The Fennoman movement or Fennomania was a
Finnish nationalist movement in the 19th-century
Grand Duchy of Finland
The Grand Duchy of Finland ( fi, Suomen suuriruhtinaskunta; sv, Storfurstendömet Finland; russian: Великое княжество Финляндское, , all of which literally translate as Grand Principality of Finland) was the predecess ...
, built on the work of the ''fennophile'' interests of the 18th and early-19th centuries.
History
After the
Crimean War
The Crimean War, , was fought from October 1853 to February 1856 between Russia and an ultimately victorious alliance of the Ottoman Empire, France, the United Kingdom and Piedmont-Sardinia.
Geopolitical causes of the war included the ...
, Fennomans founded the
Finnish Party
The Finnish Party ( fi, Suomalainen Puolue) was a Fennoman conservative political party in the autonomous Grand Duchy of Finland and independent Finland. Born out of Finland's language strife in the 1860s, the party sought to improve the positio ...
and intensified
the language strife, yearning to raise the
Finnish language
Finnish ( endonym: or ) is a Uralic language of the Finnic branch, spoken by the majority of the population in Finland and by ethnic Finns outside of Finland. Finnish is one of the two official languages of Finland (the other being Swedi ...
and
Finnic culture from peasant status to the position of a national language and a national culture. The opposition, the
Svecomans, tried to defend the status of
Swedish
Swedish or ' may refer to:
Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically:
* Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland
** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...
and the ties to the
Germanic world.
Although the notion of ''Fennomans'' was not as common after the generation of
Juho Kusti Paasikivi
Juho Kusti Paasikivi (; 27 November 1870 – 14 December 1956) was the seventh president of Finland (1946–1956). Representing the Finnish Party until its dissolution in 1918 and then the National Coalition Party, he also served as Prime Minister ...
(born 1870), their ideas have dominated the Finns' understanding of their nation.
The mother tongue of many of the first generation of Fennomans, like
Johan Vilhelm Snellman
Johan Vilhelm Snellman (; 12 May 1806 – 4 July 1881) was an influential Fennoman philosopher and Finnish statesman, ennobled in 1866. He was one of the most important 'awakeners' or promoters of Finnish nationalism, alongside Elias Lönnrot an ...
, was Swedish. Some of the originally
Swedish-speaking Fennomans learned Finnish, and made a point of using it inside and outside the home.
Several Fennomans were from Finnish or bilingual homes. Some originally had Swedish surnames, common in Finland at that time.
Most of the Fennomans also
Finnicized their family names, particularly from the end of the 19th century.
In the last years of the 19th century, and in the first years of the 20th, the Fennoman movement split into two political parties: the
Old Finnish Party and the
Young Finnish Party
The Young Finnish Party or Constitutional-Fennoman Party ( fi, Nuorsuomalainen Puolue or ) was a liberal and nationalist political party in the Grand Duchy of Finland. It began as an upper-class reformist movement during the 1870s and formed as a ...
.
Motto
The Fennoman
motto
A motto (derived from the Latin , 'mutter', by way of Italian , 'word' or 'sentence') is a sentence or phrase expressing a belief or purpose, or the general motivation or intention of an individual, family, social group, or organisation. M ...
attributed to
Adolf Ivar Arwidsson
Adolf Ivar Arwidsson (7 August 1791 – 21 June 1858) was a Finnish political journalist, writer and historian. His writing was critical of Finland's status at the time as a Grand Duchy under the Russian Tsars. Its sharpness cost him his job ...
was actually coined by
Johan Vilhelm Snellman
Johan Vilhelm Snellman (; 12 May 1806 – 4 July 1881) was an influential Fennoman philosopher and Finnish statesman, ennobled in 1866. He was one of the most important 'awakeners' or promoters of Finnish nationalism, alongside Elias Lönnrot an ...
:
"Svenskar äro vi icke, ryssar vilja vi icke bli, låt oss alltså vara finnar."
