kirja; eli Sieni-kallen Osviitta tuntemaan ja käyttämään Syötäviä Sieniä (Turku, 1863). Sara Itkonen, “Ruoka ja Rikos: Ruokapulasta hätäravintoon ja varkauksista väkivaltaan Suomessa 1684–1700”, (MA Thesis, University of Helsinki, 2019). Jan Kunnas, “1860-luvun nälkävuodet: absoluuttinen ruokapula vai niukkuuden epätasainen jakautuminen”, Kansantaloudellinen aikakauskirja, 3/2018, 335–55. E.B.  Lanin, Russian Characteristics. Reprinted, with amendments, from the Fortnightly Review (London, 1892). Mirkka Lappalainen, Jumalan Vihan Ruoska: Suuri Nälänhätä Suomessa 1695–1697 (Helsinki, 2012). Mirkka Lappalainen, “Death and Disease During the Great Finnish Famine 1695–1697”, Scandinavian Journal of History, 39:4 (2014), 425–447. Niilo Liakka, “Suomen rahvaan jokapäiväinen leipä, 19:nnen vuosisadan ensi kymmenillä”, Historiallinen Aikakauskirja 21 (1923), 177–84. A M—n, “Nilsiästä”, Tapio, 28 Apr. 1866. Jani Marjanen, Den ekonomiska patriotismens uppgång och fall: Finska hushållningssällskapet i europeisk, svensk och finsk context 1720–1840 (Helsingfors, 2013). Jani Marjanen, “Between ‘Public’ and ‘Private’ Economy: The Finnish Economic Society and the Decline of Economic Patriotism 1797–1833”, in Koen Stapelbroek & Jani Marjanen (eds), The Rise of Economic Societies in the Eighteenth Century: Patriotic Reform in Europe and North America (Palgrave, 2012), 313–38. William R.  Mead, “The Conquest of Finland,” The Norseman, ix (1951), 14–22, 98–104. Paul E. Minnis, Famine Foods: Plants We Eat to Survive (Tucson, 2021). Cormac Ó Gráda, Famine: A Short History (Princeton, 2009). Cormac Ó Gráda, “Famine is not the Problem: A Historical Perspective”, Historical Research, 88: 239 (Feb. 2015), 20–33. Jakob Näs, “Kalankäytöstä nälkävuosina 1867–1868”, Suomen Kalastuslehti (5–6): 1918), 23–4. Marie C.  Nelson, Bitter Bread: The Famine in Norrbotten 1867–1868 (Uppsala, 1988). Kirsi Nevala, “Kerjäläisiä ja jauhomattoja—1860-luvun nälkävuodet muistitietoaineistoissa”, (MA Thesis, University of Tampere, 2015). Petri Palu, “Jäkälän paluu: Jäkälävalistus ja Tekstien Uudelleenkäyttö Historiallisen Tutkimusteeman Jäsentäjänä”, Ennen ja Nyt, 19 (2 / 2019). Nihar Ranjan Patnaik, Economic History of Orissa (New Dehli, 1997). Kari J.  Pitkänen, Deprivation and Disease: Mortality during the Great Finnish Famine of the 1860s (Helsinki, 1993).

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Richard Pankhurst, “The Great Ethiopian Famine of 1888–1892: A New Assessment”, Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences, 21:2 (1966), 95–124. A. R—n, “Muistelmia jäkälämatkalta”, Ilmarinen, 29 Sep. 1867. Lari Rantanen, “A Pitfall on a Nation’s Path of Politics? Government Response to the Finnish Famine of the 1860s”, Jahrbücher für Geschichte Osteuropas 67 (2019/2), 206–38. Heidi Reese, “A Lack of Resources, Information and Will: Political Aspects of the Finnish Crisis of 1867–68”, in Andrew G. Newby (ed.), “The Enormous Failure of Nature”: Famine and Society in the Nineteenth Century (Helsinki, 2017), 83–102. Juho Reijonen, “Nälkävuonna. Karjalainen kertomus”, Nuori Suomi, 3 (1893), 6–21. J.L. Runeberg, “Idyll och Epigram”, in Samlade Skrifter (Tredje Bandet) (Örebro, 1852), 65-85. Anne Ruuttula-Vasari, “Herroja on epäiltävä aina—metsäherroja yli kaiken”: metsähallituksen ja pohjoissuomalaisten kanssakäyminen kruununmetsissä vuosina 1851–1900 (Oulu, 2004). Santeri Seppälä, “Nälänhätää kärsivän väestön huoltoa tarkoitavasta toiminnasta Laihialla 1850- ja 1860-luvuilla sattuneina katovuosina”, Valvoja-Aika, (7–8, 1928) 300–11. Arvo M. Soininen, Vanha Maataloutemme: Maatalous ja Maatalousväestö Suomessa Perinnäisen Maatalouden Loppukaudella 1720-luvulta 1870-luvulle (Helsinki, 1974). Pitirim A. Sorokin, Hunger as a Factor in Human Affairs (Gainesville, 1975). Koen Stapelbroek & Jani Marjanen, “Political Economy, Patriotism and the Rise of Societies”, in Koen Stapelbroek & Jani Marjanen (eds), The Rise of Economic Societies in the Eighteenth Century: Patriotic Reform in Europe and North America (Palgrave, 2012), 1–25. Ingvar Svanberg, “The use of wild plants as food in pre-industrial Sweden”, Acta Societas Botanicorum Poloniae, 81:4 (2012), 317–27. Ingvar Svanberg & Marie C.  Nelson, “Bone-meal porridge, Lichen Soup, or Mushroom Bread: Acceptance of Rejection of Food Propaganda in Northern Sweden in the 1860s”, in Antti Häkkinen (ed.), Just a Sack of Potatoes? Crisis Experiences in European Societies, Past and Present (Helsinki, 1992), 119–47. P.T., “Leipää jäkälistä”, Suometar, 17 Apr. 1857. Ilmar Talve, Suomen kansankulttuuri: historiallisia päälinjoja (Helsinki, 1979). Ilmar Talve, Finnish Folk Culture (Helsinki, 1997). Bayard Taylor, Northern Travel: Summer and Winter Pictures of Sweden, Denmark and Lapland (New York, 1857). H.A. Turja, “Suurten Nälkävuosien Korvikeravintokysymyksestä”, Historiallinen Aikakauskirja (1939), 93–109.

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Oiva Turpeinen, Nälkä vai tauti tappoi? Kauhunvuodet Suomessa 1866–1868 (Helsinki, 1986). Hannu Voipaala, “Viljan Puutteesta ja Hätäravinnosta Nälkävuosina 1866–68 Ala-­ Sääksmäen kihlakunnassa”, Kaikuja Hämeestä X (Helsinki, 1938), 147–72. Miikka Voutilainen, Poverty, Inequality and the Finnish 1860s Famine (Jyväskylä, 2016), 20. Anders Johan Wathén, “Berättelse i följd af en resa inom Uleåborgs och Kajana län”, Finlands Allmänna Tidning, 8, 11, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18 Dec. 1858. Hannele Wirlilander, Ristiinan Historia II: Kunnallisuudistuksesta (1865) Sotien jälkeisen aikaan (1945) (Ristiina, 1994). Iida Yrjö-Koskinen, “Ravintoaineista ja kalliin ajan taloudesta”, Kyläkirjaston Kuvalehti 7–8/1917, 125–6.

CHAPTER 4

Domestic Charity: Nation Building in a Time of Crisis

The Finnish administration’s relief efforts during the Great Hunger Years were bolstered by private donations, from inside and outside of the Grand Duchy. Much of the philanthropic activity undertaken by Finns on behalf of their distressed compatriots followed patterns seen elsewhere across northern Europe: private subscriptions to local committees, usually enumerated in newspapers; charity concerts and theatre productions; balls and soirées; raffles and bazaars. Like their counterparts elsewhere, middle- and upper-class Finns fulfilled what was seen, simultaneously, as both a Christian and a patriotic duty, often in a very performative, or public manner. Moreover, participation in local charity committees provided opportunities for social advancement, and in the case of women a chance to increase their role in the civic sphere.1 Eventually, approximately half of the money donated to emergency relief during the 1867–8 crisis in Finland was raised within Finland itself, although the domestic aid is almost

1  Antti Häkkinen & Andrew G. Newby, “Nälkäkriisi-Suomi: kansainvälinen apu ja kotimaiset panostukset”, in Juhani Koponen & Sakari Saaritsa (eds), Nälkämaasta Hyvinvointivaltioksi: Suomi kehityksen kiiniottajana (Helsinki, 2019), 93–110.

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 A. G. Newby, Finland’s Great Famine, 1856–68, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-19474-0_4

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certainly underestimated.2 Nevertheless, in describing the “Janus-faced compassion” of Finland’s higher social classes during the 1860s, the demographic historian Kari Pitkänen noted that the amounts donated per capita within Finland were relatively small, and possibly just enough to ensure that there was no realistic threat to the social order.3 While this type of philanthropic activity had become an aspect of national identity in various parts of northern Europe, the Finnish case also demonstrated national peculiarities. Along with self-sufficiency, a key theme of Finnish elites—and especially as articulated through their newspapers—in the 1840s and 1850s had been “communality”, and the development of a common Finnish identity.4 By 1856, it was not yet immediately obvious that a Finn living in southern towns like Viipuri or Turku should feel any responsibility to help a needy compatriot in Pudasjärvi or Suomussalmi, hundreds of kilometres to the north. This idea—erasing or at least de-emphasising regional differences within the nation, and between the different class strata—was also promoted through famine relief initiatives.5 The nationalist Suometar, for example, ran a two-part editorial as famine loomed in 1856, which claimed that “even today, many have not worked out whether they are Finns, as every person in Finland should be, or Swedes, or even Russians”, that all Finns had a “duty to busy themselves to ease hunger and poverty” during the imminent year of dearth, and that such conduct would prove a “burning love of the fatherland… the best awakener of a common spirit”.6 The internal fundraising in the three key crisis points of the Great Hunger Years, 1856–7, 1862–3 and 1866–8, was a part of the top-down inculcation of national values, based on the Fennomane maxim that “Swedes we are no longer, Russians we 2  Kari Pitkänen, “Leipää kansalle, sirkushuveja herroille—armeliaisuuden januskasvot”, in Antti Häkkinen, Hannu Soikkanen, Vappu Ikonen & Kari Pitkänen, Kun Halla Nälän Tuskan Toi (Porvoo, 1991), 158–75: 164. Pitkänen points out the balance between internal and external is likely skewed in favour of the latter, as all of this was accounted for, whereas private donations within Finland (especially food provided in kind, or ad hoc handouts in urban contexts) might often have gone unnoticed. 3  Pitkänen, “Leipää kansalle”, 174–5. 4  Eira Juntti, “Images of Ideal Citizens and Gender in Mid-Nineteenth Century Finland”, in Kari Palonen & Anthoula Malkopoulou (eds), Rhetoric, Politics and Conceptual Change (Athens, 2011), 48–60: 48–52. 5  This accords with Lavery’s analysis of the growth of “the nation as the primary source of political allegiance” in the 1860s. Jason Lavery, The History of Finland (Westport, CT, 2006), 56. 6  [“P.T.”], “Yhteis-henki Suomessa” (ii), Suometar, 31 Oct. 1856.

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cannot be… therefore we must be Finns!”.7 External aid was accepted— often gratefully—but was also used to shame Finns themselves into considering why such foreign beneficence, especially from the imperial power, was necessary. Moreover, it seems quite clear that the crisis was an opportunity for the Fennomanes to present their vision of a self-sufficient, “unified Finnish people” to the outside world.8

Internal Aid in Finland—1856–7 As 1856 drew to a close, and widespread harvest failure was confirmed, it remained unclear where the necessary funds required to avert a genuine famine might be found. Grain imports to Finland from Russia were hindered as the Baltic froze over, and thus hopes of respite faded.9 The use of “famine” in some reports was striking, although generally alluding to quite localised crises at this point.10 While some communities in Finland were living on an economic knife-edge, there was still sufficient capacity on a macroeconomic level for the nation to cope, and the notion of “famine” helped to create a sense of impending crisis that provided a rallying point for the rest of Finland. The idea that money was being raised overseas for Finns (especially in Britain and Sweden in 1857) was generally appreciated, but also gave impetus to the domestic efforts, and provided models for fundraising and distribution, setting a pattern of philanthropy which remained consistent for the next decade. An editorial comment in the Turku newspaper Sanomia Turusta encapsulated the sense of gloom, along with the ambivalent attitude towards charity: “A Hunger Year is widely complained of, even though complaining does not make it better.

7  For an in-depth analysis of the chronology and meaning of this motto, often attributed to A.I. Arwidsson but only committed to print by J.V. Snellman in 1861, see Jani Marjanen, “‘Svenska äro vi icke mera’: om ett uttrycks historia”, in Henrika Tandefelt, Julia Dahlberg, Aapo Roselius & Oula Silvennoinen, Köpa salt i Cádiz och andra berättelser: festskrift till Professor Henrik Meinander (Helsinki, 2020), 163–84. 8  Maria Lähteenmäki, The Peoples of Lapland. Boundary Demarcations and Interaction in the North Calotte from 1808 to 1889 (Helsinki, 2006), 179. 9  “Angående hungersnöden”, Wiborg, 14 Nov. 1856; “Wasa”, Wasabladet, 29 Nov. 1856; Ernst Brydolf, “Sverige och Finland under Nödvintern 1856–57”, Nordisk Tidskrift för Vetenskap, Konst och Industri 20 [1944], 416–27. 10  “Wasa”, Wasabladet, 29 Nov. 1856, for example, alluded to famine conditions in Ilmajoki, Isokyrö and Vähäkyrö.

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But it’s good to know that the matter is getting recognized and arousing help. Aid has been sought on a large scale.”11 The increasing evidence of female agency in social matters—especially charity—was in line with similar developments elsewhere in Europe. Many female members of Finland’s upper class moved effortlessly between Finnish and Russian metropolitan spheres. Other women—particularly the wives of merchants—had close ties to Sweden or Germany.12 As in these other countries, philanthropy became “the most accessible form of public activity” for women in the nineteenth century.13 Ladies Associations had been formed in many Finnish towns, following the example of the Frauen-Verein in Viipuri (1835), and had provided opportunities for the upper- and middle-class women of these towns to engage in the civic sphere.14 Further linking this philanthropic endeavour to the idea of national consolidation, the Helsinki branch of the Fruntimmersförening [Ladies’ Association], established in 1848–9, had several prominent nationalist men in executive positions, including the author and professor Zachris Topelius, and theology professor Frans Ludvig Schauman.15  Sanomia Turusta, 23 Dec. 1856.  Åsa Karlsson-Sjögren, “Negotiating Charity: Emotions, gender and poor relief in Sweden at the turn of the 19th century”, Scandinavian Journal of History 41:3 (2016), 332–49: 334, 340–42; Natalia Dinello, “Elites and Philanthropy in Russia”, International Journal of Politics, Culture and Society, 12:1 (1998), 109–33: 118; Simon Morgan, “‘A Sort of Land Debateable’: Female Influence, Civic Virtue and Middle-class Identity, c. 1830–c. 1860”, Women’s History Review, 13:2 (2004), 183–209; Ingrid Åberg, “Revivalism, Philanthropy and Emancipation. Women’s Liberation and Organization in the Early Nineteenth Century”, Scandinavian Journal of History, 13:4 (1988), 399–420. 13   Adele Lindenmeyr, “Public Life, Private Virtues: Women in Russian Charity, 1762–1914”, Signs 18:3 (1993), 563–72: 563–4; Adele Lindenmeyr, Poverty Is Not a Vice: Charity, Society and the State in Imperial Russia (Princeton, 1996), 124. 14  Henrik Stenius, Frivilligt jämlikt samfällt (Helsingfors, 1987), 166–7. Following Viipuri, local associations were founded as follows: Porvoo (1846); Kokkola (1847); Kristiinankaupunki (1847); Helsinki (1848–9); Turku (1848); Pori (1848); Hamina (1849); Vaasa (1851); Loviisa (1852); Sortavala (1853); Lappeenranta (1853); Oulu (1854); Pietarsaari (1854); Kuopio (1854); Käkisalmi (1855); Jyväskylä (1855); Rauma (1902, but with other charitable predecessors from the 1850s). See also “Auktioner”, Helsingfors Dagblad, 14 Feb. 1857; “Helsingfors”, Finlands Allmänna Tidning, 19 Feb. 1857; “Gamyl”, “Fruntimmersföreningen åttio år”, Hufvudstadsbladet, 29 Feb. 1928. 15  V.T.  Rosenqvist, Frans Ludvig Schauman (Förra delen, Helsingfors, 1927), 117–9; Alexandra Ramsay, “Sällskapsspel eller filantropi? Fruntimmersföreningen i Helsingfors stora lotteri 1861”, in Manliga strukturer och kvinnliga strategier: en bok til Gunhild Kyle (Göteborg, 1987), 276–91; 280; Alexandra Ramsay, Huvudstadens hjärta: filantropi och social förändring i Helsingfors: två fruntimmersföreningar 1848–1865 (Helsingfors, 1993), 52. 11 12

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J.V.  Snellman was also a supporter of the organisation’s work.16 Thus, after the harvest failure of 1856, a number of “top ladies” in Helsinki, including Countess von Berg, wife of the Governor-General, busily gathered contributions, each responsible for different parts of the city.17 The proceeds of these collections were then sent forward to selected towns in the “northern provinces”, where cases considered to be “deserving” were chosen by local boards.18 Meanwhile, it was reported that “similar activity” was taking place in Turku.19 In addition to presenting a unified approach between social classes, the crisis offered an opportunity to accelerate the process of forging the diverse regions of Finland into a genuine nation. As news of a potential famine year spread, a correspondent in Viipuri—the second city of Finland in economic terms in the mid-nineteenth century—made this point quite unambiguously: The sad news of the poor outcome of the harvest, which come in on a daily basis from so many parts of the country, especially the northern regions, put beyond any doubt that a terrible shortage will threaten the country during the winter… to a much greater extent, then, it is the responsibility of those who have suffered less or whose needs can more easily be remedied—not only pity with cheap consolation, but by immediate, active deeds—seek to alleviate the distress of their fellow brothers and prove themselves as worthy sons of the parentland…20

The major southern towns—Turku, Helsinki and Viipuri—were identified as being particularly responsible for the well-being of the northern provinces. The newspaper suggested that its own town, Viipuri, having “incurred a great debt of gratitude to the whole country” after the completion of the state-funded Saimaa Canal in 1856, should consider it a matter of civic pride to be at the forefront of the aid effort. The canal was 16  Alexandra Ramsay, “Fruntimmer och fallna kvinnor: ett ertappande i Helsingfors fattigregioner 1860”, in Historisk Tidskrift för Finland, 90:2 (1990), 313–32: 314, 329–30. 17  Finlands Allmänna Tidning, 17 Dec. 1856; Helsingfors Tidningar, 20 Dec. 1856; Finlands Allmänna Tidning, 30 Jan. 1857; Elsa von Born, Fruntimmersföreningen i Helsingfors r.f. 100 år (Helsingfors, 1948), 5. 18  “E”, “Lappo, d. 17 Feb. 1857”, Wasabladet, 28 Feb. 1857; Finlands Allmänna Tidning, 11 Apr. 1857. 19  Sanomia Turusta, 23 Dec. 1856. 20  “Angående hungersnöden”, Wiborg, 14 Nov. 1856. The original uses the term “fosterland”, which is gender-neutral and could be translated as either mother- or fatherland.

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an important national infrastructure development, but promised a particular boost for Viipuri’s economy and status.21 Thus, “in the moment of distress, leap to its exposed countrymen in the incessant famine which threaten large tracts of the country… Hence, no petty contributions now, but a genuine patriotic reaction and a worthy means of considering one’s social status!”22 The activity in the city was widely promoted in the local press, with the aim of encouraging everybody, especially those in Viipuri’s hinterlands, to contribute.23 Moreover, the idea that “several other towns”, particularly Turku and Helsinki, had already made generous contributions, was presented as a further motivation for Viipuri’s citizens to act in a “truly honourable way”.24 In Kuopio, too, there was some initial concern that the local people were not reacting to the call quickly enough, which in itself was enough to stimulate action.25 Helsinki’s newspapers were not immune from proclaiming their own town’s contribution to the national cause, perhaps reflecting a lingering sense of insecurity in a small city that had only been made the capital relatively recently, and was striving to prove its worth: “Helsinki is neither a big nor a rich city, and this beautiful outcome is just as gratifying for the ‘fatherland’ as it is for our own society and for those who, with unsparing effort and so much success, appealed to philanthropy and charity”.26 The top-down fundraising initiatives, led by an active aristocratic class and promoted vigorously in the increasingly influential Finnish press, spread throughout the country. Direct contributions were supplemented by a whole host of charity fundraising events, again reflecting the trend in St. Petersburg and other European cities, which raised money for the “distressed of the northern provinces”. These included celebrity performances, for example, by: the ballerina Alina Frasa27; pianist Henriette Leijel28; Swedish singer Mathilda Indebétou, who was touring Finland at the time29; Oscar Andersson, the  Turkka Myllykylä, Suomen kanavien historia (Helsinki, 1991), 106–7.  “Angående hungersnöden”, Wiborg, 14 Nov. 1856. 23  Wiborg, 21 Nov. 1856; 23 Jan. 1857. 24  Wiborg, 16 Jan. 1857. 25  Kuopion Sanomat, 24 Jan., 14 Mar. 1857. 26  Finlands Allmänna Tidning, 12 Jan. 1857. 27  Helsingfors Tidningar, 14 Jan., 17 Jan. 1857. Åbo Underrättelser, 30 Jan. 1857. 28  Åbo Underrättelser, 17 Feb., 20 Feb. 1857; Finlands Allmänna Tidning, 27 Feb. 1857. 29  Finlands Allmänna Tidning, 15 Dec., 18 Dec. 1856, 14 Jan. 1857; Helsingfors Tidningar, 17 Dec., 20 Dec., 31 Dec. 1856. 21 22

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Swedish actor and theatre director30; the blind clarinet virtuoso from Dresden, Carl Wohllebe31; and Carl Theodor Nielitz, actor and theatre director.32 Inspired by the celebrity interventions, and the prevailing rhetoric of national emergency, lotteries, masquerade balls, art exhibitions, and amateur musical and dramatic performances were held throughout Finland for the benefit of the “northern provinces”. Lists of donors provided public proof of benevolence, and as elsewhere, the lists were generally hierarchical (with the largest donations first, and some sort of equivalence depending on social standing), but demonstrating inclusivity by noting even the smallest contribution, including those from small children.33 It is also worth noting that, at the entrance to a charity masked ball in Helsinki in January 1857, attendees were shown a “piece of black bark bread from the north”.34 In the coming decade, starving Finns eating bark bread would be a regular trope in overseas fundraising, and examples were even sent abroad to prove the Finns’ dire circumstances to potential donors.35 In 1857, this was apparently something that the upper classes of the capital needed to be shown as a means of connecting them to the realities of life in the provinces and, it was reported, “the piece of bread spoke”.36 This urban philanthropy was presented as a lead for the rural areas of the country in subsuming all divisions to the shared ideal of the nation, an “indivisible Finnish people”.37 Rural communities and smaller towns in southern Finland, from Hammarland, in Åland, to Loviisa, which itself had recently suffered “fire and flames”, made public contributions to help their “distressed brothers”.38 The call was also heard by Finns who had made their living in other parts of the Russian Empire.39 “Patriotic” contributions came in from, inter alia, “the Finnish parish in St. Petersburg”, 30  Inter alia, Helsingfors Tidningar, 3 Jan., 21 Jan. 1857; Finlands Allmänna Tidning, 23 Jan. 1857. Åbo Tidningar, 3 Feb. 1857. 31  Helsingfors Tidningar, 17 Jan., 21 Jan., 31 Jan. 1857. 32  Wiborg, 16 Jan., 20 Jan., 27 Jan. 1857. 33  For example, Finlands Allmänna Tidning, 10 Feb. 1857. 34  Helsingfors Tidningar, 10 Jan. 1857. 35  See below, Chap. 5.  36  Helsingfors Tidningar, 10 Jan. 1857. 37  Suometar, 6 Jan. 1857. 38  Åbo Underrättelser, 30 Jan. 1857; Finlands Allmänna Tidning, 4 Feb.1857. A fire had reduced much of Loviisa to ash in July 1855. 39  Sanomia Turusta, 25 Aug. 1857.

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“a Finnish family in Poland”,40 a Finnish man from the Smolensk town of Vjazma “on behalf of his countrymen”,41 “MB from Kharkiv” in Ukraine,42 “F.T. from Torschok”,43 collections from pastor Asplund in Tallinn, and “a Finnish family in Brest-Litovsk fortress”.44 The bilocated Finnish-­ Imperial aristocracy were also active. Prefiguring a lifetime of charitable activity, Aurora Karamzin (“whose heart”, it was stressed “has always remained warm to the Finnish homeland”), collected 5000 rubles in St. Petersburg.45 These collections, in particular, seemed to validate the existence of a self-conscious Finnish nationality, which even existed in Finland’s Imperial aristocracy. The idea that Finland, as an autonomous state, should take responsibility for its own relief, permeated this type of public discourse. This was a metropolitan narrative that linked charitable engagement with the social development that was a goal of the nation-builders. This rhetoric attempted to reinforce the idea of all “Finns” as an ethnic in-group, rather than reproducing the historical distinctions between Ostrobothnians, Savonians, Karelians and others. General attitudes towards the poor, and especially vagrants, continued to betray regional as much as class prejudice, over the coming decade. An attempt was made, however, to overcome (or at least hide) class divisions, and—in common with many other societies—there was a sense that, irrespective of income, contributing a “mite” would make the donor an active participant in society. The participation of the “working classes” in the Finns’ common struggle against nature was also highlighted, either by purchasing lottery or charity concert tickets, or indeed by devoting a proportion of wages to their distressed compatriots.46 Although the rhetoric of charity and philanthropy was predominantly driven from the top down, it stressed that all sections of society were participating, and that a common sense of “Christian love” was erasing any class distinctions: “Christian philanthropy has in palaces and cabins [alike] opened hearts and hands to [the spirit of] mercy. May the collections be used soon to at least mitigate the horrors of hunger!”47  Finlands Allmänna Tidning, 7 Apr. 1857.  Finlands Allmänna Tidning, 26 May 1857. 42  Finlands Allmänna Tidning, 26 May 1857. 43  Finlands Allmänna Tidning, 26 May 1857. 44  Helsingfors Tidningar, 24 Jan. 1857. 45  Finlands Allmänna Tidning, 24 Jan. 1857. 46  Helsingfors Tidningar, 31 Dec. 1856, 7 Feb. 1857, 25 Feb. 1857. 47  Åbo Underrättelser, 17 Feb. 1857. 40 41

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Solidarity also extended to the idea of provincial- or parish-level self-­ sufficiency.48 In response to the aid provided by the Helsinki Ladies’ Association, for example, C.G. von Essen, a pietist chaplain in Ylihärmä (Vaasa Province), wrote in March 1857 that many parts of Vaasa province did not require aid, and had not yet considered any resort to e.g. bark- or straw-bread.49 Just as Finland’s administrative elite in Helsinki did not want their country to be perceived internationally as a charity case, so local elites—at least at the outset of this famine decade—did not necessarily wish their own parishes to get a reputation for dependency. This attitude, indeed, was largely based on the fear of charity creating a dependency culture among parishioners, but it was framed in terms of national solidarity. After a forceful conclusion to his letter—“in the name of our distressed brothers—no more here!”—von Essen emphasised his message by quoting a Finnish-speaking peasant farmer, who had apparently called on him from the neighbouring parish of Älähärmä: “I would see it as nothing more than an outrageous and shameless robbery if we took the last piece of bread from the mouth of the hungry”.50 Such well-meaning and ostentatiously patriotic rejection of aid was still possible in 1857, as parish or provincial economies could still stretch to help the local poor. By 1868, after a decade of ever-deepening poverty, covering increasingly wide areas of Finland, such gestures were hardly an option.

Internal Aid in Finland—1862–3 The next time that harvest failure in Finland prompted national and international charity was in 1862, a crisis  which was presented as a greater threat to Finnish society than any famines “that have visited our land in the last half-century”.51 Suometar provided an editorial which re-­ emphasised the idea that a common response to a potential disaster could bring the nation together:  “Wasa”, Wasabladet, 31 Jan. 1857.  Finlands Allmänna Tidning, 7 Mar. 1857; Suomen Julkisia Sanomia, 12 Mar. 1857. 50  A letter from Ylihärmä, from C.G. v. Essen, 18 Feb. 1857. Printed in Wasabladet, 28 Feb. 1857. The language of the peasant farmer was emphasised by retaining the original Finnish language of his statement in the context of a Swedish-language newspaper. Carl Gustav von Essen later represented the Clergy Estate in the Finnish Diet, and worked as professor at the Imperial Alexander University in Helsinki. His brother, Otto von Essen, was married to J.V. Snellman’s sister, Anna Christina. 51  Vasabladet, 11 Oct. 1862. 48 49

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Let us busy ourselves as one in providing aid, it really should not burden anyone and indeed the feelings awakened in the helpers will be a marvellous and adequate reward, the sense that the Finns have been able to help Finns out of hunger and destruction, and aid would help the overall spirit of our nation, demonstrating that the inhabitants of our country feel that they are brothers, who suffer misfortune together just as they share good times, and are faithful towards each other. This assistance binds together the children of the fatherland with an iron grip, and through this it is possible to see that they can rely on each other’s help in times of hardship.52

J.V.  Snellman wrote in the country’s official newspaper to emphasise the importance of private funds being used to provide work opportunities for the impoverished northern provinces.53 The response from Finns to the distress in their own country was, to Snellman’s mind, too slow and badly organised, and was not raising sufficient funds. The generous response in Sweden was used by the Fennomane leaders to mobilise their own people, and Snellman stressed that the Finns could only receive alms “without humiliation” from abroad once their own efforts had been exhausted, and that the foreign aid would have more value if they could be “accepted without the blush of shame”.54 Snellman demanded a more coherent redistribution system across Finland, and singled out the southern parish of Iitti—where each adult had donated 25 kopeks—for particular praise. If this example were replicated across the country, he concluded, “nearly half a million” would be raised for the needy.55 The British Consul in Viipuri, Herman Lorentz, highlighted this aspiration in his annual report, although Snellman’s negativity suggests that ad hoc urban humanitarianism was still more prevalent than widespread voluntary redistribution:

 “Häadästä ja sen aputoimista”, Suometar, 16 Sep. 1862.  Lars-Folke Landgrén, För frihet och framåtskridande: Helsingfors Dagblads etableringsskede 1861–1864 (Helsinki, 1995), 227; J.V.S[nellman], “Vid sammanträdet på riddarhuset”, Finlands Allmänna Tidning, 4 Oct. 1862. 54  J.V.S[nellman], “Tidig hjelp, dubbel hjelp”, Finlands Allmänna Tidning, 24 Nov. 1862. Also quoted in Juha Siltala, Valkoisen äidin pojat: Siveellisyys ja sen varjot kansallisessa projektissa (Helsinki, 1999), 167. 55  J.V.S[nellman], “Tidig hjelp, dubbel hjelp”, Finlands Allmänna Tidning, 24 Nov. 1862. A note of gratitude from Oulu to the “philanthropists” of Iitti was published in October 1862. “Kotimaalta”, Oulun Wiikko-Sanomia, 11 Oct. 1862. Iitti at this time was in north-eastern part of the Province of Uusimaa. 52 53

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To relieve the distressed, committees are spread all over the country in order to collect money and provisions; those parts of the country that are less affected by famine have freely contributed, the middle and higher classes of the population taxing themselves with from one to six per cent of their income…56

Ad hoc philanthropy carried on as in 1856–7. Charity concerts and soirées were arranged, and subscription lists advertised individuals’ beneficence in the local and national press. By the end of September 1862, for example, there were reports of sold-out charity concerts and theatre performances in Helsinki, Turku, Oulu, Kuopio and Mikkeli, collections in cash and in kind in Pori and Ulvila, and a charity Allegri Lottery along with a series of soirées being arranged by the ladies of Hämeenlinna.57 An Emergency Committee was established in Helsinki to receive and redistribute funds, led by Frans Ludwig Schauman—but with men such as J.V.  Snellman and Zachris Topelius also co-opted on to the board.58 Following the model established by the Women’s Association in 1857, the board divided the town into different sectors, with each board member overseeing fundraising in one sector each. Schauman himself gave a well-­ publicised lecture, in which he discussed Victor Hugo’s newly published Les Misérables, “especially with regard to the bonds of association that existed between this novel and the unfortunate ones in society in general, as well as the great social phenomenon within our own country, Famine, which was an object of everyone’s thoughts”.59 The following week, a similar committee was formed in Hämeenlinna, as Finland’s urban bourgeoisie sought to give an example of national-level compassion, and thus of citizens having a stake in the future development of the country.60 56  Lorentz (Wiborg, March 31, 1863). “Report by Mr. Consul Herman Lorentz on the Trade of Viborg for the Year 1862”, in Commercial Reports received at the Foreign Office from Her Majesty’s Consuls Between July 1st, 1862 and June 30th, 1863 (London, 1863), 373–9: 379. 57  Helsingfors Dagblad, 25 Sep., 25 Oct. 1862; Finlands Allmänna Tidning, 26 Sep., 29 Sep., 30 Sep. 1862; Åbo Underrättelser, 2 Oct. 1862; Tapio, 8 Nov. 1862; Oulu WiikkoSanomia, 8 Nov., 5 Dec., 1862, 14 Feb. 1863; Björneborgs Tidning, 30 Sep. 1862; Hämäläinen, 26 Sep., 10 Oct., 24 Oct., 31 Oct. 1862, 9 Jan., 16 Jan. 30 Jan., 13 Feb., 13 Mar., 27 Mar. 1863. The lotereia-allegri was a popular form of lottery in Russia, where the player found out immediately whether they had won. 58  Rosenqvist, Frans Ludvig Schauman, 334–7; Suometar, 10 Oct. 1862. 59  Helsingfors Dagblad, 13 Oct. 1862; Rosenqvist, Frans Ludvig Schauman, 336. 60  Hämäläinen, 10, 17 Oct. 1862.

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As the winter continued and the need in the northern provinces remained great, subscription lists outlined contributions, and more diverse individual initiatives took place.61 In Viipuri, for example, Carl Gabriel Cloudberg sold off rare coins in his bookshop to raise funds, as well as selling skis and knives made by “the distressed of Saarijärvi parish”.62 Funds from the latter enterprise went directly to Saarijärvi, and linked into J.V. Snellman’s ideal of local craft initiatives.63 There was, again, a level of “celebrity” involvement, including an eclectic, sold-out concert by the veteran Swedish ballet master Anders Selinder in Helsinki’s Arkadia Theatre.64 Towards the end of the university year, history students invited J.V.  Snellman to give a public lecture on “The Meaning of Family in History”, with a small entrance charge being collected and donated to the distressed regions.65 There seemed to be a change of emphasis in the overall theme of the fundraising, which can be perceived as an element of Finland’s nation-­ building process. As the Finnish elites prepared for the Meeting of the Estates in September 1863—the first time that the Estates had assembled since 1809—it was important to promote the narrative that Finland was an autonomous, coherent nation capable of running its own affairs. Thus, while Helsinki may have felt responsible for “setting a good example”, the inter-town competition that stimulated civic action in 1856–7 had been replaced by a more general sense of national self-sufficiency—the fundraising was a “patriotic affair” as much as a Christian responsibility.66 It would be a  great  humiliation for Finland to be seen as a nation of paupers by outsiders, and conversely it had to be a matter of urgent national pride to

61  “Hädänalaisille”, Sanomia Turusta 7 Nov. 1862; Helsingfors Dagblad, 28 Nov. 1862; Helsingfors Tidningar, 30 May 1863. 62  Otawa, 3 Oct., 17 Oct., 31 Oct., 14 Nov., 5 Dec. 1862, 13 Feb., 27 Feb., 1 May 1863. 63  Otawa, 20 Feb. 1863. 64  Helsingfors Dagblad, 27, 30 Sep. 1862. 65  Helsingfors Tidningar, 28 May 1863. The lecture also seemed to be a contribution to the “crystallisation of the nation”. Kraatari has argued that “Snellman’s propagation about the national significance of home became a strong symbol of the nation”. Eliza Kraatari, Domestic Dexterity and Cultural Policy: The Idea of Cottage Industry and Historical Experience in Finland from the Great Famine to the Reconstruction Period (Jyväskylä, 2016), 83; quoting Koski, 2011: 166–8; Siltala). 66  Hämäläinen, 10, 17 Oct. 1862; “Hjelp åt de hungrande”, Missions-Tidning för Finland, 10:1862, 159–60; Landgrén, Frihet och framåtskridande, 226; “Ett ord om insamling för de nödlidande”, Helsingfors Dagblad, 27 Sep. 1862.

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demonstrate its ability to support itself.67 On the other hand, there remained a strong emphasis on individual self-help as much as national, and the primary purpose of aid was to provide work, and ideally to keep individuals in their home parishes.68 At the end of 1863, Adolf Emil Frosterus—a teacher from Kuopio—took it upon himself to analyse the previous year’s domestic fundraising. He observed that Helsinki had provided over a third of the relief, and that other parts of the countries needed to follow the capital’s example, as the overall collection “did not seem to be very large”. Overall, the message was one of gratitude for donations— both from inside and outside of Finland—but a stark warning to the Finnish people that their agricultural practices needed urgent renewal.69 As Finland’s political and economic autonomy seemed to be confirmed by the Tsar’s visit during the summer, and the Finnish language was afforded official status, 1863 has been commemorated as a “turning-point in the history of Finland”.70 The Tsar’s decree at the end of the year— signed off by J.V.  Snellman (who had been appointed to the Senate as Head of Finance) and his colleagues—alluded to the challenges of the previous winter, but also that “[God’s] incomprehensible grace has successfully blessed the Government’s diligence in eliminating the malice of hunger”.71 This was not a time for specifics on just how the government had achieved this, but the decree did go on to mention the better-off members of society, both inside and outside of Finland, who had provided essential support to the country’s distressed communities. The decree’s optimistic conclusion was based on the expectation that 1862–3 would be the last year of dearth. This hope was misplaced, and  private charity was needed for several more years.

67  Andrew G. Newby, “‘Neither do these tenants or their children emigrate’: famine and transatlantic emigration from Finland in the nineteenth century”, Atlantic Studies, 11:3 (2014), 383–402: 395. 68  “Koti-maalta”, Suometar, 19 Sep. 1862; Z.R. “Miten Englannista Woita Säästetään”, Sanomia Turusta, 7 Nov. 1862. Reprint from Lasten Suometar, Apr. 1857. 69  AEF, “Wieläki sananen wiime katowuoden wapatahtoisista apuwaroista”, Tapio, 26 Sep. 1863. Agricultural diversification in the northern provinces as a means of famine prevention was a common theme in contemporary economic liberal press. See Landgrén, Frihet och framåtskridande, 225. 70  Petra Pakkanen, August Myhrberg and North-European Philhellenism (Athens, 2006), 164. 71  Suomen Julkisia Sanomia, 31 Dec. 1863.

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Self-Sufficiency and Compassion Fatigue—1866–8 There was no significant pause in the fundraising, although the activity in 1866 seems to have been characterised by better-off individuals and parishes assisting their struggling compatriots. Specific crisis parishes were often targeted. Thus, Miss Armida Palmgrén’s piano recital in March 1866 was to help relieve the “famine in Tuusniemi”, while the Finnish Missionary Society’s donations to the “needy in Jerusalem” were matched by the amounts it sent to Viitasaari, Kivijärvi, Pihtipudas & Veteli.72 A “penny subscription” within Savo redistributed money to the most needy parts of Kuopio Province,73 and the Women’s Association in Oulu discussed a lottery for the “needy in this province”.74 Elsewhere there were examples of longer-distance Finnish solidarity: donations from the western town of Vaasa to the eastern parish of Pielisjärvi75; from Snappertuna (Uusimaa) to Nurmes (North Karelia), and Rusko near Turku, to Nilsiä in North Savo; and collections in southern communities like Viborg, Hamina and Pernaja for the “northern regions”.76 Some of the earlier rhetoric around relief aid persisted in 1866. For example, there was civic anxiety in Tampere that the town was not being active enough in its contribution to the national cause.77 Aid also continued to arrive from overseas, especially from the Baltic towns during 1866, and often in collection with Finnish Lutheran congregations or personal connections and consular networks.78 The debate about the best means of providing aid—and the obligations that were to be placed upon the needy themselves—remained vigorous, especially through the columns of Suometar. Imperial handouts, in particular, were anathema to the national-minded: With these brief thoughts, we have only meant to draw the public’s attention to that inappropriate speech about Russia’s flour sacks, on which many

 Tapio, 17 Mar. 1866; Missionstidning för Finland, 7:1866, 112.  A “penny subscription” in Mikkeli, Ristiina and Mäntyharju raised 1480 marks, which was then distributed to Pieksämäki, Kangasniemi, Kerimäki and Heinävesi, and then also to Kuopio, Vaasa and Oulu Provinces (largest sum to Kuopio). 74  Oulun Wiikko-Sanomia, 17 Mar., 31 Mar. 1866. 75  Vasabladet, 11 Aug. 1866. 76  Suometar, 20 Apr. 1866. 77  Sanomia Tampereelta, 3 Apr. 1866. 78  Finlands Allmänna Tidning, 3 Jul. 1866; Helsingfors Tidningar, 29 Aug. 1866; Suometar, 3 May 1866. 72 73

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simpletons still seem to think Finland’s future depends, and which we have heard in a few places waiting for help to end the emergency. Indeed the experience of these last years of dearth should have already shown the futility of this inappropriate obsession. So let’s leave out all that disgraceful recourse to the bread of grace in the form of Russian flour.79

This type of harassment demonstrated a further fault-line between the elites and the people, and especially the people of the eastern regions of the Grand Duchy. There, a strong folk memory persisted that, in hard times (and from the days of Swedish rule), Russia would come to the rescue.80 The message of self-sufficiency was reinforced in an open letter from several members of Helsinki’s academic, business and political elite in late February 1866, which was published on the front page of Suometar.81 This letter reminded readers of the terrible year of 1862–3, and even suggested that, as more hardship loomed, urban Finns might have become inured to the hardships faced by their rural compatriots, who were “flooding” from the north and east. Therefore, Helsinki’s bookshops were once more accepting donations from the capital to be sent to the needy in Kuopio, Vaasa and Oulu provinces. The next week, a meeting of Helsinki Stock Exchange Association at Kleineh’s Hotel in Helsinki discussed “the best way to provide emergency aid in the land”.82 At the same time, while Suometar emphasised a self-sufficient response to the ongoing shortages, its editorials demanded that any funds be used properly, and suggested that in 1862–3 the aid did not “always go to the right places”, and that “a gift can often do more harm than good” if it produced dependency and laziness.83 At this stage, there was still a sense in the capital that the crisis was happening somewhere relatively far away. The apparent “compassion fatigue”  “Sananen Wenäjän jauhokulista”, Suometar, 22 Jan. 1866.  See e.g. the memory of “Jauho Kaisa” / “Flour Cathy”, an affectionate nickname for Catherine the Great. Helge Pohjolan-Pirhonen, Kansakunnan Historia 2: Kansakunta Etsii Itseään 1772–1808 (Porvoo, 1972), 122. 81  “Yleisölle”, Suometar, 1 Mar. 1866. The letter’s seven signatories comprised seven people, including businessman Henrik Borgström, chemistry professor Adolf Arppe, senator Christian Oker-Blom (appointed Governor of Viipuri Province in April 1866), and Governor of Uusimaa Province, Vladimir Alfons Walleen. 82  Helsingfors Dagblad, 8 Mar. 1866. 83  “Yksituisten hätäapuhankeista”, Suometar, 12 Mar. 1866. 79 80

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was highlighted in a sardonic contribution to Hufvudstadsbladet in March 1866: It’s Easter week and the distress in the country is not over yet, but judging by the most recent newspaper columns, Helsinki at this time thinks of nothing but to plunge from one pleasure into another. Spectacles, concerts, balls, declamatory-musical soirées and musical-declamatory soirées only wrestle with each other in the evenings, which sadly are not more than the seven days of a week… The distress is thought to be increasing less at the moment, therefore maybe the newspapers recently have had nothing new to say about it. The penny subscription’s initial zeal has already had time to cool off, as might be expected, and a new meeting will soon be scheduled to arrange the matter in another way.84

Hopes that 1866 might have signalled the end of the ever-increasing calls on Finns’ sense of philanthropy and patriotism were dashed by further harvest failures, and the situation escalated still further in 1867–8. Snellman’s ideal that, rather than ad hoc benevolence from the upper classes, all Finns (and especially the free peasantry) would contribute to protecting the national economy, seemed unsustainable in the face of increasingly widespread indebtedness among the rural population. The Frost Night of September 1867 confirmed another failed harvest. The continuing top-down demand for communality was exemplified in a gendered appeal from “A Mother” in the state newspaper Finlands Allmänna Tidning in October 1867: To Finland’s Mothers… Necessity binds hearts together in mutual love… God is haunting the nation. The nation must bear the burden—one must reach out to the other to help each other as brothers, and not a single poor brother or sister, not a single innocent child we must starve to death, its blood will be demanded of us… Finland’s mothers in the north, in the south, in the east and west, in towns, in the countryside! Finland’s hungry children look up to you. Read in this gaze [their] heart-breaking prayer for help, and hurry yourselves to make a mother’s sacrifices for them.85

This type of rhetoric aligned with the nationing narrative of the Fennomanes, as Eliza Kraatari has noted: “women were supposed to  “Helsingfors-krönika”, Hufvudstadsbladet, 27 Mar. 1866.  “En Moder”, “Till Finlands mödrar”, Finlands Allmänna Tidning, 8 Oct. 1867.

84 85

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Fig. 4.1  Vagrants waiting on the perimeter of a manor house during the Great Hunger Years, hoping for charity from the better-off members of society. From a short story by Rauma-born journalist Eva Charlotta Ljungberg (1850–1919), writing as “Draba Verna”. (Illustration by Laurell. “Draba Verna”, “Katowuodelta 1868”, in Kansanwalistus-Seuran Kalenteri 1888 (Helsinki, 1887), 91–8. Courtesy of the National Library of Finland)

conform to higher standards of decency, modesty and self-sacrifice”.86 Aurora Karamzin, a wealthy widow originally from Ulvila, daughter of a former Governor of Viipuri and sister of Finland’s assistant Minister of State in St. Petersburg87—was perhaps the most notable example of this patriotic maternalism. Ingrid Qvärnström’s hagiographical account of Karamzin’s life described her actions in the weeks after the Frost Night (Fig. 4.1):

86  Kraatari, Domestic Dexterity and Cultural Policy, 83 (Quoting Koski 2011: 166–8; Siltala). 87  Karamzin had also been the lady-in-waiting of Alexandra Federovna (wife of Nicholas I).

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The wealth and benevolence of Aurora Karamzin was so well known that the Träskända manor she owned in Espoo was exceptionally crowded with beggars pleading for food and lodging. From there, the aid-seekers were not turned away, but the mistress of the manor gladly distributed food to these sick beggars, for the servants did not dare to do so for fear of infection. As a result, she herself became infected with smallpox. After recovering, Aurora Karamzin began vigorously pursuing a deaconess care centre in Helsinki, which was inaugurated in December 1867.88

The Finnish Deaconess Institution, therefore, can be seen as a long-­ term legacy of the Great Hunger Years.89 Karamzin had already been an important contributor to the burgeoning middle- and upper-class philanthropic associations in Helsinki, but the ever-increasing hunger and disease of the 1860s stimulated her to establish the Finnish branch of this international organisation.90 Karamzin had become acquainted with the deaconess movement in St. Petersburg—another example of the overlapping imperial contexts especially among Finland’s upper classes, and been to the Deaconess “headquarters” in Germany earlier in the 1860s.91 Writing in 1960, Erkki Kansanaho argued that “it could not have been mere coincidence that Helsinki Deaconess Institute was founded in December [1867] as if it were a Christmas present for the suffering people”.92 By January, the institution had already been called into action, with a typhus epidemic taking hold in the town.93 In the spring of 1868, during the worst days of the Great Hunger Years, the “mother institution” in Duisburg sent deaconesses to Viipuri in order to tend to the sick and dying.94 There were many other examples of individual acts of

88  Pitkänen, “Leipää Kansalle”, 159; Ingrid Qvärnström, Ett legendomspunnet liv: Aurore Karamsin och hennes samtid (Helsingfors, 1937), 338–40. Qvarnström was the granddaughter of Senator Oscar Norrmén, who had toured Finland in 1867 investigating conditions. 89  Finlands Allmänna Tidning, 29 Nov., 18 Dec. 1867. 90  Pirjo Markkola, “Promoting Faith and Welfare: The Deaconess Movement in Finland and Sweden, 1850–1930”, Scandinavian Journal of History, 25 (2000), 101–18:110. 91  “Diakonissanstalten i Helsingfors”, Finlands Röda Kors, XIV (3) (1938), 63–4. 92  Erkki Kansanaho, Sisälähetys ja Diakonia Suomen Kirkossa 1800-luvulla (Pieksämäki, 1960), pp. 132–3. 93  Helsingfors Dagblad, 20 Jan. 1868. 94  Wiborgs Tidning, 5 May 1868. Lichen-bread was also baked and distributed at Träskända (Helsingfors Dagblad, 30 Sep. 1867).

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philanthropy from around the country—less celebrated than Aurora Karamzin’s but nonetheless often just as impressive or important in their immediate context.95 A further indication that 1867–8 marked a more general crisis in society was the renewed focus on fundraising for the Pauvres Honteux.96 The very class of people which Snellman had believed could provide work in (or, if necessary, charitable contributions for) “the distressed districts”, was now itself in increasingly difficult circumstances, as indebtedness increased, and local economies failed. For these people, apparently, moral and social norms prevented them from requesting aid, which in turn allowed them to be constructed as more deserving cases: Distress is horrible, wherever it strikes, but perhaps most horrible, when it manifests itself in families, which through their social status belong to the so-called better classes, for there the helplessness is greatest in the main part through the almost unsurmountable difficulty of finding a suitable opportunity to earn a meagre daily bread through your own work, and partly by the essentially moral impossibility of appealing directly to the assistance of fellow human beings. The more sensitive the position, the more corrosive is the thought of being forced to suffer the most difficult anguish of hunger, without being able to beg for help…97

As Finnish society collapsed in the winter of 1867–8, therefore, the number of people able to give anything to charity was decreasing, and those contributions that were received had to be spread ever more thinly.98

Helsinki in 1867–8 By 1867–8, signs of the national crisis were also obvious in the streets of the capital. Migrants had come from elsewhere in the country in search of work or charity, typhus and scarlet fever epidemics raged, and the town’s  Pitkänen, “Leipää kansalle”, 158–60.  “Småbref från Åbo”, Hufvudstadsbladet, 6 Nov. 1867; Åbo Underrättelser, 7 Dec. 1867; “Pauvres honteux”, Helsingfors Dagblad, 16 Dec. 1867; Åbo Underrättelser, 21 Apr. 1868. 97  “Lotteri för ‘Pauvres honteux’”, Vasabladet, 18 Jan. 1868. For a comparative perspective, see Andrew G.  Newby, “‘On Their Behalf No Agitator Raises His Voice’: The Irish Distressed Ladies Fund—Gender, Politics and Urban Philanthropy in Victorian Ireland”, in Krista Cowman, Nina Javette Koefoed & Åsa Karlsson Sjögren (eds), Gender in Urban Europe: Sites of Political Activity and Citizenship, 1750–1900 (Abingdon, 2014), 178–93. 98  “Tampere”, Tampereen Sanomat, 10 Dec. 1867. 95 96

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workhouses were overflowing. In an interview in 1933, Arvid Lindstedt, a retired military man, provided a small glimpse into bourgeois urban life during the famine years: Otherwise those times, especially 1867–68, were terrible in Finland. A terrible famine prevailed. Even in Helsinki, huge groups of vagrants were going about. Those of us who—as I already mentioned—received three naula of bread per day, did not have days of emergency. For that reason, we did our best to help the worse-off. My mate and I distributed plenty of bread, especially after we heard that the regiment’s chefs were stealing and selling foodstuffs. Therefore, when I walked down the Esplanade, [the vagrants] begged and ran at my heels, pointing, and parroting: “that gentleman gives out bread.”99

The modern core of the capital—especially the university and cathedral—continued to host charity events, sometimes for the northern provinces, and sometimes to more specific causes like the Helsinki workhouse.100 A charity stocking-filler was also published by the Finnish Literature Society in time for Christmas 1867, a poetry collection entitled Axet, featuring the work of Runeberg, Cygnaeus, Stenbäck, Topelius and others.101 Axet cost two marks, and the proceeds were to be channelled to the “distressed”. The foreword, written by Johan Ludvig Runeberg himself, stressed that (Fig. 4.2): Some young men among the students of Finland said to one another, ‘What shall we give our hungry brothers?’ Silver and gold we have not to give them; we would like to give our work, but its fruit is in the future. So we want to see what our love is capable of—and they gathered this ear…102

By early 1868, Helsinki’s city workhouse was operating way beyond its capacity, accommodating well over five hundred inmates at the time. This in turn provided the justification for a new charity initiative, raising funds  “Mennyttä aikaa muistelen niin mielelläni”, Hakkapeliitta, 24 Jan. 1933.  Finlands Allmänna Tidning, 18 Nov., 9 Dec. 1867, 15 Jan., 24 Mar. 1868; Suomalainen Wirallinen Lehti, 10 Dec. 1867. 101  Axet: diktsamling med bidrag av Runeberg, Cygnaeus, Stenbäck, Topelius, m. fl.: Utgifven till förmån för nödlidande i Finland (Helsingfors, 1867). 102  Finlands Allmäna Tidning, 4 Dec. 1867; “Helsinki”, Imarinen, 20 Dec. 1867. Axet would be translated as The Ear (i.e. of cereal), an evocative allusion to the recent harvest failure. 99

100

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Fig. 4.2  Programme for Ida Basilier’s concert in Kaivohuone, Helsinki, 4 Jun. 1868. The entry charge of 2mk 50p. was “for the benefit of the distressed”. Hufvudstadsbladet, 3 Jun. 1868. (Courtesy of the National Library of Finland)

for emergency relief work, specifically to pay for a longstanding project to landscape the Observatory Hill at Ullanlinna Park, one of the capital’s most bourgeois neighbourhoods.103 This was presented as an all-round benefit, embodying many of the aspects of bourgeois charity that had been developing over the previous decade: paid work (rather than gratuitous aid) would be provided for the poor and needy; pressure would be relieved on the municipal workhouse; and the rich would have a chance to 103  Hufvudstadsbladet 27 Jan., 12 Feb., 18 Feb. 1868; Suomalainen Wirallinen Lehti, 18 Feb. 1868; Andrew G. Newby, “Finland’s ‘Great Hunger Years’ Memorials: A Sesquicentennial Report”, in Andrew G. Newby (ed.), “The Enormous Failure of Nature”: Famine and Society in the Nineteenth Century (Helsinki, 2017), 173–214: 178, fn. 27. Tähtitorninmäki Observatory had been opened in 1834. The nearby Kaivopuisto Observatory was opened in 1926. The project was planned by Knut Forsberg, a leading Swedish landscape architect.

