Adolf Ivar Arwidsson
Adolf Ivar Arwidsson (born August 7, 1791 in Padasjoki , Finland , † June 21, 1858 in Viipuri ) was a Finnish political journalist , writer and historian . In his political work Arwidsson distinguished himself as a critic of the situation of Finland as a grand duchy under the Russian tsar. Due to his publishing activities , he lost his position as a lecturer at the Academy in Turku and had to emigrate to Sweden, where he continued his political activities. The Finnish national movement saw Arwidsson as a national awakening and thought leader for an independent Finland.
Life
Adolf Ivar Arwidsson was born in 1791 as the son of a chaplain in Padasjoki in southern Finland, later the family moved to Laukaa in central Finland. This community was badly hit by the convulsions of the Finnish War 1808-1809, and Arwidsson has been critical of the Russian Empire , to which Finland as an autonomous Grand Duchy from then on belonged. As a pupil at the Porvoo grammar school , Arwidsson witnessed the Porvoo state parliament in 1809, at which the Finnish estates swore allegiance to the tsar. After studying at the Academy in Turku , he was awarded a master's degree in philosophy in 1814. At the same point he received his doctorate in 1817 with a dissertation in history and then took up a position as a lecturer at the academy. Arwidssons mother tongue was Swedish , in which language he wrote all of his works, even if he was fluent in Finnish .
After completing his dissertation, Arwidsson went on a one-year trip to Sweden , during which he made contact with the exiled women in Uppsala and Stockholm . After his return, Arwidsson, who had previously devoted himself to poetry , began publishing political texts in 1820, the sharp and radical tone of which soon caused a stir in the capital of St. Petersburg . As a consequence, his teaching post was revoked in 1822 and he was banished from the university. A career corresponding to his training was blocked by Arwidsson in his home country. In 1823 Arwidsson emigrated to Stockholm, where in 1825 he received Swedish citizenship rights and a job as a library assistant in the royal library.
In 1827 Arwidsson went on an antiquarian research trip to Finland, but was immediately expelled back to Sweden by the authorities. This experience led to a further radicalization of the political activities of Arwidsson, and as a result he took part in various public debates in Sweden, in which he presented the circumstances and the constitutional situation in Finland in a gloomy light, but at the same time tried to initiate one to give positive development of the Finnish national identity. In addition to his political work, Arwidsson also developed meritorious historical research. In 1843 he was appointed head of the royal library. In the same year he was allowed to visit his home country again. However, he did not take advantage of this opportunity until 1858 when he went on a tour of Finland. During this trip, Arwidsson fell ill with pneumonia and died on June 21 in Viipuri. He was buried in his youth home, Laukaa. The following verses, written by Elias Lönnrot , were later carved into his tombstone :
"The love of his own country led him out of the country and brought him back.
Now his own country hides him as his very own."
Political activity
The political work of Adolf Ivar Arwidsson was primarily embodied in his political publications during two main phases. The first phase fell during his time as a lecturer at the Academy in Turku, the second period of intense political activity followed after his emigration to Sweden, where Arwidsson took part in the debate about the situation in his home country.
First political articles
Arwidsson received his earliest influences during his high school days from the teachings of the German philosophers Schelling and Hegel and from romanticism in Swedish society. He began his literary career by writing national poetry. Some of his poems were published in Swedish magazines, but from an artistic point of view they were primarily imitations and did not acquire any particular significance. All the more importance was attached to his political writing.
At the beginning of his political activity, there was practically no public discussion of Finnish domestic policy issues, especially since this was viewed as particularly problematic from the point of view of state supervision. The country's largest magazine, the Swedish-language semi-official Åbo Allmänna Tidning ( Finlands Allmänna Tidning from 1820 ) reported on political events abroad, usually in the form of translations from the foreign press, without making any statements of their own. The Finnish-language magazine Turun Wiikko-Sanomat , founded by Reinhold von Becker in 1820 , also dared to make political statements in the liberal spirit, but also limited itself exclusively to events abroad. The Swedish newspapers, which are widely read in Finland, gave a picture of domestic political issues that were in many respects comparable to the situation in Finland. Precisely for this reason, the earliest press censorship in Finland, which was under Russian rule, was directed against the import of individual Swedish newspapers.
