Finlandia
Today, the second day of my sabbatical, has been pretty laid back. I am still thinking about the Oregon Symphony Orchestra concert we attended last night which featured a powerful performance of Finlandia by Jan Sibelius.
This piece started out as a political objection to the Russia which, at the time of the composition, considered the Czar of Russia as its crown prince, its titular head of state following an arrangement made in the early 19th century between Sweden and Russia. In early 1899 Russia declared that it was high time that everyone in Finland learn to speak Russian and young men join the Russian army. In other words, Russia wanted to Russify Finland (which is pretty much how this was portrayed at the time).
After nearly a century of autonomy and self-government,Finland was obviously not happy with this decision and, according to articles in the Portland Oregonian, many Finns considered leaving their homes and immigrating to the United States. The articles, however, considered rebellion a lost cause, especially considering that the last time Finns tried early in the 1800's they were squashed and thousands of Finns were enslaved by Russians! There were some Finns who hoped to negotiate some sort of autonomy agreement which would give Russia some of the things it wanted, but the Czarist regime refused to entertain any proposal.
Rather than an outright rebellion, there were many Finns who decided to gradually undermine the force and status of Russian rule in Finland. Jan Sibelius was one of them and wrote a series of tone poems exhalting the culture of his native land. The final piece became known as Finlandia and the theme for Finland later became Finland's national anthem.
I learned today that there appear to be no depictions of this era for Finland in the movies. There are movies about the initial rebellion of Finns in the early 1800's and the Finnish civil war of 1917-1918 (where Finland took advantage of the Russian revolution to sever ties with Russia, declare independence and then choose between Communism and Democracy). The 1917-1918 period was dramatized a couple of times for films in 1939, mainly as a way of promoting Finnish independence in the face of Soviet domination at the time. Those films can be seen on Ebay in whole or part. The early 1800's rebellion was depicted in one film but I can't seem to find a copy of it anywhere.
Finlandia deserves to be used in film as more than a backdrop for a documentary or a poorly accessed film of a different era...or for a Bruce Willis film. Not that its use for these was wrong, but that it would really make a powerful statement if central to a movie about freedom loving Finns who succeed in eventually driving out the Russians.
So, I want to learn more about this period between 1899 and 1900: What Finland was like then, how Russia controlled the country, what cultural events against Russia were held and who held them, how Russia reacted...for starters. Along the way I want to learn Finnish and Russian names and pronunciations and get a sense of the way of life during those years so I can tell a compelling story about this time for Finland.
This piece started out as a political objection to the Russia which, at the time of the composition, considered the Czar of Russia as its crown prince, its titular head of state following an arrangement made in the early 19th century between Sweden and Russia. In early 1899 Russia declared that it was high time that everyone in Finland learn to speak Russian and young men join the Russian army. In other words, Russia wanted to Russify Finland (which is pretty much how this was portrayed at the time).
After nearly a century of autonomy and self-government,Finland was obviously not happy with this decision and, according to articles in the Portland Oregonian, many Finns considered leaving their homes and immigrating to the United States. The articles, however, considered rebellion a lost cause, especially considering that the last time Finns tried early in the 1800's they were squashed and thousands of Finns were enslaved by Russians! There were some Finns who hoped to negotiate some sort of autonomy agreement which would give Russia some of the things it wanted, but the Czarist regime refused to entertain any proposal.
Rather than an outright rebellion, there were many Finns who decided to gradually undermine the force and status of Russian rule in Finland. Jan Sibelius was one of them and wrote a series of tone poems exhalting the culture of his native land. The final piece became known as Finlandia and the theme for Finland later became Finland's national anthem.
I learned today that there appear to be no depictions of this era for Finland in the movies. There are movies about the initial rebellion of Finns in the early 1800's and the Finnish civil war of 1917-1918 (where Finland took advantage of the Russian revolution to sever ties with Russia, declare independence and then choose between Communism and Democracy). The 1917-1918 period was dramatized a couple of times for films in 1939, mainly as a way of promoting Finnish independence in the face of Soviet domination at the time. Those films can be seen on Ebay in whole or part. The early 1800's rebellion was depicted in one film but I can't seem to find a copy of it anywhere.
Finlandia deserves to be used in film as more than a backdrop for a documentary or a poorly accessed film of a different era...or for a Bruce Willis film. Not that its use for these was wrong, but that it would really make a powerful statement if central to a movie about freedom loving Finns who succeed in eventually driving out the Russians.
So, I want to learn more about this period between 1899 and 1900: What Finland was like then, how Russia controlled the country, what cultural events against Russia were held and who held them, how Russia reacted...for starters. Along the way I want to learn Finnish and Russian names and pronunciations and get a sense of the way of life during those years so I can tell a compelling story about this time for Finland.