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demonstrate their munificence. In addition, the city of Helsinki would receive a “lasting legacy for future times” as the Observatory Hill area— “whose views, free, wide-ranging and inviting, are among the finest in Finland”—could develop further as a municipal leisure spot.104 Within the first week of the subscription, over 4000 marks (rising to 6662 marks by the middle of February105 and 7482 marks by mid-­ March106) was pledged for the project, including large donations from some of Helsinki’s most prominent citizens. Countess Amalie Adlerberg and Aurora Karamzin headed the list with donations of 1000 marks each, followed by other prominent members of the Helsinki elite including the brewery baron, Paul Sinebrychoff (500 marks).107 The list was available for inspection at Frenckell’s bookshop at Unioninkatu, close to the worksite, and adjacent to the original site of the Deaconess Institute. The work commenced on 12 February 1868, and all of the “ladies and gentlemen” who contributed were invited to attend a presentation of the architect’s plans in Societetshuset the next day—an excellent opportunity for social mixing.108 Work opportunities still seemed to be rather limited—in the opening weeks it was announced that approximately twenty people were employed on the site, although it was indicated that, in time, “a significantly larger number of workers there will probably find their salvation”.109 By March, this number had effectively doubled, and it was noted that a “large proportion” of the workers were also supporting families.110 This urban renewal project may have had a “patriotic” purpose, linking bourgeois metropolitan Finland to the starving provinces, but it also highlighted the separate mental and physical spheres that they inhabited. As the relief work was continuing in Kaivopuisto, it was announced that the photographer Eric Hoffers had been nominated for a national art prize for his “View of Helsinki from Ullanlinna”—essentially taken at the work-site (though looking towards the picturesque north).111 In the same month,  Helsingfors Dagblad, 27 Jan. 1868; Hufvudstadsbladet, 27 Jan. 1868.  Hufvudstadsbladet, 18 Feb. 1868. 106  Hufvudstadsbladet, 19 Mar. 1868. 107  Hufvudstadsbladet, 27 Jan. 1868. 108  Hufvudstadsbladet, 12 Feb. 1868. 109  Hufvudstadsbladet, 18 Feb. 1868. 110  Finlands Almänna Tidning, 20 Mar. 1868. A plan was also developed by Ladies Associations in Helsinki at this time to provide temporary night shelters for homeless vagrants in the town. Åbo Underrättelser, 21 Apr. 1868. 111  Wiborgs Tidning, 14 Mar. 1868. 104 105

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an article in Stockholm’s Aftonbladet entitled “A Beautiful Capital for a Little Country” (reprinted in self-congratulatory fashion in Helsinki’s Hufvudstadsbladet), also extolled Helsinki’s virtues, and mentioned the recently titivated Kaivopuisto as one of the highlights.112 In the decade of harvest failures since 1857, Helsinki’s self-image had developed in the way that the “national fathers” envisioned for Finland as a whole. In 1857 it had used charity to demonstrate that it was taking its role as capital seriously. Ten years later and with the Diet of 1863 having (apparently) confirmed its position as a “proper” imperial or European capital city, Helsinki’s aristocracy were replicating the civic society of St. Petersburg. This period of Helsinki elites combining philanthropy, civic pride and patriotic responsibility culminated in June 1868, when the prodigious Ostrobothnian soprano Ida Basilier was invited to give her first public concert in Kaivohuone, a fundraiser for the famine victims in the surroundings recently “improved” by the emergency relief works.113

Other Parts of Finland The spirit of charity in Finland was not quite exhausted by 1868, despite the encroachment of poverty into social classes previously unaffected. Soirées and theatre productions were held in Turku and Hämeenlinna, for example, partly in response to the increased need in the northern parts of Turku-Pori province, which had been hit severely by hunger and typhus epidemics in 1867–8.114 Armida Palmgrén reprised her 1866 charity concert in Kuopio.115 Ladies Associations continued to organise events, for example in Hämeenlinna, Viipuri, and Oulu.116 Small-scale fundraising concerts around the country—such as those in Vaasa, Ruovesi and

112  “En wacker hufvudstad i ett litet land”, Aftonbladet, 13, 17 Mar. 1868. Reprinted in Hufvudstadsbladet, 27, 30 Mar. 1868. 113  Pitkänen, “Leipää kansalle”, 161; Helsingfors Dagblad, 29 May, 6 Jun. 1868. Basilier was from Nivala in Oulu Province. Although only 21 years old at this time, she became an internationally renowned opera singer, and her 1868 concert “on behalf of the needy” was indeed remembered in some Finnish sources. See e.g. “Ida Basilier-Magelsen 80 vuotias”, Uusi Suomi, 10 Sep. 1926. 114  Hämäläinen, 21 Nov. 1867; Åbo Underrättelser, 1 Feb. 1868, 15 Feb. 1868. 115  Tapio, 30 Nov. 1867. 116  “Maakunnasta”, Suomalainen Wirallinen Lehti, 30 Jan. 1868; Oulun Wiikko-Sanomia, 14 Mar., 18 Apr. 1868; Helsingfors Dagblad, 23 Nov. 1867; Hämäläinen, 16 Jan.1868.

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Muolaa—were also reported.117 The almost indignant responses to offers of aid that were seen in some parts of Finland in 1857, had completely dissipated by 1867–8, as desperation spread. In May 1868, as mortality reached its peak, a correspondent made a stirring appeal on behalf of the Ostrobothnian parish of Alajärvi. The familiar refrain that “quick help is double help” was now employed not in the hope of preventing hunger deaths, but of simply keeping them to a minimum: Want, hunger, and misery are sadly now almost everywhere, but hardly anywhere is in a worse position than Alajärvi. Here, the poor farmer does not even possess any woods that might bring him the smallest bit of nourishment, since the frost ravages his fields—on which all of his hope rests… the public have already liberally come to the aid of many distressed parishes up here in Ostrobothnia, but perhaps there is still a little left over for starving Alajärvi. Quick help, is double help, as ten people a day are dying of hunger.118

At more-or-less the same time as the letter from Alajärvi, “K.W.” wrote from Jämsä, expressing gratitude for a donation of 300 marks from a woman in Helsinki, but also pleading for more to be sent for the “many, many destitute Finnish families, who need food, care and clothes, but who succumb in the absence of these”.119 Despite the efforts of many individuals, and contrary to the nationalist narrative that was formed subsequently, the overall result of the domestic fundraising did not meet the administration’s expectations. For example, Kari Pitkänen posits that, even if large amounts of aid were given directly to the needy and therefore not enumerated, the overall total raised domestically in 1867–8 was approximately 250,000 marks.120 On average, this represented approximately a five-mark

117  “Wiipurista”, Ilmarinen, 24 Jan. 1868; “Helsingistä”, Suomalainen Wirallinen Lehti, 25 Feb. 1868; Vasabladet, 11 Apr. 1868. 118  “Alajärvi, den 18 Maj 1868”, Helsingfors Dagblad, 23 May 1868. 119  “Jämsä, den 20 Maj 1868”, Helsingfors Dagblad, 25 May 1868. During the “dear times” of the 1860s, 300 marks would have purchased (depending on the precise time and location) approximately ten barrels of rye, twelve barrels of barley, or nineteen barrels of oats. See e.g. Suomalainen Wirallinen Lehti, 10 Mar., 6 Jun. 1866, 31 Dec. 1868. 120  Pitkänen, “Leipää kansalle”, 164. Another interpretation would be that this sum represented approximately 8% of Finland’s GDP (which was 2,960,000 marks in 1867 and 3,356,000 marks in 1868). See Riitta Hjerppe, The Finnish Economy 1860–1985: Growth and Structural Change (Helsinki, 1989), 195 (App. 2A).

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donation from each member of the nobility and bourgeoisie in Finland— in Pitkänen’s phrase, “no great sacrifice was made” by the wealthiest.121

Conclusion Throughout the Great Hunger Years, it is clear that domestic charity was driven by a number of motivations. The importance of the upper- and middle-class members of society demonstrating Christian compassion was a common theme in mid-nineteenth-century Europe, and the increased visibility of women through charitable associations, similarly, was internationally familiar. Supplementing all of this, however, was a very self-­ conscious narrative—driven by nationalists in the administration, the bureaucracy, and the press—of Finnish self-reliance. In this narrative, crisis, and the chance to aid compatriots, would bind the Finns together. Equally importantly, the Grand Duchy could prove itself as a self-sufficient nation in the eyes of the world. The domestic philanthropy seen during the Great Hunger Years can also be seen as a reaction to the overseas donations, which were gratefully received by the Finnish administration, but only if the donor accepted—tacitly or otherwise—that it was unsolicited philanthropy. As historian Juha Siltala has observed, letters between the leading men of Finland’s autonomous administration during the Great Hunger Years were “more concerned with pedagogics than humanitarianism”.122 The opportunity seemed to be ripe to inculcate both “national” and “modern” habits into the great mass of the Finnish population. At the start of the crisis period, the national economy was able to absorb the shocks caused by significant food shortages in the three northern provinces, and indeed it seems that even the main provincial towns—Oulu, Kuopio and Vaasa— were still able to “set an example” of philanthropy for their rural hinterlands. Civic pride, the idea of each Finnish town contributing towards the national project, was promoted as a way of encouraging individuals to donate for the good of their fellow citizens. As harvest failure recurred in 1862–3, similar arguments were made. And, while some in the administration were dissatisfied at the amounts raised—especially when compared with the amounts that came in from Russia and Sweden—the ad hoc  Pitkänen, “Leipää kansalle”, 164.  Siltala, Valkoisen äidin pojat, 168. See also Maria Jalava, J.V. Snellman: Mies ja Suurmies (Helsinki, 2006), 303. 121 122

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charity events continued.123 As the catastrophe reached its nadir in 1867–8, it seems that widespread of compassion fatigue had descended upon the starving Grand Duchy. In the key Fennomane account of the famine period, Agathon Meurman argued that the spirit of communality remained strong even in 1867–8, though the practical means to assist had diminished considerably: When it came to their own citizens, the terrible reality of the position was clear enough to them, but the rural areas each struggled against their own distress, and the ability of the townspeople to help was diminished by the floods of beggars, and otherwise by the stagnant economy. Nevertheless, a sense of obligation and a rush to assistance was seen everywhere.124

The British Quaker “Finnish Famine Committee” in 1856–7 had solicited small donations from the largest possible number of British subjects, to give the sense of a national reparation for the damage done to Finland during the war of 1854–5.125 Similarly, Snellman and his colleagues did not wish the rural population of the northern provinces to become dependent on the munificence of a few wealthy benefactors in the south. Rather, Finnish domestic philanthropy was supposed to take the form of a national project, where anyone with the means should donate a proportion of their income to provide meaningful work—either on building projects or in domestic or craft initiatives—for those living in areas hit by harvest failure. By the end of the Great Hunger Years, such a large proportion of the population was faced with outright destitution that this type of approach was not viable, and domestic charity could not be an effective substitute for state-level borrowing and investment.

123  “Avuntekotoimia”, Suomenmaan Wirallinen Tilasto II:2—Katsaus Suomen taloudelliseen tilaan vuosina 1866–1870 (Helsinki, 1875), 40–41. 124  Agathon Meurman, Nälkäwuodet 1860-luvulla (Helsinki, 1892), 44. 125  Andrew G.  Newby, “‘Rather Peculiar Claims Upon Our Sympathies’: Britain and Famine in Finland, 1856–68”, in Marguérite Corporaal, Christopher Cusack, Lindsay Janssen & Ruud van Den Beuken (eds),  Global Legacies of the Great Irish Famine: Transnational and Interdisciplinary Perspectives (Bern, 2014), 61–80.

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References Bibliography

Official Reports “Avuntekotoimia”, Suomenmaan Wirallinen Tilasto II:2—Katsaus Suomen taloudelliseen tilaan vuosina 1866–1870 (Helsinki, 1875). Herman Lorentz (dated Wiborg, March 31, 1863). “Report by Mr. Consul Herman Lorentz on the Trade of Viborg for the Year 1862”, in Commercial Reports received at the Foreign Office from Her Majesty’s Consuls Between July 1st, 1862 and June 30th, 1863 (London, 1863), 373–9.

Newspapers Åbo Tidningar. Åbo Underrättelser. Aftonbladet. Björneborgs Tidning. Finlands Allmänna Tidning. Finlands Röda Kors. Hakkapeliitta. Hämäläinen. Helsingfors Dagblad. Helsingfors Tidningar. Hufvudstadsbladet. Imarinen. Kuopion Sanomat. Lasten Suometar. Missions-Tidning för Finland. Otawa. Oulun Wiikko-Sanomia. Sanomia Tampereelta. Sanomia Turusta. Suomalainen Wirallinen Lehti. Suomen Julkisia Sanomia. Suometar. Tampereen Sanomat. Tapio. Uusi Suomi. Wasabladet. Wiborg. Wiborgs Tidning.

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Printed Secondary Sources ——— Axet: diktsamling med bidrag av Runeberg, Cygnaeus, Stenbäck, Topelius, m. fl.: Utgifven till förmån för nödlidande i Finland (Helsingfors, 1867). Ingrid Åberg, “Revivalism, Philanthropy and Emancipation. Women’s Liberation and Organization in the Early Nineteenth Century”, Scandinavian Journal of History, 13:4 (1988), 399–420. Ernst Brydolf, “Sverige och Finland under Nödvintern 1856–57”, Nordisk Tidskrift för Vetenskap, Konst och Industri 20 [1944], 416–27. Natalia Dinello, “Elites and Philanthropy in Russia”, International Journal of Politics, Culture and Society, 12:1 (1998), 109–33. Antti Häkkinen & Andrew G. Newby, “Nälkäkriisi-Suomi: kansainvälinen apu ja kotimaiset panostukset”, in Juhani Koponen & Sakari Saaritsa (eds), Nälkämaasta Hyvinvointivaltioksi: Suomi kehityksen kiiniottajana (Helsinki, 2019), 93–110. Riitta Hjerppe, The Finnish Economy 1860–1985: Growth and Structural Change (Helsinki, 1989). Maria Jalava, J.V. Snellman: Mies ja Suurmies (Helsinki, 2006), 303. Eira Juntti, “Images of Ideal Citizens and Gender in Mid-Nineteenth Century Finland”, in Kari Palonen & Anthoula Malkopoulou (eds), Rhetoric, Politics and Conceptual Change (Athens, 2011), 48–60. Erkki Kansanaho, Sisälähetys ja Diakonia Suomen Kirkossa 1800-luvulla (Pieksämäki, 1960). Åsa Karlsson-Sjögren, “Negotiating Charity: Emotions, gender and poor relief in Sweden at the turn of the 19th century”, Scandinavian Journal of History 41:3 (2016), 332–49. Eliza Kraatari, Domestic Dexterity and Cultural Policy: The Idea of Cottage Industry and Historical Experience in Finland from the Great Famine to the Reconstruction Period (Jyväskylä, 2016) Maria Lähteenmäki, The Peoples of Lapland. Boundary Demarcations and Interaction in the North Calotte from 1808 to 1889 (Helsinki, 2006). Lars-Folke Landgrén, För frihet och framåtskridande: Helsingfors Dagblads etableringsskede 1861–1864 (Helsinki, 1995). Jason Lavery, The History of Finland (Westport, CT, 2006). Adele Lindenmeyr, “Public Life, Private Virtues: Women in Russian Charity, 1762–1914”, Signs 18:3 (1993), 563–72. Adele Lindenmeyr, Poverty Is Not a Vice: Charity, Society and the State in Imperial Russia (Princeton, 1996). Jani Marjanen, “‘Svenska äro vi icke mera’: om ett uttrycks historia”, in Henrika Tandefelt, Julia Dahlberg, Aapo Roselius & Oula Silvennoinen, Köpa salt i Cádiz och andra berättelser: festskrift till Professor Henrik Meinander (Helsinki, 2020), 163–84.

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Pirjo Markkola, “Promoting Faith and Welfare: The Deaconess Movement in Finland and Sweden, 1850–1930”, Scandinavian Journal of History, 25 (2000), 101–18. William R.  Mead, “The Conquest of Finland,” The Norseman, ix (1951), 14–22, 98–104. Agathon Meurman, Nälkäwuodet 1860-luvulla (Helsinki, 1892). Simon Morgan, “‘A Sort of Land Debateable’: Female Influence, Civic Virtue and Middle-class Identity, c. 1830–c. 1860”, Women’s History Review, 13:2 (2004), 183–209. Turkka Myllykylä, Suomen kanavien historia (Helsinki, 1991). Andrew G. Newby, “‘On Their Behalf No Agitator Raises His Voice’: The Irish Distressed Ladies Fund—Gender, Politics and Urban Philanthropy in Victorian Ireland”, in Krista Cowman, Nina Javette Koefoed & Åsa Karlsson Sjögren (eds), Gender in Urban Europe: Sites of Political Activity and Citizenship, 1750–1900 (Abingdon, 2014), 178–93. Andrew G. Newby, “‘Neither do these tenants or their children emigrate’: famine and transatlantic emigration from Finland in the nineteenth century”, Atlantic Studies, 11:3 (2014), 383–402. Andrew G. Newby, “‘Rather Peculiar Claims Upon Our Sympathies’: Britain and Famine in Finland, 1856–68”, in Marguérite Corporaal, Christopher Cusack, Lindsay Janssen & Ruud van den Beuken (eds.), Global Legacies of the Great Irish Famine: Transnational and Interdisciplinary Perspectives (Bern, 2014), 61–80. Andrew G. Newby, “Finland’s ‘Great Hunger Years’ Memorials: A Sesquicentennial Report”, in Andrew G.  Newby (ed.), “The Enormous Failure of Nature”: Famine and Society in the Nineteenth Century (Helsinki, 2017), 173–214. Petra Pakkanen, August Myhrberg and North-European Philhellenism (Athens, 2006). Kari Pitkänen, “Leipää kansalle, sirkushuveja herroille—armeliaisuuden januskasvot”, in Antti Häkkinen, Hannu Soikkanen, Vappu Ikonen & Kari Pitkänen, Kun Halla Nälän Tuskan Toi (Porvoo, 1991), 158–75. Helge Pohjolan-Pirhonen, Kansakunnan Historia 2: Kansakunta Etsii Itseään 1772–1808 (Porvoo, 1972). Ingrid Qvärnström, Ett legendomspunnet liv: Aurore Karamsin och hennes samtid (Helsingfors, 1937). Alexandra Ramsay, “Sällskapsspel eller filantropi? Fruntimmersföreningen i Helsingfors stora lotteri 1861”, in Manliga strukturer och kvinnliga strategier: en bok til Gunhild Kyle (Göteborg, 1987), 276–91. Alexandra Ramsay, “Fruntimmer och fallna kvinnor: ett ertappande i Helsingfors fattigregioner 1860”, in Historisk Tidskrift för Finland, 90:2 (1990), 313–32. Alexandra Ramsay, Huvudstadens hjärta: filantropi och social förändring i Helsingfors: två fruntimmersföreningar 1848–1865 (Helsingfors, 1993).

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V.T. Rosenqvist, Frans Ludvig Schauman (Förra delen, Helsingfors, 1927). Juha Siltala, Valkoisen äidin pojat: Siveellisyys ja sen varjot kansallisessa projektissa (Helsinki, 1999). Henrik Stenius, Frivilligt jämlikt samfällt (Helsingfors, 1987). “Draba Verna”, “Katowuodelta 1868”, in Kansanwalistus-Seuran Kalenteri 1888 (Helsinki, 1887), 91–8. Elsa von Born, Fruntimmersföreningen i Helsingfors r.f. 100 år (Helsingfors, 1948). Miikka Voutilainen, Poverty, Inequality and the Finnish 1860s Famine, (Jyväskylä, 2016), 20.

CHAPTER 5

External Philanthropy 1856–1868

The Great Hunger Years may have provided an opportunity for the Finnish elites to preach lessons about national and individual self-sufficiency, and highlight the “beauty” of better-off Finns raising money for their own country’s needy, but significant amounts of aid from private donors also came into the Grand Duchy from outside. These interventions were generally well received at the time—providing the benefactors recognised that the Finns were not explicitly requesting assistance—but have tended to be understated in the nationalist historiography. The “self-sufficiency” narrative was being woven into Finland’s national story by the Fennomane elites even during the famine years, and has proved a persistent element of Finnish national identity.1 The Finnish people were hardly unique in receiving aid from foreign benefactors during the mid-nineteenth century.2 As historian Norbert Götz has argued, a “moral economy” had emerged in Europe which transcended national boundaries, and as early as 1808–1809 committees were formed e.g. in London to support the Swedish servicemen, war widows and orphans during the Finnish War.3 The “cultural affinities” described  Max Jakobson, Finland in the New Europe (Westport CT, 1998), 16.  Peter Stamatov, The Origins of Global Humanitarianism: Religion, Empires and Advocacy (Cambridge, 2013), 189. 3  Norbert Götz, ‘“The Good Plumpuddings’ Belief”: British Voluntary Aid to Sweden during the Napoleonic Wars”, International History Review 37:3 (Jun. 2015), 519–39: 520. 1 2

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 A. G. Newby, Finland’s Great Famine, 1856–68, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-19474-0_5

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by Götz in this fundraising were also obvious in overseas collections for the various Finnish famines later in the century, although these affinities were flexible and dependent upon how the donor society chose to construct the Finns. In their typology of twenty-first century charitable campaigns, social psychologists Hannah Zagefka and Trevor James have identified a range of elements which also apply to historical cases.4 The flexibility of identities—class, religion, ethnicity—are often negotiable and efforts are made in fundraising to increase the sense of connection between the donor and the recipient (which can also involve seeking to extend the “in-group”).5 In such circumstances, it is argued, “psychological proximity” (alongside more general appeals to common humanity) assumes additional importance.6 “Humanitarian narratives”, a term coined by cultural historian Thomas Laqueur, were constructed around the Finnish case, as with other contemporary famines, and indeed humanitarian campaigns ever since.7 Thus, appeals often focussed on “identifiable victims” (as a means of making the crisis more comprehensible to potential donors), using witness statements where possible. The suffering of mothers and children was highlighted, and appeals were also made to social norms, and ideas of “guilt, emotion and elevation”.8 In considering specific donations to disaster victims, there is salience in the ideas that people are more likely to give if the perceived victims are “blameless”, and that the disaster is “natural” rather than as a result of human agency. In Finland, therefore, the overwhelming power of nature, rather than any misgovernance by the autonomous authorities, was a key element of the humanitarian narrative. Importantly for the case study of Finland in the 1850s–60s, Zagefka and James also highlight that self- help on the part of the potential recipients is an important motivating factor for donors.9 The idea of self-sufficiency had developed into such a 4  Hanna Zagefka & Trevor James, “The Psychology of Charitable Donations to Disaster Victims and Beyond”, Social Issues and Policy Review 9:1 (2015), 155–92. 5  Norbert Götz, Georgina Brewis & Steffen Werther, Humanitarianism in the Modern World (Cambridge, 2020), 71. 6  Zagefka & James, “Psychology of Charitable Donations”, 174. 7  Thomas Laqueur, “Bodies, Details and the Humanitarian Narrative”, in Lynn Hunt (ed.), The New Cultural History (Berkeley, 1989), 176–204: 177; Peter J.  Hoffman & Thomas G.  Weiss, Humanitarianism, War, and Politics: Solferino to Syria and Beyond (Lanham, 2017), 14. 8  Zagefka & James, “Psychology of Charitable Donations”, 162. 9  Zagefka & James, “Psychology of Charitable Donations”, 170.

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strong element of the Finnish national autostereotype by the 1850s–1860s that it seemed axiomatic to Finland’s foreign advocates that this apparent virtue should be promoted to solicit donations. The case of Finland’s Great Hunger Years also provides interesting insights into the workings of overseas charity fundraising campaigns, and the distribution of these funds, during a period that Götz, Brewis and Werther have characterised as an “era of Ad Hoc Humanitarianism”.10 Finland received considerable attention in the international press between 1856 and 1868, especially after interest in the Grand Duchy had been piqued by, firstly, the publication and widespread reception (including translations) of Kalevala; and, secondly, its important geopolitical position during the Crimean War. Interventions on Finland’s behalf varied in form from country to country, but in general adhered to a pattern which had been set earlier in the century, and as elsewhere featured “the formation of committees for the collection of money and the transportation of foodstuffs… public meetings, church fund drives, charity events, ladies’ bazaars, and ultimately newspaper campaigns”.11 Amidst the general turbulence, there was considerable competition for charitable donations within Europe. Better-off sections of society, often women within those classes, tended to take a lead in organising subscriptions, but even poorer citizens were encouraged to give up their “mites” for those, either at home or abroad, who might be more in need. Any individual, deciding where to send aid, would also tend to make judgements based on the “deserving” or “undeserving” nature of a case, for example, but might also distinguish between “our poor” and “their poor”. Indeed, the tensions inherent between “internal” and “external” causes were satirised (coining the expression “telescopic philanthropy”) by Charles Dickens in his 1850s novel Bleak House.12 The 1850–60s were decades of geopolitical turbulence, with unification movements (Germany, Italy, Scandinavia) and war in Europe, the American Civil War and its severe economic ramifications. The baleful consequences of these military conflicts were supplemented by colonial crises, for example in Algeria and India, that demonstrated the ongoing  Götz, Brewis & Werther, Humanitarianism in the Modern World, 25.  Götz, Brewis & Werther, Humanitarianism in the Modern World, 33–4. 12  Frank Christianson, Philanthropy in British and American Fiction: Dickens, Hawthorn, Eliot and Howells (Edinburgh, 2007), 87–92. See also John Tenniel’s satirical cartoon, “Telescopic Philanthropy”, Punch, 4 Mar. 1865. 10 11

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(or even heightened, where new administrative structures interrupted traditional coping strategies) threat of famine. The development of “neutral” or transnational humanitarian intervention had been highlighted by the formation of the International Committee of the Red Cross (1863).13 More broadly, as one English newspaper had already explained in 1857, “a philanthropic spirit pervades nearly the whole of the sayings and doings of public and private men. It is the fashion to think beyond ourselves”.14 This type of thinking was not confined to the British middle and upper classes, and similar attitudes underpinned many of the international aid efforts that characterised the 1860s. It is within this context of international economic/geopolitical crisis and transnational relief networks that Finland received aid from diverse overseas sources between 1856 and 1868.

Overseas Aid to Finland 1856–1868: An Overview From a technical point of view, the fundraising for Finland was similar to most other “ad hoc” campaigns in the mid-nineteenth century. The aid chain was long and slow, but in principle it would have been possible to provide even large-scale aid, as Finland’s famine crisis was widely reported in the European press throughout the 1860s, and information about the famine reached a wide range of potential donors.15 Donations were mostly in the form of money, as well as in foodstuffs. Foreign donations were often organised by local consuls, and then forwarded to Finland, where it was added to the private donations raised within the country and generally distributed as food aid via local poor relief structures (including the instigation and maintenance of relief work projects). Precise enumeration is impossible, because there were undoubtedly private gifts of money or food which were not recorded by any official sources. However, the aid which arrived into Finland through formal channels was tracked and reported assiduously, giving some indication of relative amounts and making various types of comparison possible.

13  Michael Barnett, Empire of Humanity: A History of Humanity (Ithaca & London, 2011), 79; Tom Scott-Smith, On An Empty Stomach: Two Hundred Years of Hunger Relief (Ithaca, 2020), 4. 14  Lady’s Newspaper, 27 Sep. 1857. 15  Antti Häkkinen & Andrew G. Newby, “Nälkäkriisi-Suomi: kansainvälinen apu ja kotimaiset panostukset”, in Juhani Koponen & Sakari Saaritsa (eds), Nälkämaasta hyvinvointivaltioksi: Suomen kehityksen kiinniottajana (Helsinki, 2019), 93–110: 98.

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The overseas fundraising for Finland between 1856 and 1868 followed the three main crisis points in 1856–1857, 1862–1863, and 1866–1868. The first response in early 1857 came from Russia, although the position of the imperial power vis-a-vis Finland through the crisis period is somewhat ambiguous, indeed shifting. Particularly in 1856–1857, the extent to which Russian aid should be enumerated as “domestic” or “external” is not always clear. The earliest donations from St. Petersburg included a 10,000 ruble contribution from Tsar Alexander II in January 1857 (divided up between Oulu, Vaasa and Kuopio Provinces), but also 27,755 rubles from a general collection in the city, partly organised by the Finnish philanthropist Aurora Karamzin.16 This private philanthropy from Russia was accompanied by state-level donations of grain to help replenish crown magazines in the worst hit areas. Across the Gulf of Bothnia, the developing Finnish crisis was widely reported in the Swedish press, generally in combination with the related harvest failure in northern Sweden.17 In late January 1857, an appeal was launched in Stockholm with the help of a dramatic poster, proclaiming: “Swedish men! Our former brothers are suffering a crisis! Swedish men! Quick help is double help!”18 Through February and March 1857, concerts and soirées for Finland took place in many Swedish towns, sometimes featuring prominent conductors and the music of renowned composers, and often organised by local clubs or associations (including women’s voluntary associations).19 Business links and the efforts of emigrant or exiled Finns, such as the prominent exiled nationalist Adolf Iwar Arwidsson, played a significant role in publicising the cause, and transferring the donations. Another notable overseas intervention for Finland in 1856–7 came from the United Kingdom.20 The main driving force came from the 16  “Helsingfors”, Finlands Allmänna Tidning, 24 Jan. 1857; “Helsingistä”, Suomen Julkisia Sanomia, 29 Jan. 1857. See above, Chap. 4, for Karamzin’s intervention. 17  Gotlands Läns Tidning, 23 Jan. 1857. 18  Post- Och Inrikes Tidningar, 27 Jan. 1857. 19  Ny Tidning för Musik, 16 Feb., 23 Mar., 20 Apr. 1857; Åbo Tidningar, 3 Mar. 1857; Wiborg, 10 Mar. 1857; Helsingfors Tidningar, 4 Mar. 1857; Suometar, 6 Mar. 1857. Sanan-­ Lennätin, 28 Mar. 1857; Finlands Allmänna Tidning, 12 Mar., 2 Apr. 1857 has comprehensive details of the Swedish response. 20  Generally presented as “England” in the Finnish sources, contributions nevertheless were also made by Quaker meetings in Scotland and Ireland (which was a part of the United Kingdom at this time).

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Society of Friends (Quakers), and especially two veterans of the movement—Joseph Sturge and Thomas Harvey—who had tried and failed to avert the war of 1853–6 by personal petitions to the Tsar.21 In this case, the Quaker-led “famine relief” effort was a means of making reparation on behalf of the British people after the naval bombardment of Finland in 1854–1855, but it was also a way of repairing Britain’s damaged international reputation and repairing key business links with the Finns.22 Longstanding Finnish-British Quaker business contacts—centred on the Finlayson factory in Tampere—facilitated a fact-finding tour in 1856. A local committee was formed in Turku, headed by merchant Erik Julin (“one of Finland’s most influential and public-spirited men”, in Sturge’s words), to organise a fundraising effort for those who suffered as a result of the war and, subsequently, famine.23 Public subscriptions were opened and money directed to Finland via these Quaker business channels. Overall the money which was sent to relief committees in Finland from Sweden seems to have totalled over 110,000 Swedish riksdalers, equivalent to approximately 61,000 silver rubles.24 The total sum from the Quaker appeal came to over £8900, equivalent to 54,000 silver rubles and  For the roots of Quaker humanitarianism and its links to abolitionism, see Stamatov, Origins of Global Humanitarianism, 149–51. 22  Report of the Committee for the Relief of Famine in Finland (London, 1858), 6; Times (London), 17 Feb. 1857; Andrew G.  Newby, “‘Rather Peculiar Claims Upon Our Sympathies’: Britain and Famine in Finland, 1856–68”, in Marguérite Corporaal, Christopher Cusack, Lindsay Janssen & Ruud van den Beuken (eds), Global Legacies of the Great Irish Famine: Transnational and Interdisciplinary Perspectives (Bern, 2014), 61–80: 62; Andrew G.  Newby, “‘Acting in their appropriate and wanted sphere’: The Society of Friends and Famine Relief in Ireland and Finland, c. 1845–1857” in Patrick Fitzgerald, Christine Kinealy & Gerard Moran (eds), Irish Hunger and Migration: Myth, Memory and Memorialization (Quinnipiac, 2015), 107–20; W.R.  Mead, “The Conquest of Finland”, The Norseman, ix (1951), 14–22, 98–104: 21; Osmo Jussila, “Englantilaisten kveekarien Joseph Sturgen ja Thomas Harveyn matkakuvaus Suomesta v. 1856”, Historiallinen Arkisto lxi (1967), 430–40. 23  Report of a Visit to Finland in the Autumn of 1856 (Birmingham, n.d.), 13, 22–4; Report of the Committee for the Relief of Famine in Finland, 6. 24  This calculation is based on reports of the “final sums” of the Swedish collections in Fäderneslandet, 20 May 1857; Post- och Inrikes Tidningar, 31 Jul. 1857; Finlands Allmänna Tidning, 6 Aug. 1857. The exchange rate in 1857 was approximately 1000 rdr to 527 rub 47 kop. See Finlands Allmänna Tidning, 31 Dec. 1857. Using Ó Gráda’s data, (converting 1 ruble to 4 marks for long-term comparison), 61,000 silver rubles would have purchased approximately 550 barrels of rye in Oulu in the late 1850s. Cormac Ó Gráda, “Markets and Famines: Evidence from Nineteenth Century Finland”, Economic Development and Cultural Change, 49:3 (2001–2004), 575–90: 582 (Table 4). 21

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therefore a little below the amounts raised in Sweden.25 The final aid tables show some regional differences in the proportions received in the three target provinces—for example, Oulu received proportionately more from British donors, while Kuopio and Vaasa benefitted most from Russian contributions—which may reflect business and personal contacts, targeting donations to a particular parish.26 Overall, of the private aid donations that the famine-threatened provinces received in 1856–1857 approximately 40% originated in Russia, 25% in Finland, 15% in Sweden, 15% in Britain, and about 2% in Germany.27 The Quaker fund which was established in 1857 provided some level of ongoing support.28 The crop failure of 1862, however, prompted renewed, urgent, international appeals for the Finnish people. By the end of this particular campaign cycle, approximately 75% of the money received by the Helsinki Emergency Relief Committee had come from inside the Grand Duchy of Finland (and overwhelmingly from Helsinki itself), with 11% from Russia, the Baltic Provinces and wider Russian Empire, 13% from Sweden-Norway, and smaller amounts from New York, Hamburg, Frankfurt, Zürich, Paris and Marseilles.29 Although these figures preclude donations such as those from British Quakers which were sent directly to 25  The British Friend, 2d month, 1st, 1858; “U”, “De engelske ‘Vännerne’ och hungersnöden i Finland 1857”, Papperslyktan, 14 Jun. 1859; Walfrid Anttila, “Englantilainen ‘Ystävien seura’ ja v:n 1857 nälänhätä Suomessa”, Helsingin Sanomat, 9 Jan. 1938. The exchange rate in 1857 was 1 pound sterling to a little over 6 rubles. See e.g. Åbo Underrätterlser, 12 May 1857; Wiborg, 26 May 1857. 26  For a case study of the sources of aid in Saarijärvi parish, as well as a full account of where the funds were distributed, see Finlands Allmänna Tidning, 24 Aug. 1857. 27  Redovisning öfver de undsättningsmedel, som influtit till förmån för de genom sistlidet års missvext nödlidande invånarne i Uleåborgs, Wasa och Kuopio län, äfvensom öfver den af finska styrelsen till samma ändamål anslagna undsättning, jemte uppgift å det af ryska kronan till nedsatta priser aflåtna sädesbelopp, som på H.M.  Kejsarens nådiga befallning föryttrats ur ryska kronans förråder i Finland till underlättande af undsättnings-åtgärderne för hungersnödens afhjelpande i landet. Intill den 1 juli 1857. Printed in Finlands Allmänna Tidning (supplement), 31 Dec. 1857. The Swedish figures included some donations which were chanelled through Stockholm from France, Denmark and Germany. 28  John Ormerod Greenwood, Quaker Encounters. Volume One: Friends and Relief (York, 1975), 44–5; “Förbättradt hafs- och skärgårds fiske i Finland”, Finlands Allmänna Tidning, 28 Dec. 1864. 29  Sources of aid to the Helsinki Relief Committee, 1862–63 (Helsingfors Tidningar, 21 Oct. 1863). For a full and detailed table of the aid that was sent to Vaasa Province in 1862–63, see Finlands Allmänna Tidning, 9 Apr. 1866. The Marseilles collection was made by Norwegian sailors in the town, and forwarded to Finland via Sweden.

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contacts in Ostrobothnia they at least suggest that the emphasis on national self-sufficiency was seeping into the broader national consciousness. Hopes of an economic recovery were dashed, however, by renewed harvest failures in 1866 and 1867. International appeals for Finland were re-instigated after confirmation of the harvest failure in September 1867, demonstrating a much wider range of ethnic, political, business, historical and cultural links than in 1856–57 and 1862–63, as well as the ongoing fashionability of charity among Europe’s middle and upper classes. Many of the pre-existing business and consular channels from the 1850s were resumed. Finnish academics, including those who doubled as newspaper editors  or correspondents, also made the most of their international networks to maintain Finland’s profile in the European press. Overall, approximately 58% of the funds that were channelled to Finland’s distressed provinces in 1867–8 originated from outside of Finland, indicating that despite the drive towards self-sufficiency, the widespread nature of the crisis by 1868 had exhausted the capacity of many Finns to give anything to their compatriots.30 Proportionately, the source of donations shifted notably. Russia and the North German Federation provided over three-quarters of the overseas aid in 1867–8 (44% and 33% respectively). Great Britain (8%), Denmark (6%), Switzerland (5%), Sweden (4%) and Estonia (1.5%) were other significant sources of aid.31

Foreign Motivations for Charitable Interventions, 1856–1868 There were several recurrent tropes in the international fundraising for the Finns during the Great Hunger Years, some of which were particular to the Finnish case, and others which were more universal. Moreover, these narratives could vary depending on a particular community’s (real or imagined) political, cultural or historical relationship with Finland or the Finnish people.

30  Oiva Turpeinen, Nälkä vai tauti tappoi? Kauhunvuodet 1866–1868 (Helsinki, 1986), 217. 31  Häkkinen & Newby, “Nälkäkriisi-Suomi”, 99, Table 5.1.

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General Humanitarian Narratives The more universal elements of the fundraising included the idea that Finns were the unfortunate victims of nature, that they were capable of self-help, and that domestic philanthropy and state aid had provided as much support as possible, but that more was still needed. Appeals also tended to stress the good fortune of the potential donor and their own community, and given the competition in the 1860s for both domestic and overseas aid, there were regular allusions to what is now termed “compassion fatigue”. The dreaded word “famine”, in whichever language a particular appeal was presented, also had a particular resonance.32 Indeed the British Quaker appeal of 1857 made a conscious decision to frame the fundraising as a “famine” appeal rather than as a collection for voluntary war reparations, as it was believed this would have more chance of success among the British public.33 Eyewitness testimony was also considered to be an important factor in persuading people to donate, and so newspaper reports were translated from the Finnish or Swedish originals. Additionally, letters from individuals in Finland—especially the regions most badly affected—were forwarded via consuls and other contacts for publication. These stories tended to replicate a humanitarian narrative that employed universal and culturally specific tropes. The descriptions of the emaciated bodies of the suffering people, and the idea that entire families, but especially women and children, were starving and wandering the highways and byways, possibly falling prey to wild animals, are common to many disaster fundraising campaigns.34 The reports also often featured “identifiable victims”, stories of individual suffering that made the disaster more human in scale, and comprehensible to someone who might be deciding where to send a donation.

32  For example, the Bremen Committee’s appeal (published in Weser Zeitung, reported in Finlands Allmänna Tidning, 20 Nov. 1867). 33  Newby, “‘Acting in their appropriate and wanted sphere”, 110. 34  Newby, “Rather Peculiar Claims”, 72; “Famine in Finland”, Spectator, 10 Jan. 1863. A mistranslated and miscommunicated newspaper story originating in Sweden in 1857 implied that children in northern Finland were “eating off their own fingers” owing to hunger. This story was used in fundraising narratives and reported all around the world. Tiina Männistö-­ Funk, “Suomalaista hätää yli rajojen—1850- ja 1860-luvun ruokapulan sekä suurten nälkävuosien käsittely eurooppalaisessa lehdistössä”, in Tuomas Jussila & Lari Rantanen (eds), Nälkävuodet 1867–1868 (Helsinki, 2018), 198–238: 208–9.

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More specific to the Finnish case, was the idea that the desperate people were forced to subsist on bark bread, which in turn was said to contribute to illness and death. Samples of the black, rock-hard bread were sometimes sent with letters of appeal, the  better to demonstrate the Finns’ predicament.35 The supposed national qualities of the Finns, which had been consciously promoted by the Helsinki elites in the preceding decades, also tended to be used as a means of demonstrating their “deservingness”.36 Thus, their inherent sense of honesty, of persistence, and of hard work, implied that donations would be used well.37 The Fennomane ideal of self-­ sufficiency also seemed to work in the Finns’ favour. Towards the end of the “decade of misery”, British Quakers highlighted the Finns’ ongoing of independence, despite the terrible circumstances. Thus, Finns had “not raised a cry or a murmur, nor… gone begging at the doors of foreigners”, but had “hitherto suffered patiently, and are gradually succumbing under the weight of their affliction”.38 Depending on the context, the Lutheran (or Christian) faith of the people was stressed, alongside their supposedly high literacy rates, and the sense that the Finns were an “improvable” people who would inevitably overcome this natural/divine challenge and flourish, as long as they were helped through this short-term crisis. A sense of psychological proximity to these far-off victims was nurtured by the use of “brother” or similar terms of familiality.39 As the crisis intensified in the spring of 1868, a British donation provided the best-known single example of international philanthropy for famine-stricken Finland, and one which exemplifies the importance in the humanitarian sphere of transnational business and consular links. In November 1867, the British Consul in Helsinki, William Campbell, had sent a letter to the London-based merchants Sieveking & Droop, stressing the urgency of the crisis in Finland.40 Amongst other themes, Campbell  Crowe in 1857 / Pentzin, others--- Aftonbladet, 1 Oct. 1862.  On the attractiveness to potential donors of “self-help” and the absence of any explicit request for aid from the distressed community, see Zagefka & James, “Psychology of Charitable Donations”, 170. 37  The British Friend, xvii, no. v (1859), 117–8. 38  British Friend, 12th Month, 2nd, 1867. 39  Aftonbladet, 1 Oct. 1862. An excellent example including many of these tropes can be found in the appeal by the London-based, Jakobstad-born Emily Wennerbom (née Böckelman), in “Distress in Finland”, The British Friend, 12th month, 2nd, 1867 (also reprinted in Birmingham Daily Post, 9 Dec. 1867). 40  Letter of William Campbell, British Consulate, Helsingfors (30 Nov. 1867). Printed in The British Friend, 1st month, 1st, 1868. 35 36

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highlighted the emergency foods that were being consumed, and the extent of desperate vagrancy, made especially perilous by the extreme winter temperatures. He also appealed to “social norms” in explaining that the British community in St. Petersburg had already risen to the challenge of fundraising for the Finns. The letter was recycled in springtime, along with an update from Finlayson’s factory in Tampere, in an appeal from one of Finlayson’s English partners, the Manchester-based (Quaker-led) Merrick, Boyes and Co. Tammerfors, Finland, February 3 1868. The distress in this country takes, indeed, alarming dimensions. We hear already by the newspapers that in the northern districts the stock of corn is nearly done, leaving the bulk of the people without food, except what they in summer and autumn collected of bark, moss & c. Also in our district here distress is very great, and people die by fever and famine in great numbers. There are erected workhouses in nearly every town to employ the persons who are in want, but this can only help a very limited number. With pleasure we shall receive what you can collect for this poor starving people.                Yours very truly, FINLAY, SON & CO. We are quite aware how pressing are home claims; but there are many who, after doing their duty to the class that has the first and nearest claim, will have the means also of stretching forth the hand of help to the distressed and famine-­ stricken population of Finland. We shall be glad to forward any contributions which may be entrusted to our care for the above object.             MERRICK, BOYES, AND CO. 20, Spring Gardens, Manchester, March 21.41

The appeal from Merrick, Boyes & Co. prompted a donation of £5 (approximately 125 FIM) from relatives of William Pilkington, a master engineer at the Finlayson factory. This was used to provide an outdoor meal on Good Friday (10 April) 1868 for hungry children in Tampere, with the event being photographed to provide the English benefactors with proof that their donation was put to the intended use.42 As with the

41  Appeals from Finlayson (Tampere) and Merrick, Boyes & Co. (Manchester), Feb-Mar. 1868. Printed in Manchester Guardian, 24 Mar. 1868. Original has “Finlay, son” rather than “Finlayson”. 42  Suomalainen Wirallinen Lehti, 9 Apr. 1868.

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Fig. 5.1  One of the few contemporary photographs from the famine years in Finland. It shows a meal provided by English donations on Good Friday (10 April) 1868, for hungry children in the town of Tampere. The photograph was taken to show English donors the good work that was being done with their money. “Nälkävuoden 1868 pitkäperjantaina sadalle köyhälle tarjottu päivällinen”. (National Board of Antiquities, Antell Collection, HK10002:474. Licensed under Creative Commons CC BY-SA 4.0)

Quaker appeal of 1856–57, therefore, a relatively small British donation received a large amount of publicity (Fig. 5.1).43 The humanitarian narratives around the Finnish case, therefore, followed familiar lines. In order to persuade potential donors to choose Finland over other causes, though, some sort of “psychological proximity” was often necessary. Fortunately for the Finns, their multifaceted geopolitical, ethnic, religious and historical connections meant that potential benefactors could construct a deserving narrative with relative ease. As an interface between East and West in Europe—a part of the Scandinavian, 43  Antell Collection: “Nälkävuoden 1868 pitkäperjantaina sadalle köyhälle tarjottu päivällinen”, HK10002:474, Historical Image Collection, National Board of Antiquities.

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Baltic and broader Russian cultural spheres, and as Lutherans but with a linguistic and ethnic connection to other Finno-Ugrian people, allied to the business and trade links developed by the Grand Duchy—aid arrived from several directions. Imperial Connections There was frustration among the Fennomanes in 1856–1857 that the common people believed aid from Russia to be a normal extension of domestic philanthropy. And yet, despite Finland’s increasing assertiveness over questions of nationality, aid in the form of money and food was sent from all around Russia and its empire, and indeed from all levels of society, during the renewed crisis of 1862–1863. Tsar Alexander II and his family were keen to demonstrate their benevolence when it came to assisting their Finnish subjects, and so funds that had originally been set aside for an extravagant ball to mark their visit to Moscow were diverted to Finland.44 Moreover, the merchants of Moscow were reported to have sent 5000 sacks (matto) of rye flour to Finland in honour of the Tsar’s visit.45 On the royal family’s return to the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg, the Empress Maria—“feeling deeply for [the Finns’] melancholy position”—made a personal donation of 20,000 silver rubles.46 Smaller donations also arrived in Finland, which illustrated the way in which “imagined communities” within the empire could be formed, at least in part, by newspaper stories: To the needy, a peasant Wasilei Nikolajew Raholow in Mogilev Province47 has sent 5 silver rubles, with the following letter: “…To the City Parish in Helsinki. In the newspaper Son of the Fatherland48 no. 242, I have read that bitter message about the famine in Finland on the country and the exhortation to the Russian to remember their obligation. I have five rubles and I offer them to the unfortunate. I ask that this gift offered by a benevolent Russian heart be accepted.49  Lady’s Newspaper, 13 Dec. 1862; Aftenposten (Nor.), 9 Dec. 1862.  Lady’s Newspaper, 13 Dec. 1862; Aftenposten (Nor.), 9 Dec. 1862. One matto sack was equivalent to 147.42 kg. 46  Finlands Allmänna Tidning, 8 Dec. 1862; Aftenposten (Nor), 10 Dec. 1862; Belfast News-Letter, 10 Jan. 1863. 47  In modern Belarus. 48  The St. Petersburg newspaper Syn otechestva (Сын отечества) which ran from 1862. 49  Suomen Julkisia Sanomia, 20 Nov. 1862. 44 45

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As the Great Hunger Years reached their nadir, Finland was included within the remit of the Russian imperial famine relief commission that was established in February 1868. So too, however, were thirteen other famine-­stricken Governorates, and thus private relief from around Russia continued to play an important role.50 At the same time, consignments of food aid were allocated to Finland, to help replenish in part the depleted crown magazines.51 Private donations remained in evidence, with the noted philanthropist Princess Eugenia Maximilianovna contributing large sums to a fundraising lottery for the Finns.52 Less publicised, smaller remittances were sent to Finland from around the vast Russian Empire, often from Finns or from those who might have had a close connection with the Grand Duchy—including from Finnish sailors in Odessa, and businessmen and clergy from Mogilev to Khotyn, Tula to Kazan and Poland.53 In Russia’s Baltic provinces, money was collected for Finland in both Estonia and Latvia.54 Although the Baltic countries also experienced a famine crisis in 1868, the Governor-General of Finland received several donations from the Governor of Kurzeme (Courland, now in southern Latvia), at least some of which had been collected from the residents of Desele and Aizpute. It is not certain whether the activities were motivated by those in power in the empire who thus wanted to promote the unity of the kingdom, or whether it was a matter of grassroots solidarity between the Baltic “cousins”. Finland’s particular relationship with Estonia will be discussed below, but it should be noted that the establishment of an organisation called the “Latvian Relief Society to Help the Suffering of Poverty in Estonia” in 1867 could indicate the existence of some kind of wider Baltic ethno-cultural kinship within the Russian Empire.55  Turpeinen, Nälkä vai tauti tappoi?, 143.  Helsingfors Dagblad, 28 Feb. 1868. 52  O. Hytönen, “Suuret Nälkävuodet 1862–1867: Kansamme kova koettelemus” (Pt. 2), Helsingin Sanomat, 24 Feb. 1941. The lottery eventually raised 10,000 silver rubles. Suomalainen Wirallinen Lehti, 27 Feb. 1868. 53  Helsingfors Dagblad, 28 Feb. 1868; Folkwännen, 18 Mar. 1868; Finlands Allmänna Tidning, 23 Apr., 4 May 1868; Tampereen Sanomat, 5 May, 19 May 1868; see also the Alexandra von Brandenburg donation via C. von Schoultz in Mogilev, Åbo Underrättelser, 26 May 1868. 54  See inter alia, regular collection updates under the title “Für die Nothleidenden in Finnland”, Revalsche Zeitung, 25 Sep. 1862–2 Jul. 1863. See also Helsingfors Dagblad, 25 Oct. 1862; 29 Oct. 1862; 28 Nov. 1862; 27 Jan. 1863; Rigasche Zeitung, 4 Feb. 1863. 55  Suomalainen Wirallinen Lehti, 19 Nov. 1867; Ilmarinen, 29 Nov. 1867. 50 51

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Scandinavian Connections Although Finland was linked to Scandinavia via its Swedish past and Lutheran present, as well as the Swedish language, the position of the Grand Duchy within the Scandinavist movement was rather ambiguous.56 The relative amounts raised for Finland in the Kingdoms of Sweden-­ Norway, and Denmark, during the twelve years of crisis seem to reflect the waxing and waning of Scandinavism. Sweden, along with Russia, was one of Finland’s main donors in 1856–1857 and 1862–1863, when a united Scandinavia still seemed like an achievable goal, parallel with the nation-­ building activities that were coming to fruition in Italy and Germany at this time.57 Fundraising concerts attracted large audiences—including the Swedish royals—and sometime presented exclusively Finnish and Swedish national airs or folksongs.58 Elsewhere, a collection in Söderköping was prefaced by a romantic invocation of Finland’s national poet, J.L. Runeberg, and the original Swedish lyrics of a verse of Vårt Land [Our Land], which was becoming established as the Finns’ national anthem.59 A portrait of Nils Flyckt, a Finnish-born veteran of the 1809 war, long domiciled in Stockholm, was sold in bookshops for the Finns’ benefit.60 Scandinavist sympathies also prompted fundraising for Finland in Norway, united with Sweden in personal union at this time, and a “relatively significant” amount was collected at a meeting of Scandinavian students in Christiania (Oslo).61 56  Andrew G.  Newby, ‘“One Valhalla of the Free”: Scandinavia, Britain and Northern Identity in the Nineteenth Century’, in Peter Stadius and Jonas Harvard (eds), Communicating the North: Marketing in the Making of the Nordic Region (Farnham: Ashgate, 2013), 147–69: 157–62. 57  Mary Hilson, “Denmark, Norway and Sweden: Pan-Scandinavianism and Nationalism”, in Timothy Baycroft & Mark Hewitson (eds), What Is A Nation? Europe 1789–1914 (Oxford, 2006), 192–209; Theodor Mügge, Nordisches Bilderbuch. Reisebilder von Theodor Mügge (Frankfurt am Main, 1857), 218–21. 58  Stockholms Dagblad, 16 Feb. 1857; Lunds Weckoblad, 19, 26 Feb., 5, 12 Mar. 1857; Carl Rupert Nyblom, “Vid Student-Conserten i Upsala för de nödlidande i Finland den 7 Mars 1857”, in Carl Rupert Nyblom, Dikter (Upsala, 1860), 192–4. 59  See, e.g., “Söner af sitt land: I. Johan Ludvig Runeberg”, Från nära och fjerran, i (Jan. 1860), 3–7: 5. The song was used to greet the Tsar in 1863. “Helsingfors”, Finlands Allmänna Tidning, 3 Aug. 1863. 60  Post- och Inrikes Tidningar, 27 Feb. 1857; Wiborg, 10 Mar. 1857. Abo Underrättelser, 5 Jun. 1857. A copy of the portrait is held in the National Library of Finland, Signum: I.1.a./II:24. 61  Aftenposten (Oslo), 14 Jan. 1863.

