As long as a society has a true freedom of speech it cannot be completely rotten. However, all totally rotten societies are lacking the true freedom of speech.
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31 July 2023
Finnish journalist called for British Prime Minister´s head to be placed on London bridge to dry
29 July 2023
History of Finland XII: Bloody civil war
This is the twelfth part of a blog series where I go through the significant events of Finnish history. In the eleventh entry, I described how Finland became a democracy, ensuring equal political participation for all citizens, as a result of the oppressive measures taken by Russia in the country.
As such, Finland gained independence in the aftermath of the Russian Revolution. However, led by the Social Democratic Party, then including also communists, the Finnish Civil War began. According to Professor Ylikangas, the war resulted in the deaths of as many as 36 640 people - more than in the similarly-lengthy Winter War, and in proportion to the population, more than in the three-year Continuation War.
As we know, the war was ultimately won by the Whites, led by Mannerheim, although they initially struggled to recruit even in South Ostrobothnia, where the war was being fought against fellow countrymen. This situation changed when Mannerheim managed to disarm 7 500 Russian soldiers with a small group of men in Ostrobothnia. Thereafter, recruitment was marketed with the need to remove the Russians from the country, which solved previous problems.
The parties of the war were initially quite equal in terms of their skills, but the outcome was decided by the Jäger troops - Finnish young men who were trained and arrived from Germany - and ultimately by the German military unit that arrived in the country. In reality, the latter alone would have been sufficient to achieve the same outcome even if there had been no Jäger troops.
In the white Finland that emerged as the first outcome of the war, power was taken over by the educated classes, civil servants, owners of estates and factories, as well as farmers. On the other hand, the defeated industrial and agricultural workers and the landless inhabitants of sparsely populated areas were marginalized despite their right to vote.
The second significant outcome of the war was the emergence of a strong far-left party (The Finnish Communist Party) in our country. Its success was fueled by the white media, which highlighted the red terror, but remained silent about all the memories of the white post-war atrocities.
Finland was driven into a civil war primarily due to the power vacuum created by the fall of the Russian Tsar. The well-known social injustices - popularized by Väinö Linna and still cherished by the Left today - were more of a driving force for the war rather than the cause.
Two militant organizations, the Red and White Guards, emerged to fill the power vacuum, and their confrontation was ensured when the Senate, dominated by the political right, declared the Civil Guards as the government's armed forces. The Red Guard leadership could not accept this, and they set out on their ill-fated military campaign.
After the war, there was a multi-stage political struggle over the country's political system and the government structure that reflected it. The result was a democratic structure with a very strong executive power, which was entirely different from the other European states that became independent after the World War I.
Thanks to its strong executive power, Finland remained a democracy while other post-World War I democracies drifted towards right-wing dictatorships. This was despite the fact that communists in Finland were forced underground and the far-right sought to take power through extra-legal means.
The original blog post in Finnish:
Verinen sisällissota
All the blog posts in this series:
History of Finland I: How did Finland become culturally part of the West?
History of Finland II: From a hinterland of the Union into a modern state
History of Finland III: The legal and economic weakening of the position of the people
History of Finland IV: The bleakest time in Finnish history
History of Finland V: The pursuit of economic profit saved the country
History of Finland VI: Age of freedom and utility
History of Finland VII: The dictator of the era of Enlightenment promoted capitalist economy
History of Finland VIII: Joining of Finland to Russia led to an increase in crime
History of Finland IX: Enlightended dictator initiated economic growth
History of Finland X: The birth of Finnish identity
History of Finland XI: Finnish democracy and gender equality for women
History of Finland XII: Bloody civil war
History of Finland XIII: The far-right's rebellion
History of Finland XIV: The end of the first Finnish Republic
History of Finland XV: Paasikivi-Kekkonen doctrine
History of Finland XVI: Through rise and fall to a new kind of future
26 July 2023
The record-breaking warming of the oceans is not visible in the Arctic
The most important newspaper of Finland, Helsingin Sanomat, took a stance in its editorial on Minister Kaj Mykkänen's (National Coalition Party) comment, according to which the key climate action in Finland is to plug factory chimneys. A couple of days ago, I also commented on this matter in Finnish, pointing out that human progress is based on science and technology – and reminding that insect infestations threaten forest carbon sinks in a warming climate.
