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Introduction: Nation, state and identity in Finland

Article in National Identities · March 2008

DOI: 10.1080/14608940701819736

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Pauliina Raento
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Introduction: Nation, state and identity

in Finland
Pauliina Raento
Published online: 25 Jan 2008.

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 National Identities
Vol. 10, No. 1, March 2008, 14

Introduction: Nation, state and identity in Finland

Pauliina Raento

Finland, a country of 5.3 million people in northern Europe, is an illustrative case

study of territorial identity formation and nation-building. Its past and present
highlight several characteristics of these processes. Such key concepts as ‘scale’,
‘networks’ and ‘boundaries’ are prominent in Finland’s borderland history between
two powerful empires: the Kingdom of Sweden in the west and Russia/the Soviet
Union in the east (see Paasi, 1996). The territory of Finland provided them with
resources, a strategic buffer zone, and a meeting ground for multiple cultural
influences. A north-south dimension has complemented these better-known con-
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nections to east and west (see Antonsich, 2005)*for example, in historical trade
within the Baltic sphere, in twentieth-century military and intellectual affiliations,
and in the distribution of political, economic, and demographic power within the
territory of Finland. Since the Cold War and Finland joining the European Union in
1995, these orientations have diversified as representatives of the Finnish government
and businesses have sought to profile the country through its ‘northern dimension’
and as ‘a gateway to Russia’ within the European Union. Constant change thus
characterises the making of a nation, a state, and an identity.
How these contacts have been, and are, understood varies within Finland and
abroad. What in Finland has constituted an ‘us’, to whom, and why has shifted over
time, leading to political disagreements and, at times, bloodshed. Support for
competing views about nation-building and boundary-making has typically been
mobilised through visual means. This emphasis has long roots in political-
administrative needs and practices of the Kingdom of Sweden, of which Finland
formed a part until 1809. During the subsequent rule of Imperial Russia, visual
expressions of nascent national identity became more prominent, especially since the
emergence of Finnish nationalism in the mid-nineteenth century. Many individuals
involved with the movement were visual artists and academics. History and
geography, with a strong emphasis on cartography, evolved into ‘national sciences’
and were prominent in the emerging national education system. An idea and an
image of the territory of Finland were illustrated to rally the masses during the
period of political resistance against Russia in the late nineteenth and early twentieth
centuries. After independence from Russia in 1917, the leaders of the young republic
employed visual methods in ‘making Finland known’ in foreign lands and in
citizenship education in an ideologically and socio-economically divided, war-ridden
society (a Civil War between ‘Whites’ and ‘Reds’ was fought in 1918) (Alapuro, 1988;
Klinge, 2000; Lähteenkorva & Pekkarinen, 2005; Raento & Brunn, 2005). These
processes underscore the interconnected roles of institutional and political-admin-
istrative practices, national and cultural elites, and popular culture in the making of
a national territory and a nation as an ‘imagined community’ (Anderson, 1991).
The end of the Cold War and Finland’s membership of the European Union
highlighted international flows and networks, cultural hybrids, and increased

ISSN 1460-8944 print/ISSN 1469-9907 online

# 2008 Taylor & Francis
DOI: 10.1080/14608940701819736
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 2 P. Raento

flexibility and contestation in the understanding of what constitutes ‘Finnishness’

and who ‘we’ are (see Raento, 2006a). The visions advocated in twentieth-century
nation-building and citizenship education have become increasingly contested and
fragmented in a situation where global immigration to Finland continues to grow
and ‘old’ cultural and other minorities have received stronger legal protection and
attention. As ‘Finnish identity’ and ‘nation’ are becoming more difficult to define,
the meaning of one’s ‘Finnishness’ increasingly depends on personal choices (Häkli,
2006). As usual, change has met resistance; the reinforcement of mental and
symbolic boundaries between individuals and groups of people has been an evident
counterforce to new flows and flexibility.
Jouni Häkli opens the discussion in this volume by examining how ‘Finland’ as
an idea and as a national territory was produced within the formation and
consolidation of the Kingdom of Sweden. Drawing from actor-network theory,
Häkli discusses the making of Finland from the perspectives of constant change, the
institutionalising impact of networks and flows, and contradictory views conditioned
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by domestic and international developments. He connects the interaction at