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Arguably the ne plus ultra of the cultural-historical rhetoric around Swedish charitable intervention can be seen in the poem “Till Finnen!” (“To The Finns!”), which was published in several newspapers in Sweden during the autumn of 1862.62 Reflecting the Scandinavist zeitgeist and the assertion that Finland’s rightful orientation was to the west rather than the east, the first stanza harked back to a “golden age” before 1809: “You were our brothers before, you are our brothers now, Though your land was sold for a pittance, We Swedes feel deep sorrow that cannot be calmed, O! Ehrensvärd’s Sveaborg, why would you be wasted”. After condemning the treachery which, according to the author, saw Sweden relinquish its grasp on Finland, the poem then changes tone and speaks of Sweden’s desperate desire to “relieve and comfort” Finland in its current distress. Allying this historical responsibility to a sense of Christian duty, and with guilt (borne of a plentiful harvest in Sweden), the conclusion is that “When to a brother’s help in a time of need we go, we get God’s blessings in our huts”. Thus, in these stanzas, many of the psychological elements which lay behind international charity in the mid-nineteenth century are exposed. After Sweden failed to send aid to Denmark during the Second Schleswig War (1864), the Scandinavian dream seemed to lie in tatters, though this is only one factor in the drop-off in Swedish contributions in 1867–1868 (Swedes had a major famine in the north of their own country, and it might also have seen clear after 1863 that Finland was forging its own path and had no intention of re-uniting with Sweden). Danish contributions to Finland were noticeably higher in 1867–8 than previously, however. This shift in the sense of “psychological proximity” between Finland and Denmark was largely a result of the publicity surrounding the Finnish soldiers that volunteered in the 1864 war against Austria-Prussia. The numerical significance of the Finnish presence in the Danish army (eleven volunteers) was outweighed by their symbolic importance, especially as one of their number, Herman Liikanen, was injured and hospitalised, thereby meaning that “Finland” as a nation had made a blood sacrifice to help the Danes in their hour of need. As a result, Finns were proclaimed as “Brothers of the Nordic Tribe” in the Danish fundraising for the famine in 1867–1868, an unusual claim in the 1860s but one which, again, shows the flexibility of external constructions of Finnish identity.63  One of the earliest reproductions is “B”, “Till Finnen!”, Härnösandsposten, 11 Oct. 1862.  Andrew G. Newby, ‘“Brothers of the Nordic Tribe”: Danish Famine Aid to Sweden and Finland 1867–68’, in Nina Javette Koefoed & Andrew G. Newby (eds), Lutheranism and Social Responsibility (Göttingen, 2022), 183–209: 201. 62

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Other Ethnic and Linguistic Connections The Estonian contributions were also stimulated by the ongoing academic connections, driven by the ethnic and linguistic studies of the Finnish Literary Society, and especially by the Fennomane academic Yrjö Sakari Yrjö-Koskinen’s public letters and articles on Estonia and Estonian affairs in the early 1860s. In Estonia, Yrjö-Koskinen saw a potential area of support for the Fennomanes’ “Finnish Finland” project, outside of Russian, Swedish or German spheres of influence.64 Yrjö-Koskinen’s academic and journalistic contacts with Estonia, especially with Johann Voldemar Jannsen, demonstrated a common cause.65 Both men used the common ethnic heritage of Finland and Estonia to encourage “national awakenings” in their own countries, but by presenting a shared history and culture, and particularly linguistic affinity, developed a discourse of the larger, coherent, FinnoUgric world. From 1866 onwards, Jannsen kept his Eesti Postimees readers informed about the conditions in Finland, before intensifying his rhetoric in 1867–8 to demand “who would I be… if I sit at the table and allow, with a cold heart, the brother who sits next to me to die of starvation”.66 This prompted a steady stream of funds from across the Gulf of Finland, which Yrjö-Koskinen directed to areas he considered to be most in need.67 It is clear that adversity was being used here to bring the people of both countries together, as the Estonian folklorist Oskar Loorits noted in the 1930s: The tragic famine in Finland… aroused in Estonia moving sympathy for the brother people. And it was during that comprehensive relief effort for the benefit of Finns who were affected by famine that the instinctive sense of kinship found perhaps its first conscious form of expression, especially among the general rural proletariat, which was just reawakening to national consciousness, as the same sense of kinship had centuries earlier been encouraging the brethren peoples, at crucial moments, to support each other.68 64  Gunnar Suolahti, Yrjö-Koskisen elämä. 1, Nuori Yrjö-Koskinen (Helsinki, 1974), 58, 86. See Juhani Paasivirta, Finland and Europe: The Period of Autonomy & the International Crises 1808–1914 (London, 1981), 112, for Yrjö-Koskinen’s negative view of the Swedish influence on Finnish national development. 65  Rafael Koskimies, Y.S. Yrjö-Koskisen elämä (2 vols., 1974), ii, 87. 66  Alma Haavamäe-Hiitonen, “Heimotyötä 1860–1870 Luvuilla”, Helsingin Sanomat (Viikkoliite), 19 Jul. 1936. 67  Suomalainen Wirallinen Lehti, 8 Feb. 1868; Ilmarinen, 14 Feb. 1868. Oskar Loorits, Yrjö-Koskinens Briefwecksel mit seinen estnischen Freunden (Tartto, 1936), 82–3. 68  Quoted in Haavamäe-Hiitonen, “Heimotyötä”.

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As with Denmark, a reciprocal relationship developed in the short term. Thus, when famine struck Estonia in 1868–9, Yrjö-Koskinen and Zachris Topelius reminded Finns of their moral obligation toward their neighbours.69 Despite not appearing as a major source of donations for Finland during the 1860s, the subscriptions that were instigated in Hungary by the academic and newspaper editor Pál Hunfalvy are also worth noting.70 As a key figure in the Hungarian national revival, Hunfalvy had developed academic contacts in Finland, and was a correspondent of Yrjö-Koskinen and other Fennomane leaders.71 As early as November 1867, he discussed with Yrjö-Koskinen the best means of transferring funds to Finland.72 Hunfalvy used his Pesti Napló newspaper to solicit donations from the burghers of Budapest, outlining the successive failed harvests and stressing the “beautiful phenomenon of the current age” that saw different and often far-off peoples acting in mutual assistance as though members of the same family.73 As with Estonia, there was an element of Finno-Ugrian world-­building inherent in the fundraising.74 As a part of Finnish self-sufficiency, distancing Finland from its former and current imperial powers, it is clear that Yrjö-Koskinen was simultaneously appealing to the imagined shared histories and ethnicities of the Finno- Ugric “tribe”, and using the crisis to inculcate a sense of mutual support between Hungary and the emerging nation of Finland. The relative size of the donations was less important than the gesture: “it was a joy for everyone to hear that we here in the far north are remembered. Not the greatness of the gift but the kind hand

 Haavamäe-Hiitonen, “Heimotyötä”; Österbotten, 6 Mar. 1869.  Viljo Tervonen, “19th-Century Pioneers of Cultural Relations”, in Jaakko Numminen & János Nagy (ed.), Friends and Relatives: Finnish-Hungarian Cultural Relations (Budapest, 1985), 52–98: 62–3; Voitto Vuola, Yrjö Sakari Yrjö-Koskisen Kristillisyydenkäsitys (Helsinki, 1981), 44; Yrjö Wichman, Paavali Hunfalvyn suomalaista kirjeenvaihtoa—Vähäisiä kirjelmiä LIII (Helsinki, 1923), 396. 71  Kaisa Kaarina Karila, “Kulttuuriyhteistyötä, politiikkaa ja kansansivistämistä: fennomaanien suhde Unkariin”, MA Thesis, University of Eastern Finland: Joensuu, 2006), 13–20. 72  Hunfalvy to Yrjö-Koskinen, 10 Nov. 1867. Reprinted in Viljo Tervonen (ed.), Pál Hunfalvy ja Suomalaiset: Kirjeitä Vuosilta 1853–1891 (Helsinki, 1987), 195–200. 73  “Felszólitás Adakozásokra a Finnországi Inségesek Javára”, Pesti Naplo, 10 Nov. 1867. 74  Yrjö-Koskinen to Hunfalvy, 8 Feb. 1868. Reprinted in Tervonen, Pál Hunfalvy ja Suomalaiset, 206–8; Finlands Allmänna Tidning, 8 Feb. 1868; Hufvudstadsbladet, 28 Nov. 1867, 10 Feb. 1868; Suomalainen Wirallinen Lehti, 11 Feb. 1868. 69 70

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with which it is offered is dear to us”.75 Nevertheless, as the aid was targeted to some of the most needy areas, even amounts considered small on a national scale could make an impact locally, and in Hunfalvy’s case the women’s association of Hämeenkyrö wrote a letter of gratitude to the Hungarian donors.76 Religious Connections The ad hoc philanthropy of the nineteenth century was influenced by the broad Christian ideal of supporting those in need, but Christian identity— especially among reformed denominations—also fed into the “psychological proximity” which prompted donations to Finland between 1856 and 1868. The Lutheran faith, an inheritance from the centuries of Swedish rule, was practised by the large majority of Finns, and this meant that they were the subject of vigorous fundraising from other Lutheran (or Reformed) communities in Europe.77 Although the early fundraising in Sweden had a number of motivations, the involvement of the Bishops of Lund and Uppsala spoke in part to the idea of Christian duty, but also to the shared Lutheranism which linked Finnish civic society strongly to the Scandinavian world.78 It is also clear that the British Quakers also felt an affinity with their Lutheran Finnish colleagues.79 St. Petersburg’s position as a major city with large expatriate communities also meant that British and German church congregations, as well as Finnish individuals and societies, sent aid to their “brethren in the faith” throughout the long period of crisis, though their contributions would inevitably be included under the “Russian” columns of

75  Yrjö-Koskinen to Hunfalvy, 25 Nov. 1867. Reprinted in Tervonen, Pál Hunfalvy ja Suomalaiset, 200–2. 76  Hämeenkyrö Women’s Organisation to Hunfalvy to Yrjö-Koskinen, 17 May 1868. Reprinted in Tervonen, Pál Hunfalvy ja Suomalaiset, 213. 77  One evangelical Finnish newspaper claimed in the 1930s that the 1867 Day of Repentance and Prayer had made Finland “famous” among other Lutheran communities around Europe and that it had prompted the “miracle” of the overseas donations. See ---, “Kuinka Suomen kansa otti vastaan katovuodet v. 1867–68? Eräs Suomen kansan katumusja rukouspäivä”, Heräävä Nuoriso (7–8, 1936), 155–8. 78  Henrik Stenius, “The Good Life is a Life of Conformity: The Impact of the Lutheran Tradition on Nordic Political Culture”, in Øystein Sørensen & Bo Stråth (eds), The Cultural Construction of Norden (Oslo, 1997), 161–71; Berlingske, 6 Feb. 1857. 79  Report of the Committee for the Relief of Famine in Finland.

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enumerations.80 Contributions also came from Lutheran colonies which had been established in the Russian Empire, often predominantly German but also including Finns among their populations, and from the newly rebuilt Lutheran Peter-Paul cathedral in Moscow.81 Committees were also formed among Lutheran congregations in Estonia, Pomerania and throughout Germany as a means of supporting their Finnish co-religionists.82 Personal connections between the pastor of Helsinki’s German congregation, Andreas Schröder, and Professor Hermann Messner in Berlin, led to the formation of a committee in Berlin, facilitated by the newspaper Evangelishche Kirchen-Zeitung.83 The Berlin committee, in turn, received donations for Finland from evangelical communities in the Netherlands.84 The support that came to Finland from Lutheran sources demonstrates that, despite the way aid was enumerated, it should not necessarily always be attached to national identities.

80  Tähti, 1 May 1863. Wiborgs Tidning, 8 Feb. 1868; “Hätääntyneille”, Sanomia Turusta 7 Nov. 1862. Folkwännen, 18 Mar. 1868; Finlands Allmänna Tidning, 23 Apr. 1868, 5 Aug. 1868; Max Engman, “Philanthropi bland Finländarna i Petersburg”, Historisk Tidskrift för Finland 83 (1998), 254–88; Max Engman, Suureen itään: Suomalaiset Venäjällä ja Aasiassa (Turku, 2005), 245–6. See inter alia, “En vacker insamling för de nödlidande i Finland”, Helsingfors Dagblad, 18 Nov. 1867; Wiborgs Tidning, 8 Feb. 1868; Helsingfors Dagblad, 12 Feb. 1868. Folkwännen, 20 Nov. 1867; Ilmarinen, 29 Nov. 1867; Suomalainen Wirallinen Lehti, 27 Feb. 1868. 81  Finlands Allmänna Tidning, 4 May 1868. Wiborgs Tidning, 8 Feb. 1868; Helsingfors Dagblad, 12 Feb. 1868. 82  Hufvudstadsbladet, 8 May 1866; Helsingfors Dagblad, 4 Jul. 1866, 7 Aug. 1866; Finlands Allmänna Tidning, 10 Jan 1868; Suomalainen Wirallinen Lehti, 27 Feb. 1868; “Helsingfors”, Finlands Allmänna Tidning, 20 Jul. 1868. 83  Badischer Beobachter, 4 Apr. 1868; Helsingfors Dagblad, 27 May, 7 Jul 1868; “Aufruf für Finnland”, Karlsruher Tagblatt, 1 May 1868; “Finnland”, Karlsruher Zeitung, 19 May, 26 Jun. 1868; Finlands Allmänna Tidning, 20 Oct. 1868. Messner was also an acquaintance of F.L. Schauman, who was active in the Helsinki Relief Committee. V.T. Rosenqvist, Frans Ludvig Schauman (förra delen) (Helsingfors, 1927) 271. A small pamphlet, Finnland und die evangelisch-lutherische Kirche (Berlin, 1868), was published in Berlin with the proceeds going to the needy in Finland. The subtitle “a cry of help from a German Lutheran” underlines the confessional links between the donor and recipient communities. Åbo Underrättelser, 19 Dec. 1867; Wiborgs Tidning, 12 Dec. 1867, 30 May 1868, 16 Jan. 1869; Lauri Kalliala, “Eräs ‘caritas fraterna’—muisto nälkävuosien ajoilta 1868–9”, Teologinen Aikakauskirja, 2–3 (1924), 60–6. 84  Opregte Haarlemsche Courant, 30 May, 29 Jun., 6 Jul. 1868.

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Business Connections Along with the pacifist-inflected notions of Christian duty, business links between Finland and Britain were one of the motivations for the Quaker intervention in 1856–1857. Many of the donations that came to Finland between 1856 and 1868 reflected close economic/trade connections between the Grand Duchy and other European towns, especially in Britain, Germany and Denmark.85 Moreover, global trading cities such as London and Hamburg were nodes for humanitarian aid and played an important practical role in collection, transportation, money exchange and other aspects of the aid chain.86 Separate relief committees for Finland were also established in Hamburg and other Hanseatic towns, notably Bremen and Lübeck, which gathered and distributed large sums via consular networks to the different Finnish provinces.87 Farther south, Dresden and Frankfurt provided considerable support.88 These funds were distributed from the German states either directly to Finland (e.g. to administrators with banking connections, such as Bernhard Indrenius, or Carl Johan Walleen), or via the Finnish Emergency Committee in Hamburg. Other sources of aid in 1867–8 can also be attributed to specific business links rather than any specific sense of “psychological proximity” between nations. The donations received from Portugal came from the Torlades Casa Commercial, which had been founded in Lisbon in the eighteenth century by a Hamburg-born naturalised Portuguese businessman, and had a strong presence in the Baltic salt and timber trade.89 Historical business associations could also be important. The sudden appearance of Switzerland as a major donor to Finnish famine relief demonstrates the pitfalls of linking such aid specifically to the relationships between nations. Although there were some smaller contributions—such as the proceeds from a bazaar held for Finland’s benefit in Montreux in February 186890 –, almost all of the Swiss total came from the coffers of

 Häkkinen & Newby, “Nälkäkriisi-Suomi”, 102.  Stamatov, Origins of Global Humanitarianism, 188–9. 87  Ilmarinen, 29 Nov. 1867; Sanomia Turusta, 20 Dec. 1867; Åbo Underrättelser, 19 Dec. 1867; Ilmarinen, 3 Jan. 1868; Suomalainen Wirallinen Lehti, 3 Mar. 1868. 88  Suomalainen Wirallinen Lehti, 27 Feb., 28 Apr., 12 May 1868. 89  Hämäläinen, 28 Nov. 1867; Suomalainen Wirallinen Lehti, 28 Apr. 1868. 90  Hufvudstadsbladet, 25 Feb. 1868. 85 86

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an individual donor, the widow Elisabeth Boissonnet.91 Boissonnet’s husband François, a French-born St. Petersburg merchant with considerable interests in Finland, especially Hämeenlinna, had died in 1851.92 In 1864 Elisabeth suffered further tragedy, as her son Louis died in a mountaineering accident at Haut de Cry in the Alps. Thereafter, Elisabeth used much of the family’s money for philanthropy, including short-term aid for Finland. In 1868, she funded the “Louis Boissonnet Fund” in Hämeenlinna, to provide grain reserves and guard against future famines.93 “Her ardent pity for this province”, wrote Hämäläinen, “will be held forever in the memory”.94 Knowledge of Finland and Personal Connections Other donations to Finland during the Great Hunger Years represented a variety of personal motivations, sometimes explicitly expressed, sometimes implied in pseudonymous contributions to public subscriptions. Again, this type of connection can be seen in twenty-first century charity fundraising, as Zagefka and James note: “knowledge [of the disaster area] will make it easier to imagine the scene and form a mental image of the suffering. This will increase the ability to relate to the victims, and to identify with them, which in turn should increase the donation proclivity”.95 As an example, the renewed interventions from Britain in 1862 originated in the columns of the London Times, when a pseudonymous correspondent, “ABC”, stressed that “an absolute famine has commenced” in Finland. “ABC” noted his/her own personal experience of Finland, from two journeys made there the previous summer, and added that “the many English tourists who have visited Finland” should make a “small contribution” in support of the Finnish people.96 A “banal” connection is also represented in the Latvian totals, with the publication in Mitau (Jelgava) of a short German-language book, Four Days in Finland. This book, an account of a short trip to eastern Finland in 1863 by an anonymous female traveller,  Née Heimbürger, 1807–1873. Suomalainen Wirallinen Lehti, 29 Oct. 1868.  Finlands Allmänna Tidning, 30 Nov. 1867. 93  Folkwännen, 4 Dec. 1867; 23 April 1868; Finlands Allmänna Tidning, 25 May 1869, Suomalainen Wirallinen Lehti, 27 May 1869; Hämäläinen, 7 Apr. 1870; Helsingfors Dagblad, 12 Apr. 1870. 94  Hämäläinen, 28 Nov. 1867. 95  Zagefka & James, “Psychology of Charitable Donations”, 174. 96  “A.B.C.”, “The Famine in Finland”, The Times, 17 Oct. 1862. 91 92

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was sold for 30 kopeks, “for the distressed in Finland”.97 Compared with the crises of 1893 and especially 1902–03, by which time Finns had settled in large numbers in the New World, funds from North America were relatively scarce, but individual acts of philanthropy were recorded from, for example, New York-based Swedish  inventor, John Ericsson98 and businessmen Charles Müller99 and John Hülphers.100 Hülphers was a Swede who had settled in New York and opened a tavern for “Swedes, Finns, Norwegians and Danes”.101

Overseas Aid and the Fennomane Self-Sufficiency Narrative The ways in which Finland’s elites reacted to international aid varied depending on the circumstances—it was important to avoid the perception of being a pauper nation, but it was also possible to teach the rural proletariat vital lessons about individual and national self-sufficiency by reporting the gifts. Moreover, depending on the source of the donations, and the spirit in which they were given, the administration could reinforce the idea that Finland was increasingly perceived by outsiders as an autonomous state. Initially, the reaction was positive. Zachris Topelius wrote an editorial in Helsingfors Tidningar—widely reprinted in Sweden—“To The Benefactors of the Finnish Emergency from outside Finland”.102 A fulsome paean of thanks to the various countries from which aid arrived, this article also contained several themes relating to Finland’s own self-image, not least idea that the assistance, while gratefully received, was not requested. Although there was tension at this time between Fennomanes and Sweden-domiciled Finns—with the former criticising the latter’s proximity to Scandinavism, and perceived “interference” in domestic Finnish affairs—it appears that this type of voluntary intervention was acceptable. Topelius’ rhetoric of “brotherhood” and “unforgettable and inalienable friendship” was quite notable, perhaps a  subtle reminder to  Anon., Vier Tage in Finnland: Reiseskizze (Mitau, 1868).  Aftonbladet, 3 Dec. 1862. 99  Suomalainen Wirallinen Lehti, 21 Apr. 1868. 100  Åbo Underrättelser, 19 Sep. 1868. 101  “Finnars och Skandinavers majfest i Newyork”, Åbo Underrättelser, 21 Jul. 1868. 102  “Till den finska nödens wälgörare utom Finland”, Helsingfors Tidningar, 9 May 1857. Reprinted e.g. in Aftonbladet, 18 May 1857. 97 98

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“Russia Proper” of Finland’s historical and social distinctiveness. Topelius’ editorial concluded with a poem which outlined Finland’s national destiny, struggling against the inhospitable hyperborean climate.103 This poem also made a point of thanking those from various countries (“from east and west, from the shores of the North Sea and the Thames”, as well as from France) and from all social classes who offered support so that Finland could overcome the famine conditions of 1856–7. The British Quaker campaign of 1857, and the values it apparently promoted, was even co-opted into the domestic Finnish narrative of subsistence. In this narrative, the Finnish people needed to practise the same degree of benevolence and abnegation as the British donors, so that in future they could aid their own compatriots, and enhance national self-­ sufficiency. Joseph Sturge’s wife, Hannah, provided one of the most widely reported examples, as she sent £5 to help the people of Hyrynsalmi (Oulu Province) survive the famine. This sum was raised by the Sturge’s children abstaining from butter, and sending the money saved over to Finland, providing the Finnish press with a “beautiful example” of self-sacrifice for Finnish children to follow.104 This British intervention was well remembered in Finland, not least because of the Quakers’ own culture of commemoration, but also because the Quakers’ values seemed to dovetail so well with the Finns’ own autostereotype.105 By the time of the next major harvest failure, in autumn-winter of 1862, Finland’s administration was busy preparing for the first meeting of the Estates since the start of Russian rule in 1809, which they hoped would provide international audiences with proof of the Grand Duchy’s capacity for, and legal right to, self-government. Nevertheless, its constitutional position still seemed unclear, even contestable, to outsiders. In Russia, especially when compared to its Polish territories, Finland was perceived as a loyal, modern European province, with bonds only

103  “Litterärä soirén”, Helsingfors Tidningar, 22 Feb. 1864 seems to confirm Topelius at the author. 104  See e.g. “Goda nyheter från utlandet”, Åbo Underrättelser, 28 Apr. 1857; “Engelska understöd”, Helsingfors Tidningar, 29 Apr. 1857; Kuopion Sanomat, 2 May 1857. 105  “U”, “De engelske ‘Vännerne’ och hungersnöden i Finland 1857”, Papperslyktan, 14 Jun. 1859; “---r”, “England och Finland år 1857”, Nya Pressen, 7 Apr. 1900; “Nälkävuosi 1857 Suomessa”, Maaseudun Tulevaisuus, 24 Apr. 1923; “Vihollinen auttajana”, ViikkoSanomat, 26 Jan. 1924; Walfrid Anttila, “Englantilainen ‘Ystävien seura’ ja v:n 1857 nälänhätä Suomessa”, Helsingin Sanomat, 9 Jan. 1938.

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strengthened by the shared recent experience of Crimean War.106 The ongoing ideas around a united Scandinavia meant that some in Sweden maintained a flirtatious relationship with the former eastern province, at least while it seemed theoretically possible that Finland might “re-join” Scandinavia.107 British commentators used foreign aid contributions to promote the idea of Russian neglect of Finland, and even the idea of full Finnish independence.108 These flexible, externally imposed identities had the potential to cause diplomatic ructions. The administration in Helsinki therefore had to tread a careful while developing national autonomy, and expressions of gratitude for aid needed to be given very sensitively. In addition to individual or community gratitude being expressed to donors through letters to relief committees, the Finnish administration gave formal thanks for the foreign donations.109 An official communication in December 1862, for example, described the efforts that the Senate itself had made to counteract the harvest failure, praised the “high example” of the Tsar, and the hard work of those parts of Finland where the harvest had been more plentiful, before acknowledging the aid that came in “from many places outside Finland… which proves the true human love and sublime generosity of the donors”.110 Thus, as the “interpreter of the national mood”, the Senate felt that it was appropriate to express the “natural feeling of sincere gratitude” from the Finnish to the Swedish people, formally through the voice of the Tsar.111

 David Kirby, A Concise History of Finland (Cambridge, 2006), 102.  H. Arnold Barton, “Scandinavianism, Fennomania and the Crimean War”, in H. Arnold Barton, Essays on Scandinavian History (Carbondale, 2009), 161–88: 180–2. 108  Newby, “Rather Peculiar Claims”, 71–4; “Famine in Finland”, Spectator, 10 Jan. 1863. 109  See e.g. the petition of thanks to Sweden from the parish of Kuortane, originally published in Suometar, 17 Mar. 1863. Swedish translation in Helsingfors Dagblad, 18 Mar. 1863. Finnish thanks to British Quakers reproduced in Leeds Mercury, 9 Mar. 1863; John Good, “Finland”, The British Friend, 3rd mo, 2, 1863; John Good, “Finland”, The British Friend, 5th mo, 1, 1863. 110  “Undsättningsbidragen från Sverige”, Finlands Allmänna Tidning, 19 Jan. 1862; “Skrifvelse från kejs. senaten till generalguvernören”, Helsingfors Tidningar, 20 Jan. 1863; “Avun-annoista Ruotsinmaalla”, Suomen Julkisia Sanomia, 22 Jan. 1863. This note of thanks was presented in Sweden in e.g. Post- och Inrikes Tidningar, 31 Jan. 1863; Nya Dagligt Allehanda, 31 Jan. 1863. 111  “Undsättningsbidragen från Sverige”, Finlands Allmänna Tidning, 19 Jan. 1862; “Skrifvelse från kejs. senaten till generalguvernören”, Helsingfors Tidningar, 20 Jan. 1863; “Avun-annoista Ruotsinmaalla”, Suomen Julkisia Sanomia, 22 Jan. 1863. 106 107

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An updated resolution of thanks was formulated in late 1863, by which time it seemed that Finland had survived yet another hard year, and the Senate felt that the Grand Duchy could look towards the future with confidence. This resolution, submitted initially by Carl Adolf Öhrberg in the House of the Nobility, was passed, and forwarded to the Governor-­ General for approval and dissemination.112 The resolution thanked both the people of Russia and Sweden, in effusive but slightly different terms. The Russian people, “following the example of our shared, high-minded Monarch” responded in such a generous way that “the memory of it must surely be always answered here with a grateful heart”. Thus, the Tsar was flattered by the Estates over which he had recently presided. The address to the Swedish people seemed to speak much more to Finland’s autonomy: The people of Finland, imbued with sincere gratitude for the divine Providence, which so wonderfully through sorrows and joys, through trials and tribulations, has led it to the new confident view of the future which has now opened up for it, cannot forget the universal participation and fraternal helpfulness with which Old Svea’s faithful people jumped to the aid of the famine-stricken inhabitants of frosty Suomi in the last year.113

The Finnish Senate therefore felt that, after the successful meeting of the estates, its loyalty to the Russian Empire was unquestionable, and was confident enough that a message of thanks to “old Svea” would not be misinterpreted by the Tsar.114 The idea of Finnish “gratitude” to either Russia or Sweden, in a much broader sense than simply a response to short-term private philanthropy, was taken up by Helsingfors Dagblad just as these addresses were being made public in April 1864, in a way that exposes the sensitivities of the time.115 In this editorial, it was noted that public discourse in Finland seemed to apportion varying degrees of gratitude to Sweden or Russia. Sweden was thanked for providing Finland with its main organs of civil society and a basis for free institutions within the 112  Protokoll fördt hos Vällofliga Borgareståndet å Landtdagen i Helsingfors 1863–1864. Första Bandet: Från landtdagens början till slutet af år 1863 (Helsingfors, 1864), 224–7; “Landtagen”, Finlands Allmänna Tidning, 14 Nov. 1863. 113  Ibid. 114  Finlands Allmänna Tidning, 14 Nov. 1863; Post- och Inrikstidningar, 20 Apr. 1864; Faedrelandet, 25 Apr. 1864. 115  The final two lines of the article, probably written by the newspaper’s editor Edvard Bergh, were removed by the imperial censor. See Lars-Folke Landgrén, För frihet och framåtskridande: Helsingfors Dagblads etableringsskede 1861–1864 (Helsingfors, 1995), 95.

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Russian Empire, whereas Russia, and especially the Tsar, was thanked for not making autocratic decisions that would limit Finland’s ability to act with domestic autonomy. The real means of showing this gratitude, argued the Helsingfors Dagblad, would be to use both of these inherited benefits to demonstrate Finland’s sense of independence. The reaction to aid contributions can also be seen in this light.116 Despite the fundraising appeals’ emphasis on the Finns’ self-sufficiency, the Finnish elites continued to insist that international aid was a humiliation, and certainly something that needed to be avoided in the future. As with the “lessons” that were supposed to have been learned from the British Quakers a few years earlier, the new intervention from Sweden— while appreciated—was presented as evidence that the Finnish folk needed to pull together more effectively. An editorial in Åbo Underrättelser, for example, complained that “although Svea likes to share her bread with Suomi”, it was not right that the “burden” of supporting hungry Finns should fall to the “former motherland”.117 It concluded that there were parts of Finland which had not suffered harvest failure, and it was the lack of a response from these regions that had made handouts from outsiders necessary.118 By the winter of 1867, any assistance from overseas, especially as conditions in Finland had deteriorated so dramatically, was gratefully received. After a decade of emphasising national self-sufficiency, however, aid from the imperial power was a sensitive issue, as demonstrated by a minor war of words in November 1867 between newspapers from the national capital (Helsinki) and the imperial capital (St. Petersburg). This spat was prompted by a piece in the St. Petersburger Zeitung119 which in soliciting funds for Finland presented the normal victim-framing tropes: successive harvest failures, surrogate foodstuffs, abandoned townships, wandering hordes of starving people, and overall a “terribly haunted country”.120 It was an apparently well-meaning attempt to overcome “compassion fatigue” among St. Petersburger Zeitung readers, that provoked anger in the Finnish administration:  “Ett Folks Tacksamhet”, Helsingfors Dagblad, 20 Apr. 1864.  Åbo Underrättelser, 2 Oct. 1862. 118  Cf. Hämäläinen, 28 Nov. 1862. 119  A German-language daily newspaper in the city, edited at this time by the German, Clemens Friedrich Meyer. 120  “Helsingfors”, Finlands Allmänna Tidning, 29 Nov. 1867. 116 117

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…it is true, that the constant knocking on the door might reduce our willingness to give… and yet it is at present a frequently heard assertion, which is emphasised in response to every request for support for the Finns—that it is an ungrateful, selfish people, the Finnish people, for whom it is not worth the effort of giving something.

In response, J.V.  Snellman wrote (in an anonymous editorial) in Finlands Allmänna Tidning that while it was true generous amounts of private aid had been accepted gratefully from St. Petersburg over the previous decade, nonetheless the Finnish people had never once requested such aid. Rather, he emphasised Finland’s ongoing efforts to “manage its own resources”, and condemned the “insults directed at our country”. While, therefore, the Finns identified themselves as loyal imperial subjects, a fact reinforced in Snellman’s editorial, their increasing drive for self-­ sufficiency could be taken by some in Russia as “ingratitude”, while any Russian suggestion that their western Grand Duchy was a nation of grasping paupers was countered with immediate and intense disdain from Helsinki.121 In contrast, aid from the German states, the second largest source of overseas assistance in 1868, did not seem to carry any obvious historical or political baggage. The donations from this source were also potentially less contentious than those from Russia (or even Sweden) as there was no suggestion of Finland being a subject province. Fennomane leaders sought to establish connections with Germany during the 1860s partly as a means of diluting the Sweden/Russia dichotomy, but also because they understood Germany’s national development to be somewhat analogous to that of Finland.122 Moreover, the flourishing relationship between Germany 121  “En kränkande uppmaning till välgörenhet mot Finland”, Helsingfors Dagblad, 30 Nov. 1867. Quoting “Helsingfors”, Finlands Allmänna Tidning, 29 Nov. 1867, in turn responding to “Tageschronik”, S:t Petersburger Zeitung, 13 (25) Nov. 1867. This episode was later recounted in Agathon Meurman’s narrative of the Great Hunger Years, praising Snellman’s response to the “outrageous conduct” of the S:t Petersburger Zeitung. Agathon Meurman, Nälkävuodet 1860-luvulla (Helsinki, 1892), 44–5. 122  Juhani Paasivirta, Suomen kulttuurisuhteet 1800- ja 1900-luvuille (Turku, 1991), 175–7. Another interesting donation (of approx. 3700 Finnish Marks) was made by Count Otto von Bismarck, Prussian chancellor. It is only possible to speculate on von Bismarck’s motives, although he may have been interested in encouraging Finnish support for his unification project in the German states. Suomalainen Wirallinen Lehti, 7 Jul. 1868. Teija Tiilikainen, Europe and Finland: Defining the Political Identity of Finland in Western Europe (London, 1998), 50–1.

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and Finland was perceived as one of the positive results of autonomous fiscal and trade policies. The same point can be made for aid from Britain, which was largely stimulated and channelled through business connections (including the Quaker interventions). As the crisis started to relent in the summer of 1868, Yrjö-Koskinen summarised his thoughts on external aid to Pál Hunfalvy: I want to make one point about the distress that has been suffered. In foreign newspapers, even in Sweden, Finland’s emergency has sometimes been used as a flurry against Russia. This is thoughtlessness. Firstly, there have been more gracious gifts from Russia than from elsewhere. And secondly, the Russian Empire has no obligation to help us; on the contrary, all external assistance benefits so infinitely little that one has to fear more the disadvantages to the state (contempt of foreigners and the loss of one’s self-worth) that may result from such assistance.123

This private message prefigured the words of Yrjö-Koskinen’s friend and fellow Fennomane, Zachris Topelius, who wrote a few years later in the Book of Our Land (1875), although the Finns were “grateful to receive help from the rich countries”, it was nonetheless humiliating to be considered one of Europe’s pauper nations.124 The Fennomane attitudes to aid depended considerably on the source and the possible motivations of that aid, as well as the potential damage that might be done to the national spirit.

Conclusion Between 1856 and 1868, “Famine-stricken Finland” was the subject of regular and diverse fundraising initiatives. The British Quakers’ intervention after the Crimean War helped frame Finland as a “famine country”, and Finns as hard-working, “deserving” recipients of aid, in the international sphere, differentiating Finns in donors’ minds from the paternalistic discourse that prevailed in colonial contexts. The flexibility of Finnish identity, at least as externally constructed, makes Finland an excellent case study as a recipient of aid during the mid-nineteenth century. Business 123  Yrjö-Koskinen to Hunfalvy, 22 Jun. 1868. Reprinted in Tervonen, Pál Hunfalvy ja Suomalaiset, 214–6. 124  Z [achris] Topelius, “Kejsar Alexander II och Helsingfors Lantdag 1863,” in Boken om Vårt Land: Läsebok för de lägsta läroverken i Finland: Andra Kursen (Esbo, 1937 [1875]), (Chapter 187), 383–87.

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contacts and consular networks were vital in instigating fundraising campaigns for Finland in different countries, as well as ensuring that donations reached their intended destinations. Fundraising rhetoric and the motivations of individual donors varied depending on time and space, and reflected a number of factors, including international geopolitics; national, regional and personal senses of duty; reciprocity; and banal connections (such as having travelled to Finland). The remittances of émigré Finns (largely in the Russian Empire, and only rarely at this time in North America) were also notable, and whatever their individual motivations (even on the basic level of helping their needy friends and relatives in their own home parishes), they were presented as doing their patriotic duty to help the young nation out of its temporary predicament. The administration in Helsinki was ambivalent towards this type of charity. On the one hand, it was grateful for the injection of funds and grain  (which reduced the amounts that needed to be borrowed from European banks), and for the example that such largesse was providing to its own people. On the other hand, there was a sense that the funds could jeopardise Finland’s economic autonomy, create a dependency culture among its rural citizens, and (possibly worst of all) present an unattractive picture of a mendicant nation to the world. As indebtedness, unemployment, vagrancy and general precarity increased dramatically during the 1860s after repeated harvest failures, these types of strictures seemed cruel and the hectoring had diminishing returns. The administrative elites became more sensitive to international perceptions that Finland might have needed—much less requested—international aid. Yrjö-Koskinen, in response to Russian newspaper suggestions in 1869 that Finland had compromised its autonomy by receiving foreign (and especially Russian) aid in 1867–1868, alluded to the biblical tale of Esau and retorted that “we have never, in the manner of Esau, exchanged our human dignity for the price of a bowl of pea soup”.125 Although contemporary accounts might have hoped that the kindness of strangers would be “held forever in the memory”, the reality is that such external aid was sidelined in the national narrative in favour of notions of self-­ sufficiency. This narrative was as keenly promoted to the outside world as 125  Y.S. Yrjö-Koskinen, “Wielä hätä-ajan opetusta”, Uusi Suometar, 14 Oct. 1869. Quoted in Henrik Forsberg, “Masculine Submission: National Narratives of the Last Great Famine, c. 1868–1920”, Journal of Finnish Studies, 20:1 (2017), 38–64: 42. Translation by Henrik Forsberg.

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it was to the Finnish people. In turn, overseas benefactors presented Finns as “hard-working”, “improvable” Lutherans who had not “raised a murmur” in pursuit of foreign aid—at the same time as the likes of Theodor Thilén were bemoaning the “slackers” who were causing the Grand Duchy’s economic woes. In private letters, on pulpits and even in newspaper columns, generally away from foreign eyes, the need for external aid was used as a humiliating lesson for the Finnish folk. Such charity should not be needed in a country hoping to demonstrate its place among the nations of the world.

References Bibliography

National Library of Finland, Helsinki Portrait of Nils Flyckt: National Library of Finland, Signum: I.1.a./II:24.

National Board of Antiquities, Helsinki Antell Collection: “Nälkävuoden 1868 pitkäperjantaina sadalle köyhälle tarjottu päivällinen”, HK10002:474, Historical Image Collection.

Official Reports Protokoll fördt hos Vällofliga Borgareståndet å Landtdagen i Helsingfors 1863–1864. Första Bandet: Från landtdagens början till slutet af år 1863 (Helsingfors, 1864). Redovisning öfver de undsättningsmedel, som influtit till förmån för de genom sistlidet års missvext nödlidande invånarne i Uleåborgs, Wasa och Kuopio län, äfvensom öfver den af finska styrelsen till samma ändamål anslagna undsättning, jemte uppgift å det af ryska kronan till nedsatta priser aflåtna sädesbelopp, som på H.M. Kejsarens nådiga befallning föryttrats ur ryska kronans förråder i Finland till underlättande af undsättnings-åtgärderne för hungersnödens afhjelpande i landet. Intill den 1 juli 1857 (Helsingfors, 1857).

Newspapers Åbo Tidningar. Åbo Underrättelser.

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Aftenposten. Aftonbladet. Athenæum. Badischer Beobachter. Belfast News-Letter. Berlingske. Birmingham Daily Post. British Friend. Christianstadsbladet. Fäderneslandet. Faedrelandet. Finlands Allmänna Tidning. Folkwännen. Från nära och fjerran. Göteborgs Handels- och Sjöfartstidning. Gotlands Läns Tidning. Hämäläinen. Härnösandsposten. Helsingfors Dagblad. Helsingfors Tidningar. Helsingin Sanomat. Hufvudstadsbladet. Ilmarinen. Karlsruher Tagblatt. Karlsruher Zeitung. Kuopion Sanomat. Lady’s Newspaper. Leeds Mercury. Lolland-Flasters Stifts-Tidende. Lunds Weckobladet. Maaseudun Tulevaisuus. Manchester Guardian. Morning Chronicle. Ny Tidning för Musik. Nya Dagligt Allehanda. Nya Pressen. Opregte Haarlemsche Courant. Österbotten. Papperslyktan. Pesti Naplo. Porin Kaupungin Sanomia. Post- Och Inrikes Tidningar.

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Punch. Revalsche Zeitung. Rigasche Zeitung. St. Petersburger Zeitung. Sanan-Lennätin. Sanomia Turusta. Söderköpings Tidning. Spectator. Standard (London). Suomalainen Wirallinen Lehti. Suomen Julkisia Sanomia. Suometar. Tähti. Tampereen Sanomat. Times (London). Trondhjems borgerlige Realskoles alene-priviligerede Adresscontoirs-Efterretninger. Viikko-Sanomat. Wiborg. Wiborgs Tidning.

Printed Secondary Sources ———, Vier Tage in Finnland: Reiseskizze (Mitau, 1868). ———, Finnland und die evangelisch-lutherische Kirche (Berlin, 1868). ———, Report of a Visit to Finland in the Autumn of 1856 (Birmingham, n.d.). ———, Report of the Committee for the Relief of Famine in Finland (London, 1858). Michael Barnett, Empire of Humanity: A History of Humanity (Ithaca & London, 2011). H.  Arnold Barton, “Scandinavianism, Fennomania and the Crimean War”, in H. Arnold Barton, Essays on Scandinavian History (Carbondale, 2009), 161–88. Frank Christianson, Philanthropy in British and American Fiction: Dickens, Hawthorn, Eliot and Howells (Edinburgh, 2007). Max Engman, “Philanthropi bland Finländarna i Petersburg”, Historisk Tidskrift för Finland 83 (1998), 254–88. Max Engman, Suureen itään: Suomalaiset Venäjällä ja Aasiassa (Turku, 2005). Henrik Forsberg, “Masculine Submission: National Narratives of the Last Great Famine, c. 1868–1920”, Journal of Finnish Studies, 20:1 (2017), 38–64. Norbert Götz, ‘“The Good Plumpuddings’ Belief”: British Voluntary Aid to Sweden during the Napoleonic Wars’, International History Review 37:3 (Jun. 2015), 519–39. Norbert Götz, Georgina Brewis & Steffen Werther, Humanitarianism in the Modern World (Cambridge, 2020).

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John Ormerod Greenwood, Quaker Encounters. Volume One: Friends and Relief (York, 1975). Antti Häkkinen & Andrew G. Newby, “Nälkäkriisi-Suomi: kansainvälinen apu ja kotimaiset panostukset”, in Juhani Koponen & Sakari Saaritsa (eds), Nälkämaasta hyvinvointivaltioksi: Suomen kehityksen kiinniottajana (Helsinki, 2019), 93–110. Mary Hilson, “Denmark, Norway and Sweden: Pan-Scandinavianism and Nationalism”, in Timothy Baycroft & Mark Hewitson (eds), What Is A Nation? Europe 1789–1914 (Oxford, 2006), 192–209. Peter J.  Hoffman & Thomas G.  Weiss, Humanitarianism, War, and Politics: Solferino to Syria and Beyond (Lanham, 2017). Max Jakobson, Finland in the New Europe (Westport, CT, 1998). Osmo Jussila, “Englantilaisten kveekarien Joseph Sturgen ja Thomas Harveyn matkakuvaus Suomesta v. 1856”, Historiallinen Arkisto lxi (1967), 430–40. Lauri Kalliala, “Eräs ‘caritas fraterna’—muisto nälkävuosien ajoilta 1868–9”, Teologinen Aikakauskirja, 2–3 (1924), 60–6. Kaisa Kaarina Karila, “Kulttuuriyhteistyötä, politiikkaa ja kansansivistämistä: fennomaanien suhde Unkariin”, (MA Thesis, University of Eastern Finland: Joensuu), 2006. David Kirby, A Concise History of Finland (Cambridge, 2006). Rafael Koskimies, Y.S. Yrjö-Koskisen elämä (2 vols., 1974). Lars-Folke Landgrén, För frihet och framåtskridande: Helsingfors Dagblads etableringsskede 1861–1864 (Helsingfors, 1995). Thomas Laqueur, “Bodies, Details and the Humanitarian Narrative”, in Lynn Hunt (ed.), The New Cultural History (Berkeley, 1989), 176–204. Oskar Loorits, Yrjö-Koskinens Briefwecksel mit seinen estnischen Freunden (Tartto, 1936). Tiina Männistö-Funk, “Suomalaista hätää yli rajojen—1850- ja 1860-luvun ruokapulan sekä suurten nälkävuosien käsittely eurooppalaisessa lehdistössä”, in Tuomas Jussila & Lari Rantanen (eds), Nälkävuodet 1867–1868 (Helsinki, 2018), 198–238. William R.  Mead, “The Conquest of Finland,” The Norseman, ix (1951), 14–22, 98–104. Agathon Meurman, Nälkävuodet 1860-luvulla (Helsinki, 1892). Theodor Mügge, Nordisches Bilderbuch. Reisebilder von Theodor Mügge (Frankfurt am Main, 1857). Andrew G. Newby, ‘“One Valhalla of the Free”: Scandinavia, Britain and Northern Identity in the Nineteenth Century’, in Peter Stadius and Jonas Harvard (eds), Communicating the North: Marketing in the Making of the Nordic Region (Farnham: Ashgate, 2013), 147–69. Andrew G. Newby, “‘Rather Peculiar Claims Upon Our Sympathies’: Britain and Famine in Finland, 1856–68”, in Marguérite Corporaal, Christopher Cusack,

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Lindsay Janssen & Ruud van den Beuken (eds), Global Legacies of the Great Irish Famine: Transnational and Interdisciplinary Perspectives, (Bern 2014), 61-80. Andrew G. Newby, “‘Acting in their appropriate and wanted sphere’: The Society of Friends and Famine Relief in Ireland and Finland, c. 1845–1857” in Patrick Fitzgerald, Christine Kinealy & Gerard Moran (eds), Irish Hunger and Migration: Myth, Memory and Memorialization (Quinnipiac, 2015), 107–20. Andrew G. Newby, “‘Black Spots on the Map of Europe’: Ireland and Finland as oppressed nationalities, c. 1860–1910”, Irish Historical Studies, XLI (Nov. 2017), 180–99. Andrew G.  Newby, ‘“Brothers of the Nordic Tribe”: Danish Famine Aid to Sweden and Finland 1867–68’, in Nina Javette Koefoed & Andrew G. Newby (eds), Lutheranism and Social Responsibility (Göttingen, 2022), 183–209. Carl Rupert Nyblom, “Vid Student-Conserten i Upsala för de nödlidande i Finland den 7 Mars 1857”, in Carl Rupert Nyblom, Dikter (Upsala, 1860), 192–4. Cormac Ó Gráda, “Markets and Famines: Evidence from Nineteenth Century Finland”, Economic Development and Cultural Change, 49:3 (2001–2004), 575–90. Juhani Paasivirta, Finland and Europe: The Period of Autonomy and the International Crises 1808–1914 (London, 1981). Juhani Paasivirta, Suomen kulttuurisuhteet 1800- ja 1900-luvuille (Turku, 1991). Lari Rantanen, “A Pitfall on a Nation’s Path of Politics? Government Response to the Finnish Famine of the 1860s”, Jahrbücher für Geschichte Osteuropas 67 (2019/2), 206–38. Henry Richard, Memoirs of Joseph Sturge (London, 1864). V.T. Rosenqvist, Frans Ludvig Schauman (förra delen) (Helsingfors, 1927). Tom Scott-Smith, On An Empty Stomach: Two Hundred Years of Hunger Relief (Ithaca, 2020). Peter Stamatov, The Origins of Global Humanitarianism: Religion, Empires and Advocacy (Cambridge, 2013). Henrik Stenius, “The Good Life is a Life of Conformity: The Impact of the Lutheran Tradition on Nordic Political Culture”, in Øystein Sørensen & Bo Stråth (eds), The Cultural Construction of Norden (Oslo, 1997), 161–71. Gunnar Suolahti, Yrjö-Koskisen elämä. 1, Nuori Yrjö-Koskinen (Helsinki, 1974). Viljo Tervonen, “19th-Century Pioneers of Cultural Relations”, in Jaakko Numminen & János Nagy (ed.), Friends and Relatives: Finnish-Hungarian Cultural Relations (Budapest, 1985), 52–98. Viljo Tervonen (ed.), Pál Hunfalvy ja Suomalaiset: Kirjeitä Vuosilta 1853–1891 (Helsinki, 1987). Teija Tiilikainen, Europe and Finland: Defining the Political Identity of Finland in Western Europe (London, 1998).

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Z [achris] Topelius, “Kejsar Alexander II och Helsingfors Lantdag 1863,” in Boken om Vårt Land: Läsebok för de lägsta läroverken i Finland: Andra Kursen (Esbo, 1937 [1875]). Oiva Turpeinen, Nälkä vai tauti tappoi? Kauhunvuodet 1866–1868 (Helsinki, 1986). Voitto Vuola, Yrjö Sakari Yrjö-Koskisen Kristillisyydenkäsitys (Helsinki, 1981). Yrjö Wichman, Paavali Hunfalvyn suomalaista kirjeenvaihtoa—Vähäisiä kirjelmiä LIII (Helsinki, 1923). Hanna Zagefka & Trevor James, “The Psychology of Charitable Donations to Disaster Victims and Beyond”, Social Issues and Policy Review 9:1 (2015), 155–92.

CHAPTER 6

Vagrancy and Perceptions of Crime

In his analysis of historical famine relief paradigms, development consultant David Hall-Matthews noted that “massive voluntary migration” and rising crime rates were among the most important “early warning signals” of famine.1 Migration, indeed, has been an instinctive reaction for individuals and communities seeking refuge from famine, throughout history and in all parts of the world.2 Moreover, the idea that a society on the verge of collapse would not experience a rise in certain types of crime goes against general historical experience, and maybe even against human nature. As historian David Arnold has observed, “the poor did not accept the denial of their entitlements without contest”, although crime during famine events has generally been haphazard, and food riots or strikes are not typical.3 Finland proved no exception to these more general patterns

1  David Hall-Matthews, “The Historical Roots of Famine Relief Paradigms”, in Helen O’Neill & John Toye (eds), A World Without Famine? New Approaches to Aid and Development (Basingstoke, 1998), 107–27: 119; Paul Ocobock, “Introduction: Vagrancy and Homelessness in Global Historical Perspective”, in A.L. Baier & Paul Ocobock (eds), Cast Out: Vagrancy and Homelessness in Global Historical Perspective (Athens, OH, 2008), 1–34. 2  David Arnold, Famine: Social Crisis and Historical Change (Oxford, 1988), 91; James Vernon, Hunger: A Modern History (Cambridge, MA, 2007), 10; Cormac Ó Gráda & Kevin O’Rourke, “Migration as Disaster Relief: Lessons from the Great Irish Famine”, European Review of Economic History 1 (1), 3–25: 3; Stephen Devereux, Theories of Famine (New York, 1993), 14–5. 3  Quoted in Malabika  Chakrabarti, The Famine of 1896–97  in Bengal: Availability or Entitlement Crisis? (Hyderabad, 2004), 325. See also Jean Dreze & Amartya Sen, Hunger and Public Action (Oxford, 1989), 22.

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 A. G. Newby, Finland’s Great Famine, 1856–68, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-19474-0_6

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during the 1860s (nor had it during the “Great Years of Death” in the 1690s).4 Large-scale internal migration subsequently became a central part of the narrative of the famine years, and depictions of the 1860s tend to feature emaciated, bedraggled figures, often proceeding in family groups or in longer lines across the Finnish countryside. Conversely, these narratives are remarkable for their insistence that crime did not rise in these circumstances. The supposed national virtues of stoicism and honesty—combined with the vital importance to Finnish nationalists of presenting a socially and regionally unified nation during this key decade in its history—were used to gloss over the inevitable spike in lawlessness caused by a large-scale subsistence crisis.5 This line of rhetoric is exemplified by Agathon Meurman’s oft- quoted and agenda-setting Nalkawuodet 1860-luwulla [The Hunger Years of the 1860s] (1892). Meurman admitted that social and regional inequality did occur in the 1860s. Nevertheless, he claimed: what is certain is that no lock had to be strengthened, no door or window needed to be barred, nor any pistol loaded. The large farmer and his family slept peacefully in [his] room surrounded by guests gathered from all provinces. Nothing out of the ordinary shows up in our criminal records. The Finnish nation was able to die, but not able to save itself through crime.6

Meurman’s account was primarily a means of protecting and crystallising the hegemonic famine narrative, of a heroic national endeavour in the face of insurmountable odds, as counter narratives began to emerge in the early 1890s.7 Moreover, as famine loomed again after another harvest ­failure in 1892, it was also a form of social control, reminding Finns of their supposed heritage, in trusting their fate to God and to the benevolent national administration in Helsinki. 4  Mirkka Lappalainen, Jumalan vihan ruoska: suuri nälänhätä Suomessa 1695–1697 (Helsinki, 2012). See 161–77 for crimes and social consequences of the famine. 5  Timo Myllyntaus, “Summer Frost: A Natural Hazard with Fatal Consequences in Pre-­ Industrial Finland”, in Christof Mauch & Christian Pfister (eds), Natural Disasters, Cultural Responses: Case Studies Toward a Global Environmental History (Lanham, 2009), 77–102: 95–6. 6  Agathon Meurman, Nälkäwuodet 1860-luwulla (Helsinki, 1892), 60. 7  Henrik Forsberg, “Nälkäkuolema kansallishyveenä? Viimeiset Nälkävuodet Suomalaisessa Kirjallisessa Historiakulttuurissa Vuosina 1870–1900”, Historiallinen Aikakauskirja 3 / 2011, 267–80.