HS katkeroituneen naisen työkaluna
25 July 2023
Should Putin´s regime be overthrown by supporting Russian opposition?
Putin´s Russia got mad about the Finnish chairman of the Parliament
Does the attack by Russian rebels pose a problem for Ukraine?
Incapable of learning but capable of genocide
21 July 2023
Russian standard of tanks
20 July 2023
History of Finland XI: Finnish democracy and gender equality for women
History of Finland I: How did Finland become culturally part of the West?
History of Finland II: From a hinterland of the Union into a modern state
History of Finland III: The legal and economic weakening of the position of the people
History of Finland IV: The bleakest time in Finnish history
History of Finland V: The pursuit of economic profit saved the country
History of Finland VI: Age of freedom and utility
History of Finland VII: The dictator of the era of Enlightenment promoted capitalist economy
History of Finland VIII: Joining of Finland to Russia led to an increase in crime
History of Finland IX: Enlightended dictator initiated economic growth
History of Finland X: The birth of Finnish identity
History of Finland XI: Finnish democracy and gender equality for women
History of Finland XII: Bloody civil war
History of Finland XIII: The far-right's rebellion
History of Finland XIV: The end of the first Finnish Republic
History of Finland XV: Paasikivi-Kekkonen doctrine
History of Finland XVI: Through rise and fall to a new kind of future
14 July 2023
The Finnish Minister of Foreign Affairs apologized to the Turkish Minister of Foreign Affairs for the words of the woman who criticized the man who exposed his penis
11 July 2023
Finnish horror gallery and reality
In Finland, there is an ongoing special operation by the left-wing to overthrow the right-wing government that was appointed a few weeks ago. As a result, one minister has resigned, and another has been targeted over online writings from fifteen years ago, which have been claimed to be written by her.
9 July 2023
History of Finland X: The birth of Finnish identity
This is the tenth part of a blog post series in which I go through the most significant phases of Finnish history. In the ninth post, I described how the change of power in Russia led to the creation of liberal legislation and enormous progress in the development of society.
At the end of the 19th century, the Finnish nationalistic movement, or Fennomania, also emerged, which, alongside the liberalization of the country, was the most significant development of the time. We Finns remember it best from our school days as an idea created by Swedish-speaking great men such as Arwidsson, Snellman, Runeberg, and Topelius to improve the position of the Finnish people and their language.
And to some extent, that was indeed the case. However, school books left open the question of why Swedish-speaking great men originally started advocating for the position of the Finnish people.
The explanation for this can be found by examining fennomania as a transfer of power between social classes. The growing intelligentsia allied themselves with the wealthy peasants who had benefited from pre-capitalist economic policies to challenge the predominantly aristocratic, Swedish-speaking civil servants in the distribution of high-level positions reserved solely for the Swedish-speaking upper class. And in this battle, the language of the peasant class was well-suited, especially since the children of noble estates did not speak it.
In addition to the rising peasant class that challenged the Swedish-speaking civil servants, the will of the emperor - or grand duke as the Tsar was called in Finland - was also crucial in this struggle. His advantage was to weaken the close ties of the civil servants with the old motherland, Sweden, and the elevation of the status of the Finnish language was ideal for this.
Throughout the 19th century, however, the civil servants were initially stronger than the fennomaniacs, and by the mid-1800s, it appeared that the fate of the Finnish language would be that of the disappearing Irish language. However, an unexpected change occurred when Alexander II ascended the throne and signed the Language Decree of 1863, which made Finnish an equal language alongside Swedish.