international, national, and regional scales and the formation of territorial identity
to politico-administrative networks designed to organise and control space (e.g.,
taxation, land survey, and postal system). By focusing on the Swedish period rather
than the better-known Russian rule (see, e.g., Jussila, 2005), Häkli sheds new light on
the roots of Finnish national identity construction. In his view, the institutional
legacy of Sweden was crucial for ‘Finland’ to function as a politico-territorial entity
under Imperial Russia.
Two empirical studies of the visualisation of Finnish territory and national
identity follow Häkli’s article. The temporal focus now turns to the Finns’
nineteenth-century resistance against Imperial Russia and symbolic boundary-
making and citizenship education efforts in independent Finland. Katariina
Kosonen provides a powerful case study of cartography in support of Häkli’s
argument about Finland being ‘literally drawn into existence’. Kosonen examines
expressions and representations of ‘Finland’, ‘Finnish’ identity, ‘the enemy’, and
internal disagreements between ideological and cultural factions in Finland from the
first period of imperial oppression in the late nineteenth century to the first years of
the Continuation War between Finland and the Soviet Union in the 1940s. With her
examination of Finnish press cartography and the (partly overlapping) mapping
efforts of Finnish academics, Kosonen adds a ‘practical-methodological’ view to the
critical study of cartography.
Pauliina Raento and Stanley Brunn offer another view on the visualisation of
nation, state, and identity in their examination of independent Finland’s postage
stamps in the twentieth century. They root their study in the Russian period, during
which autonomous Finland obtained the right to use its own postage stamps (1856)
and other symbols typically reserved for sovereign countries. The restriction of these
symbolically important rights in the late nineteenth century led to strong popular
resistance, which helps to explain the subsequent importance of postage stamp
imagery to ordinary Finns and its importance in the changing styles of citizenship
education. Raento and Brunn show how the elites of the Finnish state have used
stamps to communicate with the citizens (see Raento, 2006b). Their examination
shows how developments in international and domestic politics conditioned the
themes of these mundane little pieces of paper and how they served construction of
 National Identities 3

one sense of Finnishness and national unity through carefully selected thematic
emphases and erasures. The study verifies the power of postage stamps as tools of
‘banal nationalism’ (Billig, 1995) in the construction of an ‘imagined community’
(Anderson, 1991).
One thematic shift visible in the stamp data is Finland’s membership in the
European Union in 1995. In his article, Sami Moisio addresses the contradictory
political debate that preceded the 1994 referendum and decision to join the
European Union. He shows how Finland’s geopolitical past and the economic
depression in the early 1990s following the collapse of the Soviet Union conditioned
the views for, and against, membership. He reveals the role of the historical
geopolitical EastWest dimension in the shaping of views regarding the growing
attraction of Western Central Europe, showing the contradictory character of
identity-related processes. In Moisio’s view, membership for its promoters repre-
sented an important identity-political distancing of Finland from its Eastern
connection and confirmed the Western character of the Finnish nation. As such,
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says Moisio, the membership was a historically desirable ‘correction’ of Finland’s

(geo)political identity.
The new supranational operating environment of Finnish politics and society has
further expanded the options available for individuals. More foreign nationals now
reside in Finland than ever before (122,000 in the end of 2006; see http://www.stat.fi)
and traveling and working abroad has become routine for many ordinary citizens.
This new environment has directed more attention to the study of flows and cultural
hybridisation of identity. Despite the recent rapid change, these processes have had
long roots among particular population groups. A case in point is Finland’s largest
minority: the 300,000 Swedish-speakers, who have historically held close contacts to
Sweden. In their contribution to this volume, Charlotta Hedberg and Kaisa Kepsu
examine the relationship between migration, minority and majority cultures, and
identity through the impact of international mobility on identity among Swedish-
speaking Finns. Hedberg and Kepsu argue this migration to be a ‘cultural
expression’ (Hedberg & Kepsu, 2003). They find that personal choices and bonding
with one’s ethno-linguistic group varies with context and scale, pointing to
significant regional differences within a minority identity in Finland.
The five articles in this volume thus approach the construction of nation, state,
and identity in Finland with an emphasis on change; networks; contradicting
representations and meanings; visual expressions of territory, identity and national
ideals; and the multifaceted, interconnected character of scale. The articles are
designed to offer both an illustrative case study of a particular country, and a
methodological and conceptual lead to relevant studies about similar topics.

References
Alapuro, R. (1988). State and revolution in Finland. Berkeley, CA: University of California
Press.
Anderson, B. (1991). Imagined communities (rev. edn). London: Verso.
Antonsich, M. (2005). Cardinal markers on Finland’s identity politics and national identity.
Eurasian Geography and Economics, 46(4), 289304.
Billig, M. (1995). Banal nationalism. London: Sage.
Häkli, J. (2006). Who is the Finn? Globalization and identity in Finland. In P. Raento (Ed.),
Finnishness in Finland and North America: Constituents, changes and challenges (pp. 1225).
 4 P. Raento

Toronto: Aspasia Books (also appeared as a special issue of Journal of Finnish Studies, 9(2)
(2005)).
Hedberg, C., & Kepsu, K. (2003). Migration as a cultural expression? The case of the Finland-
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Jussila, O. (2005). Suomen suuriruhtinaskunta 18091917. Helsinki: WSOY.
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Lähteenkorva, P., & Pekkarinen, J. (2005). Ikuisen poudan maa. Helsinki: WSOY.
Paasi, A. (1996). Territories, boundaries and consciousness. Chichester: Wiley.
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Raento, P. (2006b). Communicating geopolitics through postage stamps: The case of Finland.
Geopolitics, 11(4), 601629.
Raento, P., & Brunn, S.D. (2005). Visualizing Finland: Postage stamps as political messengers.
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