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Migration in Nineteenth-Century Finland Although some general patterns migratory can be discerned, not least a predictable movement towards potential work opportunities in municipal or government-funded relief works, migration during the 1860s Finnish famine generally adhered to Arup Maharatna’s characterisation of “sheer ‘wandering’—instinctive, desperate, and indecisive (‘aimless’) roaming in search of food”.8 Most of the Finnish migration in the 1860s involved individuals, family or larger groups trekking long distances between relatively remote crofts or farmhouses, in the hope of some sort of food or short-term accommodation.9 And, as a relative newcomer to Finland in 1868, British Consul William Campbell seemed shocked by the extent of the “wandering”: …believe me, it is truly heartbreaking to see whole families driven from their northern homes by famine and despair, wandering from place to place, half dead with cold, in search of food and work, but finding neither. Such is Finland’s present state.10

Migration in nineteenth-century Finland was legally restricted, subject to laws and customs that had originated in the Swedish period and had adapted over time.11 This meant that most people were required to carry a “travel pass”—signed off by a pastor or a local official—if they wanted to leave their home parish. This regulation of movement was intimately connected to Lutheran traditions of poor relief, and the idea the social order could be disturbed by people would becoming “loose”—detached from

8  Arup Maharatna, “Food Scarcity and Migration: An Overview”, Social Research 81 (2014), 277–98: 277. See also David Arnold, “Vagrant India: Famine, Poverty and Welfare under Colonial Rule”, in A.L.  Beier & Paul Ocobock (eds), Cast Out: Vagrancy and Homelessness in Global and Historical Perspective (Athens, OH, 2008), 117–39. 9  Kari Pitkänen, “The Road to Survival or Death? Temporary Migration During the Great Finnish Famine”, in Antti Häkkinen (ed.), Just a Sack of Potatoes? Crisis Experiences in European Societies, Past and Present (Helsinki, 1992), 87–118: 97–102. 10   Report of William Campbell, British Consul General, Helsingfors. Reprinted in Manchester Guardian, 24 Mar. 1868. 11  Maare Paloheimo, Merja Uotila & Teemu Korpijärvi, “Liikuvuuden rajat—konkreetinen ja kuviteltu liikuvuus pitkällä 1800-luvulla”, Ennen ja Nyt 3/2001. https://journal.fi/ ennenjanyt/article/view/109359/64319.

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their home parishes.12 Different documents were needed for different types of travel—for example, business-related, a permanent move outside of the Grand Duchy, or temporary migration. Furthermore, as Einonen et al. note in their case study of labour mobility in 1800s Finland, “not everyone had to travel through documents, as the highest sections of society could move without certificates. They were always assumed to act in accordance with the regulations, in addition to which their social status was sufficient as identity documentation”.13 Very few of those who were on the road in Finland during the famine years can realistically have been members of that privileged stratum of society. It is also important to note, when considering the evolving legal and social situation during the Great Hunger Years, that the system of “legal protection” was reformed in January 1865.14 Prior to this reform every individual who was not a free peasant, a civil servant or an aristocrat had to “belong” to some kind of established social structure to benefit from legal protection.15 In most cases in 1860s Finland this meant a large peasant farmer offering security to their labourers or sub-tenants, but it also applied to cities and the relationship e.g. of apprentices and employees to their employers.16 The January 1865 Reform addressed people not under legal protection, but in practice only those who lived a “malevolent, lazy life”17 were supposed to be prosecuted as “vagrants”. Arrest and prosecution, in turn, could lead to a sentence of forced labour or a spell in a workhouse.18 12  Johanna Annola & Riikka Miettinen, “Piety and Prayers: Religion in the Lives of the Indoor Poor in Finland, 1600s to 1900s”, in Nina Javette Koefoed & Andrew G. Newby (eds), Lutheranism and Social Responsibility (Göttingen, 2022), 129–52: 131; Piia Einonen, Pirita Frigren, Tiina Hemminki & Merja Uotila, “Leipää taivalta takana—liikkuminen 1800-­luvun alun Suomessa”, Ennen ja Nyt 5 (2016) https://journal.fi/ennenjanyt/article/view/108763. 13  Einonen et al, “Leipää taivalta takana”, fn 38. 14  “Kotimaalta”, Maiden ja Meren Takaa (Lisälehti), 6 Mar. 1865. The new decree, executed on 23rd Jan. 1865, was printed in successive editions of the official state newspaper. Suomen Julkisia Sanomia, 23 Feb. 1866 & seq. 15  Ilkka Nummela, Toiselta Kantilta: Minna Canth liikenaisena (Helsinki, 2004), 149. 16  Einonen et al, “Leipää taivalta takana”. 17  That is, “pahatapaista laiskurielämää”. K.J. Ståhlberg, Irtolaisuus Suomen Lain Mukaan (Helsinki, 1893 [1995], 38. See Panu Pulma “Vaivaisten Valtakunta”, in Jouko Jaakkola, Panu Pulma, Mirja Satka & Kyösti Urponen (eds), Armeliaisuus, Yhteisöapu, Sosiaaliturva. Suomalaisten Sosiaalisen Turvan Historia (Helsinki, 1994), 15–70, 59–61; Pirjo Markkola, Työläiskodin synty: tamperelaiset työläisperheet ja yhteiskunnallinen kysymys 1870-luvulta 1910-luvulle (Helsinki, 1994), 20. 18  Einonen et al, “Leipää taivalta takana”. See also Päivi Pukero, Epämääräisestä elämästä kruunun haltuun. Irtolaisuuden ja huonoosaisuuden kontrolli Itä-Suomessa 1860–1885 (Joensuu, 2009), 34–8.

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Internal Migration and the Great Hunger Years Migration in search of sustenance within Finland’s own borders during the 1860s plays a prominent part in both the contemporary record and the subsequent historiography and literature of the period, not least because of the apparent link with the spread of disease and attendant increase in mortality caused by this mobility.19 At the start of the 1860s, the main concern was with the moral implications that migration might have for individuals and families, and the attendant impact on the development of the nation. Migration from certain parts of Finland experiencing economic difficulties was a concern for the authorities, and became part of a broader debate around poor relief and the development of Finland’s society. Vagrancy was closely linked to harvest failures, and this is reflected in the increased attention given to the issue in 1862–1863, 1865–1866 and, of course, in 1867–1868, by which time there was “widely uncontrolled out-migration from the regions struck by poor crops”.20 As a result, an informal “night and house” system developed, whereby beggars would be accommodated somewhere overnight, given (often limited) sustenance and then hurried on to the next farmstead the next morning.21 Public works schemes—especially the Riihimäki to St. Petersburg railway project after 1867—also attracted substantial migration as they were introduced.22

19  Miikka Voutilainen, Poverty, Inequality and the Finnish 1860s Famine (Jyväskylä, 2016), 176; 182–3; Marjatta Rahikainen, “From the Poor Laws to the Welfare State”, in Marjatta Rahikainen (ed.), Austerity and Prosperity. Perspectives on Finnish Society (Helsinki, 1993), 88–103: 90; Kari Pitkänen, “Famine Mortality in Nineteenth-Century Finland: Is there a Sex Bias?”, in Tim Dyson & Cormac Ó Gráda (eds), Famine Demography: Perspectives from the Past and Present (Oxford, 2002), 65–92: 86–7. 20  Voutilainen, Poverty, Inequality, 182–3. 21  That is, “yö ja talo järjestelmä”. See Antti Häkkinen, “‘Pernaan Lapuan tie tehtiin jauhonaaloolla nälkävuosina’: Hätäaputyöt: Epäonnistuiko valtiovalta?”, in Antti Häkkinen, Vappu Ikonen, Kari Pitkänen & Hannu Soikkanen, Kun Halla Nälän Tuskan Toi (Porvoo, 1991), 129–57: 153–4; Antti Häkkinen “On Attitudes and Living Strategies in the Finnish Countryside in the Years of Famine 1867–68”, in Antti Häkkinen (ed.), Just a Sack of Potatoes? Crisis Experiences in European Societies, Past and Present (Helsinki, 1992), 149–66: 156. A custom of local begging—kolmen kirkon kiertäjät (“three church wanderers”)—was an informal mode of itinerant begging, mostly by children and elderly women. It was often difficult to separate this type of local movement from the longer-distance migration of the 1860s. Antti Häkkinen, “The Great Famine of the 1860s: An Important Turning Point or Setback?”, Journal of Finnish Studies, 21:1–2 (2018), 156–177: 163. 22  See Chap. 7.

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Other historic migration routes, northwards towards Finnmark or the Barents Coast, were also used, though the extent to which the vagrancy during the worst months of 1867–1868 had any genuine sense of forward planning should not be over-estimated.23 Although some cross-border migration did take place, as will be seen in Chap. 8, most Finns did not have realistic transport options when it came to leaving Finland for the New World. While many did seek a living in Russia or the Russian Empire, almost all of the destinations that were relatively accessible—such as Sweden, Norway, Estonia or western parts of Russia—were also experiencing famine conditions and were therefore increasingly vigilant about vagrants from neighbouring countries crossing their borders.24

Overview 1856–1867 Antti Häkkinen has calculated that maybe 100,000 from a population of approximately 1.7 million had been forced on to the road by 1867–1868.25 As with many of the other social phenomena that were witnessed in the worst crisis year of 1867–1868, however, this vagrancy was a heightened manifestation of something that had already been taking place for many years. After the 1856 harvest failure, for example, sources in south-eastern Finland noted that “poor people from Ostrobothnia” were “already on the move” and appearing in increasing numbers in southern towns.26 The perceived connections between vagrancy and begging, and in turn between begging and irretrievable demoralisation, informed public discussions on the matter. A correspondent from Kristinestad, in Ostrobothnia, highlighted the town-countryside tensions that existed even within regions, in arguing that an overly charitable response to the “rising need” in 1857 would lead to “our squares and streets [being] crowded with larger and

 Pitkänen, “Road To Survival Or Death”, 98–102.  Oiva Turpeinen, Nälkä vai tauti tappoi: kauhunvuodet 1866–1868 (Helsinki, 1986), 29–31; Kirsi Nevala, “Kerjäläisiä ja jauhomattoja—1860-luvun nälkävuodet muistitietoainestoissa”, (MA Thesis, University of Tampere, 2015), 46. 25  Antti Häkkinen, “Nälkävuodet, Yhteisöt ja Kuoleman Kuvat”, in Ilona Pajari, Jussi Jalonen, Riikka Miettinen & Kirsi Kanerva (eds), Suomalaisen kuoleman historia (Helsinki, 2019), 155–81:159. For the basis of this estimate, see Häkkinen “On Attitudes and Living Strategies”, 156, fn. 24. 26  Wiborg, 24 Feb. 1857. 23 24

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hungrier masses of beggars than the supply, coming in from the country to exchange a barren and laborious life against the beggar’s abundance here”.27 Internal migration after the 1850s tended to be from north to south, and specifically southeast. Southern towns, including Helsinki and Viipuri, were strong draws, as they seemed to offer hope of work, and could also used as a migratory stepping stone to St. Petersburg and elsewhere in Russia or the Russian Empire.28 Robert Ekman’s “Beggar family by the Roadside” is one of the images most often used to depict Finland’s famine of the 1860s, and it is true that memories of these years tend to emphasise what Orta described as “the planless drifting of an apathetic mass”.29 Ekman’s painting dates from 1860, however, and although it can be used as a rather sanitised (even romanticised) depiction of the extreme suffering later in the decade, it is perhaps most useful to consider it as a source for the longer-term economic problems being experienced in large swathes of Finland at this time, and emblematic of the long slide into the crisis of 1867–1868 (Fig. 6.1). Well before 1867–1868, Finland’s desperate vagrancy was already being presented in the international press in a tone that recalled 1840s Ireland, (as when Count Paul Strzelecki, representing the British Association in Ireland, reported to a parliamentary committee in 1859 that roadside deaths had been so frequent that they went virtually unnoticed, “and without the usual sensation to which occurrences would give rise”).30 In the midst of the 1862–1863 famine year, a correspondent to the London Spectator painted an appalling picture: Hosts of wan and weary pilgrims flock in long files to Abo, Helsingfors, Kumo (sic) and Wasa: others try to creep along the shores of the Ladoga Lake to St Petersburg; and while some few reach the goal and find a scanty

 Helsingfors Tidningar, 18 Mar. 1857.  “Report of Mr. Consul Herman Lorentz on the Trade and Commerce of Wiborg for the Year 1867”, in Commercial Reports received at the Foreign Office from Her Majesty’s Consuls in 1868 (London, 1868), 420–24; Pitkänen, “Famine Mortality in Finland”, 86; Pitkänen, “Road to Survival or Death” 99–100. 29  Timo Orta, “Finnish Emigration Prior to 1893: Economic, Demographic and Social Backgrounds”, in Michael G. Karni, Matti E. Kaups & Douglas J. Ollila Jr. (eds), The Finnish Experience in the Western Great Lakes Region (Turku, 1975), 21–35: 30. 30  Joseph Robins, The Miasma: Epidemic and Panic in Nineteenth-Century Ireland (Dublin, 1995), 126. 27 28

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Fig. 6.1  Robert Wilhelm Ekman. Beggar Family on the Road, 1860. Oil on Canvas, 35.0 × 44.5  cm. Photo: Finnish National Gallery / Hannu Aaltonen. (Courtesy of the Finnish National Gallery / Ateneum Art Museum)

subsistence, many more perish on the road, to be devoured by dogs and wolves, who are swarming all over the country.31

At the time of the Spectator report, Finland’s elites were considering the “national question”, with the Diet scheduled to convene in the summer of 1863, and the recurrent famine conditions seemed to highlight both challenges and opportunities when it came to nation-building. The 1862 emergency—which was perceived by nationalist newspaper Suometar as “even more severe than 1856”—apparently offered a chance to strengthen the coherence of the Finnish nation. This editorial in Suometar argued that the Grand Duchy’s autonomous government alone could not prevent famine, but was grateful that since the 1850s they had been presented with more opportunities to demonstrate that they could survive without imperial interventions, and concluded that Finns working with fellow Finns to prevent industrial and national destitution would “bind together the children of the fatherland with an iron grip”.32 And yet, at a time when the coherence of the Finnish nation was a preoccupation of many elite thinkers in the country, vagrancy remained an issue that could  Spectator, 10 Jan. 1863.  “Hädästä ja sen aputoimesta”, Suometar, 19 Sep. 1862. See above, Ch. 4.

31 32

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highlight and even exacerbate old regional and class divisions. Metropolitan attitudes towards internal migration apparently hardened in proportion to the increased volume of these “loose people”. Professor Frans Ludvig Schauman’s relief committee in Helsinki, which had been very successful in raising funds for the “northern provinces” in 1862, warned against both gratuitous charity and vagrancy: The committee members are therefore of the unanimous opinion, if the poor people leave their homesteads, in search of employment, it is very blameworthy and damaging in all aspects, thus no assistance should be given to those, or their families, who have left their homesteads, from the aid that has been collected.33

Two adjacent articles in Suometar in October 1862 demonstrate the ongoing fear of lazy northerners flooding into southern towns, bringing immorality, crime and laziness with them, and challenging national modernisation. One of the articles was a complaint by “Southern Finn”, who noted that “there is just now, as there was six years ago, a hard famine in the northern parts of our country”, that vagrants would be coming from the north looking for “gifts”, and that a plan needed to be formulated of how to stop them.34 “Southern Finn” concluded by recommending that anyone leaving their home parish would need not only an official passport, but also a certificate in Finnish from their priest confirming that they had not misused any charity that they had been given. In the second—unattributed—article, the idea that Finns should migrate from northern districts in search of work, especially as they might have been given false expectations of the possibilities on offer, was mocked as entirely misguided. Indeed it compared the vagrants to a plague of locusts, before stressing Governor-General Baron Platon Rokassovsky’s demand that the provinces of Oulu, Vaasa and Kuopio create work for their own residents, rather than encourage migration.35 Misplaced paternalism, the article continued, would lead inevitably to moral degradation, and  boost the idea that a “free living” could be gained by those “wretches” who hoped to move south.36  “Apukomitea nälkää-näkeviä varten”, Suometar, 10 Oct. 1862.  “Etelä-Suomalainen”, “Sananen Papinkirjesita”, Suometar, 17 Oct. 1862. 35  Suometar, 17 Oct. 1862. 36  “Irtaimen wäen liikkeestä”, Suometar, 17 Oct. 1862. 33 34

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Others commentators were more positive about the apparently inevitable southward stream of vagrants in the autumn of 1862. “A Proposal” from Pori, for example, argued that it should not be too difficult to match the hungry job-seekers with work projects—providing a “much-needed livelihood” for “our fellow human beings”, while also bringing local building projects to a quicker conclusion than planned.37 This sense that the crisis could also provide cheap labour for proposed construction and infrastructure projects would be a recurrent theme in 1866–1868, especially in regard to the Riihimäki to St. Petersburg railway.38 Contemporaries certainly perceived a causal link between the harsh economic circumstances and increased crime. After the harvest failure of 1862, lawlessness was reported from many parts of the Grand Duchy. In the fortress town of Uuras, just south of Viipuri, a crime-wave erupted featuring bold acts of daylight robbery perpetrated by “all types of villains”, and was blamed on uncontrolled migration from other parts of Finland.39 Nearly 200 km north-west in Mikkeli, it was noted that “robberies have taken place both in the town and on the outskirts”.40 Still further north, in Oulu, similar events were recorded, with “and an increase in contagious diseases, but also burglaries” being attributed directly to the “Frost Night” of autumn 1862.41 Dozens of people had been apprehended for theft from crown magazines, granaries and private homes, and the stolen items—including sugar and coffee—possibly indicate that they were for resale rather than private consumption, a lower level of desperation than that seen later in the decade.42 More generally the local courts in Oulu were kept busy in the winter of 1862–1863 with “thefts, murders and robberies”.43 In his pioneering work on the Finnish famine, Antti Häkkinen highlighted the disparity between official crimes statistics and the official “remembrance” of the period, with “serious crimes” against personal property rising from 1862 to 1868 by a factor of 2½, before falling again

 “Ett förslag”, Björneborgs Tidning, 30 Sep. 1862.  See below, Ch. 7.  39  K. Wilkka, “Uuraasta”, Otawa, 25 Sep. 1863. 40  “Mikkelistä”, Mikkelin Wiikko-Sanomia, 13 Aug. 1863. 41  “Oulusta”, Oulun Wiikko-Sanomia, 21 Feb. 1863. 42  “Oulusta”, Oulun Wiikko-Sanomia, 21 Feb. 1863. 43  “Oulusta”, Oulun Wiikko-Sanomia, 21 Mar. 1863. 37 38

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as both economy and society normalised.44 Even then, Häkkinen argued, the statistics are likely to present a more sanitised version of events, as many crimes would have gone unreported or unsolved.45 More recently, Miikka Vuorela’s research has demonstrated in great detail the extent to which the famine conditions in the 1860s affected patterns of crime and punishment in Finland.46 Even setting aside “petty” offences and focussing only on the serious crimes—theft, assault, robbery and homicide— Vuorela has identified a pronounced spike in convictions coinciding with the most desperate period of Finland’s Great Hunger Years.47 Within these statistics, there also is an obvious increase in crimes relating to property, and conversely a small decline or levelling off in sexual offences (which also related to changing moral attitudes towards sex outside of marriage), and crimes targeting life and health.48 Moreover, Vuorela’s data demonstrate that, while convictions for theft rose in number, the overall value of stolen goods fell, indicating that desperate people were taking risks for decreasing potential “rewards”.49 The crisis of 1862–1863 was perceived as manageable by the administration in Helsinki, and the inculcation of national values was seen as a viable means of reducing crime rates, almost irrespective of the economic tribulations that many were facing. In an article on education, for example, the nationalist Suometar newspaper argued that: “sivistys and teaching give rise to diligence, skills and honesty, through which, in turn, incompetence, poverty and crimes reduce”.50 In some of these commentaries, the relationship of famine and crime was reversed—implying that hunger and suffering was increasing because of the immoral tendencies of the Finnish

44  Antti Häkkinen, “‘Varkauksia Alkoi Ilmetä Syksyisin’: Suuret Rosvot—Hallin Janne; Aleksanteri ja Kaapo Sutki”, in Antti Häkkinen, Vappu Ikonen, Kari Pitkänen & Hannu Soikkanen, Kun Halla Nälän Tuskan Toi (Porvoo, 1991), 176–94: 186. 45  Häkkinen, “Varkauksia Alkoi Ilmetä Syksyisin”, 186. 46  Miikka Vuorela, “Rikollisuus ja Suomen suuret nälkävuodet 1866–1868”, Lakimies, 5/2015, 658–688; Miikka Vuorela, “Criminality and the Finnish Famine of 1866–68”, in Andrew G.  Newby (ed.), ‘The Enormous Failure of Nature’: Famine and Society in the Nineteenth Century (Helsinki, 2016), 119–50. 47  Vuorela, “Criminality and the Great Finnish Famine”, 123 (Fig. 2); Vuorela, “Historical Criminal Statistics”, 114. 48  Vuorela, “Criminality and the Great Finnish Famine”, 123–4 (Fig. 3). 49  Vuorela, “Criminality and the Great Finnish Famine”, 144 (Fig. 8). 50  “Helsingin Wuoro-opetus-koulut”, Suometar, 22 May 1863.

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people—and hopes expressed that the famine would inculcate the skills (honesty, frugality) needed to ensure a “bright future”.51 Despite private concerns about ongoing ignorance and criminality, then, the national leaders insisted that to be a Finn meant to be law-­ abiding. An admission that crime increased simply because of a time of dearth would be an admission of at least partial failure of the ongoing “Finnishness” project. Vagrancy in particular was perceived as detrimental to societal cohesion, and thus as a barrier to sivistys, and contributory factor to crime.52 By 1864, John Good, the Hull ship-owner, noted the increasing sense of desperation in Finland: “the want among the poor in the country has been and continues great, it has been rare to see a street beggar formerly, now there are many”.53 Renewed harvest failure in 1865 intensified discussions in the public press about how to deal with the attendant increase in vagrancy and begging, and the tone was increasingly negative. Samuel Henrik Antell, the Governor of Kuopio Province, petitioned the state administration to provide funds for public works, claiming that “here we are flooded with beggars and vagrants from the more northern regions”.54 In March 1866, “Saarni”, a correspondent to Suometar from Ulvila, some four hundred kilometres to the west and south of Kuopio, complained that despite the existence of a poor relief system, “vagrants flood ever more from Ostrobothnia, through [Ulvila] to southern Finland”. The author reinforced the link between vagrancy and indolence, and claimed that paupers who stayed in their own parishes—availing of the local poorhouse, for example—were accustomed to working for their keep. The numbers of vagrants had increased considerably since 1862, and by now, “among these groups are old codgers and small children, but also young wives, fresh men and full-grown boys”. This meant that it became “impossible to tell real distress from that borne of laziness”. Despite the deepening economic malaise, “Saarni” could see no benefit to the country

 “Helsingfors-krönika”, Hufvudstadsbladet, 19 Nov. 1866.  Vuorela, “Criminality and the Finnish Famine”, 139–41. See above, Ch. X. for the fears of the Finnish administration around migration. 53  John Good’s Diary, Hull History Centre, U DGO/36. 54  S.H. Antell to J.V. Snellman, 10 Feb. 1866. 51 52

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in permitting vagrancy, and the relief without a work-task that this implied: “but even if the good times came, can it be expected that these waifs, accustomed to alms and laziness, would return to earn their bread by the sweat of their foreheads?” The conclusion was that if the problem continued, this endemic indolence would inevitably infect the working classes of southern Finland.55 The migration question, therefore, was intimately connected to the broader problem of poor relief provision. It was linked with idleness and moral degeneration—of failing to adhere to the spirit of Saarijärven Paavo, and making the most from the unpromising soil of one’s home parish. Although the crisis was presented as an opportunity for Finland to unite as a nation in a spirit of mutual assistance, it also highlighted the persistence of regional social, economic and cultural differences. As Cormac Ó Gráda has noted in this respect, famines arguably bring out the best and the worst sides of human nature.56 In Finland, one side of this dichotomy was represented by the vigorous fundraising that took place for the “distressed”, and the converse by the prejudice that was displayed towards the inhabitants of the affected regions, and the fears that they might appear in person to beg in the more affluent areas, and “infect” those areas either with typhus or indolence. A week after “Saarni’s” fretful correspondence, another contribution to the rather one-sided migration debate appeared in the editorial columns of the Hämeenlinna-based Hämäläinen newspaper.57 As with the correspondent from Ulvila, this writer highlighted the “floods” of families that could be encountered in central and southern Finland, who “despite not being compelled through hunger”, concoct bad-luck stories to cheat honest people out of their money: “If you offer them a job with food as the wage, none of them take the job, or if they do they run off as soon as possible…” The accusation was that people were taking advantage of the hospitality implied by the “night and house” system, which—if allowed to persist unchecked—would lead to “a third of Finland” wandering about in hope of support. Thus, the tirade continued, the worst consequence of

 “Saarni”, “Ulwilasta”, Suometar, 8 Mar. 1866.  Cormac Ó Gráda, Eating People is Wrong, and Other Essays on Famine: its Past and Its Future (Princeton, 2015), 1. 57  “Kulkuriväki”, Hämäläinen, 16 Mar. 1866. The editor at the time was Gustaf Erik Eurén, history teacher at the town’s high school. 55 56

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vagrancy was not that it essentially took advantage of honest people, but that the vagrant would inevitably get accustomed to support without anything in return. Therefore, relief should never be given without a work-task.58 This type of rhetoric, of course, was familiar in many other contexts— the “civilised” author implying that lower classes were demoralised by laziness and dependency on the charity of others. In this case, the othering was apparently motivated by regional and class prejudice (as opposed to the religious or ethnic rhetoric seen in Ireland, for example) in the claim that: “the notable thing is that you don’t get vagrant families on the move from our southern and central regions as you do from the north and east—not even in years of dearth”. The writer extrapolated from all this that vagrancy was so prevalent in Ostrobothnia because the population of that region was essentially a “forest people”, and such people are could subsist in any old bit of forest. For a people to be “civilised” or “educated”, they needed to be “fixed to the soil”, and therefore this had to be an essential concern of a young nation that hoped to develop universal sivistys. In this reading of the situation, migration was framed as the cause, rather than effect, of the Finnish nation’s poverty. The Governor of Mikkeli Province, Theodor Thilén, condemned the “private peasant economy” in a letter to J.V. Snellman, claiming that the system of legal protection caused “laziness” and “ruin”.59 Thilén’s contempt—and demand for reform—of Finland’s rural economy, could hardly have been more strongly asserted: reform might have been possible if the Imperial Senate had issued a decision in principle last autumn: no more loans to secure a livelihood, whatever happens. A few hundred farmers might have been forced out of their farms, [and] possibly some hundreds of people starved to death, but the principle would have been clearly stated and the example would have worked effectively.

58  This rhetoric follows the above-mentioned editorial in Suometar (“Hädästä ja sen aputoimesta”, Suometar, 19 Sep. 1862), which in turn used the example of the British Quaker intervention of the 1850s to demonstrate that emergency funds should be given as short-­ term loans for specific improvements, rather than as gratuitous charity. 59  T.S. Thilén to J.V. Snellman, 6 Apr. 1866.

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This was consistent with Thilén’s other writings from the Great Hunger Years, but he seems to have been particularly aggravated in the spring of 1866 by the “thousands of beggars from Kuopio and Oulu roaming around [Mikkeli]”, especially as he believed that the harvests had been no worse in the north than they had been in his own province. The prevalence of vagrants from outside his own jurisdiction, in turn, had forced him to apply for a loan for emergency relief works from the central administration, something he resented. For Thilén, national solidarity did not mean leaping to the aid of fellow Finns through charity, but rather that municipalities “learned to take care of their own affairs” and thus prevent their economic mismanagement penalising the rest of the country.60 C.G.F. Wrede, the Governor of Vaasa Province, was equally scathing. In submitting a proposal for a public works scheme at Ilmajoki, in Southern Ostrobothnia, Wrede hoped to stem the flow of migrants at that point rather than having them continue further south.61 Nevertheless, he feared it was too late to stop the general slide into “the vagrant lifestyle that erodes all morality”, and took the opportunity to attribute a rise in burglaries and thefts to the uncontrolled migration (specifically to “layabouts”).62 In early 1867, a letter to J.V. Snellman from Wrede demonstrated the prevailing belief that “an absence of work and bread” was leading to “morally subversive” vagrancy and, in turn “burglary and theft of every conceivable kind”.63 This attitude was echoed in the letter from Kajaani that Johan August von Essen, Provincial Governor of Kuopio, wrote to Snellman in the wake of the cataclysmic “Frost Night” of September 3–4, 1867, which predicted “hunger, rampant diseases, robberies and thefts” in the immediate future, as well as a “ a general collapse of social morality, which, in an already noticeable way, erodes the roots of society like cancer and threatens to lead to the loss of public order”.64 In the same vein, the Helsinki-based daily newspaper Hufvudstadsbladet published “More on the Matter of Famine and its Relief”, which seemed to act simultaneously as a form of social control through identity formation, and as a dire warning about the possible consequences of the deepening crisis:  T.S. Thilén to J.V. Snellman, 6 Apr. 1866.  C.G. F. Wrede to J.V. Snellman, 4 Apr. 1867. 62  vetelehtijät. 63  C.G.F. Wrede to J.V. Snellman, 4 Apr. 1867. 64  J.A. von Essen to J.V. Snellman, 7 Sep. 1867. 60 61

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The people of Finland have gained well-deserved praise, for ensuring that violence, robberies, and other similar types of crime are [belong to the] rarities, “and we are convinced that many would rather starve, than turn to the desperate resort of taking another’s property through force”, but, on the other hand, there will certainly not be a shortage of such people—and we fear that their crowd will become numerous—which in the present circumstances will [band together], which will become quite dangerous for public safety. Desperation gives man a courage that he may not otherwise possess, and once he has started down the path of crime, he who devotes himself to it will then probably continue, and by his example attract others in his footsteps, and thus the life and property of the peaceful citizen will be in considerable danger.65

This topsy-turvy reading of cause and effect was echoed in Turku: “The lower classes of people prefer to beg and steal, as can be seen and heard during this time, in this summer we have heard about burglaries non-stop, and it is a rare day when some nocturnal atrocity doesn’t occur. It’s no wonder that God punishes us with ‘Dear Times’, when we do not hear the voice of His mercy, but rather harden ourselves like the Pharaoh…”66 Despite the promotion of “law-abiding” national values, however, the general atmosphere was one of trepidation for the coming year.67

Bracing for the Worst As the crisis deepened, therefore, this was the context in which those forced onto the road found themselves. Despite Thilén’s scorn, Snellman still had some faith in bolstering the position of the free peasantry, and hoping that they would be able to provide work and sustenance for the landless labourers who made up so much of the “loose” population.68 An

65  “Ytterligare i frågan om hungersnöden och dess lindrande”, Hufvudstadsbladet, 21 Sep. 1867. 66  Sanomia Turusta, 11 Oct. 1867. 67  “Hattulalainen”, “Hattulasta”, Suomalainen Wirallinen Lehti, 11 Jan. 1868. 68  Eliza Kraatari, Domestic Dexterity and Cultural Policy: The Idea of Cottage Industry and Historical Experience in Finland from the Great Famine to the Reconstruction Period (Jyväskylä, 2016), 75; [J.V.  Snellman] “Några ord till allmänhetens lugnande” (30 Dec. 1866, brevkonsept).

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increase in the volume of vagrancy was acknowledged in early 1867—no longer “only from the northern parts of the country, but also from the more ‘powerful’ parishes”. Although there was some sympathy for anyone who had resorted to begging on the road during such a harsh winter, their motives were still questioned: “what is likely to have set in motion these many hundreds of wanderers this year, dearth or laziness, or both together, is hard to say”.69 The deleterious effect on the nation was also highlighted: “how long are we wasting so much manpower and precious time and throwing expensive food and stuff into the bottomless and unfulfilled stream of begging?”70 The growing sense of dread among the better-off members of society can also be seen in a letter from Julia Forssell (daughter of an army officer) to her friend or cousin Hilda Keckman. Having heard increasingly desperate news from Hilda in Kauhava (Vaasa Province), Julia replied from her home at Bältars, in the southern parish of Karis (Uusimaa Province): How terrible it must be for you there in Ostrobothnia. There are also large herds of vagrants here, they steal a lot, but our four dogs guard the house so that no one has dared to do anything bad. However, it scares me a lot when my brother is away from home and we burn a fire in the lamp all night to scare away thieves, and so far we have been spared from nocturnal surprises.71

In the summer of 1867, there was an increasing awareness among the Finnish elites that, with each harvest failure from 1856 onwards being “worse than the previous one”, the country seemed to be on the verge of a large-scale human catastrophe. In this context, a limited degree of realism seemed to enter the discussions on migration. In a wide-ranging article on “Poverty in the land and its causes”, a pseudonymous correspondent to Helsingfors Dagblad put forward arguments for a liberalisation of attitudes towards vagrants. In particular, this correspondent mocked the idea of people coming “from distressed Kärsämäki” to beg in Häme, only to be repatriated at the state’s expense, demanded a greater respect for personal

 Tähti, 19 Feb. 1867.  Tähti, 19 Feb. 1867. 71  Helmi Breitholtz, “Suurista Nälkävuosista 1867–68”, Uusi Suomi, 8 Dec. 1935. Letter between Julia Forssell (Bältars, near Karis) and Hilda Keckman (Ånäs, Kauhava), dated 12 May 1867. 69 70

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freedom, and concluded “give work if you can… but do not forbid the needy to seek work wherever he sees fit”.72 The events of September 1867, therefore, may have accelerated the extent of internal migration in Finland, but the sense that communities were being “flooded” far pre-dated it. The state bureaucracy was criticised for signing off travel passes too readily, and so the local pastors and municipal clerks who were responsible for their distribution were told to desist from issuing them.73 This, in turn, increased the numbers of people on the roads without any form of travel document, which therefore barred them from getting work.74 A few voices seemed to acknowledge that simply criminalising everyone who had taken to the road was impractical and counter-productive, and that a more realistic approach was needed. This took into account the 1865 reforms, which had, at least theoretically, relaxed some of the mobility restrictions: “someone who is looking for work and is behaving decently may, and should, be allowed to go about unmolested by a crown official”.75 The writer in this case believed that old attitudes died hard, and that officials were indeed too quick to think that anyone outside the norms of legal protection would automatically be living the “malevolent, lazy life” described in the January 1865 act.

The Culmination of the Great Hunger Years The records suggest that interprovincial migration was not a priority from southern coastal regions, nor certain parts of Turku, Pori, Häme or Mikkeli, but in assessing this data Kari Pitkänen warns of the possibility that the distressed people of these areas may nevertheless have “circulated in their home parishes, or even in neighbouring areas”.76 For the distressed in southern Finland, the best option often seemed to be to gravitate  “---r”, “Fattigdomen i landet och orsakerna dertill”, Helsingfors Dagblad, 13 Jul. 1867.  Kari Pitkänen, Deprivation and Disease: Mortality During the Great Finnish Famine of the 1860s (Helsinki, 1993), 118, fn. 4. Towards the end of the crisis period, the town doctor of Kristiinankaupunki (Kristinestad) made an inland visit, and reported on a society that had apparently broken down: “the distress in Ilmajoki is terrible, as seven consecutive years of failed harvests have completely consumed all the previous stores [of grain]. Those who are fit to work will probably go away, and on some days, up to thirty travel permissions are given out; children and the old are forced to survive on inappropriate nutrition, which gives rise to disease and death.” “Helsingistä”, Suomalainen Wirallinen Lehti, 18 Apr. 1868. 74  Pitkänen, Deprivation and Disease, 118, fn. 4. 75  S. “Bref från Tammerfors”, Helsingfors Dagblad, 9 Sep. 1867. 76  Pitkänen, “Road to Survival or Death”98. 72 73

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towards the nearest public works or construction scheme.77 Reports of people moving through the country in “packs”, or “droves” increased soon after the frost of September 1867, often reinforcing the idea of a strong migration from Ostrobothnia and Savonia towards the south, particularly Viborg and, potentially, St. Petersburg. Samuel Stenius, a church official in North Karelia, recalled the situation in Juuka, where “beggars began to circulate in November and December, but at the start of 1868 was a flood of vagrants the like of which had never been seen before.78 This echoed contemporary reports, such as the following from “Lower Karelia”, which not only outlines the extent of the migration, but also demonstrates that the attitudes from earlier in the 1850s and 1860s had not been softened by the extent of the crisis in 1868: FROM LOWER KARELIA:- a flood of beggars has now cascaded from the north southwards. It is now greater than it has ever been in recent years, with entire families on the move… They are all travelling south begging, and so consume what paltry reserves that folk still have, because who would not give something to a beggar, as long as one has a little oneself. It is the Finnish nature and custom. In the old days, compared to now, beggars were treated more like a holy house guest… begging has lost its former value, now there is only impoverished and needy beggars left. But this quality, namely pauperism, feels the beggar, should be made as great as possible, and even spread the word of this pauperism, so that people would consider them more deserving. So, they spread rumours and lies about people starving or freezing to death, so that they would receive more, and, preferably, they would be carried about from house to house and village to village. Sure, there has been negotiations and decisions to stop beggars wandering from place to place; but the emergency does not observe laws. A few [officials] have followed and enacted the decisions; flocks of beggars have gone on the road due to dearth, and so move from place and place and parish to parish.79

Even though this type of migration was generally meant to be “temporary”, the dislocation caused in 1867–1868 was such that even those that  Pitkänen, “Road to Survival or Death”, 99–100; Voutilainen, Poverty, Inequality, 183.  Samuel Vilhelm Stenius, “Hajanaisia tietoja Juuan seurakunnasta kahdeksannelta- ja yhdeksänneltätoista vuosisadalta” (Stenius’ handwritten notes were reprinted in Heikki Kokkonen, “Juuan pitäjästä kohdanneista katovuosista”, Nuori Karjala, 4: 1910 (Apr. 1910). 79  Suomalainen Wirallinen Lehti, 11 Jan. 1868. 77 78

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survived did not always return to their home parishes. Eero Koskimies80 recalled the situation in Hämeenkyrö in his 1914 memoirs: When the older generation nowadays recount the memories of that terrible winter, it is quite normal that the story begins: “In the Poor Years I ended up some place or another.” One small eight-year-old, Oskari, “ended up” in Heinola; another, ten-year-old Ville, in Rauma; a third, slightly older, in Helsinki. And so on. Family ties were broken: one man “ended up” away for so long, that he never again returned to his home, though he was still alive, and others came to search for their family only years later.81

Well into the 1870s, it was possible to read heartbroken appeals from parents in the Finnish press, seeking information about children who had gone out onto the road in 1868 and failed to return home.82 By the 1890s, an estimate presented by some ministers is that 20–30% of migrants never returned to their own parishes, which according to Kari Pitkänen would suggest “catastrophic mortality rates” among migrants.83 Snellman had been keen to avert this type of itinerant mendicancy. In an article entitled “Averting Beggary” in October 1867 Snellman returned to his argument from December 1866, and took a firm position on the dismissal of workers from farms that tried to alleviate their distress by pushing those who needed to be fed out on the road: “Under current conditions in Finland, the shortage of work cannot be eliminated. However, it could with good will be made less oppressive”. In a country where nine-tenths of the people depended on agriculture, Snellman posited that any harvest failure would precipitate unemployment like that seen in “England’s manufacturing districts when raw cotton is in short supply”, an allusion to the Lancashire Cotton Famine from earlier in the decade. Finland had to rely on the private landowners’ sense of responsibility. In order to protect their employees, the landlords had to design sideworks that provided jobs when farming could not.84 Otherwise, “if 80  Eero Koskimies (1880–1918), large farmer and nephew of Yrjö-Koskinen, was a friend of author F.E. Sillanpää and inspiration for the character of “Lord of Paitula” in the novel Meek Heritage. He was killed by the Red Guard during the Civil War in 1918. 81  Eero Koskimies, “Nälkä- ja tautivuodet 1867–68 Hämeenkyrössä”, Aamulehti, 2 Aug. 1914. 82  “Kadonneita lapsiansa hakewat…”, Pietarin Sunnuntailehti, 10 Sep. 1872. 83  Pitkänen, Deprivation and Disease, 109. 84  [J.V. Snellman], “Om Tiggeriets Afvärjande”, Finlands Allmänna Tidning, 1 Oct. 1867.

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[the landowner] does not want to feed them as workers, he must feed them as beggars. There is no escape from this choice. No one else can feed them. If they are cast on to the country roads, then they need to walk it and pray for work or alms. The landed folk cannot then complain about flocks of beggars”. In Snellman’s opinion, the ever-increasing numbers of beggars through the 1860s was a failure of local enterprise and an indication of broken social relations. Despite the traditions of alms to the needy, and the strictures from Snellman, many of the “landed folk” were either unable to hire workers, or were unprepared, unwilling or unable to provide charity for migratory beggars. This situation was acknowledged in contemporary sources, as well as in some later memoirs.85 A correspondent from south-western coastal town of Uusikaupunki described the scene in a letter to a Danish newspaper: Large crowds of beggars come in whole families from the countryside, with poor little half-naked, frozen and starving children. The peasant farmers now employ neither men nor girls, but seek to get by without anybody, and naturally the labourers therefore resort to the towns to get help. I have about 30 beggars with me every night.86

The link between vagrancy and crime was also a factor behind a proposal for a “county workhouse” in Oulu in November 1867, specifically “thefts and some bold acts of robbery [being] perpetrated in Haapavesi, Pyhäjärvi, Pidisjärvi, Kianto, Kärsämäki, Pulkkila and Vihanti congregations during this and last year”.87 The concern in Oulu persisted through the winter, and it was reported in February 1868 that: Thefts, mostly from break-ins and lock-picking, are complained of from every direction, so that nothing seems protectable if it is not behind stone walls and iron doors, and in the province’s prison-room, which last spring had at most forty people incarcerated, there were 125 last Monday, most of them robbers and thieves. What is remarkable is the fact that there is no murderer among this crowd—the largest there has ever been—despite there always having been [at least one murderer] in human memory. From the 85  Vaito Pesola, “Kaisa Tohni: Kuvaus v. 1867–68 Nälkävuosilta”, Saarijärven-Paavo, 21 Dec. 1926. 86  Dagbladet, 28 Dec. 1867. 87  Suomalainen Wirallinen Lehti, 22 Nov. 1867.

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south, on the other hand, almost every postal delivery brings news of murder, each more brutal than the last.88

Localised crime-waves were reported from various parishes around the Grand Duchy—“lots of thefts… a large number of reindeer thefts” in Pudasjärvi;89 Viipuri was reported to be in “time of thefts and robberies”, where “even on the country roads near the city, travellers have recently been attacked, and that in broad daylight”;90 while on the west coast, a correspondent in Lappfjärd observed that “thefts and other crimes have increased a lot here… over the last year. Things in Närpes have not been any better in this respect”.91 Reports reinforced the extent to which grain was being stolen from granaries, flour from mills, sheep and cattle from pens and pastures.92 Thus, although rumours of violent crime circulated (not only in newspaper columns but also by word of mouth including the traditional broadside ballads, or arkkiveisut) most of Finland was more affected by the predictable increase in crimes against property.93 Private letters sent overseas from Finland in late 1867, which had no particular reason to minimise the social dislocation taking place, included criminality and insecurity among the other entirely predictable consequences of the famine. The British Consul General in Helsinki, William Campbell, noted that “the country is in a most distressing state, the people compelled by actual want have already commenced to perpetrate crimes and outrages, robberies are of frequent occurrence, the post has been attacked on two occasions and the mail bags plundered and in one 88  “Oulusta”, Oulun Wiikko-Sanomia, 29 Feb. 1868. An adjacent column in Oulun-Wiikko Sanomia presented a more detailed account of an attempted robbery in Lumijoki, forty kilometres south-west of Oulu. Here, along with robberies at various other mills and stores, the farmhouse of Augusti Kerola was broken into and robbed of several valuable items and a large sum of money. The thief in this case was apprehended after returning to the scene of the crime, and was handed over to the authorities. See “—n –k –a”, “Lumijoelta”, Oulun Wiikko-Sanomia, 29 Feb. 1868. 89  Oulun Wiikko-Sanomia, 8 Feb. 1868. 90  Borgåbladet, 1 Aug. 1868. 91  Tampereen Sanomat, 27 Oct. 1868. 92  “H.  H—p”, “Torniosta”, Oulun Wiikko-Sanomia, 15 Feb. 1868; “Salosten kappeli-­ seurakunnasta”, Oulun Wiikko- Sanomia, 27 Jun. 1868; “--lm--”, “Ilmajoelta”, Suomalainen Wirallinen Lehti, 17 Sep. 1867. The Swedish serial robber, Patrik Österholm, might also have been responsible for some local spikes in crime statistics. He had arrived in Ostrobothnia during the “Hunger Winter” of 1867–1868 and committed numerous robberies in western Finland. “Crime”, “Rikosten Maailma XVI: Suurrosvo Österholm”, Apu, 2:1939, 3–4. 93  “Huittista”, Sanomia Turusta, 27 Sep. 1867; “K.H.”, “Kurusta”, Sanomia Turusta, 27 Dec. 1867.

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case the guard shot”.94 A dramatic letter to the Norwegian newspaper Aftenbladet, also syndicated widely in Denmark, described how: most of the farmers have laid off their labourers, so that there are an awful lot of vagrants who are driven to the edge by hunger and distress. Theft, murder and arson are heard of daily. Every major property is guarded at night with loaded guns, and every traveller has to be provided with a firearm. In the cities it is with fear that one travels out late at night. In a word, the times are so anxious that they defy description….95

This was all a far cry from Meurman’s later portrayal of landowners living a relatively carefree life providing for vagrants, and was supplemented later in the month by a correspondent from Uusikaupunki writing in the Copenhagen Dagbladet, who came to the conclusion that “I even think it will get worse during the course of the winter, for then thefts and robberies will hardly be absent. Indeed, they are already beginning”.96 Therefore, although violent interpersonal crimes declined during the Great Hunger Years, the perception does not seem to have matched the contemporary statistical reality. Those violent cases that were reported caused shock and consternation, and probably increased negative attitudes towards any unknown beggars suddenly appearing in a community. Despite the statistical decrease in murders and assaults through the 1860s, occasional, high-profile violent crimes captured national attention, and added to the general sense of insecurity. One such crime was that noted by William Campbell, the robbery of a postal train at Hallinpenkki, near Kuorevsi on the first day of October, during which a train guard was killed.97 Robberies of the postal service, which we do not recall hearing about in our land before, are now happening here frequently. On September 27, between Ryttylä and Tervakoski a bag was stolen from Tervakoski factory’s postman. The bag contained 4,000 marks. 400 marks has been promised as a reward 94  (UK) National Archives, London. Foreign Office: Embassy and Consular Archives. Russia: Helsingfors (Helsinki). Correspondence of William Campbell 1866–1870. FO768/6/73. Campbell to Buchanan, 11 Oct. 1867. 95  Berlingske, 6 Dec. 1867; Dagbladet, 7 Dec. 1867; Flyveposten, 7 Dec. 1867. Widely syndicated in the following days. 96  Dagbladet, 28 Dec. 1867. 97  Häkkinen notes that the small notice regarding the Hallinpenkki robbery which appeared in Hämäläinen 3 Oct. 1867 soon caused widespread consternation and aroused attention in Helsinki. The letter to London from Campbell was only a week later. Häkkinen, “Varkauksia Alkoi Ilmetä Syksyisin”, 190.

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to the one who finds the robbers. The postmaster of Hämeenlinna announces that… the Jyväskylä post was robbed, and Mäkelä, the driver was killed, between Hallinpenkki tavern and Jämsä, in Kuorevesi, but the assistant got away.98

The idea that, while relatively rare, such events were happening “frequently” confirms the sense of trepidation described by William Campbell. The murderer at Hallinpenkki was a man by the name of Juhani Mattila, later nicknamed “Hallin Janne”. A large sum of money, up to ten thousand marks, intended as capital for the renewed Nerkoo Canal works, had been stolen, and after an investigation Mattila and an agricultural labourer, Aleksanteri Maijanpoika, were found guilty and sentenced to exile in Siberia.99 There was no explicit connection to poverty in the reports of “Hallin Janne” case, and indeed the later romanticised narrative rather linked Mattila’s upbringing in a tavern, in the company of vagabonds, as the main factor in his own life of crime. Nevertheless, Kuorevesi was at the heart of a large area that experienced exceptional levels of disease and mortality in 1867–1868.100Antti Häkkinen, indeed, has stressed that “the postal robbery murder by Hallin Janne and his farmworker accomplice startled people with its recklessness in hopeless conditions, where anyone could consider resorting to violence”.101  Tähti, 8 Oct. 1867.  Häkkinen, “Varkauksia Alkoi Ilmetä Syksyisin”, 176–80. 100  Turpeinen, Nälkä vai tauti tappoi?, 105. Kuorevesi, along with the neighbouring municipalities of Ruovesi, Orivesi and Längelmäki, all feature in the list of “disaster municipalities” which suffered over 14% mortality in 1867–8. 101  Häkkinen, “Varkauksia Alkoi Ilmetä Syksyisin”, 186; E.K. “Suomalaisia roswoja: 1. Hallin Janne”, Savotar, 27 Jun., 29 Jun., 1 Jul. 1917. Mattila later died by his own hand while in prison in the USA after complicity in another robbery/murder. Turun Lehti, 3 Oct. 1885. His story subsequently became a well-known folktale in Finland, and a ballad (beginning Hallin Jannen raudikko ravaa / Kuoreveden jäätä) can be found in several collections of Finnish folksongs. As early as 1869, songs and stories were collected by Oskar H. Speitz (based on broadside ballads that were “well known” at the time), apparently warning against the dangers of gambling (“Hattulasta”, Suomalainen Wirallinen Lehti, 4 Dec. 1869), A three-act play about the “Hallin Janne” affair was published in the 1920s (Eero Alpi, Hallin Janne: Kolminäytöksinen murhanäytelmä (Helsinki, 1920), shortly followed by a novel (Olga Vuolle, Hallin Janne: Romaani (Helsinki, 1923). The film Hallin Janne (dir. Roland af Hallström, 1950) presents a remarkably sympathetic picture of a roguish hero, and with no allusion to the conditions that would have been affecting Kuorevesi in 1867. In the summer of 2007, an opera, Hallin Janne, was performed at Himos Summer Theatre. Turun Sanomat, 10 Jul. 2007. 98 99

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Endemic poverty and social dislocation was more apparent in the case of a brutal double murder in Hirvenluoto (Hirvensalo), about seven kilometres from the centre of Turku, which caused some consternation in the regional press in the summer of 1867.102 A local correspondent from Hirvenluoto bemoaned that “a general, threatening cry of distress echoes throughout our land; the lack of money, work and livelihood grows more intense by the day; robberies and thefts are the results of all this”.103 The victims were a married crofter couple—Josef and Anna-Stiina Eriksson— and the attack that took place in their croft at Majamäki can be considered symptomatic of the hard times which Finland was experiencing. Anna-­ Stiina’s son from her first marriage, Karl Wilhelm Helin, had trekked to Hirvenluoto with a friend, Johan Johansson—a former sailor with “a long criminal record”. The pair had failed to find food at the imperial army camp in Kaarina, and so hoped that calling on Helin’s mother might be more fruitful. However, when Helin visited the croft, she was only able to give him 35 pennies, a piece of bread and some buttermilk, as that was all they had to spare. Helin’s paltry return seemed to be a final straw for Johansson, who then went to bludgeon Josef Eriksson with a stone before drawing a knife and administering a fatal stab wound. When Anna-Stiina tried to come to her husband’s aid, she suffered a similar fate—“her skull was broken in ten places”—although it was a further two weeks before she died. Johansson and Helin then took what they could from the house, before taking a short ferry over to Turku. They were apprehended by police the next day, and after a trial in August, they received death sentences which were commuted to forced labour in Siberia.104 Although crime against property was more common, therefore, there was sufficient news of violent crime in Finland in late 1867 to create a sense of unease throughout the land.105

102  Åbo Underrättelser, 11 Jul. 1867; Sanomia Turusta, 12 Jul. 1867; Antti Lehtinen, “Tragedia Hirvensalossa 140- vuotta sitten”, Turun Sanomat, 21 Jul. 2007. 103  “E.E.”, “Hirvenluodolta”, Sanomia Turusta, 15 Nov. 1867. 104  Antti Lehtinen, “Tragedia Hirvensalossa 140-vuotta sitten”, Turun Sanomat, 21 Jul. 2007. 105  “Huittista”, Sanomia Turusta, 27 Sep. 1867; “K.H.”, “Kurusta”, Sanomia Turusta, 27 Dec. 1867.