This had far-reaching consequences. Firstly, despite the great disappointment of the Swedish-speaking population, the decision ultimately saved their mother tongue in Finland, as it ensured them an equal linguistic status with the Finnish-speaking population after Finland's independence. Otherwise, Finland would have become a monolingual country like Estonia.
The second significant consequence was that, after winning the language struggle, the original fennomans, i.e. the old Finns, became advocates of the emperor in Finland. This was evident during the years of oppression, where to preserve the autonomy of the Grand Duchy, concessions were repeatedly made to the Tsar's administration. In exchange for this submission, they were granted official positions by the Grand Duke, but as a reaction to this, the younger generation of fennomans, the young Finns, emerged with a highly negative view of their predecessors.
At the same time, there was a lively debate in the Swedish press, in which Snellman also participated. The Swedish government had recognized the facts and reluctantly accepted the loss of the eastern part of the country to Russia. Despite this, there was still debate on the western side of the Gulf of Bothnia, where since the 1830s and especially during the Crimean War, there were voices calling for Finland to be returned to the old motherland by joining forces with its enemies.
This debate likely had a strong impact on the Tsars allowing Finland to maintain its autonomous special status, which allowed the former backward eastern part of the Swedish kingdom to develop into a state capable of achieving high-level accomplishments in almost every field within a hundred years. Thus, the Swedish revanchist spirit ended up doing a favor for Finland - albeit in a way that its representatives had not intended.
The original blog post in Finnish:
Suomalaisuuden synty
All the blog posts in this series:
History of Finland I: How did Finland become culturally part of the West?
History of Finland II: From a hinterland of the Union into a modern state
History of Finland III: The legal and economic weakening of the position of the people
History of Finland IV: The bleakest time in Finnish history
History of Finland V: The pursuit of economic profit saved the country
History of Finland VI: Age of freedom and utility
History of Finland VII: The dictator of the era of Enlightenment promoted capitalist economy
History of Finland VIII: Joining of Finland to Russia led to an increase in crime
History of Finland IX: Enlightended dictator initiated economic growth
History of Finland X: The birth of Finnish identity
History of Finland XI: Finnish democracy and gender equality for women
History of Finland XII: Bloody civil war
History of Finland XIII: The far-right's rebellion
History of Finland XIV: The end of the first Finnish Republic
History of Finland XV: Paasikivi-Kekkonen doctrine
History of Finland XVI: Through rise and fall to a new kind of future
6 July 2023
Cousin is not just a delicacy, but also a hindrance to social success
As my esteemed reader surely knows, it is customary in many cultures to marry young virgins to male relatives. Such inbreeding causes genetic issues because children inherit the same gene forms from both parents, and each individual carries recessive genes in their genetic makeup, which, when inherited from both parents, can cause more or less serious problems.
In addition to the genetic effects, it has been claimed that consanguineous marriages also have negative implications for societal development. To test this hypothesis, a recent study was published, examining the differences among U.S. states in their attitudes towards cousin marriages.
The study analyzed data from millions of individuals from the 18th to the 20th century and found that cousins who married each other were more likely to reside in rural areas and engage in fewer wage-earning jobs compared to others. On the other hand, bans on cousin marriages resulted in people moving from rural to urban areas, leading to better-paying occupations.
The researchers' findings also indicated that these changes were attributed to the social and cultural impacts of diminished family ties rather than genetic factors. Simultaneously, people's support for their relatives decreased, resulting in a higher prevalence of institutional care for the elderly relatives.
Overall, the study I have discussed here supports the notion that immigration policies should aim to break the tradition of consanguineous marriages within immigrant groups where it is common. This issue should not be seen as a matter of equality or human rights but rather as a natural part of eliminating harmful cultural practices - such as female genital mutilation or blood feuds - in order to promote the social integration and individual success of immigrants.
Previous thoughts on the same topic:
Discrimination against women?
African female and Persian male ancestors
Should forbidden questions be answered or not?