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The Fennoman movement or Fennomania was a Finnish nationalist movement in the 19th-century

Grand Duchy of Finland The Grand Duchy of Finland was the predecessor state of modern Finland. It existed from 1809 to 1917 as an Autonomous region, autonomous state within the Russian Empire. Originating in the 16th century as a titular grand duchy held by the Monarc ...

, 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 between the Russian Empire and an alliance of the Ottoman Empire, the Second French Empire, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and the Kingdom of Sardinia (1720–1861), Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont fro ...

, Fennomans founded the

Finnish Party The Finnish Party () 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 position of the Finnish langu ...

and intensified the language strife, yearning to raise the

Finnish language Finnish (endonym: or ) is a Finnic languages, Finnic language of the Uralic languages, Uralic language family, spoken by the majority of the population in Finland and by ethnic Finns outside of Finland. Finnish is one of the two official langu ...

and Finnic culture from peasant status to the position of a national language and a national culture. The opposition, the

Svecomans The Svecoman (, , ) movement was a Suecophile or pro- Swedish nationalist movement that arose in the Grand Duchy of Finland at the end of the 19th century chiefly as a reaction to the demands for increased use of Finnish vigorously presented by ...

, 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 a Finnish politician who served as the seventh president of Finland from 1946 to 1956. Representing the Finnish Party until its dissolution in 1918 and then the National Coaliti ...

(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 Lönnr ...

, 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 The Finnish Party () 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 position of the Finnish langua ...

and the

Young Finnish Party The Young Finnish Party or Constitutional-Fennoman Party ( 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 political party in 1894. ...

Motto

The Fennoman

motto A motto (derived from the Latin language, Latin , 'mutter', by way of Italian language, Italian , 'word' or 'sentence') is a Sentence (linguistics), sentence or phrase expressing a belief or purpose, or the general motivation or intention of a ...

attributed to Adolf Ivar Arwidsson was actually coined by

: "Svenskar äro vi icke, ryssar vilja vi icke bli, låt oss alltså vara finnar." :"''Swedes we are not,'' :''Russians we do not want to be,'' :''So let us then be Finns.''"

Kari Tarkiainen Kari Valtteri Tarkiainen (born 14 June 1938 in Helsinki) is a Finnish historian and archivist, who served as the national archivist of Finland 1996–2003. He is a grandson of the scholar Viljo Tarkiainen and his wife, writer Maria Jotuni. Tar ...

:
Adolf Ivar Arwidsson
', in

Matti Klinge Matti Klinge (31 August 1936 – 5 March 2023) was a Finnish historian. Klinge studied at the University of Helsinki and gained his Doctor of Philosophy, Ph.D. in 1969. He later served as a visiting professor at the University of Paris (1970&nda ...

(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 adv ...

Fredrik Cygnaeus Fredrik Cygnaeus (1 April 1807 – 7 February 1881) was a Finnish poet, art critic and collector, docent of history and university professor of aesthetics and literature. Cygnaeus was an influential figure in Finnish art and literature, con ...

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 Finnis ...

, formerly Georg Zacharias Forsman *

Alexandra Gripenberg Alexandra Gripenberg, also known as Alexandra van Grippenberg, (1857 – 24 December 1913) was a Finnish social activist, author, editor, newspaper publisher, and elected politician, and was a leading voice within the movement for women's rights ...

Lauri Kivekäs Lauri Jaakko Kivekäs, titled ''Vuorineuvos'' (7 July 1903, in Muuruvesi, Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to ...

, formerly Stenbäck *

Johannes Linnankoski Johannes Linnankoski (originally Vihtori Johan Peltonen, 18 October 1869 – 10 August 1913) was a Finnish author and playwright, who mainly influenced writing in the Golden Age of Finnish Art. His most famous work is the romance novel, ''The S ...

Agathon Meurman Agathon Meurman (9 October 1826, Kangasala – 17 January 1909, Helsinki) was a Finnish politician and journalist. He was one of the key persons of the Fennoman movement and since 1863 the leader of the Finnish Party The Finnish Party () ...

Hjalmar Mellin Robert Hjalmar Mellin (19 June 1854 – 5 April 1933) was a Finnish mathematician and function theorist. Biography Mellin was born on June 19, 1854 to priest and a former teacher Gustaf Robert Mellin (1826-1880) and Sofia Augusta Thérmen (182 ...

Julius Krohn Julius Leopold Fredrik Krohn (19 April 1835 – 28 August 1888) was a Finnish folk poetry researcher, professor of Finnish literature, poet, hymn writer, translator and journalist. He was born in Viipuri and was of Baltic German origin. Krohn ...

, formerly Johan Gustav Hellsten *

Kaarlo Juho Ståhlberg Kaarlo Juho Ståhlberg ( , ; 28 January 1865 – 22 September 1952) was a Finnish jurist and academic who was one of the most important pioneers of republicanism in the country. He was the first president of Finland (1919–1925) and a liberal ...

, formerly Carl Johan *

Eemil Nestor Setälä Eemil Nestor Setälä (; 27 February 1864 – 8 February 1935) was a Finnish politician who served as Chairman of the Senate of Finland from September 1917 to November 1917, when he was author of the Finnish Declaration of Independence. Setäl� ...

Eero Järnefelt Erik "Eero" Nikolai Järnefelt (8 November 1863 – 15 November 1937) was a Finnish painter and art professor. He is best known for his portraits and landscapes of the area around Koli National Park, in the North Karelia region of Finland. He wa ...

Otto Donner Otto Donner (15 December 1835, Kokkola – 17 September 1909, Helsinki) was a Finnish linguist and politician. Biography He was professor of Sanskrit and Comparative Indo-European linguistics at the University of Helsinki, but also studied ...

Heikki Renvall Henrik Gabriel "Heikki" Renvall (January 19, 1872 in Turku – June 1, 1955 in Helsinki) was a Finnish lawyer, journalist and the Head of the Editorial Board at the Finnish Ministry of Trade and Industry from 1917–1918. He married opera singer A ...

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 Yrjö Jahnsson (1877–1936) was a Finnish economics professor at the University of Helsinki, appointed in 1911. He openly criticized the strict monetary policy of the "orthodox" government and central bank in the early 1930s, and was ideologically ...

* Pietari Hannikainen

References

External links

The Association of Finnish Culture and Identity
{{National revivals Grand Duchy of Finland Finnish nationalism Nationalist movements in Europe

History

Motto

Prominent Fennomans

See also

References

External links