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Conclusion Despite the latter nationalist narratives, 1860s Finland was not an exception to the almost universal rule that famines cause desperation and prompt an increase in both migration and criminality. This was acknowledged on a national level in newspaper editorials in 1867, and confirmed by the numerous accounts that appeared in local and regional reports. It is true that widespread protests against the administration were absent, but even this is hardly an anomaly.106 As Amyarta Sen explained, “despite this important causal link (between famine and violence), the exact period of a severe famine is often not one of effective rebellion”.107 Even in Ireland, argues Ó Gráda, the “reputation for lawlessness and outrage was always exaggerated, but by 1845 crime rates in Ireland were on a par with Britain, and while the famine inevitably brought a rise in attacks against property, never was civil order seriously threatened”.108 Much the same can be said of Finland—certain crimes increased greatly but there was no threat to the social order, no widespread food riots, and only one example of a (short-­ lived) worksite strike.109 As with the idea that Finns starved rather than resorting to crime, the narrative agenda regarding vagrancy was self-consciously set by Agathon Meurman in the 1890s. For Meurman, the migration was framed as a noble exodus, and his description downplayed the squalor, humiliation and even the connection made by contemporaries to crime, in favour of the qualities of self-denial and self-restraint that the Finnish people were supposed to display. Moreover, in Eliza Kraatari’s words, Meurman considered that “vagrancy in the Finnish winter, which in 1867–1868 was snowy and cold with temperatures dropping down to -40°c, was a good way to keep people in motion and to get them some fresh air,” and keep them out of the diseased poor- or workhouses.110 Kari Pitkänen describes Meurman’s attempts to gloss over the migrants’ tribulations as “almost a mockery”, and points out that any analysis of contemporary reports, or

 Häkkinen, “On Attitudes and Living Strategies”, 149–50; 158.  Jean Dreze & Amartya Sen, Hunger and Public Action (Oxford, 1989), 22. Quoted in Chakrabarti, Famine of 1896–97 in Bengal, 325. 108  Cormac Ó Gráda, Black ’47 and Beyond. The Great Irish Famine in History, Economy and Memory (Princeton, 1999), 7. 109  At Nerkoo. See below, Ch. 7. 110  Meurman, Nälkäwuodet 1860-luwulla, 53; Kraatari, Domestic Dexterity, 80. 106 107

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subsequent eyewitness reports and memoirs, highlights deep social and regional divisions within Finland at this time.111

References Bibliography

Snellman’s Correspondence http://snellman.kootutteokset.fi/fi. [J.V.  Snellman] “Några ord till allmänhetens lugnande” (30 Dec. 1866, brevkonsept). [J.V. Snellman], “Om Tiggeriets Afvärjande”, Finlands Allmänna Tidning, 1 Oct. 1867; R.  Savolainen et  al, (eds.), J.V.  Snellmanin Kootut Teokset (Helsinki, 2005), Osa XXII, 16–28. S.H. Antell to J.V. Snellman, 10 Feb. 1866. T.S. Thilén to J.V. Snellman, 6 Apr. 1866. C.G.F. Wrede to J.V. Snellman, 4 Apr. 1867. J.A. von Essen to J.V. Snellman, 7 Sep. 1867.

UK National Archives, London Foreign Office: Embassy and Consular Archives. Russia: Helsingfors (Helsinki). Correspondence of William Campbell 1866–1870. FO768/6/73.

Official Reports Herman Lorentz, “Report of Mr. Consul Herman Lorentz on the Trade and Commerce of Wiborg for the Year 1867”, in Commercial Reports received at the Foreign Office from Her Majesty’s Consuls in 1868 (London, 1868).

Films Hallin Janne (dir. Roland af Hällström, 1950). Nälän Tie (The Road of Hunger, dir. Jouko Aaltonen, 1999).

111

 Pitkänen, “Leipää kansalle”, 169.

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Newspapers Åbo Underrättelser. Apu. Aura. Berlingske. Borgåbladet. Dagbladet. Flyveposten. Hämäläinen. Helsingfors Dagblad. Helsingfors Tidningar. Hufvudstadsbladet. Kotiseutu. Köyhäinhoitolehti. Lapuan Sanomat. Maiden ja Meren Takaa. Manchester Guardian. Mikkelin Wiikko-Sanomia. Nuori Karjala. Otawa. Oulun Wiikko-Sanomia. Pietarin Sunnuntailehti. Pirkkalan Uutiset. Saarijärven-Paavo. Sanomia Turusta. Satakunnan Kansa. Savotar. Spectator. Suomalainen Wirallinen Lehti. Suomen Julkisia Sanomia. Suometar. Tähti. Tampereen Sanomat. Tapio. Turun Lehti. Turun Sanomat. Uusi Suomi. Vaasa. Wiborg.

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Printed Secondary Sources Eero Alpi, Hallin Janne: Kolminäytöksinen murhanäytelmä (Helsinki, 1920). Johanna Annola & Riikka Miettinen, “Piety and Prayers: Religion in the Lives of the Indoor Poor in Finland, 1600s to 1900s”, in Nina Javette Koefoed & Andrew G.  Newby (eds), Lutheranism and Social Responsibility (Göttingen, 2022), 129–52. David Arnold, “Vagrant India: Famine, Poverty and Welfare under Colonial Rule”, in A.L. Beier & Paul Ocobock (eds), Cast Out: Vagrancy and Homelessness in Global and Historical Perspective (Athens, OH, 2008), 117–39. David Arnold, Famine: Social Crisis and Historical Change (Oxford, 1988). Malabika Chakrabarti, The Famine of 1896–97 in Bengal: Availability or Entitlement Crisis? (Hyderabad, 2004). Stephen Devereux, Theories of Famine (Hemel Hempstead, 1993). Robert Dirks, et al, “Social Responses During Severe Food Shortages and Famine [and Comments and Reply]”, Current Anthropology, 21:1 (Feb. 1980), 21–44. Jean Dreze & Amartya Sen, Hunger and Public Action (Oxford, 1989). Piia Einonen, Pirita Frigren, Tiina Hemminki & Merja Uotila, “Leipää taivalta takana—liikkuminen 1800-luvun alun Suomessa”, Ennen ja Nyt 16:5 (2016). Frederike Felcht, Die Regierung des Mangels: Hunger in der skandinavischen Literaturen 1830–1960 (Heidelberg, 2020). Henrik Forsberg, “Nälkäkuolema kansallishyveenä? Viimeiset Nälkävuodet Suomalaisessa Kirjallisessa Historiakulttuurissa Vuosina 1870–1900”, Historiallinen Aikakauskirja 3 / 2011, 267–80. Antti Häkkinen, “‘Kuolema tulee jäkäläleiwästä’—Hätäravinto, jäkäläleipävalistus ja sen vastaanotto”, in Antti Häkkinen, Hannu Soikkanen, Vappu Ikonen & Kari Pitkänen, Kun Halla Nälän Tuskan Toi (Porvoo, 1991), 91–113. Antti Häkkinen, “Pernaan Lapuan Tie Tehtiin Jauhonaaloolla Nälkävuosina: Hätäaputyöt: Epäonnistuitko Valtiovalta?”, in Antti Häkkinen, Vappu Ikonen, Kari Pitkänen & Hannu Soikkanen, Kun Halla Nälän Tuskan Toi (Porvoo, 1991), 129–57. Antti Häkkinen, “‘Varkauksia Alkoi Ilmetä Syksyisin’: Suuret Rosvot—Hallin Janne; Aleksanteri ja Kaapo Sutki”, in Antti Häkkinen, Vappu Ikonen, Kari Pitkänen & Hannu Soikkanen, Kun Halla Nälän Tuskan Toi (Porvoo, 1991), 176–94. Antti Häkkinen “On Attitudes and Living Strategies in the Finnish Countryside in the Years of Famine 1867–68”, in Antti Häkkinen (ed.), Just a Sack of Potatoes? Crisis Experiences in European Societies, Past and Present (Helsinki, 1992): 149–66. Antti Häkkinen, “The Great Famine of the 1860s: An Important Turning Point or Setback?” Journal of Finnish Studies, 21:1–2 (2018), 156–177.

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Antti Häkkinen, “Nälkävuodet, Yhteisöt ja Kuoleman Kuvat”, in Ilona Pajari, Jussi Jalonen, Riikka Miettinen & Kirsi Kanerva (eds), Suomalaisen kuoleman historia (Helsinki, 2019). David Hall-Matthews, “The Historical Roots of Famine Relief Paradigms”, in Helen O’Neill & John Toye (eds), A World Without Famine? New Approaches to Aid and Development (Basingstoke, 1998), 107–27. Eliza Kraatari, Domestic Dexterity and Cultural Policy: The Idea of Cottage Industry and Historical Experience in Finland from the Great Famine to the Reconstruction Period (Jyväskylä, 2016). Mirkka Lappalainen, Jumalan vihan ruoska: suuri nälänhätä Suomessa 1695–1697 (Helsinki, 2012). Arup Maharatna, “Food Scarcity and Migration: An Overview”, Social Research 81 (2014), 277–98. Pirjo Markkola, Työläiskodin synty: tamperelaiset työläisperheet ja yhteiskunnallinen kysymys 1870-luvulta 1910-luvulle (Helsinki, 1994). Agathon Meurman, Nälkäwuodet 1860-luwulla (Helsinki, 1892). Timo Myllyntaus, “Summer Frost: A Natural Hazard with Fatal Consequences in Pre-­Industrial Finland”, in Christof Mauch & Christian Pfister (eds), Natural Disasters, Cultural Responses: Case Studies Toward a Global Environmental History (Lanham, 2009), 77–102: 95–6. Kirsi Nevala, “Kerjäläisiä ja jauhomattoja—1860-luvun nälkävuodet muistitietoainestoissa”, (MA Thesis, University of Tampere, 2015). Ilkka Nummela, Toiselta Kantilta: Minna Canth liikenaisena (Helsinki, 2004). Toivo Nygård, Irtolaisuus ja sen kontrolli 1800-luvun alun Suomessa (Jyväskylä, 1985). Cormac Ó Gráda, Eating People Is Wrong, and Other Essays on Famine—Its Past and Its Future (Princeton, 2015). Cormac Ó Gráda, Black ’47 and Beyond. The Great Irish Famine in History, Economy and Memory (Princeton, 1999). Cormac Ó Gráda, Famine: A Short History (Princeton, 2009). Cormac Ó Gráda & Kevin O’Rourke, “Migration as Disaster Relief: Lessons from the Great Irish Famine”, European Review of Economic History 1:1 (1997), 3–25. Paul Ocobock, “Introduction: Vagrancy and Homelessness in Global Historical Perspective”, in A.L.  Baier & Paul Ocobock (eds), Cast Out: Vagrancy and Homelessness in Global and Historical Perspective (Athens, OH, 2008), 1–34. Timo Orta, “Finnish Emigration Prior to 1893: Economic, Demographic and Social Backgrounds”, in Michael G. Karni, Matti E. Kaups & Douglas J. Ollila Jr. (eds), The Finnish Experience in the Western Great Lakes Region (Turku, 1975), 21–35. Maare Paloheimo, Merja Uotila & Teemu Korpijärvi, “Liikuvuuden rajat— konkreetinen ja kuviteltu liikuvuus pitkällä 1800-luvulla”, Ennen ja Nyt 21:3 (2021).

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Kari Pitkänen, “Leipää kansalle, sirkushuveja herroille—armeliaisuuden januskasvot”, in Antti Häkkinen, Hannu Soikkanen, Vappu Ikonen & Kari Pitkänen, Kun Halla Nälän Tuskan Toi (Porvoo, 1991), 158–75. Kari J. Pitkänen, “The Road to Survival or Death? Temporary Migration During the Great Finnish Famine in the 1860s”, in Antti Häkkinen (ed.), Just a Sack of Potatoes? Crisis Experiences in European Societies Past and Present (Helsinki, 1992), 87–118. Kari Pitkänen, Deprivation and Disease: Mortality During the Great Finnish Famine of the 1860s (Helsinki, 1993). Kari Pitkänen, “Famine Mortality in Nineteenth-Century Finland: Is there a Sex Bias?”, in Tim Dyson & Cormac Ó Gráda (eds), Famine Demography: Perspectives from the Past and Present (Oxford, 2002), 65–92. Päivi Pukero, Epämääräisestä elämästä kruunun haltuun. Irtolaisuuden ja huono-­ osaisuuden kontrolli Itä-Suomessa 1860–1885 (Joensuu, 2009). Panu Pulma, “Vaivaisten Valtakunta”, in Jouko Jaakkola, Panu Pulma, Mirja Satka & Kyösti Urponen (eds), Armeliaisuus, Yhteisöapu, Sosiaaliturva. Suomalaisten Sosiaalisen Turvan Historia (Helsinki, 1994), 15–70. Marjatta Rahikainen, “From the Poor Laws to the Welfare State”, in Marjatta Rahikainen (ed.), Austerity and Prosperity. Perspectives on Finnish Society (Helsinki, 1993), 88–103. Joseph Robins, The Miasma: Epidemic and Panic in Nineteenth-Century Ireland (Dublin, 1995). Kaarlo Juho Ståhlberg, Irtolaisuus Suomen lain mukaan (Helsinki, 1893). Oiva Turpeinen, Nälkä vai tauti tappoi: kauhunvuodet 1866–1868 (Helsinki, 1986). James Vernon, Hunger: A Modern History (Cambridge, MA, 2007). Miikka Voutilainen, Poverty, Inequality and the Finnish 1860s Famine (Jyväskylä, 2016), 20. Olga Vuolle, Hallin Janne: Romaani (Helsinki, 1923). Miikka Vuorela, “Rikollisuus ja Suomen suuret nälkävuodet 1866–1868”, Lakimies, 5/2015, 658–68. Miikka Vuorela, “Criminality and the Finnish Famine of 1866–68”, in Andrew G. Newby (ed.), ‘The Enormous Failure of Nature’: Famine and Society in the Nineteenth Century (Helsinki, 2016), 119–50. Miikka Vuorela, “The historical criminal statistics of Finland 1842–2015—a systematic comparison to Sweden”, International Journal of Comparative and Applied Criminal Justice, 42:2–3 (2018), 95–117.

CHAPTER 7

Relief Works Schemes

Public works schemes were one of the most common anti-famine measures instigated during the Long Nineteenth Century, familiar—in various guises—throughout Europe and its various empires. Finland’s autonomous administration followed general practice during the 1860s, using a combination of loans, private charity and direct grants to create work sites, and to ensure that relief in the form of food or money would not be given out without a work task being performed. As elsewhere, these work sites became overcrowded with desperate, starving individuals and families, often seeking work in vain, regularly suffering humiliation, frequently perishing in the most squalid of circumstances. Where Finland’s Great Hunger Years differ most significantly from other similar mass famines, was not in the imposition of task-work, but in the way this work was remembered subsequently in the nationalist historiography. Agathon Meurman’s 1892 account of the famine period crystallised Fennomane sentiments, and set the agenda for future writing on the Great Hunger Years. Without a colonial context to construct an oppressive “other”, the relief works of the 1860s were incorporated into a Fennomane narrative of stoicism in the face of a Divine challenges, used to reinforce the idea of a people suffering together to ensure a brighter future for the nation.

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 A. G. Newby, Finland’s Great Famine, 1856–68, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-19474-0_7

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Relief Work in Finland Public works formed an important part of the Finnish administration’s anti-famine strategy, and was based on Lutheran practices of poor relief, inherited from the centuries of Swedish rule.1 This practice was accommodated comfortably within the Russian imperial structures, which as historian Kersti Lust has noted, “strongly favoured the policy requiring work from impoverished people in return for relief”, although these schemes often depended on private donations, which were then appropriately administered on a local or provincial level.2 A considerable amount of the resources that were distributed to the Finnish provinces, along with the private charitable contributions, went to local poor relief committees and clergy. In line with Lutheran poor relief norms—holding that “work was the principal means of fighting poverty”3—these officials were responsible for ensuring work-tasks were completed before food or wages were issued to the needy.4 J.V. Snellman and others in the administration wanted people to stay in their home parishes, ideally engaged in craftwork, but if necessary working on relatively small-scale relief works, such as local road construction.5 Finland’s roads in the 1840s had barely constituted a “network” in any meaningful sense outside of the larger southern towns, and 1  Timo Haavisto, “Teitä ja leipää valtion tuella”, in Jaakko Masonen, Kimmo Antila, Veikko Kallio & Tapani Mauranen (eds), Soraa, työtä, hevosia. Tiet, liikenne ja yhteiskunta 1860-1945 (Helsinki, 1999), 125-51. 2  Kersti Lust, “Providing for the hungry? Famine relief in the Russian Baltic province of Estland, 1867-9”, Social History, 40:1 (2015), 15-37: 23. See also Kersti Lust, “The Question of Moral Economy and Famine Relief in the Russian Baltic Provinces of Estland and Livland, 1841-69”, in Andrew G.  Newby, ‘The Enormous Failure of Nature’: Famine and Society in the Nineteenth Century (Helsinki, 2017), 46-66: 62. 3  Johanna Annola & Riikka Miettinen, “Piety and Prayers: Religion in the Lives of the Indoor Poor in Finland, 1600s to 1900s”, in Nina Javette Koefoed & Andrew G. Newby (eds), Lutheranism and Social Responsibility (Göttingen, 2022), 129-52: 131. 4  Pirjo Markkola, “Changing Patterns of Welfare: Finland in the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries”, in Steven King and John Stewart (eds), Welfare Peripheries: The Development of Welfare States in Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Europe (Bern, 2007), 207-30: 215; Marjatta Rahikainen, “From the Poor Laws to the Welfare State”, in Marjatta Rahikainen (ed.), Austerity and Prosperity: Perspectives on the Welfare State (Helsinki, 1992), 88-103: 90. 5  Lari Rantanen, “A Pitfall on a Nation’s Path of Politics? Government Response to the Finnish Famine of the 1860s”, Jahrbücher für Geschichte Osteuropas 67 (2019/2), 206-38: 223; Eliza Kraatari, Domestic Dexterity and Cultural Policy: The Idea of Cottage Industry and Historical Experience in Finland from the Great Famine to the Reconstruction Period (Jyväskylä, 2016), 69.

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the country north of Oulu was completely devoid of roads. The difference by 1875 is quite notable, although only a couple of roads had been built in the north by this time.6 Despite Snellman’s concerns, several larger schemes were instigated— most famously the new railway line from Riihimäki to St. Petersburg, but also some major canal projects. These work sites, as Snellman had feared, attracted workers from far and wide—no doubt adhering to the social norm of seeking “honest work” rather than begging, despite the negative elite characterisation of vagrants as “layabouts”.7 This, in turn, contributed to the ever-worsening living conditions at the work-sites, spreading diseases and giving rise to the highest mortality of the 1860s famine period.8 The use of vagrants and prisoners as labourers had a recent precedent in the construction of the Saimaa Canal, after 1845.9 In the 1850s, a huge public works scheme was established to drain to boglands of Pelsonsuo, near Vaala in Oulu Province, to help in the “fight against beggary and hunger”.10 The autonomous administration in Helsinki also seems to have been well aware of events in England in 1862-3, where private fundraising provided relief for the people of Lancashire during the Cotton Famine, but where work-tasks (including famine roads) were also a part of the social contract.11 Finland’s relief works in the 1860s therefore were an essential part of poor relief policy set by a home-rule administration, and did not have the colonial connotations associated with similar policies in, for example, Ireland or India, where nationalist historiographies

6  Suomen teiden historia. 1, Pakanuudenajalta Suomen itsenäistymiseen (Helsinki, 1974), 197 (Map 9), 203 (Map 10). 7  See below, Chap. 6. 8  Raimo Savolainen et  al, (eds.), J.V.  Snellmanin Kootut Teokset (Helsinki, 2005), Osa XXII, 16-28. 9  Kraatari, Domestic Dexterity, 69; Kristiina Kalleinen, ‘Isänmaan onni on kuulua Venäjälle’: Vapaaherra Lars Gabriel von Haartmanin elämä (Helsinki, 2001), 204. 10  Päivi Pukero, Epämääräisestä elämästä kruunun haltuun: irtolaisuuden ja huono-­ osaisuuden kontrolli Itä-Suomessa 1860-1885 (Joensuu, 2009), 59. 11  “Ett stort folk i nödens stund”, Helsingfors Dagblad, 24 Dec., 27 Dec. 1862. Peter Shapely, “Urban Charity, Class Relations and Social Cohesion: Charitable Responses to the Cotton Famine”, Urban History, 28:1 (2001), 46-64; D.J.  Oddy, “Urban Famine in Nineteenth-Century Britain: The Effect of the Lancashire Cotton Famine on Working-Class Diet and Health”, Economic History Review, Feb. 1983 (New Ser. 36:1), 68-86.

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emphasised the imposition of such policies by imperial powers.12 The ethnic and religious undertones associated with relief work in Ireland—and elsewhere in the British Empire—was also absent in Finland.13 And yet, the appalling conditions that workers endured, and the disdain or cruelty with which some of them were treated, bears comparison with colonial famine contexts. Moreover, much of the rhetoric around morals—the prevention of the irretrievable indolence that would be the inevitable result of “free charity”—was almost identical.14 It was class (and, to an extent, prejudices associated with regional identities) which underpinned this discourse in Finland.

Road and smaller-scale local initiatives Prior to the large-scale national- or provincial-level projects in 1866-68, based on canal and railway construction, there were innumerable local public works schemes in operation.15 These initiatives—funded by a combination of state loans and grants, and private charity—attempted to cope with the increasing regional poverty in Finland during the 1860s. The imposition of a work-task for the receipt of aid may have adhered to the accepted workings of poor-relief, but it created something of a dichotomy when it came to migration. The administration was generally against 12  Cormac Ó Gráda, Black ‘47 and Beyond: The Great Irish Famine in History, Economy and Memory (Princeton, 1999), 82; Peter Gray, “British Relief Measures”, in John Crowley, William J.  Smyth & Mike Murphy (eds), Atlas of the Great Irish Famine (Cork, 2012), 75-84; Declan Curran & Mounir Mahmalat, “Policy divergence across crises of a similar nature: the role of ideas in shaping 19th century famine relief policies”, Review of International Political Economy, 28:3 (2021), 712-38; David Hall-Matthews, “Historical Roots of Famine Relief Paradigms: Ideas on Dependency and Free Trade in India in the 1870s”, Disasters, 20:3 (1996), 216-30. In the case of India, this type of work was formalised in the “Famine Codes” of the 1870s. See e.g. B.M.  Bhatia, Famines in India: A Study in Some Aspects of the Economic History of India with Special Reference to Food Problem, 1860-1990 (3rd ed., Delhi, 1991), 184-9. 13  Juha Siltala, Valkoisen äidin pojat: Siveellisyys ja sen varjot kansallisessa projektissa (Helsinki, 1999), 171. 14  Kraatari, Domestic Dexterity, 69; Panu Pulma, “Köyhästäkö kansalainen”, in Pertti Haapala (ed.), Talous, Valta ja Valtio. Tutkimuksia 1800-luvun Suomesta (Tampere, 1990), 169-93: 173. 15  Antti Häkkinen, “‘Pernaan Lapuan tie tehtiin jauhonaaloolla nälkävuosina’: Hätäaputyöt: Epäonnistuiko valtiovalta?”, in Antti Häkkinen, Vappu Ikonen, Kari Pitkänen & Hannu Soikkanen, Kun Halla Nälän Tuskan Toi (Porvoo, 1991), 129-57: 139. For a map, see Haavisto, “Teitä ja leipää valtion tuella”, 131, Map 11.

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migration in any form, mainly because it was thought to deprive the nation/region of its most important resource—its people—while at the same time leading the individual migrants into a life of irreversible vagrancy and dependency. In an open letter written in October 1862, J.V. Snellman gave a qualified welcome to employment initiatives in the distressed regions, but demanded that relief works should not precipitate widespread migration. This, he warned, would only add to the “misery of the migrants, while preventing disaster-stricken regions from getting back on their feet in the future”.16 As the crisis of the 1860s escalated, and ever-increasing numbers of Finns travelled ever-increasing distances to potential worksites, a more immediate danger—the fatal spread of communicable diseases—took precedence over the general moral panic. Local relief schemes in the mid-1860s were mainly located in the “distressed provinces”, with money and grain being allocated to local boards for distribution. In his account of the famine in Southern Ostrobothnia (1935), ethnologist Toivo Vuorela highlighted “countless” relief roads being dug by late 1867.17 Even supposedly local work schemes often involved long treks, and haphazard short-term subsistence in overcrowded and unsanitary conditions, and therefore contributed to regional spikes in mortality, especially in 1867-68.18 One individual, fifty-nine-year-old Kustaa Salomoninpoika Ohmero, for example, is remembered as having died of starvation while working on a bog drainage project at Lapinkaivo, Southern Ostrobothnia, some thirty kilometres from his home croft near Kauhajoki.19 As the crisis peaked in 1867-68, areas which had experienced significant inward migration also looked to provide work for this new “excess population”, and provincial governors petitioned the senate to be granted funds. In Helsinki, relief work projects in 1868 included reinforcing the  J.V.S[nellman], (“Insändt”), Finlands Allmänna Tidning, 4 Oct. 1862.  Toivo Vuorela, “Vuosien 1867-68 Suurista Kato- ja Nälkävuosista Etelä-Pohjanmaalla”, Vaasa, 3 Jan. 1935. Many specific examples of local relief works are included in Vuorela’s article. 18  Turpeinen, Nälkä vai tauti tappoi?,  171. Häkkinen, “Pernaan Lapuan tie”, 139; Suomlainen Wirallinen Lehti, 3 May 1867. 19  The official cause of death is given as oedema, whereas the small memorial to “Juurakko Gustaf” simply states that he “died of hunger at this spot”. Andrew G. Newby, “Finland’s ‘Great Hunger Years’ Memorials: A Sesquicentennial Report”, in Andrew G. Newby (ed.), “The Enormous Failure of Nature”: Famine and Society in the Nineteenth Century (Helsinki, 2017), 173-214: 192; Finnish National Archives, Kauhajoki Parish Archive, Deaths & Burials Index, April 1868 (f. 233). 16 17

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buttresses at the fort of Suomenlinna, park landscaping at Ullanlinna20, and upwards of four hundred men were given employment laying stone roads outside of Töölö Toll.21 Many of these local projects went unreported, although those that do appear in the press reinforce the perception that, while some in society may have been concerned primarily with the well-being of fellow-citizens (including guarding their morals) others might have been taking the opportunity to have relatively dirty or unpleasant landscaping tasks done for little or no personal outlay. The harsh winter of 1867-68 exacerbated the appalling conditions at many of the worksites. Oral tradition in particular describes the long working days, and the distribution of work tasks between men, women and children.22 In general terms, approximately 3 naula of flour was given to male workers, and half of this amount for females.23 Children, depending on age, received between half and one-and-a-half naula. At certain sites, more skilled labourers received more (such as the horsemen employed to help build the Haapaasalmi bridge in Viitasaari, who received five naula), and the wages always depended on site managers being able to keep control of the limited supplies of flour.24 Sometimes, the payment was more even informal. In Kuopio, for example, local citizens arranged for Lukkarinlahti—a small bay which had become the receptacle for the town’s garbage—to be filled in. “All beggars who were able to pull a sled” were commanded to congregate at the site: There, they will receive work and food according to their merits, but the lazy will get nothing. The current severe freezing conditions (-30 c.), however, means that not many of the poorly-clad wretches will be able to withstand the ice without hardship.25

 See Chap. 4.  “Helsingistä”, Kansan Lehti, 7 Mar. 1868. 22  Kalevi Toiviainen, “Nälkävuodet 1867-68 Ristiinassa”, in Sulo Haltsonen, Ristiinan entisyyttä ja nykypäivää (Helsinki, 1973), 116-22; Hannele Wirilander, Ristiinan Historia (2 Vols.) (Ristiina, 1988-1994), ii, 115; Häkkinen, “Pernaan Lapuan tie” 138-9; Aku Tela, “Maanteittemme alkuhistoriaa. 4: Tokerotie”, Virtain Sanomat, 30 Sep. 1921. 23  A Russian naula was equivalent to 409.51g. 24  [Konstantin Sarlin-Saraste], Lepolan wanhuksen Muistiinpanoja (2 vols, Kuopio, 1910-1911), ii, 84-6. 25  Tapio, 25 Jan. 1868. The parenthetical reference to the temperature is in the original source. 20 21

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The next week, it was reported that, notwithstanding the fact the “freezing air and flood of snow had greatly hindered the relief work”, ninety-two people had been present to fill in the “dirty coves” of Lukkarilahti in return for “pure bread, and soup”.26 Sometimes these works had an obvious practical benefit for local infrastructure, and sometimes it seems as though the labour task was attached in order to avoid any perception of “free charity”.27 No doubt many of the people who might have contributed to relief funds, along with those monitoring how central loans were being spent, were keen to ensure that their benevolence was being distributed to “deserving” recipients. Senator Oscar Norrmén, who had been charged with investigating conditions in the distressed regions of the west, sent a report to Governor-General Adlerberg in December 1867. The report noted several incidences of small local projects attracting crowds of around a thousand people, despite temperatures of -25 c., at which the food supplies had been completely exhausted within few days, and the main outcome was that disease has ravaged through the site.28 These local projects took place all year round, which often meant that weather conditions were not considered. Indeed, on the contrary, C.G.F. Wrede, the Governor of Vaasa Province, argued strongly against suspending winter building projects in 1867-68, claiming that the frozen ground was more conducive to the road construction than when it was soft and boggy in the summer.29 Among the folklore and ethnographic collections which deal with the Great Hunger Years, many refer to these worksites.30 If such schemes were 26  Tapio, 1 Feb. 1868. As a postscript to this particular relief work, and an indication that the site was not eventually transformed from being an unregulated rubbish tip, see, “Nöyrä Kysymys”, Tapio, 8 May 1880, where a local resident equated Lukkarin lahti with the cursed valley of Gehenna in Jerusalem. It became the focus of municipal relief work again in 1891. See e.g. Ilkka Nummela, Toiselta kantilta: Minna Canth liikenaisena (Helsinki, 2004), 155. 27  See e.g. the Pylvänälä to Joutsa road, west of Kangasniemi. When the worst of the crisis was over, the a correspondent to the official state newspaper questioned the benefit of using municipal funds to complete a road which, while proving local employment, had been funded by state grants and was not considered strategically important. “Kangasniemestä”, Suomalainen Wirallinen Lehti, 18 May 1869. 28  Quoted in Häkkinen, “Pernaan Lapuan tie”, 130. 29  C.G.F. Wrede to J.V. Snellman, 16 Feb. 1868. 30  The Finnish Historical Society’s collection of famine-era memories, for example, gathered in 1917-18, asked two questions (qq. 11 & 19) about whether emergency relief work was provided in a respondents’ parish, what type, and what duration. See e.g. Kotiseutu, Elokuu-Syyskuu (Aug.-Sep.) 1917.

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later presented within a heroic narrative of sacrifice by Finnish nationalist historians, the oral tradition paints a much less noble picture. Take, for example, the humiliation of Jaakko of the Willows, in Perho, Central Ostrobothnia:31 The twelve-kilometre road from the church to Salamajärvi was being built as an emergency employment scheme during the hunger winter of 1867-68. The workers were paid a pound of flour a day. That payment was miserably small to those who had a family to feed… Like gloomy ghosts, the family fathers felled snowy trees along the road with their feeble strikes, or pounded a ditch into the frosty ground…

During a break in the work, Jaakko apparently asked the site foreman, Aapo Lampuoti, to spare some “pure bread”. Lampuoti, however, simply sneered before, after repeated requests, acceding to Jaakko on the condition that the starving workman performed a somersault on the snowy ground. After several failed attempts, Jaakko succeeded, and the laughing foreman handed over a piece of bread. Almost immediately, Jaakko fell to the ground in agony: The pain got worse and the guy writhed in the snow, groaning and moaning. Finally he settled down. By the time his comrades noticed him, he had forever forgotten the torturing pain of hunger, as well as his family far away at the cabin in The Willows, where the father would never anymore appear with his small bag of flour to ease the distress of his loved ones. In the evening dusk of that harsh hunger winter, his comrades took Jaakko to the lower chamber of the church’s bell tower to await his burial. Many of Jaakko’s comrades followed him in to frosty soil of churchyard during the next troublesome weeks, but death had lost its meaning in minds of the living. No one was afraid of it when it revealed its ruthless grin, not to mention when it caressed someone else. Life was grim and hopeless. Forever gnawing hunger numbed the most sensitive of feelings. Death was the only liberator from the apparently endless misery. That is why people weren’t afraid of it.

Fractious relations between workers and supervisors at relief sites is a regular theme in the memories of the Great Hunger Years. Another story comes from Virrat, in the extreme south-east of Vaasa Province. This 31  “Jaakko of The Willows’ Final Roll (A Memory From Winter 1867-68)”. Väinö Laajala, SKS 5, Perho, 1932.

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particular road, said to be a private initiative which was then provided with supplies of flour by the state, headed north-east towards the factory area at Killinkoski. The flour was used as a wage, and the workers mixed it with cold water to make a weak slop. Again, the emergency works provide an insight into the social relations, which were not quite as harmonious as later writing on the Great Hunger Years might imply. The project’s supervisor, the bailif 32 for Virrat-Ähtäri, was suspected by the workers of syphoning off some of the emergency flour for his own private gain (the veracity of this element of the story is questioned by the informant himself, but the very existence of this type of rumour is indicative of the social stresses present in a famine-stricken society).33 The road in question, like several others from the 1860s, became known locally as Tokerotie—the “Slop Road”—after the inadequate food wage that was provided for the workers. Maybe the best-known of these 1860s “Slop Roads” stretches for over 50 kilometres between the Ostobothnian towns of Kauhajoki and Peräseinäjoki, and after some delays was built as relief work in 1866-67.34 Indeed, not only is there a relatively accessible memorial to the road’s builders, at the village of Taivalmaa, the road itself (part of Regional Road 672) now appears in official documents and maps as Tokerotie.35 Several hundreds of men and women from around Jalasjärvi, divided into work teams of up to fifty, worked at the site.36 The eponymous “slop” was made

 Nimismies (Fi.) or länsman (Sw.)  Tela, “Maanteittemme alkuhistoriaa. 4: Tokerotie”. Cf. Myllyniemen Jussi, “Köyhän wuoden muistoja”, Keskisuomalainen, 15 Oct. 1925. 34  “Officiela Afdelningen”, Finlands Allmänna Tidning, 7 Jun. 1866; Vuorela, “Vuosien 1867-68 Suurista Kato- ja Nälkävuosista. Also printed in Kotiseutu, 2 (1935), 67-75. The location of this road fits in with Vaasa Governor Wrede’s idea of instigating relief works in strategic areas to prevent “floods” of migrants further south. See above, Chap. 6. 35  Kraatari, Domestic Dexterity, 211; Newby, “Sesquicentennial Report”, 189. A second, very similar, memorial was left at an 1860s worksite near Isokyrö (approximately 70km north-east of the Tokerotie memorial). As both of these memorials gave thanks to the Tsar’s benevolence in providing work, they may indicate a level of ongoing popular loyalty of the type that seemed to frustrate the Fennomane leaders. “Sakari”, Kyrönvirran vierämiltä”, Ilkka, 26 Oct. 1936. 36  Häkkinen, “Pernaan Lapuan tie”, 138. As a part of his pioneering research into the Great Hunger Years, Antti Häkkinen interviewed local informant Yrjö Taivalmaa (1986), and ensured that important details relating to the road’s construction were retained for future generations. 32 33

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by taking the flour that was given as a daily wage, finding a depression in a rock, then mixing the flour with water and consuming it cold.37 Toivo Vuorela noted succinctly that “many of the best roads in [Southern Ostrobothnia] can thank these straitened times for their birth, when so many slaved themselves away to exhaustion through this onerous work— just hoping for a bit of bread—or with hungry stomachs fell victim to disease and died there”.38 Various other sites of memory remain in twenty-first-century Finland that relate to these localised work projects. In Viitasaari, a marble relief, unveiled in 1977, depicts a workhouse and a long file of labourers constructing the Haapasaari bridge.39 The stone bridges that were constructed at Kivijärvi, themselves called “manly memorials to their builders” in the 1930s, were reconfigured as an imposing famine monument in 1985.40 The churchyard wall at Kiikoinen, nowadays in north-west Satakunta and close to many of the true “disaster parishes” of 1867-68, was built by distressed labourers as relief work, and was marked by a small plaque in 2017. 41 A longer-standing, if essentially anonymous, memorial can also be found in the grounds of Katinen Manor, just outside Hämeenlinna town. Here, Johan Frederik Lönnholtz, perceived as a patrician employer, also arranged for needy locals to build a wall around the main house in exchange for food. As a sign of gratitude, the workers erected a large cairn, which is still in place.42 Many more, often relatively anonymous, memorials around Finland recall these 1860s “famine roads”.43

37  See also G.A.H., “Nödhjälps åtgärderna”, Hufvudstadsbladet, 21 Sep. 1902. In Finnish as G.A.H., “Älkäämme viivytelkö”, Päivälehti, 21 Sep. 1902. Also, e.g, Ellida, “Från svunnen tid”, Ungdomsvännen, 1 Apr. 1914; “Ivalo”, “Satavuotias poikkitie saa pikisen peitteen”, Maaseudun Tulevaisuus (Viikoliite), 10 Feb. 1972. 38  Vuorela, “1867-68 Suurista Kato- ja Nälkävuosista”. 39  Newby, “Sesquicentennial Report”, 208. 40  Newby, “Sesquicentennial Report”, 194; “Johannes”, “Kivijärven Kirja”, Sisä-Suomi, 7 Aug. 1929. 41  Tyrvään Sanomat, 12 Dec. 2017. 42  Newby, “Sesquicentennial Report”, 209; Hämäläinen, 22 Mar. 1877. 43  Such roads are commemorated by roughly-hewn stones in, for example, Padasjoki (Päijät-Häme), Merikarvia (Satakunta), and west of Kangasniemi (South Savo) on the road that runs from Pylvänälä to Joutsa. Padasjoen Sanomat, 13, 20, 27 Jun. 2013; Pertti Kohvakka, Tietoja, tapahtumia ja sattumuksia Merikarvialta lähinna viisikymmenluvulta (Noormarkku, 2015), 203-5; Newby, “Sesquicentennial Report”, 190; “Kangasniemestä”, Suomalainen Wirallinen Lehti, 18 May 1869; Kristiina Dyer, “Löytyihän se kivi— Nälkävuodet eivät unohdu Merikarvialla”, Merikarvia Lehti, 2 Aug. 2022.

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Canal Work Canal building and improvement was also a key feature of the state’s public relief work policy, and like the planned railway it was believed that these projects would, in the longer-term, develop both the national economy and a sense of national cohesion.44 The completion of the Saimaa Canal in 1856 opened up new national and imperial markets for large parts of eastern Finland, but it was important that the existing inland water network was renovated to accommodate the larger vessels and increased traffic.45 Like the road construction projects, the canal work-sites were intended to provide local employment and prevent long-distance migration, and there were already several sites in operation in the mid-1860s.46 By the spring of 1868, up to 2,500 people were working in the largest canal construction sites in Savo (Nerkoo, Ahkiolahti, Taipale and Konnus), and Häme (Lempoinen).47 The Vääksy (Vesijärvi) Canal, which linked the waterways of Central Finland to the new railway at Lahti, started too late (Autumn 1868, completed in 1871) to be considered a true “emergency” relief scheme, but in terms of Finland’s industrial infrastructure it is often presented as a part of this narrative.48 The projects were also supposed to fulfil a “moral”—as much as a practical or strictly economic—role in society. In Nerkoo, for example, the

44  Anssi Paasi, “Geographical Perspectives on Finnish National Identity”, in GeoJournal 43 (1997), 41-50: 46. 45  Häkkinen, “Pernaan Lapuan tie”, 134; Eino Puramo, Itä-Suomen Vesitiekysymykset 1800-luvulla: erikoisesti Saimaan kanavaa silmällä pitäen vuoteen 1870 (Helsinki, 1952), 252. 46  “Keisarillinen Majesteetin armollinen Esitys Suomenmaan Säädyille, warain määräämisestä kulkuwäylän parantamiseen Sawonlinnan ja Kuopion kaupunkien wälillä”, Ilmarinen, 22 Mar. 1867. 47  Häkkinen, “Pernaan Lapuan tie”, 134; Turkka Myllykylä, Suomen kanavien historia (Helsinki, 1991), 150-6, 176-83. 48  See, e.g. state-level budget discussions at the Meeting of the Estates in 1872, which noted the extent of public spending “as a result of the 1867 Year of Harvest Failure”, and which included capital infrastructure projects including the “Konnus, Taipale, Nerkoo and Vesijärvi canals”. Uusi Suometar, 28 Feb. 1872; Ilmari Pykälä, “Vääksyn kanava 60-vuotias”, Suomen Kuvalehti, 22 Aug. 1931. The “Hard Times” memorial, inaugurated at Asikkala in 1977, places the canal-building alongside the Great Hunger Years as one of the key historical challenges faced by the community.

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local “moderate Fennomane”49 newspaper, Tapio, reported in 1866 that agreements were made so that “the wages of each day” was linked to a worker’s “own diligence and activity”. A local merchant, Kellgrén, opened a small food store to ensure that the workers would have somewhere to spend their wages (“at reasonable prices”), and further offshoot projects were planned, with the eventual hope that eight-hundred men would “thus earn their bread honourably…” There was a fear, acknowledged in the report, that the funding for the project might run out before a good harvest reduced the need for such palliative measures, “but let us not doubt, perhaps even a brighter morning, as the people have learned from this severe shortage to see the necessity and importance of testing their own strength, for, ‘victory is understood only by those who fought.’”50 By May 1866, up to 1,500 workers had been at the site, although the daily pay was between 80 pennies and a mark.51 This wage of 80p per day would have purchased approximately 1.5 kilos of flour, sometimes given as lichen flour, and was therefore not enough to feed a family. There was also a prelude in spring 1866 to the widespread disease that would ravage worksites two years later, as typhus spread firstly through the workers, then the wider community, at Nerkoo.52 By the spring of 1867, a lack of funding brought construction work to a halt, and yet groups of hopeful and hungry workers still came to the area. Tapio reported that it was “terrible to see the condition of the people at the work-site, especially as there is no work”.53 After a decision to use wood rather than stone, construction recommenced in late 1867, but the workers were in a poor state and progress was slow. At Ahkiolahti, thirty kilometres south of Nerkoo, there was enough work initially (June 1866) for around 200 people, mainly local, when some government funds were provided to offer work to the surplus labourers from the Nerkoo site. This project was suspended in October 1866 when that tranche of relief funds dried up.54 After the resumption of 49  Ulla Ekman-Salokangas, Eeva-Liisa Aalto & Raimo Salokangas (eds), Suomen Lehdistön Historia 7: Hakuteos Savonlinna—Övermarks Tidning (Kuopio, 1988), 111-2. 50  Tapio, 17 Mar. 1866. 51   Kuopio Museum, Kuopion Isänmaallinen Seura Nr. 893, “Kanavankaitsija J.F. Bäckströmin Muistelmia Nerkoon kanavan rakentamisesta katovuosina 1866-69”, 8-10; Oulun Wiikko-Sanomia, 26 May 1866. There were also 430 employed at the related site in Kiuruvesi (Myllykylä, Suomen Kanavien Historia, 179). 52  Turpeinen, Nälkä vai tauti tappoi?, 55-6; Puramo, Itä-Suomen Vesitiekysymykset, 252. 53  Tapio, 13 Apr. 1867. 54  Myllykylä, Suomen Kanavien Historia, 184.

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canal work in late 1867, the number of workers rose to over 600, and this remained relatively constant through the spring of 1868.55 The works at Lempäälä (Lempoinen Canal) were discussed in connection with the railway and other infrastructure projects in 1867.56 At the time, Hämäläinen newspaper bemoaned the local tensions that were delaying the work, despite the fact that the desperate situation of potential labour force meant that the “work could be done fairly cheaply”.57 The construction of the canal began on December 20, 1867, in a temperature of minus thirty degrees Celsius.58 Job seekers from near and far had already started to gather at the site a month earlier. Work began with fifty-­five men, but as early as January, the number of workers had risen to 400.59 As with the other public works schemes, the canal building was hindered, though not stopped—by the severe winter of 1867-68, which exacerbated the already appalling work conditions. At Nerkoo and Taipale, thick snow had to be cleared before even rudimentary excavation work could begin, and during breaks in the heavy snowfall the labourers had to “wade through the snow up to their waist”60 The national situation was so desperate that these conditions did not prevent people—the “willing and the hungry”—from seeking opportunities to feed themselves and their families. 61 At Taipale, for example, men arrived from over fifty different parishes in Savo, Karelia and Ostrobothnia (Fig. 7.1).62 The site was full— employing around 600 men—by January 1868, and around 300 more had to be turned away.63 Finding accommodation for an influx of workers and their families in these circumstances was also a significant challenge.64 Shanty-like settlements developed on the outskirts of Varkaus (Taipale)  and Lapinlahti  (Nerkoo), with only the most basic protection from the  Myllykylä, Suomen Kanavien Historia, 181; Puramo, Itä-Suomen Vesitiekysymykset, 252.  “Lempoisten kanava”, Hämäläinen, 2 Oct. 1873; Myllykylä, Suomen Kanavien Historia, 151. 57  Hämäläinen, 13 Jun. 1867; “Fartysleder”, in Tekniska Föreningens i Finland Förhandlingar, XXVIII (6), Jun. 1908., 103-136: 107-8. 58  “Lembois kanal”, Hufvudstadsbladet, 24 Dec. 1867. 59  Myllykylä, Suomen Kanavien Historia, 152. 60  Häkkinen, “Pernaan Lapuan tie”, 137; Puramo, Itä-Suomen Vesitiekysymykset, 253; Hannu Soikkanen, Varkauden Historia (Helsinki, 1963), 204. 61  Soikkanen, Varkauden Historia, 206. 62  Soikkanen, Varkauden Historia, 206. The Ostrobothnian parishes of Kälviä and Toholampi were the most represented among the workers at Taipale. 63  Soikkanen, Varkauden Historia, 206-7. 64  Myllykylä, Suomen Kanavien Historia, 178. 55 56

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Fig. 7.1  Construction works at the Taipale Canal worksite, 1868. Arnold Boos (photographer), Victor Barsokevitsch (developer). Courtesy of Kuopio Cultural History Museum KHMBV3258. Licensed under Creative Commons CC BY-SA 4.0

elements.65 Many men and their families lived in shallow pits in the ground, which then filled with melt water after the spring.66 At Lempoinen, where many had come down from Ostrobothnia, local farmers were instructed to take responsibility for accommodating the workers.67 Neither the wages nor the work conditions at the canal sites deviated much from the southern railway sites.68 There were some pay differentials between skilled and unskilled workers, and in some places a proportion of the wage was given as lichen flour.69 Micro-economies

 Myllykylä, Suomen Kanavien Historia, 178.  Häkkinen, “Pernaan Lapuan tie”, 137; Soikkanen, Varkauden Historia, 209. 67  Myllykylä, Suomen Kanavien Historia, 152; Kirsti Arajärvi, Lempäälän Historia (Tampere, 1959), 340. 68  “Lembois kanal”, Hufvudstadsbladet, 24 Dec. 1867. 69  Häkkinen, “Pernaan Lapuan tie”, 134. 65 66

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developed at the sites, with merchants given concessions to sell bread or provide baking facilities for the workers. 70 Disease and death flourished in these conditions, despite the establishment of temporary hospitals and the tireless efforts of overworked provincial doctors.71 For a while, the same harsh winter conditions that hindered the digging and construction, also slowed the spread of communicable disease in the overcrowded and badly equipped worksites. However, spring brought with it severe flooding from the meltwater, which filled the workers’ rudimentary accommodation. 72 As the national crisis reached its nadir in spring 1868, over one hundred workers on the Nerkoo site died from starvation and disease (as Jaana Martikainen pointed out in an article in 2016, precise figures vary from 92 to 159, but the actual figure is likely to be higher).73 One of Nerkoo’s temporary hospitals also became an impromptu coffin factory, with a team of men constructing coffins “from morning to night”.74 Every day, two or three horses were needed to transport the dead. They were taken to a collective grave in Lapinlahti, where around two hundred people were placed in “many long rows”.75 In 1938, J. Ryynänen, of Varpaisjärvi, recalled how he had ferried bodies from the canal worksite: People were dying in their hundreds of starvation and plague in Nerkoo village in the parish of Lapinlahti at the time the canal was being built, that is the hunger year of 1867. Houses were filled with sick. I was there too gathering them away. One who went to gather them got sick and died. One night I gathered twenty of them, and got paid fifty pennies per body. Some of them didn’t even have a coffin. They were buried in a single grave.76

At the neighbouring sites, Puramo records 106 of approximately 600 workers at Ahkiolahti succumbing to disease in spring 1868. 77 In Taipale,  Myllykylä, Suomen Kanavien Historia, 151-54, 178.  Tapio, 16 Jun. 1866; “Lembois kanal”, Hufvudstadsbladet, 24 Dec. 1867; Häkkinen, “Pernaan Lapuan tie”, 137; Myllykylä, Suomen Kanavien Historia, 184-6; Soikkanen, Varkauden Historia, 204-8. 72  Soikkanen, Varkauden Historia, 207. 73  Jaana Martikainen, “Nerkoon kanava kasvoi nälästä”, Savon Sanomat, 21 Jul. 2016. 74  Häkkinen, “Pernaan Lapuan tie”, 137. 75  Rissanen, “Kun Nerkoon Kanava Rakennettiin”. 76  Informant from Varpaisjärvi [born 1849]. SKS PK24:4433, 1938; Häkkinen, “Pernaan Lapuan tie”, 137. Vartiainen, F. SKS. PK24: 4434. Kertonut Ryynänen, J. 1983. Hollola. 77  Puramo, Itä-Suomen Vesitiekysymykset, 252. 70 71

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the local doctor reported 247 deaths between February and August 1868, and with the deaths of unemployed vagrants from the edges of the site, the mass grave at Varkausmäki was filled with the bodies of 281 victims from 51 different parishes.78 The deaths of individual workers were rarely reported during the famine, although the Nerkoo canal worksite did provide one exception. In this case, the labourer’s demise was framed as a moral lesson: Great self-sacrifice: according to an announcement by the foreman from the Nerkoo Canal construction site, a labourer, Lars Heikkinen, recently died of hunger. The man had been in the position for a number of weeks, and had done his work strongly, but in the end he had so earnestly given the daily allowance he had earned to his wife and children, that he himself starved— and yet he still tried to make it to work until he died of inadequate nutrition! Examples like this are not entirely unique in our country.79

It is not clear whether Lars Heikkinen was the same man described by the newspaper editor, Santeri Rissanen, in his 1929 account, though Rissanen claimed that “only one person”, died of outright starvation during the Nerkoo Canal construction: He fell ill at work, but in the evening walked alone to his lodgings at Rasti. After getting close to the house, he collapsed, exhausted, into a snow bank. From there he was met by the supervisors. The man was brought to the canal and engineer Hartman was immediately notified of the incident. The man was still alive at that time. He was given every possible treatment. He was massaged and given hard liquor. Nothing helped anymore, he died at the hands of his caregivers. An autopsy revealed that he had starved to death.80

78  Myllykylä, Suomen Kanavien Historia, 178; Newby, “Sesquicentennial Report”, 207; Soikkanen, Varkauden Historia, 204-8; A.V.  Lehtola, “Eräs muisto suurilta nälkävuosilta 1866-68 Vetelistä”, Keksipohjanmaa, 14 Nov. 1936. 79  Tapio, 18 Apr. 1868. 80  Santeri Rissanen, “Kun Nerkoon Kanava Rakennettiin”, Salmetar, 19, 24 Sep. 1929. Rissanen (1880-1939) was the longstanding editor of Iisalmi-based Salmetar, a teacher at Sämminki Folk School, and a prolific author. See also Santeri Rissanen, “Kymmeniäkin hätäaputyöläisiä kuoli päivittäin”, Pohjois-Savo, 29 Aug. 1936. These articles are based on Rissanen’s interview of Canal Inspector J.F. Bäckström in June 1925. See Kuopio Museum, Kuopion Isänmaallinen Seura Nr. 893, “Kanavankaitsija J.F.  Bäckströmin Muistelmia Nerkoon kanavan rakentamisesta katovuosina 1866-69”, 13-4.

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Rissanen’s account, not least its tone and emphasis on the prompt care given to the dying man, differs considerably from the memory of “Jaakko of the Willows”. A suggestion that general conditions at Nerkoo were not any better than in other sites can be found in Rissanen’s description of a strike which took place at Nerkoo, a result of low pay and poor conditions and quite possibly Finland’s first such industrial action. The strike was, nonetheless, quickly suppressed.81

Railway Work The first section of railway in Finland—a 108  km stretch between Hämeenlinna and Helsinki—was opened in 1862. The project was not, in this case, an emergency relief scheme, but rather a demonstration of Finland’s national maturity, and adherence to European norms of modernity. Demands grew throughout the 1860s from various quarters to extend the rail network, despite the country’s straitened economic circumstances.82 Indeed, while the potential funding (and even the possible route) of such a project was problematic, it was deemed vital to Finland’s economic development.83 One of dozens of newspaper editorials on the subject in the mid-1860s stressed that “now is the age of the railway and the telegraph”.84 In May 1867, the Finnish Diet was given details of the planned railway from Riihimäki—a stop on the Hämeenlinna to Helsinki line—via Lahti and Viipuri to St. Petersburg.85 After this initial decision was made, two engineers Alfred Wasastjerna & Endre Lekve. were sent to Sweden, Norway and Scotland to study existing models.86 The engineers’ recommendation, that a narrow-gauge track 81   Kuopio Museum, Kuopion Isänmaallinen Seura Nr. 893, “Kanavankaitsija J.F. Bäckströmin Muistelmia Nerkoon kanavan rakentamisesta katovuosina 1866-69”, 14-6. See also Häkkinen, “Pernaan Lapuan tie”, 135. 82  “Ett ord i dagens fråga”, Finlands Allmänna Tidning, 4 Oct. 1867. 83  Inter alia, “Helsingfors Krönika”, Hufvudstadsbladet, 27 Jun. 1866; “Kirje Helsingistä”, Ilmarinen, 18 Jan. 1867; “Jernvägsfrågan”, Helsingfors Dagblad, 19 Jan., 6 Feb. 1867; “Kertomus”, Suomalainen Wirallinen Lehti, 8 Feb. 1867; “Muualta”, Tampereen Sanomat, 28 May 1867. 84  “Rautatiestä”, Suomalainen Wirallinen Lehti, 22 Mar. 1867. 85  “Keisarillinen Majesteetin Armollinen Esitys Suomenmaan Säädyille, rautatien rakentamisesta Riihimäen pysäyspaikasta Helsingin-Hämeenlinnan rautatiellä Lahden kylän ja Wiipurin kautta Pietariin”, Suomalainen Wirallinen Lehti, 14 May 1867. 86  “I jernvägsfrågan”, Helsingfors Dagblad, 21 Jun. 1867. See Suomen Valtionrautatiet, 1862-1912: Historiallis-teknillis-taloudellinen kertomus, (2 Vols. Helsinki, 1912-16), i, 32-67.