:"''We are not Swedes,''
:''We do not want to be Russians,''
:''So let's be Finns.''"
[ Kari Tarkiainen: ''Adolf Ivar Arwidsson'', in ]Matti Klinge
Matti Klinge (born August 31, 1936, Helsinki) is a Finnish historian.
He studied at the University of Helsinki and gained his Ph.D. in 1969. He later served as a Visiting Professor at the University of Paris (1970–1972) and held the Swedis ...
(ed.): ''Suomen kansallisbiografia'' 1. SKS, Helsinki 2003, (page 406)
Prominent Fennomans
*
Daniel Juslenius
Daniel Juslenius (10 June 1676, Mynämäki – 17 July 1752, Skara) was a Finnish writer and bishop. He was a professor of Hebrew, Greek and theology at the Royal Academy of Turku.
Juslenius is considered Finland's first Fennoman and a firm a ...
*
Fredrik Cygnaeus
*
Yrjö Sakari Yrjö-Koskinen
Baron Yrjö Sakari Yrjö-Koskinen (birth name Georg Zakarias Forsman, author name Yrjö Koskinen; 10 December 1830 in Vaasa – 13 November 1903 in Helsinki) was a friherre, senator, professor, historian, politician and the chairman of the Fin ...
, formerly Georg Zacharias Forsman
*
Alexandra Gripenberg
*
Lauri Kivekäs, formerly Stenbäck
*
Johannes Linnankoski
Johannes Linnankoski (originally Vihtori Johan Peltonen, 18 October 1869 – 10 August 1913) was a Finland, Finnish author and playwright, which mainly influenced writing in the Golden Age of Finnish Art. His most famous work is the romance novel ...
*
*
Hjalmar Mellin
Robert Hjalmar Mellin (19 June 1854 – 5 April 1933) was a Finnish mathematician and function theorist.
Biography
Mellin studied at the University of Helsinki and later in Berlin under Karl Weierstrass. He is chiefly remembered as the develo ...
*
Julius Krohn
*
Juho Kusti Paasikivi
Juho Kusti Paasikivi (; 27 November 1870 – 14 December 1956) was the seventh president of Finland (1946–1956). Representing the Finnish Party until its dissolution in 1918 and then the National Coalition Party, he also served as Prime Minister ...
, formerly Johan Gustav Hellsten
*
Eemil Nestor Setälä
Eemil Nestor Setälä (; 27 February 1864 – 8 February 1935) was a Finnish politician and once the Chairman of the Senate of Finland, from September 1917 to November 1917, when he was author of the Finnish Declaration of Independence.
Set ...
*
Johan Vilhelm Snellman
Johan Vilhelm Snellman (; 12 May 1806 – 4 July 1881) was an influential Fennoman philosopher and Finnish statesman, ennobled in 1866. He was one of the most important 'awakeners' or promoters of Finnish nationalism, alongside Elias Lönnrot an ...
*
Eero Järnefelt
*
Otto Donner
*
Heikki Renvall
*
Toivo Kuula
Toivo Timoteus Kuula (7 July 1883 – 18 May 1918) was a Finnish composer and conductor of the late-Romantic and early-modern periods, who emerged in the wake of Jean Sibelius, under whom he studied privately from 1906 to 1908. The core of Ku ...
*
Yrjö Jahnsson
See also
*
History of Finland
The history of Finland begins around 9,000 BC during the end of the last glacial period. Stone Age cultures were Kunda, Comb Ceramic, Corded Ware, Kiukainen, and . The Finnish Bronze Age started in approximately 1,500 BC and the Iron Age st ...
*
Turanism
Turanism, also known as pan-Turanianism, pan-Turanism, or simply Turan, is a pseudoscientific pan-nationalist cultural and political movement proclaiming the need for close cooperation or political unification between people who are claimed by ...
References
External links
The Association of Finnish Culture and Identity
{{National revivals
Grand Duchy of Finland
Finnish nationalism
Nationalist movements in Europe