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could be constructed for around two-thirds of the cost of the usual Russian Empire wide-gauge, was supported by the frugal Secretary of the Treasury, J.V. Snellman.87 Imperial considerations, however, overrode his nationalist perspective and fiscal caution, as the Russians required for reasons of “military and state” to have a compatible rail system in its western Grand Duchy. Such a rail link, it was anticipated, would greatly facilitate Finnish trade with the Russian Empire, and allow for the rapid deployment of the Russian military in the event of an invasion or war on Finnish soil. Russia therefore provided a loan of approximately ten million marks to the Finnish state as a means of making up the difference between the narrowand wide-gauge costings (20 million and 30 million marks respectively).88 Reactions within Finland were mixed.89 One correspondent to the state’s official newspaper argued that “bread is not provided for 180,000 people in Oulu Province, or for 200,000 people in Kuopio Province, by building a railway section in Riihimäki or Viipuri”. The relatively small number of jobs created, it was argued, did not justify such a huge loan.90 Moreover, the ongoing battle against vagrancy would inevitably be ­undermined by news of large-scale relief works being instigated. As George von Alfthan, Governor of Oulu Province, said in a letter to Snellman in January 1868, “It is very difficult to prevent the mobilization of fully ablebodied people at such times. Senator Antell may witness how great sacrifices the congregations have made to keep families, children, beggars, etc. in place. The dams still hold, but the flood rises”.91 Impoverished, increasingly desperate Finns would be less likely to stay in their home parishes if they believed that work opportunities were available in the south.92 On the other hand, there was a feeling among some in the south that the battle against vagrancy was already lost, and that works were needed to counterbalance the increasing strain on the public purse and private charity. In a 87  Erkki Pihkala, “J.V.  Snellmanin suhtautuminen Venäjään ja hänen talouspolitiikkansa valossa”, in Heikki Viitala (ed.), Snellman, Valtakunta ja Keisarikunta (Jyväskylä, 1990), 53-67: 63. 88  Rantanen, “Pitfall on a Nation’s Path”, 229; Suomalinen Wirallinen Lehti, 6 Dec. 1867; J.H.K. “Riihimäen-Pietarin rautatie: 50 vuotta kulunut sen avaamisesta”, Uusi Suomi, 11 Sep. 1920. For a detailed breakdown of finances, see Oiva Turpeinen, Pietarin Rata: Rajamaasta maailmalle (Helsinki, 2004), 178-84. 89  “Nöden och jernvägsbyggnaden”, Helsingfors Dagblad, 19 Oct. 1867. 90  “Millä eloja ostetaan”, Suomalainen Wirallinen Lehti, 24 Sep. 1867. 91  G. von Alfthan to J. V. Snellman, 18 Jan. 1868. 92  Häkkinen, “Pernaan Lapuan tie”, 131-2.

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private letter to Snellman for example, Christian Theodor Oker-Blom, the Governor of Viipuri Province, argued that “public works and the construction of a railway line to St. Petersburg are probably the only means of rescue”, when it came to the depletion of his own province’s resources.93 The indecision over funding led to more wasted months, as the winter conditions prevented breaking the new work-site until mid-February 1868.94 And yet, as Snellman had feared, the mere anticipation of potentially life-saving work was enough to lure large numbers towards sites along the railway’s proposed route. An official message from the railway board to the people of Ostrobothnia, delivered through the Governor of Oulu Province, insisted that major work would not be commenced while the “country was covered in snow”, and that a long southwards trek would be fruitless.95 Nevertheless, the increased stream of migrants from Ostrobothnia and parts of Savo was noted in many of the contemporary sources, as well as in subsequent memoirs, from those living in communities en route to the planned railway site.96 In March 1868, one such description came from a resident of Heinola, about a day’s walk north of the railway line.: Since Christmas, when rag-covered, starving beggars from the north started to flow in increasing numbers to the south […] Every day great multitudes of workers file through the town, some of whom are drawn towards, and some of whom are returning from the “railway”, though of course, before the land becomes bare [of snow], very few are able to obtain employment. It would be of paramount importance, therefore, that all the Finnish-­ language newspapers in the country advise against all such unnecessary journeys, and that the railway management time and again announce the conditions under which railway workers may gain employment, for it is more than heartbreaking to see people who, to find work, first undertook a walk of five hundred kilometres97, and now, after a futile errand, are compelled to return the same way, having sold and consumed all that they could dispose of of their clothes. Truly, it is certainly not strange if a tear of despair

 C.T. Oker-Blom to J.V. Snellman, 20 Sep. 1867.  “Rautatie”, Hämäläinen, 19 Dec. 1867. 95  “Kotimalta”, Oulun Wiikko-Sanomia, 28 Mar. 1868. 96  [Eero Koskimies], “Nälkä- ja Tautivuodet 1867-68 Hämeenkyrössä”, Aamulehti, 2 Aug. 1914. 97  This is expressed in the old-fashioned “fifty miles” in the original, a “mile” being ten kilometres. By way of measure, Oulu is, approximately, a 500 km walk from Heinola. 93 94

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Fig. 7.2  Plan of the new railway’s route, engraving by Walter Forss. Hufvudstadsbladet, 17 Feb. 1868. Courtesy of the National Library of Finland is seen twinkling in their eyes, when, upon arrival, starving, at their empty homes, find hunger and misery to be the only thing they possess intact after this arduous journey.98

A narrative developed which positioned the new railway as both a short-­ term palliative measure, and a long-term boost to the Finnish economy. Herman Lorentz, the British Consul in Viipuri, believed that the project would “tend to offer a livelihood to the numerous emigrants from the north of Finland whom the hunger has driven down to these southern districts”.99 Lorentz’s counterpart in Helsinki, William Campbell, was similarly upbeat, informing his superiors in London that “this line of railway when completed will prove of the utmost benefit to the country and will in the meantime afford employment to the starving population of the Grand Duchy”.(Fig. 7.2)100  “Från Heinola”, Helsingfors Dagblad, 24 Mar. 1868.  “Report of Mr. Consul Herman Lorentz on the Trade and Commerce of Wiborg for the Year 1867”, in Commercial Reports received at the Foreign Office from Her Majesty’s Consuls in 1868 (London, 1868), 420-24. 100  Campbell to Buchanan, 25 Nov. 1867. FO768/6/075. See also “Report by Mr. Consul Campbell on the Trade of Finland for the Year 1867”, in Commercial Reports received at the Foreign Office from Her Majesty’s Consuls in 1868 (London, 1868), 416-419. Reported in extract form in, inter alia, “Something Like a Famine”, Pall Mall Gazette, 11 Jul. 1868. 98 99

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The entire stretch of the new line had been divided into five separate sections.101 Work started officially on February 18th in the fifth sector (Riihimäki to Maatola), in the village of Torhola.102 Plenty of eager labourers were available, but according to the officers, they were generally “starving, miserable, and weak”. 103 The numbers employed in March was 1,450 and in April 1,631, and up to 11,826 at the end of October.104 In line with the canal worksites, a general labourer was supposed to receive 80 pennies per day, of which five per cent was withheld and put into a rudimentary sickness insurance scheme.105 This wage purchased approximately one and a half kilos of flour per day, a little more than the standard three naula on most of the local road-building sites. When workers were accompanied by their families, this amount was not enough to sustain them, and moreover there was a large population of people around the sites who had not been able to secure any work at all.106 This seems not only to have increased the overall vulnerability to disease, but also drove down wages (possibly to around a half of their original level).107 No housing was provided, meaning that overcrowded shanty settlements developed and communicable diseases spread quickly. The first makeshift hospital had to be opened as early as March, and eventually thirteen more were needed along the line.108 At its worst in April 1868, 22

101  Section 1—St. Petersburg to Lintula; Section 2—Lintula to Viipuri; Section 3—Viipuri to Kaipiainen; Section 4—Kaipiainen to Maattola/Herrala; Section 5—Maatola/Herrala to Riihimäki. 102  See Ilmarinen, 21 Feb. 1868; Suomalainen Wirallinen Lehti, 22 Feb. 1868; and, for a summary of the early months, “Berättelse angående arbetet å S:t Petersburg—Riihimäki jernvägslinje under förra hälften af år 1868”, Finlands Allmänna Tidning, 31 Oct., 2 Nov. 1868. 103  “Riihimäen-Pietarin rautatie 40-vuotias: Muutamia muistiinpanoja”, Juna, 29 Sep. 1910; K.D.J. Salonen, “Nälkävuosien Rautatierakennus”, Helsingin Sanomat, 30 Sep. 1928. 104  Häkkinen, “Pernaan Lapuan tie”, 132. 105  Oiva Keskitalo, Hausjärven Historia (Hämeenlinna, 1964), 606-7. 106  Häkkinen, “Pernaan Lapuan tie”, 133. 107  This claim is made by Heikki Laakso, “Suuresta nälkätalvesta kulunut 60 vuotta”, Kansan Lehti, 23 Dec. 1927. 108  J.H.K. “Riihimäen-Pietarin rautatie: 50 vuotta kulunut sen avaamisesta”, Uusi Suomi, 11 Sep. 1920; Timo Salminen, “Riihimäen-Pietarin Rautatiesairaalat Vuonna 1868: Rautatiejohtokunnan päätöksenteko ja kenttätodellisuus”, Historiallinen Arkisto 109 (1997), 145-81; Häkkinen, “Pernaan Lapuan tie”, 133; See Ringbom’s report for the temporary hospital at Hinkkala (Kärkölä). Finlands Allmänna Tidning, 17 Feb. 1869.

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percent of workers, or 378 men, were hospitalised.109 Sad notices, such as the following from Ilmajoki (Vaasa Province), reflected the situation at the worksites: “messages of death have come from elsewhere, and especially from the railway areas, where those miserable people were already heading last autumn and winter in the hope of earning a living”.110 Death-­rates soared, even allowing for the fact that only workers’ deaths were recorded— the number of deaths among the unemployed and vagrants who had come to the sites is not known, but the mass graves in places like Hollola, Syvänoja (Lahti), Lakkila and Järvelä are said to contain thousands of bodies.111 A contributor—“V.V.K.”—to Helsingin Sanomat on the sixtieth anniversary of the decision to build the railway, claimed that “the mortality rate was so high that its entire length has been said to be a common tombstone for anonymous workers”.112 On the other hand, recent research by historian Kalle Kallio has stressed that while the numbers of deaths were appalling, most occurred on the westernmost stretches of the railway, which were being dug before the good harvest of 1868.113 Moreover, Kallio indicates that the mortality figures also include non-workers (such as workers’ families, as well as vagrant individuals who never managed to secure work and their families).114

Conclusion In his account of famine-era relief works in Finland, Antti Häkkinen writes: “few people probably realise that a significant number of Finland’s roads, long-distance railways, and canals, have been built or dug under the threat of starvation—‘on the bones [of the dead]’, as it is recalled in folklore”.115

109  Häkkinen, “Pernaan Lapuan tie”, 133. Agathon Meurman, Nälkävuodet 1860-luvulla (Helsinki, 1892), 43-4. 110  “---lm---”, “Ilmajoelta”, Suomalainen Wirallinen Lehti, 7 Jul. 1868. 111  Keskitalo, Hausjärven Historia, 606. A memorial was erected by contemporaries at the mass grave site at Syvänoja (Oitti). Paavo Korpisaari, Suomen Rautatieläiskunta v. 1862-1912 (Helsinki, 1912), 12-3; Ensio Partanen, “Kovia aikoja kotiseudun vaihessa”, in Suur-­ Hollolan Kotiseutuliitto, Suur-Hollolan Kirja (Porvoo, 1963), 76-80. 112  V.V.K. “Kuusikymmentä vuotta sitten”, Helsingin Sanomat, 18 Sep. 1927. 113  Kalle Kallio, Ratajätkät: Rautatienrakentajien Kokemukset 1857-1939 (Helsinki, 2022), 158. 114  Kallio, Ratajätkät, 159; Salminen, “Riihimäen-Pietarin Rautatiesairaalat”, 169-72. 115  Häkkinen, “Pernaan Lapuan tie”, 130.

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This is another contrast with the Irish case, where “famine roads” became a part of the narrative of oppression almost as they were being dug.116 Thus, in the 1890s, Agathon Meurman—whose Hunger Years of the 1860s did so much to crystallise a particular famine narrative in Finland—insisted that the railway track between Riihimäki and St. Petersburg was the noblest sacrifice that the starving famine victims had donated to the future generations.117 Writing a year after Meurman, the Irish novelist Emily Lawless’ analysis of commemoration around Ireland’s “famine roads” could hardly have provided a starker contrast with Finland: Certain words and certain combinations of words seem to need an eminently local education in order adequately to appreciate them. These two words, “Famine road”, are amongst the number. To other, larger minds than ours they are probably without any particular meaning or inwardness. To the home-staying Irishman, or Irishwoman they mean only too much. To hear them casually uttered is to be penetrated by a sense of something at once familiar and terrible. The entire history of two of the most appalling years that any country has ever been called upon to pass through seems to be summed up, and compendiously packed into them.118

It can be argued that, unlike Ireland, the relief works in Finland usually had a demonstrable long-term positive impact on the local, regional or national economy, and were not generally left unfinished or allowed to fall quickly into disuse. Many of the Finnish projects had already been planned, and were brought forward or re-instigated in order to provide some sort of employment for the starving multitudes in the 1860s.119 The Fennomane narrative stressed this element of sacrifice for the greater good of the nation. In the 1870s, Zachris Topelius’ highly influential Book Of Our Land 120 described how the Finns had always needed to battle against

 Harriet Martineau, Letters from Ireland (London, 1852), 136-7.  Meurman, Nälkävuodet, 44. See also Henrik Forsberg, “Masculine Submission: National Narratives of the Last Great Famine, c. 1868-1920”, Journal of Finnish Studies, 20:1 (2017), 38-64. 118  Emily Lawless, “Famine Roads and Famine Memories”, in Traits and Confidences (New York & London, 1979 [1897]), 150-1. 119  Oiva Turpeinen, Nälkä vai tauti tappoi: kauhunvuodet 1866-1868 (Helsinki, 1986), 303-4. 120  Zachris Topelius, Boken om vårt land (Helsingfors, 1875), 71. 116 117

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nature to make a living, and that “if they do not want to work and suffer, they must starve and die”.121 The primary motivation for Meurman’s reassertion of the Fennomane narrative in 1892 had been the publication a year earlier of Karl A. Tavastsjerna’s novel, Hårda Tider: Berättelse från Finlands Sista Nödår [Hard Times: Tales from Finland’s Last Year of Emergency].122 Tavaststjerna hardly spared the administration or “capitalists” when describing the conditions of the 1860s, and the railway site was portrayed as a particular site of tension, sucking in hopeful migrants from the north, who perceived “an inexhaustible source of income, salvation from the hunger and winter cold”.123 Although the railway board took on “hundreds, thousands” of workers, Tavaststjerna continued, it was not a “merciful institution”. The main concern of those in charge was to get the work completed as cheaply as possible, and therefore the endless supply of cheap labour was an advantage: And many of [the railway board’s] leading men could not deny that they felt happy when—thanks to the hunger economics—the low wages promised to reduce the entire project’s budget by about a million from the initial proposal. It could be called prudent financial management…124

Indeed, the total amount came to 27,525,280 marks, well below the projected 30 million marks, and only half the cost of the earlier, much shorter, Helsinki to Hämeenlinna line.125 This aspect of the relief work was 121  Translation by Henrik Forsberg. See Henrik Mikael Forsberg, “‘If they do not want to work and suffer, they must starve and die’: Irish and Finnish famine historiographies compared”, Scandinavian Journal of History, 43:4 (2018), 484-514: 490. See also Henrik Forsberg, “Nälkäkuolema kansallishyveenä? Viimeiset Nälkävuodet Suomalaisessa Kirjallisessa Historiakulttuurissa Vuosina 1870-1900”, Historiallinen Aikakauskirja 3 / 2011, 267-80: 278-80. 122  Frederike Felcht, “The Nature of Hunger: Karl Augsut Tavaststjerna’s Hårda Tider”, in Reinhard Hennig, Anna-Karin Jonasson & Peter Degerman (eds), Nordic Narratives of Nature and the Environment: Ecocritical Approaches to Northern European Literatures and Cultures (Lanham, MD, 2018), 173-88. 123  Karl A. Tavaststjerna, Hårda Tider: Berättelse från Finlands Sista Nödår (Helsingfors, 1891), 141. Kallio notes that Tavaststjerna’s chronology when it comes to the railway construction is incorrect, dating its commencement to the autumn of 1867. 124  Tavaststjerna, Hårda Tider, 142. 125  “Riihimäen-Pietarin rautatie 40-vuotias: Muutamia muistiinpanoja”, Juna, 29 Sep. 1910; Häkkinen, “Pernaan Lapuan tie”, 133-4.

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perhaps the most divisive in the subsequent historical narratives that emerged. From the hegemonic Fennomane perspective, which Meurman crystallised in 1892, it was a testament to the forbearance and self-sacrifice that characterised the Finnish people and the Finnish nation. An alternative viewpoint—put forward by those in the railway profession, “Reds” in the early twentieth century and broadly defined Social Democrats in the period after independence—is that the railway construction was a demonstration of callous bourgeois attitudes towards the proletariat.126

References Bibliography

Finnish Literature Society Archives, Helsinki Informant from Varpaisjärvi [born 1849]. SKS PK24:4433, 1938. “Jaakko of The Willows’ Final Roll (A Memory From Winter 1867-68)”. Väinö Laajala, SKS 5, Perho, 1932.

Finnish National Archives, Helsinki Kauhajoki Parish Archive, Deaths & Burials Index, April 1868 (f. 233).

Kuopio Museum Kuopion Isänmaalinen Seura Kokoelma. Victor Barsokevitsch Photographic Collection.

UK National Archives, London Foreign Office: Embassy and Consular Archives. Russia: Helsingfors (Helsinki). Correspondence of William Campbell 1866-1870. FO768/6/73.

126  “Riihimäen-Pietarin rautatie 40-vuotias: Muutamia muistiinpanoja”, Juna, 29 Sep. 1910; K.D.J. Salonen, “Nälkävuosien Rautatierakennus”, Helsingin Sanomat, 30 Sep. 1928.

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Snellman’s Correspondence http://snellman.kootutteokset.fi/fi C.T. Oker-Blom to J.V. Snellman, 20 Sep. 1867. G. von Alfthan to J. V. Snellman, 18 Jan. 1868. C.G.F. Wrede to J.V. Snellman, 16 Feb. 1868.

Official Reports William Campbell, “Report by Mr. Consul Campbell on the Trade of Finland for the Year 1867”, in Commercial Reports received at the Foreign Office from Her Majesty’s Consuls in 1868 (London, 1868), 416-419. Herman Lorentz, “Report of Mr. Consul Herman Lorentz on the Trade and Commerce of Wiborg for the Year 1867”, in Commercial Reports received at the Foreign Office from Her Majesty’s Consuls in 1868 (London, 1868), 420-24.

Newspapers Aamulehti. Björneborgs Tidning. Finlands Allmänna Tidning. Hämäläinen. Helsingfors Dagblad. Helsingin Sanomat. Hufvudstadsbladet. Ilkka. Ilmarinen. Juna. Kansan Lehti. Keskipojhanmaa. Keskisuomalainen. Kokkola. Kotimaa. Kotiseutu. Kuopion Sanomat. Maaseudun Tulevaisuus. Merikarvia Lehti. Naisten Ääni. Oulun Wiikko Sanomia. Padasjoen Sanomat. Päivälehti. Pall Mall Gazette. Pohjois-Savo.

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Salmetar. Savon Sanomat. Sisä-Suomi. Suomalainen Wirallinen Lehti. Suomen Kuvalehti. Suometar. Tampereen Sanomat. Tapio. Tekniska Föreningens i Finland Förhandlingar. Tyrvään Sanomat. Ungdomsvännen. Uusi Suometar. Uusi Suomi. Vaasa. Vasabladet. Virtain Sanomat. Wiborgs Tidning.

Printed Secondary Sources --- Suomen Valtionrautatiet, 1862-1912: Historiallis-teknillis-taloudellinen kertomus, (2 Vols. Helsinki, 1912-16). --- Suomen teiden historia. 1, Pakanuudenajalta Suomen itsenäistymiseen (Helsinki, 1974). Johanna Annola & Riikka Miettinen, “Piety and Prayers: Religion in the Lives of the Indoor Poor in Finland, 1600s to 1900s”, in Nina Javette Koefoed & Andrew G.  Newby (eds), Lutheranism and Social Responsibility (Göttingen, 2022), 129-52. Kirsti Arajärvi, Lempäälän Historia (Tampere, 1959). B.M. Bhatia, Famines in India: A Study in Some Aspects of the Economic History of India with Special Reference to Food Problem, 1860-1990 (3rd ed., Delhi, 1991). Declan Curran & Mounir Mahmalat, “Policy divergence across crises of a similar nature: the role of ideas in shaping 19th century famine relief policies”, Review of International Political Economy, 28:3 (2021), 712-38. James S. Donnelly Jr., The Great Irish Potato Famine (Stroud, 2002). Ulla Ekman-Salokangas, Eeva-Liisa Aalto & Raimo Salokangas (eds), Suomen Lehdistön Historia 7: Hakuteos Savonlinna—Övermarks Tidning (Kuopio, 1988). Frederike Felcht, “The Nature of Hunger: Karl Augsut Tavaststjerna’s Hårda Tider”, in Reinhard Hennig, Anna-Karin Jonasson & Peter Degerman (eds), Nordic Narratives of Nature and the Environment: Ecocritical Approaches to Northern European Literatures and Cultures (Lanham, MD, 2018), 173-88.

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Henrik Forsberg, “Nälkäkuolema kansallishyveenä? Viimeiset Nälkävuodet Suomalaisessa Kirjallisessa Historiakulttuurissa Vuosina 1870-1900”, Historiallinen Aikakauskirja 3 / 2011, 267-80. Henrik Forsberg, “Masculine Submission: National Narratives of the Last Great Famine, c. 1868-1920”, Journal of Finnish Studies, 20:1 (2017), 38-64. Henrik Mikael Forsberg, “‘If they do not want to work and suffer they must starve and die’: Irish and Finnish Famine Historiography Compared”, Scandinavian Journal of History, 43:4 (2018), 484-514. Peter Gray, “British Relief Measures”, in John Crowley, William J. Smyth & Mike Murphy (eds), Atlas of the Great Irish Famine (Cork, 2012), 75-84. Timo Haavisto, ”Teitä ja leipää valtion tuella”, in Jaakko Masonen, Kimmo Antila, Veikko Kallio & Tapani Mauranen (eds), Soraa, työtä, hevosia. Tiet, liikenne ja yhteiskunta 1860-1945 (Helsinki, 1999), 125-51. Antti Häkkinen, “Pernaan Lapuan Tie Tehtiin Jauhonaaloolla Nälkävuosina: Hätäaputyöt: Epäonnistuitko Valtiovalta?”, in Antti Häkkinen, Vappu Ikonen, Kari Pitkänen & Hannu Soikkanen, Kun Halla Nälän Tuskan Toi (Porvoo, 1991), 129-57. Antti Häkkinen, “On Attitudes and Living Strategies in the Finnish Countryside in the Years of Famine 1867-68” in Antti Häkkinen (ed.), Just A Sack of Potatoes? Crisis Experiences in European Societies, Past and Present (Helsinki, 1992), 149-66. David Hall-Matthews, “Historical Roots of Famine Relief Paradigms: Ideas on Dependency and Free Trade in India in the 1870s”, Disasters, 20:3 (1996), 216-30. Heidi Hirvonen, “Tiedon, tahdon tai resurssien puutetta? Suomen hallinto ja syksyn 1867 elintarvikekriisi”, (MA Thesis, University of Helsinki, 2013). Kristiina Kalleinen, ‘Isänmaan onni on kuulua Venäjälle’: Vapaaherra Lars Gabriel von Haartmanin elämä (Helsinki, 2001). Kalle Kallio, Ratajätkät: Rautatienrakentajien Kokemukset 1857-1939 (Helsinki, 2022). Oiva Keskitalo, Hausjärven Historia (Hämeenlinna, 1964). Pertti Kohvakka, Tietoja, tapahtumia ja sattumuksia Merikarvialta lähinna viisikymmenluvulta (Noormarkku, 2015). Eliza Kraatari, Domestic Dexterity and Cultural Policy: The Idea of Cottage Industry and Historical Experience in Finland from the Great Famine to the Reconstruction Period (Jyväskylä, 2016). Emily Lawless, “Famine Roads and Famine Memories”, in Traits and Confidences (New York & London, 1979 [1897]). Kersti Lust, “Providing for the hungry? Famine relief in the Russian Baltic province of Estland, 1867-9”, Social History, 40:1 (2015), 15-37. Kersti Lust, “The Question of Moral Economy and Famine Relief in the Russian Baltic Provinces of Estland and Livland, 1841-69”, in Andrew G. Newby, ‘The Enormous Failure of Nature’: Famine and Society in the Nineteenth Century (Helsinki, 2017), 46-66.

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Pirjo Markkola, “Changing Patterns of Welfare: Finland in the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries”, in Steven King and John Stewart (eds), Welfare Peripheries: The Development of Welfare States in Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Europe (Bern, 2007), 207-30. Harriet Martineau, Letters from Ireland (London, 1852). Agathon Meurman, Nälkävuodet 1860-luvulla (Helsinki, 1892). Turkka Myllykylä, Suomen kanavien historia (Helsinki, 1991). Andrew G. Newby, “Finland’s ‘Great Hunger Years’ Memorials: A Sesquicentennial Report”, in Andrew G.  Newby (ed.), “The Enormous Failure of Nature”: Famine and Society in the Nineteenth Century (Helsinki, 2017), 173-214. Ilkka Nummela, Toiselta kantilta: Minna Canth liikenaisena (Helsinki, 2004). D.J.  Oddy, “Urban Famine in Nineteenth-Century Britain: The Effect of the Lancashire Cotton Famine on Working-Class Diet and Health”, Economic History Review, Feb. 1983 (New Ser. 36:1), 68-86. Cormac Ó Gráda, Black ‘47 and Beyond: The Great Irish Famine in History, Economy and Memory (Princeton, 1999). Anssi Paasi, “Geographical Perspectives on Finnish National Identity”, in GeoJournal 43 (1997), 41-50. Ensio Partanen, “Kovia aikoja kotiseudun vaihessa”, in Suur-Hollolan Kotiseutuliitto, Suur-Hollolan Kirja (Porvoo, 1963). Erkki Pihkala, “J.V. Snellmanin suhtautuminen Venäjään ja hänen talouspolitiikkansa valossa”, in Heikki Viitala (ed.), Snellman, Valtakunta ja Keisarikunta (Jyväskylä, 1990), 53-67. Päivi Pukero, Epämääräisestä elämästä kruunun haltuun: irtolaisuuden ja huono-­ osaisuuden kontrolli Itä-Suomessa 1860-1885 (Joensuu, 2009). Panu Pulma, “Köyhästäkö kansalainen”, in Pertti Haapala (ed.), Talous, Valta ja Valtio. Tutkimuksia 1800-luvun Suomesta (Tampere, 1990), 169-93. Eino Puramo, Itä-Suomen Vesitiekysymykset 1800-luvulla: erikoisesti Saimaan kanavaa silmällä pitäen vuoteen 1870 (Helsinki, 1952). Marjatta Rahikainen, “From the Poor Laws to the Welfare State”, in Marjatta Rahikainen (ed.), Austerity and Prosperity: Perspectives on the Welfare State (Helsinki, 1992), 88-103. Lari Rantanen, “A Pitfall on a Nation’s Path of Politics? Government Response to the Finnish Famine of the 1860s”, Jahrbücher für Geschichte Osteuropas 67 (2019/2), 206-38. Timo Salminen, “Riihimäen-Pietarin Rautatiesairaalat Vuonna 1868: Rautatiejohtokunnan päätöksenteko ja kenttätodellisuus”, Historiallinen Arkisto 109 (1997), 145-81. [Konstantin Sarlin-Saraste], Lepolan wanhuksen Muistiinpanoja (2 vols, Kuopio, 1910-1911). Raimo Savolainen et al, (eds.), J.V. Snellmanin Kootut Teokset (Helsinki, 2005), Osa XXII, 16-28.

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Peter Shapely, “Urban Charity, Class Relations and Social Cohesion: Charitable Responses to the Cotton Famine”, Urban History, 28:1 (2001), 46-64. Juha Siltala, Valkoisen äidin pojat: Siveellisyys ja sen varjot kansallisessa projektissa (Helsinki, 1999) Hannu Soikkanen, Varkauden Historia (Helsinki, 1963). Karl A.  Tavaststjerna, Hårda Tider: Berättelse från Finlands Sista Nödår (Helsingfors, 1891). Kalevi Toiviainen, “Nälkävuodet 1867-68 Ristiinassa”, in Sulo Haltsonen, Ristiinan entisyyttä ja nykypäivää (Helsinki, 1973), 116-22. Zachris Topelius, Boken om vårt land (Helsingfors, 1875). Oiva Turpeinen, Nälkä vai tauti tappoi: kauhunvuodet 1866-1868 (Helsinki, 1986). Oiva Turpeinen, Pietarin Rata. Rajamaasta Maailmalle (Helsinki, 2004). Hannele Wirilander, Ristiinan Historia (2 Vols.) (Ristiina, 1988-1994).

CHAPTER 8

Seeking Refuge Outside of Finland

Neither do these tenants or their children emigrate. The great famine experienced in Finland through the total failure of the crops in 1866 and 1867, compelled many of the small proprietors and tenants in the northern districts of the country to leave their homes, and, along with their families, beg their way to St. Petersburg. —William Campbell, 1870 (William Campbell, “Report by Consul Campbell on the Tenure of Land in the Grand Duchy of Finland”, in Land Tenure (Europe): Accounts and Papers of the House of Commons lxviii (London, 1870), 250–257: 255-6.)

The report of William Campbell, Britain’s consul in Helsinki, to the House of Commons in 1870, demonstrates the false dichotomy that might be drawn when discussing “internal” and “external” migration in Finland in the 1860s. Campbell’s sense that starving Finns did not “emigrate” was informed by the experience of Ireland in the 1840s, where over a million people were said to have left the island and where permanent emigration became a key component of the famine narrative. “Emigration”, in this case, seems to be associated with movement overseas—generally across the Atlantic. Transatlantic transport options were extremely limited in Finland in the 1860s, and certainly could not facilitate mass migration. And yet, Campbell’s statement that families “begged their way to St. Petersburg” hints at the considerable migration outside of Finland’s state borders that © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 A. G. Newby, Finland’s Great Famine, 1856–68, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-19474-0_8

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did take place at this time.1 The fact that some of this was an extension of unplanned internal vagrancy, which eventually spilled over into Norway or Russia—and that many may have planned to return home as soon as practical—blurs notions of “internal” and “external” migration in the Finnish case.2 This chapter focusses on the famine migrants that moved (or sought to move), by land or sea, outside the Grand Duchy’s formal borders, while noting that those borders did not always accord with the lived experience of the potential migrants.3 As the news emerged of another harvest failure in Finland, fears spread that social supports, which had already been under severe pressure in early 1867, would now collapse altogether. Widespread famine conditions, along with attitudes towards vagrants that had become increasingly negative in the 1860s, meant more consideration was given to leaving Finland altogether. In a verse written after the harvest failure of 1862-3, the folk poet Optatus Lyytinen opined that: “Yes many are going to escape; from Finland’s ‘island’ altogether; when hard times haunt; and years of dearth strain”.4 Some well-known figures in Helsinki society alluded to emigration, either in public or in private. It is claimed that Zachris Topelius told his Helsinki University students in 1867 that “nature seems to cry out to our people—‘emigrate or die!’”5 Yrjö Sakari Yrjö-Koskinen, in his correspondence with his Hungarian colleague Pál Hunfalvy in late 1867, put forward a “pipe-dream” of a Finnish colony being established among their ethnic cousins in Hungary. This flight of fancy was prompted by Yrjö-Koskinen’s belief that “in such difficult times, many Finns (should be) inclined the move out of their own country”.6 This inclination, 1  It is difficult to assess the precise scale of the exodus, as so much of it was ad hoc, overland and unofficial. As a rough estimate, based on population figures, it seems that no more than 25,000 Finns left the Grand Duchy in 1867-8. 2  Kari Pitkänen, “The Road to Survival or Death? Temporary Migration During the Great Finnish Famine in the 1860s”, in Antti Häkkinen (ed.), Just a Sack of Potatoes? Crisis Experiences in European Societies, Past and Present (Helsinki, 1992), 87-118: 98. 3  For a comparative anthropological perspective on the idea of “lived” versus “official” borders, see Humberto Dos Santos Martins, “Living Between Nation-States and Nature: Anthropological Notes on National Identities”, in Robert Danisch (ed.), Citizens of the World: Pluralism, Migration and Practices of Citizenship (Amsterdam, 2011), 159-84. 4  Opatti (Optatus) Lyytinen, “Katovuoden muistoksi vuonna 1862”, Tapio, 11 Apr. 1863. 5  This exhortation is reproduced in Fred Singleton, A Short History of Finland (Cambridge, 2nd ed, 1998), 86. 6  Yrjö-Koskinen to Hunfalvy, 25 Nov. 1867. In Viljo Tervonen (ed.) Pál Hunfalvy ja Suomalaiset. Kirjeitä vuosilta 1853-1891 (Helsinki, 1987), 200-3.

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however, was hindered by practical, legal and moral considerations. In practical terms, as well as a lack of transport options to far-off colonies, some of the closer potential destinations—Estonia, other parts of the Russian Empire, and northern Sweden—also suffered famine in the 1860s and so had less to offer (and were more wary of influxes from outside). Legally, the same mobility restrictions applied as to internal migration. Thus, in theory a travel permission was needed from the local priest before leaving one’s home parish. And morally, the Fennomane nation-­ builders tended to decry Finns “abandoning” their country and therefore denuding it of the necessary resources to bring the national project to a successful conclusion.

Migration to Russia and the Russian Empire The vast expanses of Russia and its empire, rather than North America, were the most frequent destinations for emigrating Finns during the first three-quarters of the nineteenth century. As with all migration, the balance between “push” and “pull” factors varied over time, depending on economic cycles and political circumstances. The remittances and aid donations that came into Finland during the 1860s give an ample illustration of how Finns had made successful careers throughout Russia in business and engineering, in the clergy, and in the imperial military or civil service.7 The prevalence of migration from Finland (and especially, though not exclusively, eastern Finland) to parts of Russia and the Russian Empire was such that, especially in times of crisis, it can be hard to draw a clear line between internal migration, and that which was planned for further afield.8 As the guardians of the Viipuri Workhouse noted, the city had long been a regular stop-off point for migrants from eastern parts of Finland to St. Petersburg, but conditions had deteriorated so far by the winter of 1867-8 that northern and western parts of the country were increasingly represented.

 See above, Chap. 10.  Grönberg notes that “before 1860, more than 100,000 Finns went to Russia compared with 2,500 to the United States.” Per-Olof Grönberg, The Peregrine Profession: Transnational Mobility of Nordic Architects, 1880-1930 (Leiden, 2018), 216. 7 8

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Most of the distressed who came here in the first half of autumn, were originally from Savo and North Karelia, whereas now they are from Wasa and Oulu Provinces, who have had further to travel and therefore spent longer on the road. When we visited the workhouse a few days ago there were a few natives of Sotkamo, who with their whole family had escaped from the hunger-­threatening famine, firstly to Oulu and then through the interior of the country to here, from where they said they planned to go on to Russia to find work, but had been forced to stop here as their means of sustenance had been exhausted by the 5-6 week trek.9

The eastern border of the Finland had only formalised in 1617, under the terms of the (Russian-Swedish) Treaty of Stolbovo, but had been subject to fluctuation. Indeed some parts of the Grand Duchy were named “Old Finland”, as this area had remained a part of the Russian Empire until being reintegrated as Viipuri Province in 1812. Despite the passport system, historical and ethnic affinities between Finland and Russian Karelia ensured that distressed migrants barely perceived a hard political border.10 Distances were also relatively short—for example in the 1860s, Aunus (Olonets) was approximately sixty kilometres from the Finnish border at Rajakontu (Kondus), just east of Salmi. Moreover, in the 1860s Finland’s south-eastern border at the River Sestra was little more than thirty kilometres from the imperial capital, St. Petersburg. As a result, economic migration to Karelian towns such as Aunus, to Ingria, and to St. Petersburg, might well be considered an extension of internal overland migration rather than as an aspect of “international” emigration.11 Many Finns—as is seen from the charitable contributions that were sent to Finland in 1867-68—had made a life in parts of the Russian Empire, through military, civil or domestic service, or simply by putting their  Wiborgs Tidning, 7 Dec. 1867.  Piia Einonen, Pirita Frigren, Tiina Hemminki & Merja Uotila, “Leipää taivalta takana— liikkuminen 1800-luvun alun Suomessa”, Ennen ja Nyt 5 (2016), fn. 12 [https://journal. fi/ennenjanyt/article/view/108763] 11  Max Engman, “Karelians between East and West”, in Sven Tägil (ed.), Ethnicity and Nation-building in the Nordic World (London, 1995), 217-45. Schoolteacher Matti Sihvonen’s submission to the Finnish Historical Society’s famine memories noted migration from the Karelian parish of Jaakkima to Ingria, some of which seemed to have been permanent. National Archives, Finnish Historical Society, Nalkävuositoimikunta [Hunger Year Committee], Tietoja nälkä vuosilta 1867-68 Jaakkiman pitäjän Kortelan kylästä, koonut kansanopistolainen Matti Sihvonen. Kertojat Heikki Soininen ikä 74 vuotta maanviljeliä; Heikki Kuokka ikä 76 vuotta työmies. Sent 23 May 1918. 9

10

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professional skills to use in a new environment. In these cases, the pull of opportunity had often been the main stimulus for emigration, rather than the push of economic hardship.12 Finnish religious and civil society organisations had developed in the city, and it was also a space for the bilocated Finnish aristocracy to mix with their Russian counterparts. Max Engman’s analysis demonstrates a pronounced spike in Finnish migration to St. Petersburg in the second half of the 1860s.13 And, although the main sources of these migrants remained the south-eastern provinces of Viipuri, Uusimaa and Kuopio, more parts of Ostrobothnia (especially the western parts of Oulu and Vaasa Provinces) are represented after 1860.14 These migrants came largely from ranks of the Finnish rural proletariat, and although not always driven by absolute desperation, their decision to migrate was generally influenced by economic difficulties in Finland.15 The appearance of increasing numbers of destitute Finns in the streets of St. Petersburg in 1867 and 1868 was noted with a mixture of concern and embarrassment by the upper- and middle-class Finns in the city.16 During this winter the influx of distressed Finns into St. Petersburg has been immense. About sixty of our countrymen are caught daily begging, and these are of course sent back over Viipuri to their respective hometowns. Thus, it has often happened in these times that the present office of governor in a single day mediated the transport of between 60 and 70 beggars out of St. Petersburg.17

This influx of Finns also gave an impetus to charitable initiatives in St. Petersburg. For example, Princess Elizabeth Trubetskaya18 donated 800 12  Andrew G. Newby, “‘Neither do these tenants or their children emigrate’: famine and transatlantic emigration from Finland in the nineteenth century”, Atlantic Studies, 11:3 (2014), 383-402: 387. 13  Max Engman, Suureen Itään: Suomalaiset Venäjällä ja Aasiassa (Turku, 2005), 198, Kuvio 17. 14  Engman, Suureen Itään, 196-7, Kuvio 14, 15; Max Engman, S:t Petersburg och Finland. Migration och influens 1703-1917 (Helsingfors, 1983), 219. 15  Max Engman, “Migration from Finland to Russia during the Nineteenth Century”, in Scandinavian Journal of History, 3 (1978), 155-77: 159-60. 16  Tapio, 16 May 1868; “Apua: Pietarin kaupunkiin työhakemiseen kulkeville”, Ilmarinen, 13 Mar. 1868. 17  Wiborgs Tidning, 30 May 1868. 18  In the original Finnish source, Jelizaveta Jesperovna Trubetskaja. In modern transliterated Russian, Elizaveta Ėsperovna Belosel’skaja-Belozerskaja.

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“food vouchers” to the needy who had reached the border settlement of Valkesaari, which were then redeemable at the three different food distribution points in St. Petersburg, as well as a “restaurant” in Haapakangas (about 25 km north of the city).19 Even here the official Finnish newspaper stressed that priority would be given to women and children, and people from parishes in which bark-, lichen and straw-bread had been the only form of sustenance, and indolent, work-shy beggars were not to be given “this mercy”.20 Indeed, attitudes in the Finnish press towards their desperate compatriots in the imperial capital reflected the more general discourse on begging, referring to an “increasing influx of begging Finnish hobos”21, expressing satisfaction that these vagrants were being returned to Finland by the “passport authorities”, and indignation that the “famous Russian mercy” was being abused.22 During the early to mid-1860s, several reports—of varying degrees of alarm—noted that eastern Finnish parishes in particular were losing people to Russia.23 This migration accelerated after the harvest failure of 1865, and a government report by Georg Alfthan, the Governor of Oulu Province (1862-1873) noted that increasing want and famine had forced as many as 745 souls, including a large number of whole families, to flee from Kuhmo to the Aunus Governorate of Russia in 1865.24 The extent of migration to Aunus, in fact, prompted fundraising from within Finland to provide the community with its own Finnish pastor.25 In June 1865, Emil  Suomalainen Wirallinen Lehti, 19 Mar. 1868. Engman, S:t Petersburg och Finland, 232-3.  Suomalainen Wirallinen Lehti, 19 Mar. 1868. 21  Wiborgs Tidning, 6 May 1868. 22  Engman, S:t Petersburg och Finland, 377; Hämäläinen, 4 Jun. 1868; Helsingfors Dagblad, 26 Jun. 1868; Ilmarinen, 13 Mar. 1868. 23  Johan Kiiskinen, “Pielisjärveltä”, Päivätar, 23 Dec. 1865. Some of these migrations may have been people fleeing debt or bankruptcy, see Anne  Ruuttula-Vasari, Herroja on epäiltävä  aina—metsäherroja yli kaiken: Metsähallituksen ja pohjoissuomalaisten kanssakäyminen kruununmetsissä vuosina 1851-1900,  (Oulu, 2002),  220. A curious story in February 1867 also suggested that some Finns might be being enticed to parts of the empire with baseless promises, in this case to Oryol (roughly halfway between Moscow and Kharkiv). Hufvudstadsbladet, 6, 18 Feb. 1867. 24  Oiva Turpeinen, Nälkä vai tauti tappoi? Kauhunvuodet 1866-1868 (Helsinki, 1986), 14; Engman, Finland och S:t Petersburg (Helsingfors, 1983), 216 (Fig.  20), 253; Engman, Emigrationen från Finland, 143-62; “Helsingistä”, Suomalainen Wirallinen Lehti, 4 Apr. 1866. 25  Helsingin Uutiset, 15 Jun. 1863; Otawa, 19 Jun. 1863; Suomen lähetyssanomia, 1 Oct. 1865; “E---s”, “Om utflyttningar ifrån de norra landsorterna”, Finlands Allmänna Tidning, 5 Feb. 1866. 19 20

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Stjernvall-Walleen wrote from St. Petersburg to his sister, Aurora Karamzin: “The amount of complaints that come to us from the Grand Duchy is heartbreaking and gloomy. [Please] God that the expected and dreaded harvest failure will not be widespread, for then there is no cure but a great emigration”.26 A week later, he reinforced his belief that he saw “no other means than emigration” for the distressed population.27 This was implying a more organised and large-scale migration arranged with the governorates in the Russian  empire. As will be seen, some such initiatives did develop in 1868 (for example, to Amur). For the time being, however, migration to Russia remained consistent, but rather piecemeal. In June 1866, with the numbers of Finns in Aunus having swelled to approximately three thousand, Suomalainen Wirallinen Lehti painted a dismal account of their living conditions.28 Many had been able to find menial agricultural work in the past, but as there was also an economic depression in the Aunus Governorate, the Russian peasants themselves had become impoverished and were unable to hire Finnish labourers. This, the correspondent implied, was sometimes the fault of the immigrants themselves, as they were “lazy and careless, begging harder than they work”, and that they demanded higher wages than the locals even when they did get offered a job. This attitude was not, however, thought to be general. Rather, a lack opportunities, not laziness, was given as the root cause of this renewed poverty (Fig. 8.1): All this, of course, helps the beggars to multiply, and especially in Petrosavodsk we meet starving people who chew their hands when they can’t get either a job or bread. But the most miserable are those who are in their sick beds; who even if they recover are almost starving to death, and have no strength to go begging; and others can hardly help them when they themselves are in poverty. Illness and mortality in Finns today is quite high. If you step into the bad, dirty, huts or saunas, you will see five families crammed together in most places, often all lying sick, with pain on their faces.29 26  Stjernvall-Walleen to Karamzin, 17 Jun. 1865. In Adolf Törngren, Ur friherre Emil Stjernvall-Walleens brev till Aurore Karamzine. Utdrag ur breven åren 1860−1876 (övers. från franskan, 1939), 194. 27  Stjernvall-Walleen to Karamzin, 21 Jun. 1865. In Törngren, Ur friherre Emil Stjernvall-­ Walleens brev till Aurore Karamzine, 194. 28  “Suomalaiset Aunuksessa”, Suomalainen Wirallinen Lehti, 20 Jun. 1866. 29  “Suomalaiset Aunuksessa”, Suomalainen Wirallinen Lehti, 20 Jun. 1866.

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Fig. 8.1  Juho Reijonen’s short story “On The Hunger Year: A Karelian Tale” (1893) follows the migration of a family from Kuohatti, North Karelia, as they struggle to reach Aunus during winter 1867-68. Illustration by Louis Sparre. Juho Reijonen, “Nälkävuonna: karjalainen kertomus”, Nuori Suomi 3 (1893), 6-21. Courtesy of the National Library of Finland.

Even in this very negative report, which may have been intended to dissuade any further emigration from eastern Finland to Aunus, a glimmer of hope was offered by the news that Finns in Petrosavodsk had been collecting cow hairs, and paying the needy a small sum to weave carpets. If all of this was meant to present a sordid picture, in the context of the despair in Finland in 1867-68 such conditions may have seemed almost idyllic,

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and given the desperate population of eastern provinces, just enough encouragement to head further east.30 The integration of Congress Poland (as Vistulaland) into the Russian Empire in 1867—one of the repercussions of the Polish Uprising of 1863—also seems to have prompted an unfounded hope of new imperial employment opportunities.31 Immediately after the “Frost Night” of 3-4 September, a local correspondent from the South Ostrobothnian parish of Ilmajoki reported that “men and women in their thousands wish to emigrate to happier places—said to be Poland”. While people should not become “victims of famine”, the report continued, there was a fear that emigration would devastate the community and prevent an economic recovery once the crop yields began to return to normal.32 One of the local newspapers, Åbo Underrättelser, quipped that the idea of emigrating to Poland was merely a variation on a kite which had been flown in Ostrobothnia earlier in the year, with the administration in Helsinki being approached to fund a ship to America. With this in mind, the writer concluded that an old adage had been turned on its head, and that the current mood of the people was that “it is good to be home, but even better to be away!”33 The offices of Erik Julin’s merchant house in Turku, which seemed to be at the centre of this rumour, had “hundreds” of inquiries from “near and far” about possible work in Poland, forcing Julin to deny these “pointless and groundless” rumours in the press.34 Some groups used formal channels to seek a new life in Russia. In 1866, it was reported that “dozens of families” in Karelia and Eastern Finland had “sent a petition to St. Petersburg, asking for permission to emigrate to the Caucasus”.35 Even before the  disaster of early September 1867, some newspapers in St. Petersburg were promoting the idea that Finns 30  Suomalainen Wirallinen Lehti, 20 Jun. 1866. See also Wiborgs Tidning, 14 Jul. 1866. By June 1867, the official Finlands Allmänna Tidning seemed rather triumphant in its assertion that many people who had emigrated from Hyrynsalmi to Russia had now returned to Finland. Finlands Allmänna Tidning, 29 Jun. 1867. 31  As early as 1865, there were reports of Finns being tricked by agents into giving up their land in Finland in favour of (non-existent) work in Poland. “Nöden i landet”, Helsingfors Tidningar, 5 Jan. 1866. 32  Vasabladet, 28 Sep. 1867. 33  Åbo Underättelser, 5 Oct. 1867. 34  Åbo Underrättelser, 26 Sep. 1867; Sanomia Turusta, 27 Sep. 1867; Hufvudstadsbladet, 30 Sep. 1867. 35  Helsingfors Dagblad, 19 Feb. 1866.

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could leave “their hungry country” to colonise areas within the Russian Empire, especially in those regions which were potentially fertile but which lacked a decent labour force.36 This type of migration implied a much more considered decision than “aimless wandering” towards Aunus or St. Petersburg. A notice in Helsingfors Dagblad acknowledged that applications for emigration were increasing, and that it was a “civic duty” to disabuse the “common people” of any utopian notions, and highlight the hardships of emigrant life.37 Struggling Finns—individuals and even whole communities—continued to look to the empire for salvation. A notice in early October 1867 from Veteli, in Vaasa Province, almost seemed to be a direct response to the Russian advertisements. The correspondent thanked God that no-one had yet died from hunger in the parish, but stressed that the current relief process was completely inadequate. Therefore: It is hereby intended to apply to the board for permission, and to support, an emigration to Russia. Mustn’t a working man be able to provide bread for himself and his family through agriculture? They were told that fertile stretches existed there, which could support a hundred Finnish men, if only they could get there.38

Fifty kilometres east of Veteli, the parishioners of Lestijärvi (Lesti) were preparing a similar resolution.39 On 11 November, 1867, a meeting of the Lestijärvi church board proposed that the entire parish should be resettled in the Black Sea port of Kherson. The matter was presented to the Governor of Vaasa Province, apparently to be forwarded to the imperial authorities for consideration.40 The applicants are requesting freedom in religious education, the right to choose a place of residence, emergency funds for the move, support from the state in building a church, freedom from military service, and so on. A great sense of discouragement and need must have arisen in those ­wastelands  Helsingfors Dagblad, 27 Aug. 1867; Wiborgs Tidning, 31 Aug. 1867.  Helsingfors Dagblad, 28 Sep. 1867. 38  “Weteliläinen”, “Yliwetelistä”, Suomalainen Wirallinen Lehti, 22 Oct. 1867. See also Helsingfors Dagblad, 24 Oct. 1867; Hufvudstadsbladet, 25 Oct. 1867. 39  Anne Ruuttula-Vasari, “Lestijärveläisten metsäkapina 1860-luvulla”, Keskipohjanmaa, 20 Jun. 2004; Häkkinen, “On living strategies”, 158; Folkwännen, 18 Dec. 1867; 40  “Emigrationsplaner bland allmogen i Österbotten”, Åbo Underrättelser, 19 Dec. 1867; “Muutoksen hankkeita Pohjanmaalla,” Sanomia Turusta, 20 Dec. 1867. 36 37

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of Lohtaja, when its inhabitants can just decide to up and leave from home and fatherland. However, they wish to submit their application to the governor, and in reality it looks like this might be their only refuge.41

These reports from Ostrobothnia caused consternation, especially in southern Finland, and prompted fears that a much more extensive flight from the land could be in progress. An early reaction came from the Åbo Underrättelser newspaper in Turku, which put forward the idea of resettling the Lesti villagers in areas of crown forest in the south of Finland, “in return for the homesteads that they plan to abandon forever”.42 Then, as a reaction to the emigration proposal, the Governor of Vaasa, C.G.F. Wrede, decided to make a personal “fact-finding” tour of his province.43 His report underlined the elite’s negative attitude towards emigration, assuring the senate that other than in some exceptional cases like Lesti, the “common folk” had no wish to “abandon their homeland”, and would not “shun the sacrifices necessary in the struggle against distress”.44 Emigration, in this construction, was a confirmed as failure of the spirit, and a failure of patriotism. An alternative view appeared in a long, anonymous article in Åbo Underrättelser, even though it apparently went against the editorial opinion—“we confess that the idea of a general emigration struck us with amazement”.45 The author of this article, however, suggested that generations of Finns had previously stayed put not out of stoicism, or a nebulous sense of loyalty to their native turf, but because they were ignorant of any better alternatives. After outlining the various options open to potential emigrants in the 1860s, the author also contended that such migration would not necessarily weaken the home society, making the bold assertion that it would be the “poor, unemployed and useless” people who would be the ones to emigrate. In summary, he thought, “the implementation of far-reaching emigration plans is difficult, but possible”.46 Another notable intervention came from Anders Svedberg, a Swedish-­ speaking Finnish teacher, journalist and editor who went on to represent the peasantry in the House of Estates in Helsinki:  Österbotten, 4 Jan. 1868.  Åbo Underrättelser, 10 Dec. 1867. 43  Hufvudstadsbladet, 24 Jan. 1868. 44  Finlands Allmänna Tidning, 9 Jan. 1868; Vasabladet, 25 Jan. 1868. 45  “Om utvandringar”, Åbo Underrättelser, 7 Jan. 1868. 46  “Om utvandringar”, Åbo Underrättelser, 7 Jan. 1868. 41 42

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The need in our country is great at present, that we all know; that before the next harvest it could reach such a height that a greater or lesser number of the landless class would die through famine, that we would have been prepared for: but that the entire population of a parish—both landless and landed—should leave the fatherland forever and become emigrants to emerging countries, was not expected—and the announcement of such a decision has struck us with surprise and given rise to numerous reflections.47

Although Svedberg reassured readers that the Lestijärvi resolution was not completely typical of the feeling in the northern parts of Finland, it did nonetheless raise the spectre of “the sad sight of a deserted wasteland”, if the emigration question remained unaddressed. He accepted that some temporary palliative measures, such as debt relief, could have kept people in place for a short time, but eventually the problem would re-­ appear. “Anyone who wants to know what life is like up there in the inner wastelands of Ostrobothnia”, Svedberg added, “even during years when the crop failures are not particularly bad, only has to go through Runeberg’s eloquent account of Saarijärvi parish”.48 Forcing people to stay in such conditions, he continued, could only lead to structural poverty and crime. Looking around Europe, he argued that much debate had been taking place about emigration to the New World, and indeed America and Australia seemed to be flourishing, without any discernible negative effect on the “home” countries such as Germany, Norway, Sweden and England. On the contrary, “experience seems to demonstrate that the freedom to emigrate had brought about good, that the motherland is freed from a load of drifters… and many of those shipwrecked at home have become capable citizens in the new country”. Thus, rather than the piecemeal emigration that had been quietly increasing in volume, and which broke up families, Svedberg suggested an “orderly colonization” in preference to the “nomadic life a large number of Ostrobothnian workers now endure”.49 Svedberg’s main fear was that the general sense of Finnish national i­ dentity 47  A S—g [Anders Svedberg], “Några ord med anledning af Lesti kapellboers tilltänkta emigration”, Huvudstadsbladet, 9 Jan. 1868. 48  Svedberg quoted here from Runeberg’s Några ord om nejderna, folklynnet och lefnadssättet i Saarijärvi socken, published originally in Helsingfors Morgonblad, 6 Jul., 13 Jul., 16 Jul. 1832. The symbolic importance of Saarijärvi was reinforced later by Runeberg’s canonical Saarijärven Paavo / Bonden Paavo (see above, page Chap. 2). 49  Svedberg returned to this theme, taking a Malthusian perspective, in his later pamphlet on emigration. See A. S—g, Om Emigrationen (Helsingfors, 1883), 27.

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was not yet sufficiently developed in Finland’s countryside, and that after one or two generations in Russia, these immigrants would simply be Russians, not Finns.50 The debate continued the following week, when a correspondent in Viipuri conceded that the Lesti inhabitants might be genuinely impoverished and indebted, but did not accept that emigration to Russia was a logical next step. The implication was that work and subsistence was available elsewhere in Finland, and that if others followed the example from Lesti, then “every worker in a factory that closes, or every clerk from a bankrupt commercial house”, would also seek to emigrate. The writer added that “there are people who were born to colonise, and others who definitely are not, and among the latter category we count our countrymen”. Moreover, this correspondent acknowledged the right of any individual to seek a “richer livelihood” wherever they might see fit, but on the other hand: “it is another question whether such emigration should be broadly supported morally or materially”, when it would not be in the interests of the country to lose its workforce.51 It is not clear whether the request from Lestijärvi ever reached the desk of the relevant functionaries in the Governors’ office, but the reports alone were enough to provoke a strong reaction in Helsinki.52 The settlement of the Kola Peninsula region of Murmansk, which was initiated by Alexander II’s decree of 1860 and which mainly involved Norwegians from Finnmark, also provided opportunities for some Finns.53 This project was given further impetus by a decision in 1867 to allow local and provincial correspondence to be carried out in Norwegian or Finnish if settlers did not speak Russian.54 Approximately 360 Finnish colonists, predominantly from Oulu Province, were strung out along the coast from 50  See also Suomalainen Wirallinen Lehti, 23 Jan. 1868, which suggests that the planned emigration from Lestijärvi could fracture the idea of a shared national struggle. 51  “Några ord i Emigrationsfrågan”, Wiborgs Tidning, 15 Jan. 1868. 52  Parish Adjunct Gustaf Oskar Aspelin, the first-named signatory, remained in Central Ostrobothnia, and died in Himanka in 1902. Suomen Kirkon Julkisia Sanomia, Mar. 1902. 53  Max Engman, Emigrationen från Finland till europeiska Ryssland 1809-1917: en undersökning av en flyttningsrörelses volym, riktning och struktur (Helsingfors, 1975), pp. 165-73; Max Engman, “Migration from Finland to Russia during the Nineteenth Century”, in Scandinavian Journal of History, 3 (1978), 155-77; Max Engman, Surreen itään: suomalaiset Venäjällä ja Aasialla (Turku, 2005). 54   “Muurmannin rannikon asuttaminen”, Karjalan kävijä, 20 Sep. 1909; Maria Lähteenmäki, The Peoples of Lapland: Boundary Demarcations and Interactions in the North Calotte from 1808 to 1889 (Helsinki, 2006),  275-81; J.F.  Thauvon, Matka-muistelmia Venäjän Lapista (Helsinki, 1871); Engman, Suureen Itään, 302-6.

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Rybachiy Peninsula to Kola Bay by the time a Finnish priest visited in 1870.55 The most notable new opportunities in the Russian empire during the famine years of the 1860s, however, lay further east. In July 1868, Emil Stjernvall-Walleen described negotiations with the Russian Interior Minister Alexandr Timashev, over potential Finnish colonisation in the Siberian Russian Governorate of Tobolsk.56 Perhaps unsurprisingly, given Timashev’s conservative perspective, these plans foundered on the Finns’ insistence that the colonists would enjoy rights to self-identity, linguistic and religious rights, similar to aspirations of the Lesti parishioners a few months earlier.57 The idea that Finns would be expected to adhere to imperial regulations just as any other group of immigrants confirmed the fears of Finnish nationalists like Anders Svedberg, that any sense of Finnish identity would be lost within a couple of generations. It became necessary to look even further east for opportunities. Eventually, in the newly aquired province of Amur, some  Finns did find  a possibility for imperial  colonisation.58 The Russian government’s desire to settle its recently acquired lands in Amur as quickly and thoroughly as possible, meant that potential settlers were promised the privileges that Stjernvall-Walleen had not thought possible in Tobolsk. Finnish connections, through the Furuhjelm brothers and the ubiquitous Erik Julin of Turku, meant that news of these opportunities came through to Finland during the 1860s. It was this eastern movement, rather than American emigration, which prompted the influential Helsinki newspapers Helsingfors Dagblad and Hufvudstadsbladet to claim that “emigration

 Engman, “Migration from Finland to Russia”, 155-77.  Törngren, Ur friherre Emil Stjernvall-Walleens brev till Aurore Karamzine: Stjernwall-­ Walleen to Karamsin, 16 Jul. 1868. 57  For Timashev see e.g. David Saunders, Russia in the Age of Reaction and Reform, 1801-1881 (London, 1992), 301. 58  Wiborgs Tidning, 16 Sep. 1868; Åbo Underrättelser 9 June 1868; Björneborg, 13 June 1868; Borgåbladet, 19 September 1868; “Finske emigranter till Amur”, Helsingfors Dagblad, 8 Sep. 1868; J.E.W. (?), “Något om den finska emigrationen till Amurlandet”, Hufvudstadsbladet, 21 Nov. 1868; Ilmarinen, 6 Nov. 1868; Tidskrift i Sjöväsendet, 11 (1870); “Kirje Siperiasta”, Turun Kuvalehti, 26 Jan. 1890; Jouni Korkiasaari, Suomalaiset Maailmalla (Turku, 1989), 54. More generally see Mark Bassin, Imperial Visions: Nationalist Imagination and the Geographical Expansion in the Russian Far East, 1840-1865 (Cambridge, 1999), 233-73; John L. Evans, Russian Expansion on the Amur, 1848-1860: The Push to the Atlantic (Lewiston, 1999). Once more, the Turku merchant Erik Julin was an important figure in these early colonisation attempts. See Engman, Suureen Itään, 370-76. 55 56

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fever” had taken hold of a parish in central Finland that they identified only as “R”.59 Despite the papers’ (half-hearted) attempt at anonymising this parish and its people, the idea that three hundred of its people might abandon Finland for “the land of Asia” prompted a strong reaction: there is an ugly rumour about us that we intend to abandon our lovely, dear Ruovesi, with its tree-clad ridges and lush valleys, our blue lakes with green islets and deep, richly-shaded bays, to take a chance on the “Land of Asia”…60

The indignant correspondent continued that, if only those from the capital would care to visit, they would see that the people of Ruovesi were not at all “bent on adventure”, and could hardly have cared less about the possibility of emigration. The strength of response (which also exposed the identity of the parish to all readers) indicated the extent to which emigration could still be perceived either as unpatriotic, or that a particular community might not possess those qualities of self-sacrifice and forbearance that were needed to ensure that a viable nation existed once the famine had been overcome.61 Nevertheless, in the coming months plenty of Finns did take on the role of pioneering colonists in Amur, and the whole project also exposed the possible tensions between national and imperial priorities. While Finnish elites remained sceptical, the English historian, James Anthony Froude, wrote approvingly in 1870 of how Russia marshalled its resources. Froude posited that “emigration remains the only practical remedy for the evils of Ireland,” and that a government programme for planned emigration to Canada, rather than unfettered emigration to the United States, would promote imperial coherence and support the British domestic economy.62 As a point of comparison, he noted “the Russians when they find a pressure of population in Finland, load their ships of war with as many as desire to emigrate, and give them homes on the Amoor River”.63

 Helsingfors Dagblad, 9 May 1868; Hufvudstadsbladet, 11 May 1868.  “Från Ruovesi”, Helsingfors Dagblad, 27 May 1868. 61  The editor of Helsingfors Dagblad (27 May 1868) left a footnote to stress that the original article had not specified “Ruovesi”. 62  James A. Froude, “England and Her Colonies”, Fraser’s Magazine 1 (1870), 1-16: 1. 63  Froude, “England and Her Colonies”, 2. 59 60

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The Amur emigration schemes, though prompting concern at the impact on the developing Finnish nation, also demonstrate the way in which Finns were able to participate pragmatically in Russian imperial projects.64

Migration to Scandinavia As with the migration to western parts of “Russia Proper”—Aunus and St. Petersburg, and even Murmansk and Arkangel—there was a long historical tradition of Finns moving to parts of Scandinavia. The “Forest Finns”, who settled parts of Sweden and Norway in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries are perhaps the best-known historical example, but the permeable and vague national frontiers in the north of the Scandinavian peninsula meant that small-scale migration was a constant feature in the region.65 Migration to northern Norway (Ruija) from Finland’s northern provinces predated the Great Hunger Years—indeed there are records of such migration from at least the early eighteenth century, when a Finnish settlement developed at Alta.66 As state-based territoriality increased in this part of Europe throughout the nineteenth century, mobility across national borders became more problematic, particularly in the decades after Russia absorbed Finland into its empire in 1809.67 A treaty of 1826 established a border between Norway and Russia, which caused tension in the subsequent decades—including obstruction to Sámi reindeer herders in 1853.68 Cross-border economic migration in the 1860s, therefore, highlighted this clash between historical traditions and contemporary realpolitik. In summer 1866 a report from the Swedish town of Luleå, at the northern end of the Gulf of Bothnia, reported that “children, blokes and 64  Hufvudstadsbladet, 12 Sep. 1868; Wiborgs Tidning, 16 Sep. 1868. The Amuri suburb of Tampere was named during this period of “emigration fever”, because it felt as far away from the city’s industrial centre as the Pacific coast of the Russian Empire. 65  Fredrik Ekengren, “Materialities on the Move: Identity and Material Culture Among the Forest Finns in Seventeenth-Century Sweden and America”, in Magdalena Naum & Jonas M. Nordin (eds), Scandinavian Colonialism and the Rise of Modernity: Small Time Agents in a Global Arena (New York, 2013), 147-65. 66  John Ilmari Kolehmainen, “Finnish Overseas Emigration from Arctic Norway and Russia”, Agricultural History (xix, 1945), 224-32: 225. 67  Lähteenmäki, Peoples of Lapland, 29-35. More generally, see Laura di Fiore, “The Production of Borders in Nineteenth Century Europe: Between Institutional Boundaries and Transnational Practices of Space”, European Review of History—Revue européenne d’histoire, 24:1 (2017), 36-57. 68  Lähteenmäki, Peoples of Lapland, 221-30.

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women” had been heading to Sweden (and Russia) from Finland, “so as not to perish from hunger”.69 Six hundred kilometres south along the Bothnian coast from Luleå, Johan Wahlström, Russia’s vice consul in Hudiksvall, sent a report to the Russian consulate in Stockholm about this Finnish migration. He noted that in recent weeks a number of poor Finns, including family groups, had arrived from northern Finland to the province of Norrland, particularly to the towns, to find work.70 Work was already in short supply in that part of Sweden because of harvest failures similar to those in Finland, and so these immigrants, it seemed, were just living off public benevolence.71 As a result, the Consul General in Stockholm petitioned the Governor-General of Finland to prevent Finnish migration to Sweden. This, in turn, led to Senate proclamations being read out at church services—focussing particularly on Oulu and Vaasa provinces—explaining the futility of travelling to Norrland in search of work, and emphasising that no Finnish state funds would be used to repatriate those who travelled in contravention of this advice. Moreover, the Governors of Oulu and Vaasa Provinces were warned that passport legislation had to be applied strictly, and that only passport holders would be permitted to go to Sweden.72 Therefore, what was a traditional migration route between the western coast of Finland and northern regions of Sweden became politicised and severely limited, due to the emergency situation that was developing in the 1860s. Despite the official restrictions on travel, it seems as though passport-free migration may have been much higher than the official figures suggested, and a survey in the 1920s recorded that migration had really started to gather pace in several Ostrobothnian parishes during the 1860s.73 There are occasional stories of intrepid attempts to escape famine-­ stricken Finland westwards across the Gulf of Bothnia, as well as northwards to Finnmark. Two instances in particular demonstrate how this ad hoc migration might have taken place. In the winter of 1867, a landless man called Erik Vasman, from the village of Vassor, near Maxmo, felt that

 “Nöden i Finland”, Post- Och Inrikes Tidningar, 26 Jul. 1866.  Tampereen Sanomat, 28 Aug. 1866. 71  Quoted in Turpeinen, Nälkä vai tauti tappoi?, 17-8. 72  Quoted in Turpeinen, Nälkä vai tauti tappoi?, 17-8. 73  Anna-Leena Toivonen, Etelä-Pohjanmaan Valtamerentakainen Siirtolaisuus 1867-1930 (Helsinki, 1963), 20-21. 69 70

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he and his family could endure the shortages no longer.74 Along with his wife, one other woman, and children, he piled up as much of their belongings as possible onto a rickety sledge, and started striding across the ice towards Sweden. It is not clear how long the journey of approximately 120 km took, only that by nightfall on the first day he had managed to disappear from the sight of those watching from the Finnish coast. It was remembered locally that Erik himself made it over to Sweden, but that one of the women died from exposure to the winter cold out on the Gulf of Bothnia.75 In this case, though, the ice that prevented grain from being imported to the western ports became a bridge that facilitated an escape. The informal and haphazard migration across the gulf continued after the ice had melted. Lappfjärd, near Kristinestad, lies about 125 km south from Maxmo, and was the starting point for another “perilous journey” in the summer of 1868.76 At Pentecost in 1868, a small group driven by “the famine and unemployment”, set out from Lappfjärd. The group consisted of four men, two women and a child of eighteen months, and they set out into the Gulf of Bothnia in a small, open fishing boat. They seem to have had the idea of travelling to Denmark, “in search of work and, therefore, bread”. A month later, the group arrived in the eastern Swedish port of Västervik, where they were well received and given some money and food as they continued their journey on their “fragile vessel”.77 After two more weeks, the boat was reported (now with only one woman on board) in Bornholm, where they landed at Vang, a small fishing village in the north of the island.78 Again, they were given sustenance from the locals. Finally, after approximately two months at sea, Folkets Avis and Dagbladet reported the arrival of the boat (again with two women) in Copenhagen, the end of their desperate journey. The “intrepid travellers” reported to the Danish 74  As indicated by Turpeinen, Maxmo (Maksamaa) was one of the Finnish parishes in 1867-68 with the highest mortality, losing 18.6% of its population. Turpeinen, Nälkä vai tauti tappoi?, 104-5. Vasman’s journey also seems to reflect the tradition of migration across the gulf that had developed in the Vaasa region after the 1850s, when large numbers left in search of work in the forest industries of Norrland. See Jouni Korkiasaari & Kari Tarkiainen, Suomalaiset Ruotsissa (Turku, 2000), 98-9. 75  A.J.  N—n, “Hunger. Tidsbild från nödåren på 1860-talet”, Wasa Tidning, 23 Oct. 1891; V.E.V. Wessman (red.), Finlands Svenska Folkdiktning. II Sägner: 2. Historiska Sägner (Helsingfors, 1924), 286. 76  “En vovelig Reise”, Folkets Avis, 31 Jul. 1868. 77  “Landsorten”, Nya Dagligt Allehanda, 13 Jul. 1868. 78  “Bornholm”, Bornholms Tidende, 30 Jul. 1868.

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capital’s Tollbooth, seeking permission to remain, but it is not known what then became of them.79 As with migration to Sweden, the historical “Ruija Road” from Finland northwards into Norwegian Finnmark became a contentious political issue.80 Finnish-language church services and schools were established, and in 1866 the Russian consul general in Christiania, Karelian-born Henrik A. Mechelin, made a point of visiting Finnish settlements in the “most important fishing places” in Finnmark.81 As early as spring 1865, a correspondent from Tornio had noted the “ever-growing” movement of Finns between the Kemi and Tornio Valleys, and Norwegian Finnmark, an area that had provided work for “runaways” and even “whole families” for decades, especially during years of harvest failure. The question here was mainly of seasonal migration, the proceeds of which bolstered local economies of places like Kemi and Kuusamo—but there was also active talk of Finns taking the chance to emigrate to America on a “passage fare” from Finnmark.82 Official reports kept track of dozens of people leaving Oulu and Kuopio Provinces for Norway, noting also that some never returned.83 Moving into 1867-68, European geopolitics, and contemporary theories on race and ethnicity, collided with the ever-increasing desperation in Finland to make migration a vexed question in the far north. The increasing numbers of Finnish settlers—or “colonisers”—was noted with concern by some in Finnmark and in the Norwegian capital Christiania. Peter Andreas Munch, one of the leading historians of the “Norwegian National School”, stoked antipathy towards the Finnish migrants, defining them not only as “Mongolian” rather than “European”, but implying that—by dint of their distance from their cultural core in China—that they were the lowest form of Mongolian. These “barbaric hordes”, thought Munch, were a severe threat to “Norwegian nationality” in the north.84  “Dristige Reisende”, Dagbladet, 31 Jul. 1868.  Lähteenmäki, Peoples of Lapland, 249-53. 81  Hufvudstadsbladet, 20 Aug. 1866. 82  “Bref från Torneå-gränsen”, Helsingfors Tidningar, 10 Mar. 1865; “E—s”, “Om utflyttningar ifrån de norra landsorterna”, Finlands Allmanna Tidning, 5 Feb. 1866. The author seems to be (David) E.D. Europaeus. See also Kolehmainen, “Finnish Overseas Emigration”, 232; Salomon Ilmonen, Amerikan Suomalaisten Historia ja Elämäkertoja (Jyväskylä, 1923), 21-2. 83  Sanomia Tampereelta, 30 Apr. 1866. 84  Göteborgsposten, 1 Mar. 1866. See also “Bref från Norge”, Nya Dagligt Allehanda, 20 Aug. 1866. 79 80

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A Norwegian parliamentary committee report took the view that Finns were able to live a relatively comfortable life in Varanger, while maintaining their own language and culture, and easy links with the old country. It expressed concern that: ...what at first was merely a casual stay, caused by poor or less favorable harvests in Finland and by the relatively easy source of income through fishing in Varanger… assumes more and more the nature of real immigration and residence…

The committee added that these immigrants generally represented the “poorer part” of Finnish society, and that their presence was having a deleterious effect on society in the north of Norway, where they had come to outnumber the “Norwegian” population by up to a factor of three. This population balance was exacerbated by the outward migration of Norwegians to America, causing “an imminent danger for the Scandinavian peoples”.85 A theory was also mooted that “Russian agents” were behind the migration, with a medium-term plan to intervene (or invade) if their imperial subjects’ rights were not guaranteed by the Norwegian government—thus giving Russia a foothold in an economically important region.86 It was in this fractious atmosphere, therefore, that some Norwegian sources reported that “a strong immigration” to Finnmark from “Russian Finland” was likely after the harvest failure of September 1867. 87 In the winter 1867-68, a ban was placed on immigration to Finnmark from the Archangel Governorate, “especially by Karelians and Lapps”, because, it was argued, the local population was already having trouble feeding itself. Such refugees, it was reported, were to be sent back to Archangel.88 By the spring of 1868, the increased volume of immigration from northern Finland to Norwegian Finnmark had become an acute concern for local authorities. Earlier the Finnmarksposten newspaper had announced that

 “Finnarne i norska Finnmarken”, Helsingfors Dagblad, 20 Jul. 1866.  Morgenbladet (Christiania), 16 Jul. 1866 (referring to Aftonbladet, 11 Jul. 1866). 87  Trondhjems borgerlige Realskoles alene-priviligerede Adressecontoirs-Efterretninger, 23 Nov. 1867; “Siirtolaisuus Suomesta”, Uusi Suometar, 1 Nov. 1900. 88  Helsingfors Dagblad, 24 Jan. 1868. 85 86

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the “influx” from Finland and Swedish Norrland—which was also suffering from famine—was “exceedingly great”, because “the distress of these people is as great as it has ever been”.89 The newspaper acknowledged that this was a historical migration route, but added that the arrival of so many “from the other side of the mountains” would mean not only that the immigrants could not be suitably cared for, but also that the local inhabitants’ resources would be severely diminished. In asking for this story to be shared widely in Finland and Northern Sweden, the writer hoped that the distressed populations of those regions would be dissuaded from travelling north. Ironically, of course, this is the same rhetoric that Suometar had used in 1862 as it sought to prevent migrants from Oulu, Kuopio and Vaasa to the southern parts of Finland—the “swarm of locusts” were stripping resources from already-struggling communities as they pushed on to their ultimate destination.90 As the famine conditions persisted in both Finland and Norrland, desperation drove ever more families northwards.91 By March, Norwegian newspapers reported that “three or four thousand immigrants” had been counted in the Varanger region, where the local population “had started to fear for their life and property, which might not be conscientiously respected by this needy throng”.92 It seemed that simply dissuading potential migrants with newspaper circulars was no longer deemed effective, and so, “concerned about the growth of population, which is not in balance with the country’s resources, many Finnmark residents are considering turning to the Norwegian government, with the request that a detachment of troops should be sent to this province for the purpose of guarding the Finnish immigrants and, if necessary, returning them to their own country”.93 The constant influx of Finns, concluded the Finnmarksposten

89  Reproduced e.g. in Morgenbladet, 26 Feb. 1868. The original request was apparently sent in the form of a circular letter to newspaper offices. This one was picked up from Norrbottens Kuriren. 90  “Irtaimen wäen liikkeestä”, Suometar, 17 Oct. 1862. See above, Chap. 6. 91  Kolehmainen, “Finnish Overseas Emigration”, 225; Lähteenmäki, Peoples of Lapland, 249-61. See also Teemu Ryymin, “Narrating the Arctic Finns: Samuli Paulaharju’s Representations of the Kvens”, Acta Borealia, 21:1 (2004), 21-40. 92  Le Nord, 11 Mar. 1868; Finlands Allmänna Tidning, 23 Mar. 1868. See also Andrew G. Newby, “Fear and Loathing at 70 Degrees North”, iPerspectives 2 (Autumn, 2020), 66-70. 93  Finlands Allmänna Tidning, 23 Mar. 1868; Helsingfors Dagblad, 24 Mar. 1868; Hufvudstadsbladet, 24 Mar. 1868; Wiborgs Tidning, 28 Mar. 1868.

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article, “must provoke every right-thinking Norwegian’s indignation”. Reflecting a more general European trend towards philanthropy—and more than a little metropolitan detachment, given that the Norwegian capital lies some 2,000 km from the offices of the “northernmost newspaper in the world”—the response from Christiania editors to their northern compatriots’ complaints was unsympathetic: [the Finnmarksposten editorial] proves that today’s concept of humanitarianism and reciprocity between nations is not greatly appreciated around the 70th degree (of latitude)… fears for the increased numbers of Finns are reminiscent of the Egyptian Pharaoh’s similar fear of the increased number of Israelites, and it is quite fortunate for Norway's reputation that Hammerfest’s newspaper does not include many readers abroad. In a nutshell, Aftenbladet notes quite correctly that the cost of sending of a warship and troops to the Varangerfjord would equate to the expenditure necessary for preventing Finnish immigrants from dying of hunger, and that it would be more worthwhile for the Norwegian people to make sacrifices in order to save these unfortunates than drive them out. This will undoubtedly also be the line that will be taken by the government, which does not seem to harbour any distrust of this immigration.94

As well as the humanitarian imperative, the view from Christiania was that Finnish immigration would have a beneficial economic impact on Norwegian Finnmark, not least because the region was losing so many of its own people to North America.95 The incoming Finns, therefore, would be an ideal replacement for the labour being haemorrhaged, because they “may be somewhat uneducated, but they are hardworking and wonderfully capable of enduring the severity of the climate”.96 In eastern Finnmark, the Finnish community increased for the next couple of decades—outnumbering the Skolt Sámi population by 1890—but the  Finlands Allmänna Tidning, 23 Mar. 1868.  For a conceptual comparison—a society apparently experiencing out- and in-migration simultaneously—see the case of Scotland. T.M.  Devine, “The Paradox of Scottish Emigration”, in T.M.  Devine (ed.), Scottish Emigration and Scottish Society (Edinburgh, 1992), 1-15. 96  Finlands Allmänna Tidning, 23 Mar. 1868. See also the sardonic response to this affair from a correspondent in Utsjoki. “Bref från Utsjoki”, Helsingfors Dagblad, 8 May 1868. This positive view of Finnish settlement was reiterated by various observers in the 1880s and 1890s. See Kolehmainen, “Finnish Overseas Emigration”, 230. 94 95

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state “Norwegianization” policy meant that, by 1910, Norwegians made up the majority of the population in that region.97 As with the migration that took place from Finland to north-western parts of Russia, many potential migrants did not perceive hard state boundaries in Scandinavia and followed traditional routes despite new borders and regulations. They were considering economic opportunities based on lived experience and community heritage rather than the relatively recent formation of nation-states.98

Migration to North America The general migratory trend in Europe—and not least in the neighbouring Scandinavian countries—meant that America was discussed regularly in the 1850s and 1860s as a possible destination for Finns, sometimes in fearful terms by those who considered mass emigration to be a draining of the best of the country’s resources. Despite the absence of any direct routes to North America at this time, Finland was not isolated from the general European discourse on transatlantic emigration, but the debate was largely theoretical for at least a decade after the Great Hunger Years. In the 1850s, some Finnish writers presented America as a “land of the future”, focussing on pull rather than push factors, and suggesting that European emigration to the New World represented the pursuit of a freer lifestyle in a liberal society—a land of “freedom, equality and democracy”.99 There are also stories from the early 1850s of curious Finnish sailors jumping ship to participate in the California Gold Rush, but the numbers involved were very small.100 Later in the 1850s, the Åbo Tidningar newspaper also constructed widespread emigration as a central element of  Lähteenmäki, Peoples of Lapland, 251 (Table 12).   See Anna Amelina, Thomas Faist, Nina Glick Schiller & Devrimsel D.  Nergiz, “Methodological predicaments of cross-border studies”, in Anna Amelina, Devrimsel D. Nergiz, Thomas Faist & Nina Glick Schiller (eds), Beyond Methodological Nationalism: Research Methodologies for Cross-Border Studies (Abingdon, 2012), 1-19. 99  Reino Kero, Yhdysvaltojen kuva Suomen sanomalehdissä 1800-luvun puolivälin jälkeen (Turku, 1967), 12-23, 35-41; Kero, Migration from Finland to North America, 21-2; Kero, “Background of Finnish Emigration”, 60; “Centralamerika och den nya verldshandeln”, Wiborg, 31 Oct. 1856. 100  Reino Kero, Migration from Finland to North America in the years between the United States Civil War and the First World War (Turku, 1974), 16-7; “Finnar i Kalifornien”, Åbo Tidningar, 10 Sep. 1852. 97 98

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British and Spanish imperial success.101 Agathon Meurman (writing as “A.M.”) came to the conclusion that “Lapps and Samoyeds” would definitely prefer to “die in their tundra” rather than emigrate, and that Finns’ adherence to “glorious forbearance” was very close to that attitude. Thus, after falling in to “icy indifference”, many would choose death as “good honest Finns” over emigration.102 A lack of transport alternatives, as much as moral instruction, meant that, as a potential escape route from famine in the 1860s, America remained more of a dream than a realistic option for the vast majority of Finns. The contrast with Sweden during the period 1867-68 was marked, and T.K. Derry notes that “when the famine of the late 1860s sent 80,000 Swedes across the Atlantic in two years, they were accompanied by fewer than 1,000 Finns”.103 As the Swedish historian Hans Norman has noted: [large scale emigration] was especially true for Norway and Sweden, but less so for Denmark, which did not experience any significant crop failures. In Finland, on the other hand, which suffered most during the famine years and there the death rate rose to a record high, no pioneer emigration of such importance [as in Norway and Sweden] had yet taken place which could highlight America as an alternative…”104

Therefore, as a Transatlantic “great migration” got under way among their western neighbours, Finns tended to look east, if anywhere, for opportunities.105 Some even travelled eastwards only to end up in America, as there was a Finnish settlement in Sitka (Alaska), where Finns lived as fishermen or hunters, before the Alaska Purchase of 1867.106 When the United States had completed the transfer from Russia, some Finns

 “A.M.”, “Om Emigrationer”, Åbo Tidningar, 5 October 1858.  “A.M.”, “Om Emigrationer”, Åbo Tidningar, 5 October 1858. 103  Quoted in T.K. Derry, A History of Scandinavia (London, 1979), 256-7. 104  Hans Norman, “Emigrants and the Countries They Left”, in Hans Norman & Harald Runblom (eds), Transatlantic Connections: Nordic Migration to the New World after 1800 (Oslo, 1988), 63. Quoted in Akenson, Ireland, Sweden and the Great Migration, 147. 105  For a comprehensive overview of the Swedish case, see Donald Harman Akenson, Ireland, Sweden and the Great Migration 1815-1914 (Montréal, 2011). 106  Åbo Underrättelser, 27 February 1868; Arnold R. Alanen, “Finnish Settlements in the United States: ‘Nesting Places’ and Finntowns”, in Auvo Kostainen (ed.), Finns in the United States: A History of Settlement, Dissent and Integration (East Lansing, 2014), 55-73: 55. 101 102

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migrated on to British Columbia, but others remained in Alaska.107 In late 1867, for example, it was reported that a small group of young men had approached a merchant in Turku to inquire about the “shortest route to the New World… in their minds the promised land, according to what they had read in some newspaper, was on the other side of Sitka. They said that they were forced to emigrate from their home country, as conditions made it impossible to make a living here”.108 Prior to the establishment in the 1880s of a direct shipping line between the southern Finnish port of Hanko, and Hull in eastern England (which in turn facilitated sea travel to North America via Liverpool), routes to the New World from Finland were very limited.109 Moreover, commercial emigration agents, so prevalent in Sweden and Norway, only had a very minor impact in Finland in the 1860s.110 The agents do seem to have some success in securing the passage of some Finns via Norway, albeit as part of a process of step migration among those who had already settled in Finnmark.111 Moreover, the experience gained by some of these Finns in the copper mines of Alta and Kaafjord made them desirable workers in equivalent sites in the New World. Compared with Ireland, and indeed with Norway as a whole, the number of Finns emigrating to America from Finnmark remained small.112 As the famine  conditions deepened in Finland in  the 1860s, so fears were aired of a possible large-scale emigration to America if conditions could not be improved, even if the “habit” had not yet reached such a

107  Maria Jarlsdotter Enckell, “The Finnish Migration to and from Russian Alaska and the Pacific Siberian Rim 1800-1900”, Migration, 4 /2002, 16-22; Newby, “Neither do these tenants or their children emigrate”, 389. Susanna Rabow-Edling, Married to the Empire: Three Governors’ Wives in Russian America, 1829-1864 (Fairbanks, 2015); Armas K.E.  Holmio, History of the Finns in Michigan  (Detroit, 2001),  47; Aaltio, “Survey of Emigration,” 64-5; Saarinen, Between A Rock and a Hard Place, 10. 108  Helsingfors Dagblad, 21 Aug. 1867. 109  Holmio, History of the Finns in Michigan, 60. 110  See e.g. Jönköpings Tidning, 21 Feb. 1866. Quoted (in translation) in Charlotte Erikson (ed.) Emigration from Europe 1815-1914: Select Documents (London, 1976), pp.  196-8; Mart Kuldkepp, “Emigration and Scandinavia”, in Annika Lindskog & Jakob Stougaard-­ Nielsen (eds), Introduction to Nordic Cultures (London, 2020), 181-94: 185. Reino Kero, “Migration from Finland to North America”, in Auvo Kostainen (ed.), Finns in the United States: A History of Settlement, Dissent and Integration (East Lansing, 2014), 41-53: 49. 111  Korkiasaari, Suomalaiset Maailmalla, 23. 112  Kolehmainen, “Finnish Overseas Emigration”, 224-32.

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pitch in Finland as it had done in Sweden and Norway.113 Sporadic reports in 1866 from Finland’s “northern tracts”—including parishes such as Puolanka and Ii—kept the idea of transatlantic emigration on the agenda.114 Stories of Finns in North America nonetheless remained individual tales of adventure, rather than of  countless starving souls taking their chances on crammed coffin ships.115 In 1867, stories emerged of individuals from Ostrobothnia making their own way to America “in search of a better position,”116 and in the same year it was reported in the semi-official Russian state paper Journal de St.-Pétersbourg that preparations were being made for a strong emigration from Vaasa to North America.117 One man had  arranged passage from Jakobstad, via Hull, Liverpool, Ireland and Québec, before getting to Indiana.118 His  departure from Jakobstad prompted poetic yearning for the homeland, similar to that seen from many other European countries at this time: The heavy pressure of the burden of poverty pushed me out of my beloved homeland, from my dear wife and children and from a crowd of faithful friends… my anxious feelings and worries could not be dispelled, I almost trembled with the fear of the long journey ahead, and a pervasive sad feeling filled my soul, as I thought of being separated from this land, which has been so dear to me, from the memories; acquaintances and friends, all of whom may have pressed my hand for the last time.

After receiving a couple of long updates from the Jakobstad emigrant in July and August, Hufvudstadsbladet remarked that: “reading this letter one cannot think anything other than that emigration to America is the last escape route for a Finnish worker”.119 Nevertheless, the general tone of the Finnish press remained sceptical. This warning from Ostrobothnia, perceived to be the main source of transatlantic migrants, is representative: 113  Oulun Wiikko-Sanomia, 15 Oct. 1864. See also e.g. Åbo Underrättelser, 3 Jul. 1866; Helsingfors Tidningar, 13 Sep. 1866; Finlands Allmänna Tidning, 15 Apr. 1867. 114  Helsingfors Dagblad, 19 Feb. 1866; Oulun Wiikko-Sanomia, 22 Jun. 1867; Kolehmainen, “Finnish Overseas Emigration”, 224-32; Singleton, Short History of Finland, 86. 115  “Finnar i Nordamerika”, Helsingfors Dagblad, 8 Sep. 1865. 116  Österbotten, 20 July 1867. 117  Åbo Underrättelser, 29 Oct. 1867. 118  “En landsmans berättelse om sin resa till Nord-Amerika”, Österbotten, 20 Jul. 1867. Helsingfors Dagblad, 24 Jul. 1867, 25 Jul. 1867. 119  Hufvudstadsbladet, 27 Nov. 1867.

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Since several people have also emigrated from our country, and many may think of migrating to America, it would seem apt to mention the distress that, according to what Swedish magazines refer to, now prevails there. Unemployment and shortages often await mediocre emigrants. The need becomes so much more evident to them as they are in a foreign land where no one wants to give them a helping hand. Often the stranger also meets such Americans, who do not care about justice and reason … but when he has worked days and weeks, he often has to content himself with big (reductions) on the agreed daily allowance.120

Emigration increased significantly through the 1870s and 1880s—via ports such as Gothenburg, Malmö, Stockholm and Trondheim—to approximately 50,000 people for the period 1870-1892.121 The true explosion occurred after this point, when Hanko developed as a major point of departure for Finns, with over a quarter of a million leaving between 1893 and the outbreak of World War One.122 The Great Hunger Years did have an impact on Finnish emigration to the New World, but this impact was far less immediate and direct than, for example, the case of Ireland in the 1840s. Kero has highlighted the extent of internal migration from Ostrobothnia and Satakunta, which contributed to urban poverty and a rush to emigrate once transatlantic opportunities emerged in the 1880s.123 Indeed, he has also argued that the “effect of the famine years of the 1860s was still distinctly evident in the age distribution of Finnish emigrants in 1905”.124

Conclusion Emigration, then, does appear as a theme in Finland’s national story, but only some years after the end of the 1860s famine. Indeed, in terms of memory, the Finnish case almost seems to be the converse of the Irish. Ireland’s National Famine monument, in Murrisk, Co. Mayo, taking the form of a “coffin ship” orientated towards America, explicitly links the

 Österbotten, 21 Nov. 1868.  Kero, “Migration from Finland to North America”, 26-28, Tables 1, 2, 3; Alanen, “Finnish Settlements in the United States”, 58-69. 122  Kero, “Migration from Finland to North America”, 36, Table 4. 123  Kero, “Background of Finnish Emigration”, 55–62. 124  Kero, “Migration from Finland to North America”, 49. 120 121

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trauma of the 1840s to overseas emigration.125 Finland has no national memorial to the 1860s famine, but in the southern port town of Hanko, there is a national memorial to Finland’s emigrants (inaugurated 1967). The monument features three migrating cranes, but on the plinth are the names of all 93 municipalities in Finland that experienced more than 10% emigration between 1880 and 1930.126 Many of these place names are familiar to anyone who has studied the Great Hunger Years, and includes most of those “disaster municipalities” which lost over one-seventh of their populations in 1867-68.127 Finland’s Great Hunger Years of the 1860s, then, have not become associated with emigration in the same way as happened with Ireland after the 1840s, for various reasons. An important factor was the Fennomane narrative of self-sufficiency, and the corollary that emigration might be seen as unpatriotic. Finns needed to call upon the very qualities that made them Finns—to suffer through adversity and then recover their vigour to help build a successful nation. There were some concessions to the idea—later expressed quite strongly by Finnish emigrant communities in North America—that colonies could help to promote the Finnish ideal of sivistys in the wider world.128 In the 1860s, though, the Finnish elite’s overriding fears were that emigration would not only deprive the “fatherland” of its most valuable resource—its people—but that it would also mean the emigrants becoming culturally, linguistically and confessionally assimilated into their new society (generally Russia) within one or two generations. Moreover, as can be gleaned from the comments of William Campbell, the division of Finnish migration into “internal” and “external” was not always obvious. To leave Ireland in the “Hungry Forties” meant a conscious decision to board a vessel and travel to Britain, America or Australia. For a Finn in the 1860s, leaving the Finnish state on foot to trek to Aunus, St. Petersburg, Alta or Vadsø, was often an extension of the internal migration to relief work sites, Viipuri, Helsinki or other towns. Moreover, even

125  Emily Mark Fitzgerald, Commemorating the Irish Famine: Memory and Monument (Liverpool, 2013), 235. 126  A companion memorial, to Finnish immigration into the United States, was inaugurated in Lake Worth, Florida in 1985. 127  See above, p. 53, fn. 166. 128  Newby, “Neither do these tenants or their children emigrate”, 391-2.

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the passport system was, theoretically, applied internally as well as externally. And in terms of mental geography and local cultural norms, many of the paths that led over the nascent Finnish state’s boundaries had been trodden for generations during times of need.

References Bibliography

Finnish National Archives, Helsinki Finnish Historical Society, Nalkävuositoimikunta [Hunger Year Committee].

Official Reports William Campbell, “Report by Consul Campbell on the Tenure of Land in the Grand Duchy of Finland”, in Land Tenure (Europe): Accounts and Papers of the House of Commons lxviii (London, 1870), 250–257.

Newspapers Åbo Tidningar. Åbo Underrättelser. Björneborg. Borgåbladet. Bornholms Tidende. Dagbladet. Finlands Allmänna Tidning. Folkets Avis. Folkwännen. Göteborgsposten. Hämäläinen. Helsingfors Dagblad. Helsingin Uutiset. Hufvudstadsbladet. Ilmarinen. Karjalan kävijä. Litteraturblad. Morgenbladet. Norrbottens Kuriren.

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Le Nord. Nya Dagligt Allehanda. Österbotten. Otawa. Oulun Wiikko-Sanomia. Päivätar. Post- Och Inrikes Tidningar. Sanomia Tampereelta. Sanomia Turusta. Suomalainen Wirallinen Lehti. Suomen Kirkon Julkisia Sanomia. Suomen lähetyssanomia. Suometar. Tampereen Sanomat. Tapio. Tidskrift i Sjöväsendet. Trondhjems borgerlige Realskoles alene-priviligerede Adressecontoirs-Efterretninger. Turun Kuvalehti. Vasabladet. Wasa Tidning. Wiborg. Wiborgs Tidning.

Printed Secondary Sources Tauri Aaltio, “A Survey of Emigration from Finland to the United States and Canada”, in Ralph J.  Jalkanen (ed.), The Finns in North America: A Social Symposium (Hancock, MI, 1969), 63-9. Donald Harman Akenson, Ireland, Sweden and the Great Migration 1815-1914 (Montréal, 2011). Arnold R. Alanen, “Finnish Settlements in the United States: ‘Nesting Places’ and Finntowns”, in Auvo Kostainen (ed.), Finns in the United States: A History of Settlement, Dissent and Integration (East Lansing, 2014), 55-73. Anna Amelina, Thomas Faist, Nina Glick Schiller & Devrimsel D.  Nergiz, “Methodological predicaments of cross-border studies”, in Anna Amelina, Devrimsel D.  Nergiz, Thomas Faist & Nina Glick Schiller (eds), Beyond Methodological Nationalism: Research Methodologies for Cross-Border Studies (Abingdon, 2012), 1-19. Mark Bassin, Imperial Visions: Nationalist Imagination and the Geographical Expansion in the Russian Far East, 1840-1865 (Cambridge, 1999). T.K. Derry, A History of Scandinavia (London, 1979).

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Thomas M. Devine, “The Paradox of Scottish Emigration”, in Thomas M. Devine (ed.), Scottish Emigration and Scottish Society (Edinburgh, 1992), 1-15. Laura di Fiore, “The Production of Borders in Nineteenth Century Europe: Between Institutional Boundaries and Transnational Practices of Space”, European Review of History—Revue européenne d’histoire, 24:1 (2017), 36-57. Humberto Dos Santos Martins, “Living Between Nation-States and Nature: Anthropological Notes on National Identities”, in Robert Danisch (ed.), Citizens of the World: Pluralism, Migration and Practices of Citizenship (Amsterdam, 2011), 159-84. Piia Einonen, Pirita Frigren, Tiina Hemminki & Merja Uotila, “Leipää taivalta takana—liikkuminen 1800-luvun alun Suomessa”, Ennen ja Nyt 5 (2016). Fredrik Ekengren, “Materialities on the Move: Identity and Material Culture Among the Forest Finns in Seventeenth-Century Sweden and America”, in Magdalena Naum & Jonas M. Nordin (eds), Scandinavian Colonialism and the Rise of Modernity: Small Time Agents in a Global Arena (New York, 2013), 147-65. Max Engman, Emigrationen från Finland till europeiska Ryssland 1809-1917: en undersökning av en flyttningsrörelses volym, riktning och struktur (Helsingfors, 1975). Max Engman, “Migration from Finland to Russia during the Nineteenth Century”, Scandinavian Journal of History, 3 (1978), 155-77. Max Engman, S:t Petersburg och Finland. Migration och influens 1703-1917 (Helsingfors, 1983). Max Engman, “Karelians between East and West”, in Sven Tägil (ed.), Ethnicity and Nation-building in the Nordic World (London, 1995), 217-45. Max Engman, Suureen Itään: Suomalaiset Venäjällä ja Aasiassa (Turku, 2005). Charlotte Erikson (ed.) Emigration from Europe 1815-1914: Select Documents (London, 1976). Maria Jarlsdotter Enckell, “The Finnish Migration to and from Russian Alaska and the Pacific Siberian Rim 1800-1900”, Migration, 4 /2002, 16-22. John L. Evans, Russian Expansion on the Amur, 1848-1860: The Push to the Atlantic (Lewiston, 1999). James A. Froude, “England and Her Colonies”, Fraser’s Magazine 1 (1870), 1-16. Per-Olof Grönberg, The Peregrine Profession: Transnational Mobility of Nordic Architects, 1880-1930 (Leiden, 2018). Armas K.E. Holmio, History of the Finns in Michigan (Detroit, 2001). Antti Häkkinen “On Attitudes and Living Strategies in the Finnish Countryside in the Years of Famine 1867-68”, in Antti Häkkinen (ed.), Just a Sack of Potatoes? Crisis Experiences in European Societies, Past and Present (Helsinki, 1992), 149-66.

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Salomon Ilmonen, Amerikan Suomalaisten Historia ja Elämäkertoja (Jyväskylä, 1923). Reino Kero, Yhdysvaltojen kuva Suomen sanomalehdissä 1800-luvun puolivälin jälkeen (Turku, 1967). Reino Kero, “The Background of Finnish Emigration”, in Ralph J. Jalkanen (ed.), The Finns in North America: A Social Symposium (Hancock, MI, 1969), 55-62. Reino Kero, Migration from Finland to North America in the years between the United States Civil War and the First World War (Turku, 1974). Reino Kero, “Migration from Finland to North America”, in Auvo Kostainen (ed.), Finns in the United States: A History of Settlement, Dissent and Integration (East Lansing, 2014), 41-53. John Ilmari Kolehmainen, “Finnish Overseas Emigration from Arctic Norway and Russia”, Agricultural History (xix, 1945), 224-32. Jouni Korkiasaari, Suomalaiset Maailmalla (Turku, 1989). Jouni Korkiasaari & Kari Tarkiainen, Suomalaiset Ruotsissa (Turku, 2000). Mart Kuldkepp, “Emigration and Scandinavia”, in Annika Lindskog & Jakob Stougaard-Nielsen (eds), Introduction to Nordic Cultures (London, 2020), 181-94. Ilkka Liikanen, Fennomaneia ja kansa—Joukkojärjestäytymisen läpimurto ja Suomalaisen puolueen synty (Helsinki, 1995). Maria Lähteenmäki, The Peoples of Lapland: Boundary Demarcations and Interaction in the North Calotte from 1808 to 1889 (Helsinki, 2006). Emily Mark Fitzgerald, Commemorating the Irish Famine: Memory and Monument (Liverpool, 2013). Andrew G. Newby, “‘Neither do these tenants or their children emigrate’: famine and transatlantic emigration from Finland in the nineteenth century”, Atlantic Studies, 11:3 (2014), 383-402. Andrew G.  Newby, “Fear and Loathing at 70 Degrees North”, iPerspectives 2 (Autumn, 2020), 66-70. Hans Norman, “Emigrants and the Countries They Left”, in Hans Norman & Harald Runblom (eds), Transatlantic Connections: Nordic Migration to the New World after 1800 (Oslo, 1988). Kari Pitkänen, “The Road to Survival or Death? Temporary Migration During the Great Finnish Famine in the 1860s”, in Antti Häkkinen (ed.), Just a Sack of Potatoes? Crisis Experiences in European Societies, Past and Present (Helsinki, 1992), 87-118. Susanna Rabow-Edling, Married to the Empire: Three Governors’ Wives in Russian America, 1829-1864 (Fairbanks, 2015). Juho Reijonen, “Nälkävuonna: karjalainen kertomus”, Nuori Suomi 3 (1893), 6-21. Anne Ruuttula-Vasari, Herroja on epäiltävä aina—metsäherroja yli kaiken: Metsähallituksen ja pohjoissuomalaisten kanssakäyminen kruununmetsissä vuosina 1851-1900 (Oulu, 2004).

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Anne Ruuttula-Vasari, “Lestijärveläisten metsäkapina 1860-luvulla”, Keskipohjanmaa, 20 Jun. 2004. Teemu Ryymin, “Narrating the Arctic Finns: Samuli Paulaharju’s Representations of the Kvens”, Acta Borealia, 21:1 (2004), 21-40. Oiva W. Saarinen, Between A Rock and a Hard Place: A Historical Geography of the Finns in the Sudbury Area (Waterloo, ON, 1999). David Saunders, Russia in the Age of Reaction and Reform, 1801-1881 (London, 1992). Fred Singleton, A Short History of Finland (Cambridge, 2nd ed, 1998). Anders Svedberg [A. S—g], Om Emigrationen (Helsingfors, 1883). Viljo Tervonen (ed.) Pál Hunfalvy ja Suomalaiset. Kirjeitä vuosilta 1853-1891 (Helsinki, 1987). J.F. Thauvon, Matka-muistelmia Venäjän Lapista (Helsinki, 1871). Anna-Leena Toivonen, Etelä-Pohjanmaan Valtamerentakainen Siirtolaisuus 1867-1930 (Helsinki, 1963). Adolf Törngren, Ur friherre Emil Stjernvall-Walleens brev till Aurore Karamzine. Utdrag ur breven åren 1860−1876 (övers. från franskan, 1939). Oiva Turpeinen, Nälkä vai tauti tappoi? (Helsinki, 1986). V.E.V.  Wessman (red.), Finlands Svenska Folkdiktning. II Sägner: 2. Historiska Sägner (Helsingfors, 1924).

CHAPTER 9

Conclusion

In their analysis of famines as a manifestation of “slow violence” on a people, social scientists Swati Parashar and Camilla Orjuela posited that “whether and how famines are remembered are critical to recognising their violence and those responsible and accountable for it”.1 In the case of some historical famines, nationalist discourses have developed which have highlighted the suffering of a disempowered people, and attributed the blame for the catastrophe to the governing (often “imperial”) authorities.2 This, in turn, can contribute to a commemorative culture around the suffering endured during those famines, perhaps most notably in the cases of Ireland (the Great Hunger of 1845–1852), and Ukraine (the Holodomor of 1932–1933). In both of these examples, prominent “national” famine memorials, replete with symbolism that reflects features of the traumatic experience (such as mass emigration, the lack of once plentiful food, or skeletal or emaciated human forms), have been

1   Swati Parashar & Camilla Orjuela, “Famines: ‘Slow’ Violence and Gendered Memorialisation”, in Tarja Väyrynen, Swati Parashar, Élise Féron, Catia Cecilia Confortini (eds), Routledge Handbook of Feminisit Peace Research (Basingstoke, 2021), 409–19: 414–5. 2  Alex de Waal, Mass Starvation: The History and Future of Famine (Oxford, 2017), 24–5.

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 A. G. Newby, Finland’s Great Famine, 1856–68, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-19474-0_9

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established.3 Moreover, Irish and Ukrainian communities outside of their home countries have been active in conceiving and inaugurating memorials to these national tragedies.4 There is no national monument or memorial to Finland’s Great Hunger Years, and nor has there been any deep or sustained debate on issues of culpability surrounding the huge—globally significant—mortality of the 1860s.5 Neither has there been any suggestion in the historiography that the long lead-in to the cataclysm of 1867–1868, with its ever-increasing precarity, and “early-warning signs” of famine, could represent a form of “slow violence”.6 In fact, the Finnish case reflects what Alex de Waal has characterised as the more usual approach to famine commemoration: “official memorials to the victims of famine are […] remarkably rare… Much more common around the world is official silence, along with local efforts to remember”.7 An interesting aspect of the Finnish nationalist treatment of the Great Hunger Years is that it tends to contradict Jenny Edkins’ argument that, in the case of famine, “there is no possibility afterwards of survivors claiming that those who died sacrificed themselves for some greater cause”.8 This, in fact, is exactly what the Fennomane narrative suggested. In his article about lessons that had been learned from “times of emergency”, Yrjö-Koskinen proposed that “while many people are willing to sacrifice

3  Emily Mark Fitzgerald, Commemorating the Irish Famine: Memory and the Monument (Liverpool, 2013); Wiktoria Kudela-Świa ̨tek, “The Lieux de Mémoire of the Holodomor in the Cultural Landscape of Modern Ukraine”, in Anna Wylegała & Małgorzata Głowacka-­ Grajper (eds), The Burden of the Past: History, Memory and Identity in Modern Ukraine (Bloomington, IN, 2020), 49–73: 62–3. 4  Mark Fitzgerald, Commemorating the Irish Famine; John Crowley, “Sites of Memory”, in John Crowley, William J.  Smyth & Mike Murphy (eds), Atlas of the Great Irish Famine (Cork, 2012), 614–20; Per A. Rudling, “Long-Distance Nationalism: Ukrainian Monuments and Historical Memory in Multicultural Canada”, in Sabine Marshcall (ed.), Public Memory in the Context of Transnational Migration and Displacement: Migrants and Monuments (New York / Basingstoke, 2020), 95–126. 5  Andrew G.  Newby, “Overcoming Amnesia? Memorialising Finland’s ‘Great Hunger Years’”, in Emily Mark Fitzgerald, Oona Frawley & Marguérite Corporaal (eds), The Great Famine: Material and Visual Culture (Liverpool, 2018), 183–206. 6  “Slow violence” is a term coined in Rob Nixon, “Slow Violence” and the Environmentalism of the Poor (Cambridge, MA, 2011). 7  de Waal, Mass Starvation, 25. 8  Jenny Edkins, Trauma and the Memory of Politics (Cambridge, 2003), 11. Also quoted in de Waal, Mass Starvation, 25.

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their lives and blood for national pride and independence, so are even the people of Finland used to another kind of battle; that is hunger and deprivation”.9 Yrjö-Koskinen’s ally in the Young Fennomane movement, Agathon Meurman, was even more explicit in his 1892 account, Hunger Years of the 1860s. In his description of the famine relief works, he employed martial imagery while simultaneously addressing the idea of memorialisation: The sad truth is, that an awful number of our citizens’ bones are bleaching along the length of the magnificent Finnish highways. Everything that was possible was done to save them, but human power must acknowledge its inadequacy when God’s might passes over the land. They fought honestly, however, on a killing field that has produced a more lasting victory for their descendants than many of the shining victories in history, where indiscriminate bullets and savage swords have slain tens of thousands at the command of the land’s mighty. A more valuable gravestone than the Riihimäki—St. Petersburg railway could not have been erected by our people for the nameless fallen.10

In the absence of an oppressive colonial power, or invading army, the Finnish people were to be convinced that they had fought, and—at least on a national if not individual level—survived an attritional war against Nature itself during the 1860s. Given that the gradual deterioration in the condition of many in the Finnish countryside, and the incrementally-­ increasing death rates leading up to 1868, the Great Hunger Years adhere to Nixon’s definition of “Slow Violence” as “violence that occurs gradually and out of sight; a delayed destruction often dispersed across time and space”.11

9  [Yrjö-Koskinen], ”Wielä hätä-ajan opetusta”, Uusi Suometar, 14 Oct. 1869. Quoted in Henrik Forsberg, “Masculine Submission: National Narratives of the Last Great Famine, c. 1868–1920”, Journal of Finnish Studies, 20:1 (2017), 38–64: 42. Translation by Henrik Forsberg. 10  Agathon Meurman, Nälkävuodet 1860-luvulla (Helsinki, 1892), 43–4. As pointed out recently by Kalle Kallio, the idea that the railway was built on the bones of the workers is meant more symbolically than literally, although Meurman’s phrase has often been recycled in accounts of the Great Hunger Years. Kalle Kallio, Ratajätkät: Rautatienrakentajien Kokemukset 1857–1939 (Helsinki, 2022), 158–9. 11  Nixon, “Slow Violence”, 2.

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Contemporary Notions of Culpability In such circumstances, any allocation of culpability for the baleful culmination of the 1860s called for introspection. In Finland, these discussions tended to focus on regional identities or, perhaps more accurately, class identities. At different times in the 1860s, Ostrobothnians, Karelians and Savonians were all “othered” by the national or provincial elites for their innate laziness, or apparent rejection of the true “Finnish” values.12 In the case of 1840s Ireland, racial and religious bigotry infused many of the assumptions that were made about the Irish people, and yet much of the same rhetoric was present in 1860s Finland, where there were, essentially, no important ethnic or religious differences between the ruling elites and the people they governed (Fig. 9.1).13 In the minds of those governing Finland in the 1860s, and indeed much broader sections of the self-appointed sivistyneistö, the blame for the precarious, and ever-deteriorating economic  position that the Grand Duchy found itself in, lay with the rural masses themselves. The rahvas, the rural proletariat, had failed to live up to the ideal model of the Finnish peasant with which national romantics like Runeberg had provided them. Rather than spartan communality, these “slackers and human trash” were living a careless life, increasingly based on imported “luxuries”, and debt.14 As Juha Siltala has expressed it: Recollection of the hunger years made nationalists shed tears of compassion for the suffering mother abstraction [the country/state], but in the same breadth they preached God’s and history’s punishment to the languid peo-

12  Antti Häkkinen & Henrik Forsberg, “Finland’s famine years of the 1860s. A nineteenth-­ century perspective”, in Declan Curran, Lubomyr Luciuk & Andrew G.  Newby (eds), Famines in European Economic History. The last great European famines reconsidered (Abingdon, 2015), 99–123: 106. 13  Ó Gráda makes a similar point about famine relief in 1840s Holland in comparison with Ireland. Cormac Ó Gráda, “The Great Famine and Today’s Famines”, in Cathal Póirtéir, The Great Irish Famine (Dublin, 1995), 248–58: 251–2. 14  Quoting a frustrated resident of Oulu, who some months after the end of the famine— i.e. after the good harvest of 1868—explained in the local newspaper that many “thinking people” in Finland would have hoped that the “hunger and death” of the last year would have “thinned out” the numbers of “slackers and other human trash” [“laiskureita ja muuta roskawäkeä”]. “Oulusta”, Oulun Wiikko-Sanomia, 3 Oct. 1868.

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Fig. 9.1  The “Christmas Goat” (a regional manifestation of e,g, Santa Claus) brings the gifts of sedulity and thrift to the Finnish people, in the middle of the “Hunger Winter” of 1867–1868. (Illustration by Walter Forss. Hufvudstadsbladet, 24 Dec. 1867. Courtesy of the National Library of Finland) ple who no longer lived the simple life of the 17th century but had taken import wares to be their daily bread.15

Throughout the 1860s, there was increasing frustration on the part of the Helsinki administration, as well as provincial governors and municipal functionaries, that the rural people at various social strata were simply not taking the good advice that was being provided. Thus, the most distressed portions of the population were not adopting the new modes of nutrition that were being preached in newspapers and from pulpits around the country, while the larger farmers were not using their wherewithal to provide employment in the tradition of legal protection. Work tasks were imposed on the starving to prevent moral degeneration, often meaning 15  Juha Siltala, Valkoisen äidin pojat: Siveellisyys ja sen varjot kansallisessa projektissa (Helsinki, 1999), 171. Also quoted in Eliza Kraatari, Domestic Dexterity and Cultural Policy: The Idea of Cottage Industry and Historical Experience in Finland from the Great Famine to the Reconstruction Period (Jyväskylä, 2016), 81. This translation by Eliza Kraatari.

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inhumane and degrading conditions on local-, provincial- or national-level emergency work sites. Those who sought to emigrate were generally condemned for deserting the homeland. In December 1867, the whole population was commanded to attend an additional Day of Repentance and Prayer, to appease the Almighty and, at the same time, renounce the sins of laziness and selfishness that were antithetical to the Fennomanes’ construction of a Finnish citizen.16 The nationalist interpretation of the crisis, therefore, was not concerned with apportioning blame to the imperial power, but rather in presenting a didactic message of self-sufficiency to the present and future generations. The pseudonymous “---o ---el”, writing on the cusp of the twentieth century on “hard circumstances as awakeners of the people”, emphasised the narrative that Finnish nationalism had developed in the three decades following the 1860s Great Hunger Years: Many were to be found who pointed out to the people that they themselves were to blame for their miserable condition. But this was not taken into account, rather the administration was blamed for poor management. Ingratitude was widespread, even though the government had rushed to help. But there is a harsh punishment for ingratitude. And this came as a merciless, crushing blow, which demonstrated, that long sufferance of this stubborn people had come to an end. That punishment, the hunger year of 1867, passed like a devastating whitewash through our land. During the better years, the rural proletariat had closed their eyes and entrusted their futures to the “tsar’s purse”. Now it [realised] that unless it began to help itself through its own power, death by starvation lay ahead. It was impossible for the administration to help—at least not to the same extent as before—because the state coffers had shrunk to such a small size, because the population’s tax returns had been declining from year to year… But crying will not save you from crisis, bawling from bad times. The people fought a valiant fight against the terrible enemy as long as their strength lasted. Thousands fell in the fight, but when it had finally ended, the people realised

16  Kari Pitkänen, “Kärsimysten ja ahdingon vuosikymmen—1860 luvun yleiskuva”, in Antti Häkkinen, Hannu Soikkanen, Vappu Ikonen & Kari Pitkänen, Kun Halla Nälän Tuskan Toi (Porvoo, 1991), 36–77: 39–40; Kraatari, Domestic Dexterity, 80–1; A.  S-g, [Anders Svedberg] “Hungersnöden i Finland 1867. Tidsbild från våra dagar”. Förre och Nu 11:9 (1871), 275–8; “Katsahdus katowuoteen 1867”, Uusi Suometar, 25 Sep. 1871.

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that they had in themselves enough vigour to go out and plough new furrows, new ridges on once neglected fields.17

In this reading of events it was the masses, rather than the governing elites, were to blame for the disaster. The administration had done its best in impossible circumstances, whereas the people had been lazy, waiting for bailouts from the imperial coffers in St. Petersburg, and subsequently failing to adopt improved agriculture, or to develop their own sense of identity as Finnish citizens.18 The fact that this article was written in 1899—approaching the height of the Finnish-Russian tensions around “Russification”, during what became known as the “First Period of Oppression”, makes the introspection all the more notable. During Snellman’s time, the Fennomane strategy was to develop Finnishness while being demonstrably loyal to the Tsar, in the hope that this would give them the space and freedom to develop their own nation. Even by the 1890s, though, when it would have been more politically expedient, in Cormac Ó Gráda’s words, to “make nationalist hay” from incidents of perceived historical oppression, there was no attempt, or will, to suggest that the Russian imperial administration had been responsible for one of history’s worst famines.19 Rather, the “nationalist hay” was made in the assertion that Finns had been taught a harsh lesson, and been shaped, by the ordeal of the 1860s.

Counter-Hegemonic Narratives If the Fennomane narrative dominated, it did not go unchallenged. Snellman’s rather sudden departure from office in spring 1868 had been precipitated mainly by clashes over the funding of the railway project, but it is clear that there were dissenting voices within Finland’s complex governance structure who disapproved of his prioritising longer-term nation-­ building ideas over the immediate needs of the people. Emil Stjernvall-Walleen, for example, the Assistant Minister-Secretary in St.

17  “---o ---el”, “Kovat kohtalot kansan herättäjinä”, Karjalatar, 12 Oct. 1899; also reprinted e.g. as “---o ---el”, “Palanen Suomen Historiaa”, Itä-Suomen Sanomat, 31 Oct. 1899. 18  Cf. Arvo Soininen, Vanha Maataloutemme: Maatalous ja maataloudenväestö Suomessa perinnäisen maatalouden loppukaudella 1720-luvulta 1870-luvulle (Helsinki, 1974), 409. 19  Ó Gráda, “Great Famine and Today’s Famines”, 251–2.

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Petersburg, wrote to Snellman on 9th April 1868, coincidentally just as mortality rates in the Grand Duchy were reaching their height: At the moment, the odds are not in our favour, yet I congratulate you for the chance to retire […] Watching distress is surely painful, but causing it is crushing.20

While J.V. Snellman may stand out as the longstanding driving force of the “Finnishness” project, and the public face of the Finnish administration in the 1860s, criticism of his actions in the 1860s have tended to be muted, subsumed by his other notable achievements in nation-building—some of which (including the pre-eminence of the Finnish language, and the launch of an independent currency) were being undertaken as the famine crisis loomed ever larger. As well as receiving some protection from his position as one of the spiritual fathers of the independent Finnish state which emerged in 1917, historians have warned against anachronistic critical takes on Snellman’s administration.21 In this regard, it can be stressed that Snellman, while clearly the public face of the senate and essentially the Minister of Finance, did not act alone in formulating policies. Moreover, the monetary reforms in particular were likely to cause some hardship, as the previous regime had been rather generous in its loans to farmers and businessmen, but this constriction of credit was obviously exacerbated by an appalling run of harvest failures that realistically could not have been predicted. On the other hand, it can be considered whether it is really anachronistic to ask the same questions that were being raised by contemporaries. The first significant challenge to the conventional view of Finland’s Great Hunger Years was a literary treatment of the period by Savonian author Karl Tavaststjerna, published in Swedish 1891 as Hårda tider:

20  Lari Rantanen, “A Pitfall on the Nation’s Path of Politics?”, Jahrbücher für Geschichte Osteuropas 67:2 (2019), 206–238: 231. Translation by Lari Rantanen. 21  See, e.g. Maria Jalava, J.V. Snellman—Mies ja Suurmies (Helsinki, 2006), 302–3; Vappu Ikonen, “Kaksi 1800-luvun nälkäkriisiä—Suomi ja Irlanti”, in Antti Häkkinen, Vappu Ikonen, Kari Pitkänen & Hannu Soikkanen, Kun Halla Nälän Tuskan Toi: Miten Suomalaiset Kokivat 1860-luvun Nälkävuodet (Porvoo, 1991), 273–82: 279–81; Miikka Voutilainen, Poverty, Inequality and the Finnish 1860s Famine (Jyväskylä, 2016), 20.

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Berättelse från Finlands sista nödår [Hard Times: Tales from Finland’s Last Year of Distress]. Along with the title, the cover of the book, by the renowned and multi-talented artist Louis Sparre suggested that this account of the famine would prioritise the author’s version of realism over idealism.22 A winter landscape in the interior of the country, with a winding road along the shore of a frozen lake. On the path crowds of people striding through the snow. At the bottom of the picture a female figure, and lying in the snow next to her a man succumbing from hunger and cold. A rickety fence by the side of the road, a lonely milestone, a barn and a dark forest in the distance.23

The pleading way in which the female figure looks out at the read suggests that death will soon come upon many of this group, and that it will not be a noble sacrifice in the service of the nation (Fig. 9.2). And, indeed, as Frederike Felcht observes, “instead of praising the heroic virtues of Finnish people facing the famine, Hårda tider depicts moral failures and social injustices,” including a desperate protagonist who commits murder, and a well-off landowner who represents the detached and opulent lifestyle of the upper classes.24 As a result, Hårda tider provoked a rapid reaction from the Fennomanes, most notably the publication in 1892 of Agathon Meurman’s Hunger Years of the 1860s. In his introduction, Meurman explicitly mentions Tavaststjerna’s novel and sets out the purpose of his own account, to correct the untruths and distortions of Hårda tider, and present the 1860s as the great “heroic battle of the Finnish people”.25

22  Karl A.  Tavaststjerna, Hårda Tider: Berättelse från Finlands Sista Nödår (Helsingfors, 1891). 23  “Literatur”, Åbo Underrättelser, 11 Dec. 1891. 24  Frederike Felcht, “The Nature of Hunger: Karl August Tavaststjerna’s Hårda tider”, in Reinhard Hennig, Anna-Karin Jonasson & Peter Degerman (eds), Nordic Narratives of Nature and the Environment: Ecocritical Approaches to Northern European Literature and Cultures (Lanham, MD, 2018), 173–88: 174. Henrik Forsberg points out that the Finnish version of the book, published in 1892 and translated by the renowned author Juhani Aho, was a “sanitized version, omitting the most vehement attacks against the church and government. Why the Finnish reading public was not allowed to read the same book as Swedish [-speaking] readers remains an intriguing mystery that still awaits a proper study”. Forsberg, “Masculine Submission”, 47. 25  Meurman, Nälkävuodet, 4.

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Fig. 9.2  Panel from the 2017–2020 exhibition, Nälkä! The Great Finnish Famine. This panel features Louis Sparre’s cover illustration from K.A. Tavaststjerna’s Hårda Tider (1891). (Photo: Andrew G. Newby)

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Meurman’s account did indeed become the basis for most of the historical writing on the Great Hunger Years for many decades afterwards, as attested by a glance at some of the countless local histories that appeared in various newspapers and journals in the first half of the twentieth century. In these cases, local details, no matter how gruesome, are often presented beneath a macro-level narrative featuring the usual Fennomane tropes, such as communality, stoicism and the government in the capital trying its best to alleviate the situation. It would be wrong to suggest that the development of this type of memory was inevitable, as a counter-­ hegemonic narrative did gain some traction in the later years of the 1890s. The spark of this counter-narrative was not necessarily Tavaststjerna’s literary flourishes, although the public spat with Meurman did demonstrate the existence of an alternative view to a wide audience in Finland.26 Rather, it was the rise of organized labour, urbanization and spread of democratic idealism which fostered an anti-bourgeois perspective on the events of the 1860s. Railway workers’ unions and their newspapers, in particular, were keen to highlight the sacrifices made by those who built the Riihimäki to St. Petersburg line. On the Fortieth Anniversary of the line’s opening, a writer in Juna—the railway workers’ official newspaper— wrote that: The Riihimäki to St. Petersburg line is a battlefield, on which hunger and the slaves’ whip has swung remorselessly. At many places the tracks hide the bones of a labourer who fell under the heavy work and the whip. From there, they remind us to fight tirelessly against the workers’ oppressors, to achieve better conditions, if not for ourselves then for our children.27

Thus, the symbolism and rhetoric of suffering was indeed close to that of nationalists such as Meurman, including the persistent myth of dead workers being buried into the very trackbed, and the metaphors of the whip and the battlefield, but was appropriated as a clarion call against the bourgeoisie.28 The “Red” perspective on the Great Hunger Years more generally is best encapsulated in the 1917 semicentennial commemorative article by Edvard Gylling, a professional statistician, who became a prominent Social  Forsberg, “Masculine Submission”, 48.  “Riihimäen-Pietarin rautatie 40-vuotias: Muutamia muistiinpanoja”, Juna, 29 Sep. 1910. 28  See above, fn. 10. 26 27

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Democratic (and subsequently Communist, after relocating to Soviet Karelia after the Civil War) politician.29 Gylling, unsurprisingly taking a “long crisis” view of the famine which emphasised the ongoing disdain of the administration towards the suffering of the people, contextualised the Great Hunger Years as an essential component of a decade when “capitalism would take over the country”.30 He interpreted the famine as a crisis of entitlement, rather than one of nature, and argued that Finland did not exist in isolation from the rest of the world, meaning that it would have been possible to ensure sufficient imports of grain to feed the population. The fact that this did not occur was blamed by Gylling on the bourgeois administration in Helsinki and their failure to react after the late sowing of spring 1867, rather than the early frost of September. Moreover, in an echo of the Irish nationalist narrative of the 1840s, he posited that “large quantities of grain” were exported from Finland just as thousands were dying of starvation. This contentious perspective reflected the contemporary political divisions between Red and White, with a large proportion of the latter side identifying as political descendants of the Fennomanes. Gylling’s article was published shortly after Finnish independence (declared on 6th December 1917), and shortly before the short but brutal Civil War which raged between January and May 1918. The eventual victory of the Whites was celebrated as a guarantee that Finland would retain the independence it had been developing since the early nineteenth century, rather than being included in the newly conceived Soviet Union. The White version of history, moreover, would remain the dominant national perspective, and as a minor consequence of this, the counter-hegemonic narrative of the 1860s famine that had developed between 1890 and 1917 was essentially washed away.31 The Finnish History Society’s (delayed) “Fiftieth Anniversary Commemoration of the Great Hunger Years” was held in Helsinki only a few days after Marshall Gustaf Mannerheim’s victory parade. The conservative Finnish Party senator Gustaf Hjelt claimed during his lecture that:  Forsberg, “Masculine Submission”, 55.  Edvard Gylling, “Nälkävuodet 1867–68. Puolivuosisataismuisto”, Työväen kalenteri, XI (1918), 110–21. See also Henrik Forsberg, “If they do not want to work and suffer, they must starve and die”. Irish and Finnish famine historiography compared”, Scandinavian Journal of History, 43:4 (2018), 484–514: 499–500. 31  N.L., “Vuoden 1867 ankarat ajat ja niiden vaikutus myöhempään aikaan”, Suomen Sosialidemokraatti, 10 Nov. 1937. 29 30

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Unforgettably beautiful was the moral power and sublime submission with which our people bore the misfortunes of the time, without waving and deviating from the path of honesty… The great years of death in the 1860s were the harsh punishment for the carelessness and economic backwardness of our people.32

The hegemonic, Fennomane interpretation of the Great Hunger Years, therefore, was being written even as the famine increased in intensity, and was reinforced repeatedly as a means of teaching subsequent generations lessons about their history, heritage and responsibilities to the nation.

Hard Times: The Work of Lost Generations While there is no national memorial in Finland to the Great Hunger Years, there are nevertheless over a hundred local memorials, often located near mass-grave sites in churchyards, or at relief work sites.33 One such memorial, at Asikkala (Päijät-Häme) encapsulates the idea that the Great Hunger Years were one of various challenges that have been thrown at the Finnish people over the centuries, and that these challenges have been the blocks upon which the modern state of Finland has been built.34 A tall, cenotaph style monument, adjacent to the Vääksy Canal, the memorial was unveiled on the weekend of Finland’s sixtieth anniversary as an independent nation in December 1977 (Fig. 9.3).35 THE WORK OF PREVIOUS GENERATIONS DIFFICULT TIMES WINTER- AND CONTINUATION WARS 1939–45

32  Speech by Senator August Hjelt,  entitled “Surmavuosista Suomessa 1860-luvulla”, 8 May 1918. Reported in Gunnar Sarva, “Katsaus historiatieteellisten seurojen toimintaan lukuvuonna 1917–18”, Historiallinen Aikakauskirja, 1–5 (1918), 57–78: 69–70. 33  For details of these sites, see Andrew G.  Newby, “Finland’s Great Hunger Years Memorials: Images, Locations, Reflections”, online at https://katovuodet1860.wordpress. com (accessed 20 Dec. 2021). 34  For details on the 1860s in Asikkala, see Yrjö Blomstedt, Asikkalan Historia (Asikkala, 1981), 91–5. 35  Etelä-Suomen Sanomat, 4 Dec. 1977; Andrew G.  Newby, “Finland’s ‘Great Hunger Years’ Memorials: A Sesquicentennial Report”, in Andrew G. Newby (ed.), “The Enormous Failure of Nature”: Famine and Society in the Ninteenth Century (Helsinki, 2017), 173–214: 185.

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Fig. 9.3  The memorial to the “Work of Lost Generations”, Asikkala (Vääksy), January 2017. (Photo: Andrew G. Newby) DIFFICULTIES RELATED TO INDEPENDENCE 1917–191836 HUNGER YEARS 1867–68 CANAL BUILDING 1868–1871 THE GREAT WRATH 1713–1721 Memorial inaugurated by the people of Asikkala 7.1977 as a message to future generations.

In the absence of a national memorial, therefore, local narratives play an important role in keeping memories of the 1860s alive in Finland. Indeed, it was a visit to a local graveyard (at Haapajärvi), and chance  Essentially a neutral euphemism for the Civil War and its aftermath.

36

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encounter with just such a memorial that inspired author Aki Ollikainen to write his novella, Nälkävuosi (2012).37 This book, in turn, has been one of the most notable manifestations of the Great Hunger Years in Finnish public discourse in recent years, and through its many translations even gave this relatively unknown famine a brief moment of exposure outside of Finland. The idea of a national memorial to the 1860s famine is not something that impinges on public debate. It is not inconceivable that such a monument could be inaugurated, maybe in central Helsinki, as an acknowledgement that, whatever the contemporary beliefs might have been, at least 130,000 Finnish citizens perished during this period. In 2019, Alex de Waal proposed that a memorial to famines in Ireland and India would be erected near Whitehall, in London, as an acknowledgement that nineteenth-­century ideology contributed to the disasters in those parts of the British Empire.38 A barrier to this, of course, is not only the absence of an explicit colonial context of discourse in Finland, but also the idea that such a memorial would be an implicit criticism of J.V. Snellman, one of the great heroes of the Finnish nation. Indeed, Snellman’s statue outside of the Bank of Finland, scarred as a result of Soviet aerial bombardments during World War Two, is possibly one of the best-known pieces of public art in the country.39 Snellman himself, though, seemed to acknowledge that other paths could have been taken during the 1860s, even if the most important issue was to develop and secure Finland’s autonomy. During the Diet of 1872, Yrjö-Koskinen, Agathon Meurman and others argued against the establishment of emergency supports in the case of harvest failures, an attitude which was criticised by Snellman.40 Snellman wrote a personal rebuttal to 37  Aki Ollikainen, Nälkävuosi (Helsinki, 2012). In English and many other languages the book was presented as “White Hunger” (or equivalent), rather than the direct translation of “Hunger Year”. Newby, “Overcoming Amnesia”, 203. 38  Alex de Waal, “Monuments to Famine”, London Review of Books, 41:5 (7 Mar. 2019), 30. 39  This internal tension around the idea of commemoration can perhaps best be compared not with the Great Irish Famine, but rather with the Highland Clearances which were perpetrated in the north and west of Scotland in the late-eighteenth to mid-nineteenth centuries. Scottish author Neil M. Gunn, explaining his own pain during the process of writing about the Clearances, spoke of ‘the shame of the thing … because our own people did it.’ See Laurence Gouriévidis, The Dynamics of Heritage: History, Memory and the Highland Clearances (Farnham, 2010), 31 (Quoting F.R. Hart & J.B. Pick, Neil M. Gunn: A Highland Life (1981, 1985 ed.), 103). 40  Rantanen, “Pitfall on a Nation’s Path”, 232–3.

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Meurman, in which he claimed that a “harvest failure is a national emergency”, over which an administration had no control, and therefore “a support fund must be established in this land”.41 The basis for this demand lay in his own experience of 1867–1868: …as week after week the famine intensifies, the misery increases, and likewise the number of corpses in the cemeteries, on roads and paths, so then the heart is gripped by horror. You work like a man with a syringe in a city surrounded by flames, without any hope of salvation… his conscience might well have repeatedly asked him the question: could nothing more have been done?42

Snellman therefore, while exposing some of the guilt and sorrow that he had lived with as a result of the tens of thousands of deaths, also hinted at one of the most important—essentially unanswerable questions—raised by the Great Hunger Years. How many deaths were an acceptable amount if the Snellman administration’s social and fiscal reforms of the 1860s led in the medium- and long-term to Finnish independence, rather than being brought more securely into the Russian sphere and, ultimately, into the Soviet Union? It is this, as much as anything, which allows the Finnish historiography to present the famine dead as national martyrs, and prompts uneasy considerations about the price of national freedom.

References Bibliography

Snellman’s Correspondence http://snellman.kootutteokset.fi/fi. [J.V.S.], “Till Redaktionen af Morgonbladet”, Morgonbladet, 1 May 1872.

41  [J.V.S.], “Till Redaktionen af Morgonbladet”, Morgonbladet, 1 May 1872. See also Jalava, J.V. Snellman, 307. 42  [J.V.S.], ”Till Redaktionen af Morgonbladet”, Morgonbladet, 1 May 1872.

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Index1

A Åbo, see Turku Adlerberg, Amalie, 122 Adlerberg, Nicolai, 48, 205 Ahkiolahti Canal, 209, 210, 213 Aizpute, 144 Alahärmä, 87, 109 Alajärvi, 4, 124 Åland Islands, 71, 107 Alaska, 252, 253 Alexander I, Tsar, 24, 26 Alexander II, Tsar, 32, 135, 143, 241 Algeria, 6, 89, 133 Alkio, Santeri, 92 Alta, 244, 253, 256 America, 15, 237, 240, 247, 248, 251–256 Amur, 235, 242–244 Antell, Samuel Henrik, 45, 178, 216 Archangel, 248 Arnold, David, 167 Arwidsson, A.I., 103n7, 135

Asikkala, 209n48, 275, 276 Aunus (Olonets), 18, 232, 234–236, 238, 244, 256 B Balls (charity), 101, 107, 116, 143 Bältars, 183 Baltic Sea, 45 Barents region, 241–242 Bark, 33, 35, 39, 70, 72–76, 73n18, 79–81, 91–94, 141 bark bread, 71–76, 72n16, 80, 81, 87, 92, 94, 107, 140 Barley, 70, 72, 124n119 Belgium, 12 Bengal, 6 Berries, 69, 71, 79, 80, 87 Boehm, G.E., 80, 80n61 Bog arum, 71, 80, 81, 94 Boissonnet, Elisabeth, 152 Boissonnet, François, 152

 Note: Page numbers followed by ‘n’ refer to notes.

1

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 A. G. Newby, Finland’s Great Famine, 1856–68, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-19474-0

309

310 

INDEX

Borgå, see Porvoo Bornholm, 246 Bothnia, Gulf of, 90, 135, 244–246 Brahestad, see Raahe (Brahestad) Bremen, 151 Brest-Litovsk, 108 Brewis, Georgina, 133 Britain, see Great Britain Budapest, 148 Burrit, Elihu, 57 Butomus umbellatus, 87, 87n99, 91 C Campbell, William, 4, 5, 53, 83, 87n99, 140, 169, 188–190, 189n97, 218, 229, 256 Canada, 243 Canals, 16, 48, 93, 105, 201, 202, 209–215, 219, 220 Cannibalism, 89 Castrén, Matthias, 27 Charity, 16, 103, 104, 106–108, 111, 116, 119, 123, 125, 126, 131–161, 250 and philanthropy, 108 Christian, Christianity, 46, 101, 108, 112, 125, 140, 146, 149, 151 Christiania, 145, 247, 250 Clark, Edward Daniel, 72, 72n16 Climate, 12n36, 19, 42, 59, 91, 154, 250 Cloudberg, G.C., 112 Committee for the Relief of Famine in Finland (1857), 34 Copenhagen, 189, 246 Corn, 34, 39, 40, 42, 141 Cottage industries, 19, 45, 46, 48 Courland, see Kurzeme Crime, 10, 16, 69, 87, 167–193, 240 Crimean War, 10, 31, 32, 35, 133, 155, 159

Crofters, 12, 58, 79, 92, 191 Cygnaeus, Fredrik, 27, 120 D Daly, Mary, 7, 14 Deaconess Institute, 122 Denmark, 5, 137n27, 138, 145, 146, 148, 151, 189, 246, 252 Derry, T.K., 252 Desele, 144 De Waal, Alex, 69, 264, 277 Dickens, Charles, 133 Doctors, medical officers, 5, 5n11, 29, 30, 51, 59, 72, 75, 184n73, 213, 214 Dresden, 5, 107, 151 Duisburg, 118 Durchman, J.W., 56, 57, 57n185 E Edkins, Jenny, 69, 264 Einonen, Piia, 170 Ekman, Robert, 173 Emigration, 16, 18, 229, 230, 232, 233, 235–244, 240n49, 241n50, 244n64, 251–256, 263 England, 12, 72, 135n20, 186, 201, 240, 253 Engman, Max, 233 Ericsson, John, 153 Eriksson, Anna-Stiina, 191 Eriksson, Josef, 191 Estates of Finland, 12, 26, 31, 35–37, 74, 112, 154, 156, 239 Estates, meeting of (1863), 36 Estonia, 138, 144, 147, 148, 150, 172, 231 Ethiopia, 89

 INDEX 

F Famine roads, see Public works Felcht, Frederike, 271 Fennomanes, 7, 16, 18, 27, 29, 36, 46–48, 60, 102, 103, 110, 116, 126, 131, 140, 143, 147, 148, 153–159, 210, 221–223, 231, 256, 264, 268, 269, 271, 273–275 Finlayson, 136, 141 Finnish Civil War (1918), 4 Finnish Economic Society, 76, 77, 83 Finnish identity/Finnishness, 16, 28, 48, 102, 146, 159, 178, 242, 269, 270 Finnish Literature Society, 27, 77, 120 Finnish War (1808-09), 24, 24n4, 131 Finnmark, 18, 172, 241, 245, 247–250, 253 Fish, fishing, 71, 90, 91, 246–248 Flyckt, Nils, 145 Food, food substitutes, 5, 15, 16, 35, 37–39, 41–43, 46, 48, 50, 50n154, 51, 54, 55, 69–72, 69n2, 74–84, 87–89, 91, 92, 94, 95, 102n2, 118, 124, 125, 134, 141, 143, 144, 167, 169, 179, 183, 191, 192, 200, 204, 205, 207, 208, 210, 234, 246, 263 Forests, 12, 30, 31, 45, 70, 76, 91–93, 180, 239, 246n74, 271 Forsberg, Henrik, 8, 271n24 Forsman, Georg, see Yrjö-­ Koskinen, Yrjö Forsman, Jaakko, 36 Forssell, Julia, 183 Frankfurt, 37, 43, 137, 151 Frasa, Alina, 106 Fredrikshamn, see Hamina Free peasantry, 6, 29, 116, 182 Frogs, 88

311

Frost, 4, 5, 12n36, 14, 33, 37, 40, 43, 71, 77, 79, 83, 91, 124, 185, 274 Frosterus, A.E., 113 “Frost Night” (Sep. 1867), 5, 42, 43, 78, 82–89, 93, 116, 117, 176, 181, 237 Froude, Anthony, 243 Fungi, see Mushrooms Furuhjelm, Otto, 35, 242 G Gellibrand, William Clarke, 34 Germany, 46, 104, 118, 133, 137, 137n27, 138, 145, 150, 151, 158, 240 Good, John, 74, 178 Gothenburg, 255 Götz, Norbert, 131–133 Governor General of Finland, 144, 245 Graves/graveyards, 1, 4, 50n154, 213, 214, 220, 220n111, 275 Great Britain, 4, 32, 46, 47, 73, 83, 103, 136–138, 151, 152, 159, 192, 229, 256 Gylling, Edvard, 273, 274 H Haapajärvi, 276 Haapakangas, 234 Haapavesi, 187 Häkkinen, Antti, 8, 54, 56, 94, 102n2, 171n21, 172, 176, 177, 190, 207n36, 220 Hallin Janne, 190, 190n101 Hall-Matthews, David, 167 Hamburg, 137, 151 Hämeenkyrö, 149, 186 Hämeenlinna, 32, 48, 84, 111, 123, 152, 179, 190, 208, 215, 222

312 

INDEX

Häme Province, 57, 84 Hamina, 24, 104n14, 114 Hammarland, 107 Hammerfest, 250 Hanko, 253, 255, 256 Harvest, 5, 9, 12, 33, 40–43, 46, 60, 71, 105, 116, 146, 148, 155, 181, 184n73, 210, 220, 240, 248, 266n14 harvest failure, 6, 8–10, 14, 15, 30, 31, 37, 39, 45, 50, 56, 58, 70, 73, 73n18, 76–78, 80, 81, 103, 105, 109, 116, 120n102, 123, 125, 126, 135, 138, 154, 155, 157, 160, 168, 171, 172, 176, 178, 183, 186, 230, 234, 235, 245, 247, 248, 270, 277, 278 Harvey, Thomas, 33, 136 Hausjärvi, 53 Hegel/Hegelianism, 28 Heikkinen, Lars, 214 Heinola, 186, 217, 217n97 Helin, K.W., 191 Helsingfors, see Helsinki Helsinki, 4, 23, 53, 75, 104, 104n14, 137, 168, 173, 201, 229, 267 Hennala prison camp, 4 Hirveluoto, 191 Hirvenluoto, 191 Hirvensalo, see Hirveluoto Hirvonen, Heidi, 95 Hjelt, Gustaf, 274 Hoffers, Eric, 122 Hollola, 53, 220 Holm, J., 80 Holodomor, 263 Horsemeat, 88 Hospitals, 49, 56, 213, 219, 219n108 Hudiksvall, 245 Hugo, Victor, 111 Hull, 74, 178, 253, 254 Hülphers, John, 153

Humanitarianism, 110, 125, 250 Hunfalvy, Pal, 58, 148, 149, 159, 230 Hunger, 1, 4, 5, 9, 13, 14, 33, 37, 39, 41, 49, 51, 54, 55, 57–59, 80, 81, 90, 102, 108, 110, 113, 118, 119, 123, 124, 139n34, 177, 179, 181, 189, 201, 203n19, 206, 213, 214, 218, 222, 238, 245, 250, 265, 266, 268, 271, 273 Hunting, 71, 90, 91 Hyrynsalmi, 34, 154, 237n30 I Ii, 254 Iitti, 110, 110n55 Ikaalinen, 5n11, 51 Ikonen, Vappu, 8, 38n90, 39, 102n2, 171n21 Ilmajoki, 181, 184n73, 220, 237 Indebétou, Mathilde, 106 India, 133, 201, 202n12, 277 Indrenius, B., 151 Ingria, 232, 232n11 International Committee of the Red Cross, 134 Ireland/Irish, 6–10, 12, 15, 47, 50, 57, 89, 90, 135n20, 173, 180, 192, 201, 202, 221, 229, 243, 253–256, 263, 266, 266n13, 274, 277 Iron works, 30 Italy, 133, 145 J Jaakko of the Willows, 206, 215 Jakobstad (Pietarsaari), 104n14, 254 Jalasjärvi, 207 James, Trevor, 132, 152 Jannsen, J.V., 147

 INDEX 

Järvelä, 220 Jelgava, see Mitau Johansson, Johan, 191 Julin, Erik, 73, 78–81, 136, 237, 242, 242n58 Juuka, 55, 185 K Kaafjord, 253 Kainuu, 28, 54, 72, 75 Kajaani, 30, 73, 75, 181 Kalevala, 28, 30, 72, 133 Kallio, Kalle, 220, 222n123, 265n10 Kansanaho, Erkki, 118 Karamzin, Aurore, 108, 117–119, 122, 135, 235 Karelia, 28, 54, 76, 77, 211, 237 Karis, 183 Karjaa, see Karis Kärsämäki, 183, 187 Katinen Manor, 208 Kauhajoki, 203, 207 Kazan, 144 Keckman, Hilda, 183 Kemi, 247 Kemijärvi, 75 Kero, Reino, 255 Kharkiv, 108, 234n23 Kherson, 238 Khotyn, 144 Kianto, 187 Kiikoinen, 208 Killinkoski, 207 Kivelä, Maria, 51 Kivijärvi, 114, 208 Klinge, Matti, 59 Kokkola, 79, 80, 104n14 Kola Peninsula, 241 Kondus, see Rajakontu (Kondus) Konnus Canal, 209 Korpilahti, 84

313

Koskimies, Eero, 186 Kraatari, Eliza, 28n30, 46, 49, 112n65, 116, 192 Krank, Chaplain, 75 Kuhmo, 234 Kunnas, Jan, 94 Kuopio Province, 1, 4, 41, 92, 114, 135, 216, 247 Kuopio (town), 34, 35, 41, 53, 55, 81, 87, 91, 106, 111, 113, 115, 123, 125, 137, 175, 178, 181, 204, 233, 249 Kuorevesi, 190, 190n100, 190n101 Kurzeme, 144 Kuusamo, 247 L Ladoga, Lake, 12, 173 Laihia, 92 Lakkila, 220 Lamminmäki, Josef Isaksson, 42 Lampuoti, Aapo, 206 Lancashire Cotton Famine, 186 Landless labourers/landless population, 6, 31, 42, 58, 92, 93, 182 Language Edict (1863), 36 Lapinkaivo, 203 Lapinlahti, 211, 213 Lappfjärd, 188, 246 Laqueur, Thomas, 132 Latvia, 144 Laukaa, 33 Lautasalo, Juhani, 4 Leijel, Henriette, 106 Lekve, Endre, 215 Lempäälä, 211 Lempoinen Canal, 211 Lestijärvi (Lesti), 238 Lichens, 15, 71, 73n23, 74–78, 80–85, 87, 92–95, 210, 212, 234

314 

INDEX

Lieksa, 4 Liikanen, Herman, 146 Lindelöf, Lorenz, 87 Lindstedt, Arvid, 120 Lisbon, 151 Liverpool, 253, 254 Lohtaja, 239 Lönnholtz, J.F., 208 Lönnrot, Elias, 27, 30, 72, 75 Loorits, Oskar, 147 Lorentz, Herman, 38–41, 110, 218 Lotteries, 107, 108, 111, 111n57, 114, 144 Loviisa, 104n14, 107, 107n38 Lübeck, 151 Luleå, 244, 245 Lund, 149 Lust, Kersti, 200 Lutheranism, 149 Lyytinen, Optatus, 230 M Maharatna, Arup, 169 Maijanpoika, Aleksanteri, 190 Malmö, 255 Manchester, 141 Mannerheim, Gustaf, 274 Markka/Finnish mark, 35, 37–39, 60, 83, 143, 158n122, 210 Markkola, Pirjo, 31 Maria Feodorovna, 143 Marseilles, 137, 137n29 Martikainen, Jaana, 213 Mattila, Juhani, 190, 190n101 Maximilianovna, Princess Eugenia, 144 Maxmo (Maksama), 245, 246, 246n74 Mechelin, Henrik A., 247 Medical officers, see Doctors, medical officers

Memorials, 19, 203n19, 207, 207n35, 208, 209n48, 220n111, 256, 263, 264, 275–277 Merijärvi, 90 Merrick, Boyes & Co, 141 Messner, H., 150, 150n83 Meurman, Agathon, 13, 36, 46, 47, 126, 168, 189, 192, 221–223, 252, 265, 265n10, 271, 273, 277, 278 Migration, 10, 16, 18, 38, 41, 42, 48, 55, 56, 69, 167–173, 171n21, 175, 176, 178n52, 179–181, 183–185, 192, 202, 203, 209, 229–256, 232n11, 246n74 See also Vagrancy Mikkeli Province, 43, 81, 90, 114n73 Mikkeli (town), 85, 111, 176, 181, 184 Mirkka Lappalainen, 13n42, 71, 71n13, 89n110, 168n4 Mitau, 152 Mogilev, 143, 144 Molander, C.H., 84 Monetary policy, 39 Montreux, 151 Mortality rates, 10, 23, 50–51, 53, 90, 186, 220, 270 Mullen, Mary, 47 Müller, Charles, 153 Munch, Peter Andreas, 247 Muolaa, 124 Murmansk, 241, 244 Mushrooms, 15, 75–79, 81–84, 88, 92, 93 N Nälkä! museum exhibition (2017–20), 15 Närpes, 188

 INDEX 

Narratives, 7–9, 16, 34, 41, 47, 60, 70, 73, 89, 108, 112, 116, 124, 125, 131, 132, 138–143, 139n34, 153–160, 168, 190, 192, 206, 209, 218, 221–223, 229, 256, 264, 268–275 Nationalism/nationalist, 8, 9, 16, 23, 27, 36, 60, 102, 104, 124, 125, 131, 135, 168, 174, 177, 192, 201, 206, 216, 242, 263, 264, 266, 268, 269, 273, 274 Nerkoo Canal, 190, 214 Netherlands, 12, 150 New York, 137, 153 Nicholas I, Tsar, 32, 117n87 Nielitz, Theodor, 107 Nilsiä, 41, 114 Nixon, Rob, 265 Norman, Hans, 252 Norrland, 245, 246n74, 249 Norrmén, Oscar, 45, 46, 118n88, 205 North German Federation, see Germany Norway, 18, 145, 172, 215, 230, 240, 244, 247, 248, 250, 252–254 Nurmes, 114 Nylander, Edwin, 75 O Ó Gráda, Cormac, 7, 54, 60, 71, 136n24, 179, 192, 266n13, 269 Ohmero, Kustaa Salomoninpoika, 203 Öhrberg, C.A., 156 Oker-Blom, Theodor, 115n81, 217 Ollikainen, Aki, 277, 277n37 Olonets, see Aunus (Olonets) Orissa, 6, 89 Orjuela, Camilla, 263 Orta, Timo, 173 Ostrobothnia, 4, 18, 50n154, 54, 74, 87, 124, 138, 172, 178, 180,

315

183, 185, 188n92, 211, 212, 217, 233, 237, 239, 240, 241n52, 254 Oulu Province, 40, 41, 53, 73, 81, 86, 90, 114n73, 115, 123n113, 154, 175, 201, 216, 232–234, 241, 245, 247 Oulu (town), 50, 114, 125, 176, 187, 201 P Pälkäne, 90 Palmgrén, Armida, 114, 123 Palojoensuu, 72 Paltamo, 34, 34n70, 40 Pan Scandinavism, see Scandinavism Parashar, Swati, 263 Paris, 137 Parkano, 4 Paupers, 50n154, 54, 153, 158, 159, 178 Pauvres Honteux, 119 Pax Russica, 24 Peas, 34, 71, 160 Pelkonen, Mich. Adolf, 40, 41 Pelsonsuo, 201 Peräseinäjoki, 207 Perho, 51, 206 Pernå (Pernaja), 114 Petrosavodsk, 235, 236 Philanthropy, see Charity Phloem, see Bark Pidisjärvi, 187 Pielavesi, 1, 92 Pielisjärvi, 40, 114 Pietarsaari, see Jakobstad (Pietarsaari) Pihtipudas, 114 Pilkington, William, 141 Pitkänen, Kari, 8, 10, 23, 37, 40, 43, 56, 58, 102, 102n2, 124, 125, 184, 186, 192

316 

INDEX

Poisoning/food poisoning, 54, 83 Poland, 108, 144, 237, 237n31 Polish Revolution (1863), 35 Pomerania, 150 Poor house, see Workhouses Poor Law, 31, 33n60, 40, 50, 82 Population, 1, 6, 9, 12, 12n36, 13, 15, 29–31, 35, 37, 41, 44, 53, 55–57, 59, 74, 75, 82, 83, 85, 93, 111, 116, 125, 126, 141, 150, 172, 180, 182, 203, 218, 219, 230n1, 235, 237, 240, 243, 246n74, 248–251, 256, 267, 268, 274 Pori, 104n14, 111, 176, 184 Porvoo, 26–29, 46 Porvoo (Borgå), Diet of (1809), 26 Potatoes, 34, 71, 79, 84, 87 Prayer, 46, 47, 50, 116, 268 Public works, 10, 12, 16, 18, 48–50, 58, 121–123, 134, 169, 171, 178, 181, 185, 200–223, 203n17, 205n26, 205n30, 207n34, 256, 265, 275 Pudasjärvi, 73, 102, 188 Pulkkila, 41, 187 Puolanka, 254 Pyhäjärvi, 187 Q Quakers, see Society of Friends Qvärnström, Ingrid, 117, 118n88 R Raahe (Brahestad), 51, 74 Railway, 16, 32, 48, 53, 171, 176, 201, 202, 209, 211, 212, 215–223, 222n123, 265, 265n10, 269, 273 Rajakontu (Kondus), 232

Rantanen, Lari, 8, 19, 23, 39 Reijonen, Juho, 91, 92 Relapsing fever, 54 Relief work, see Public works Riihimäki, 16, 48, 171, 176, 201, 215, 216, 219, 221, 265, 273 Rissanen, Santeri, 214, 214n80, 215 Ristiina, 90, 114n73 Rokassovsky, Platosun, 175 Roots (food surrogate), 39, 69, 71, 79, 92, 95, 181, 235 Rosenqvist, V.T., 47 Rothschild & Söhne, 37 Rubella, 56 Ruble, 35, 36, 36n75, 48, 108, 135, 136, 136n24, 137n25, 143 Runeberg, J.L., 27, 29, 73, 79, 120, 145, 240, 240n48, 266 Ruovesi, 56, 123, 190n100, 243, 243n61 Rusko, 114 Russia/Russian Empire, 6, 7, 12, 15, 18, 19, 24–26, 32, 37, 45, 48, 60, 76, 103, 114, 115, 125, 135, 137, 138, 143–145, 150, 154, 156–160, 172, 173, 216, 230–245, 237n30, 244n64, 248, 251, 252, 256 Ruuttula-Vasari, Anne, 91 Rye, 33, 34, 70, 74, 75, 80, 91, 92, 124n119, 136n24, 143 S Saarijärven Paavo, 27, 30, 73, 79, 179 Saarijärvi, 112, 137n26, 240, 240n48 Saimaa Canal, 32, 40, 105, 201, 209 St. Petersburg, 16, 18, 23–26, 45, 48, 49, 106–108, 117, 118, 123, 135, 141, 143, 149, 152, 157, 158, 171, 173, 176, 185, 201,

 INDEX 

215, 217, 221, 229, 231–235, 237, 238, 244, 256, 265, 269–270, 273 Sámi, 244, 250 Satakunta, 54, 208, 255 Saturday Society (Lauantaiseura), 27, 28 Savo, 85, 114, 209, 211, 217, 232 Scandinavia, 29, 72, 133, 145, 155, 244–251 Scandinavism, 29, 145, 153 Schauman, F.L., 46, 104, 111, 175 Schauman (Pharmacist), 80 Schröder, A., 150 Scotland, 12, 135n20, 215, 277n39 Seal hunting, 90, 91 Second Schleswig War (1864), 146 Self-sufficiency, 6, 7, 27, 28, 37, 48, 60, 69–95, 102, 109, 112, 114–119, 131, 132, 138, 140, 148, 153–160, 256, 268 Selinder, Anders, 112 Sen, Amartya, 14n52, 26n18 Senate, Finnish, 24, 25, 156 Sestra, River, 232 Siberia, 190, 191 Sieveking & Droop, 140 Siltala, Juha, 8, 125, 266 Silver standard, 37, 39 Simojärvi, 74 Sinebrychoff, Paul, 122 Sitka, 252, 253 Sivistys, 24–26, 28, 28n30, 29, 177, 178, 180, 256 Skibbereen, 57 Smallpox, 56, 57, 118 Snappertuna, 114 Snellman, J.V., 7, 16, 27–29, 36, 39, 43, 45, 46, 48, 49, 59, 60, 75, 78, 81, 85, 105, 109n50, 110–113, 112n65, 116, 119, 126, 158, 180–182, 186, 187,

317

200, 201, 203, 216, 217, 269, 270, 277, 278 Society of Friends, 34, 73, 135n20, 136, 137, 142, 151, 154, 159 Söderköping, 145 Soikkanen, Hannu, 8, 102n2 Sorrel, 80 Sotkamo, 34, 34n70, 232 Soviet Union, 274, 278 Stenbäck, Lars (Lauri), 46, 120 Stenius, Samuel, 185 Stereotypes, 16, 133, 154 Stjernwall-Walleen, Emil, 45, 60 Stockholm, 123, 135, 145, 245, 255 Stolbovo, Treaty of, 232 Straw (food surrogate), 51, 74, 81, 92, 94, 191 Sturge, Hannah, 154 Sturge, Joseph, 33, 136, 154 Suomenlinna, 204 Suomussalmi, 102 Svecomanes, 29, 36 Svedberg, Anders, 79, 79n57, 239, 240, 240n48, 240n49, 242 Sweden, 18, 24, 27, 29, 32, 73, 78, 88, 103, 104, 110, 125, 135–138, 137n29, 139n34, 145, 146, 149, 153, 155, 156, 158, 159, 172, 215, 231, 240, 244–247, 252–254 Switzerland, 138, 151 Syvänoja, 220, 220n111 T Taipale Canal, 209, 211, 211n62, 213 Taivalmaa, 207 Tallinn, 108 Tampere, 53, 57, 73, 82, 88, 90, 114, 136, 141, 244n64 Textile trade, 30 Thilén, T., 85, 161, 180–182

318 

INDEX

Thoreld, A.F., 85n86 Timashev, Alexandr, 242 Timber industry, 30 Tobolsk, 242 Tokerotie, 207 Topelius, Zachris, 27, 30, 104, 111, 120, 148, 153, 154, 159, 221, 230 Torhola, 219 Torlades Casa Commercial, 151 Tornio, 247 Torschok, 108 Trondheim, 255 Trubetskaya, Princess Elizabeth, 233 Tula, 144 Turku, 24, 27, 73, 78, 80–83, 83n78, 102, 103, 105, 106, 111, 114, 123, 136, 173, 173n29, 182, 184, 191, 237, 239, 242, 242n58, 253 Turku-Pori Province, 4, 43, 53, 71, 81, 123 Tuusniemi, 114 Typhus, 4, 5, 30, 35, 53, 54, 56–59, 118, 119, 123, 179, 210 U Uhde, Ferdinand, 73 Ukraine, 108, 263 Ullanlinna, 122, 204 Ulvila, 111, 117, 178, 179 United States of America, 15, 190n101, 231n8, 237, 240, 243, 247, 248, 251–256, 256n126 Uppsala, 149 Uurainen, 33 Uuras, 176 Uusikaupunki, 187, 189 Uusimaa Province, 43, 84, 110n55, 114, 115n81, 183, 233

V Vääksy Canal, 209, 275 Vaala, 201 Vaasa Province, 4, 33, 34, 41, 42, 51, 53, 81, 87, 92, 94, 109, 114, 114n73, 115, 123, 125, 135, 137, 137n29, 175, 183, 205, 206, 220, 233, 238, 245, 249, 254 Vaasa (town), 114 Vadsø, 256 Vagrancy, 16, 31, 48, 49, 51, 93, 141, 160, 167–193, 203, 216, 230 Valkesaari, 234 Vällinmäki, Aaro, 92 Varanger, 248, 249 Varkaus, 211 Varpaisjärvi, 213 Vasman, Erik, 245, 246n74 Västervik, 246 Veteli, 114, 238 Vihanti, 187 Viipuri, 32, 38, 40, 43, 93, 102, 104–106, 104n14, 110, 112, 115n81, 118, 123, 173, 176, 188, 215, 216, 218, 232, 233, 241 Viitasaari, 114, 204, 208 Virrat, 206 Vjazma, 108 Von Alfthan, Georg, 216, 234 Von Berg (Countess), 105 Von Berg, Friedrich, 34 Von Erlanger, Raphael, 48 Von Essen, C.G., 109, 109n50 Von Essen, J.A., 84, 85, 85n87, 181 Voutilainen, Miikka, 10, 54, 59 Vuorela, Miikka, 177 Vuorela, Toivo, 203, 203n17, 208 Vyborg, see Viipuri

 INDEX 

W Wages, 16, 108, 179, 200, 204, 207, 208, 210, 212, 219, 222, 235 Wahlström, John, 245 Walleen, C.J., 151 Warg, Cajsa, 76, 76n41 Wasastjerna, Alfred, 215 Wathén, Anders Johan, 74, 75 Werther, Steffen, 133 Wheat, 70, 87 Wohllebe, Carl, 107 Women’s associations, 104, 109, 111, 114, 122n110, 123, 149 Workhouses, 16, 46, 49–51, 55, 56, 83, 87, 92, 93, 120, 121, 141, 170, 187, 192, 208, 232

319

Wrede, C.G.F., 181, 205, 207n34, 239 Y Ylihärmä, 109 Young Fennomanes, 36, 265 Yrjö-Koskinen, Iida, 95 Yrjö-Koskinen, Yrjö, 13n42, 36, 46, 58, 147, 148, 159, 160, 186n80, 230, 264, 265, 277 Z Zagefka, Hanna, 132, 152 Zürich, 137