Adolf Ivar Arwidsson had come into contact with the lively political life of Stockholm during his stay in Sweden. There he made the acquaintance of the influential Finnish politician Johan Fredrik Aminoffs , who after Arwidsson's return to Turku helped shape his political views. In 1819 the Åbo Allmänna Tidning published an article written by Professor Daniel Myreen, which extolled the new situation in Finland under the Russian Tsar. Arwidsson wanted to follow up with this article, which was the first domestic political contribution in a Finnish newspaper. After he could not find a suitable medium in Finland, he finally got his article published in three parts in the little important Swedish newspaper Nya Extra Posten in September 1820 through his contacts with the Swedish literary critic Lorenzo Hammarsköld .
The article, titled "Letters from a Traveling Swede from Finland," was published anonymously and Arwidsson's authorship was not revealed during his time in Turku. Arwidsson articulates sharp criticism of the activities of the state parliament at Porvoo in 1809, in particular its approval of the provisional dissolution of the Finnish armed forces. A particular target of his criticism is the Finnish Senate , whose members he considers to be uneducated and unstatesmanlike. They are good administrators, but bad lawmakers. As a concrete political question, Arwidsson pays particular attention to monetary policy and extensively criticizes the grievances caused by the coexistence of the currencies of two countries - Russia and Sweden. In economic policy he opposes efforts to restrict traditional trade with Sweden.
Arwidsson's criticism was by no means new and corresponded to the views expressed by numerous important personalities in private correspondence. For the first time, however, these opinions have now been published - an approach that has also been condemned in many cases by those who objectively shared Arwidsson's opinions. The affected issues of Nya Extra Posten were confiscated by the Swedish authorities after the publication of the last part, the publisher Johan Imnelius was charged with denigrating a foreign state and sentenced to six months imprisonment in a publicly acclaimed trial. However, numerous copies of the articles were circulated in Finland.
Publication of the Åbo Morgonblad
Even before the publication of his articles in the Nya Extra Posten , Arwidsson applied for permission to publish his own magazine under the title Åbo Morgonblad on July 5, 1820 . Approval was granted on October 20, and from January 5, 1821, Finland's first political magazine appeared once a week. The only regular editor besides Arwidsson was the young lawyer Gustaf Idman-Idestam , who primarily discussed economic and scientific issues, while Arwidsson was responsible for state and national issues.
Arwidsson's political messages dealt with Finland as a state, its people and its citizens. While Arwidsson’s friends, led by the ideas of the Enlightenment in the context of the cultural journal Mnemosyne, understood the national sense as a largely isolated topic from the state, Arwidsson established a clear connection between the nationality of the people and their state existence. As the most important expression of nationality, Arwidsson, who took influences from Johann Gottlieb Fichte , Christian Molbech and above all Ernst Moritz Arndt , saw the common language as the epitome of the common national heritage. He denounced the fact that the population could not communicate in their mother tongue, especially in the courts, and called for a professorship in Finnish language to be created at the university.
In his articles dealing with the nature of the state, Arwidsson drew a picture of the state above the individual, but which, together with the people, forms a living organism and is subject to incessant development. The law is to be followed by the individual, at the same time criticism of the law and the pursuit of its amendment are not only justified, but actually represent a civic duty. In practice, Arwidsson deduced from this, among other things, the demand for public administration and freedom of the press. In social terms, he advocated greater permeability of class boundaries.
Arwidsson presented direct criticism of the activities of the Finnish authorities primarily through the publication of documents from court and administrative files, often supplemented by judgmental comments. He vehemently submitted that this procedure was covered by the applicable laws on freedom of the press. In May 1821 there was an open conflict with the member of the Finnish Senate Carl Johan Walleen , who by no means shared Arwidsson's opinion and quoted and cautioned him. Arwidsson immediately published a detailed reply to this conversation.
The activity of Åbo Morgonblad coincided with a period of tense political climate. Tsar Alexander I had increasingly distanced himself from the liberal policies of earlier years and adopted the conservative policies of the Holy Alliance . There had been student unrest in Turku in 1819 over the issue of university disciplinary authority, and in 1821 there had also been a number of conflicts which, viewed in themselves, were of little importance, but in the context of the overall development were likely to increase the nervousness among the decision-makers. In this climate, Arwisson was particularly accused of some rather romantically transfigured statements in the edition of June 30, 1821, in which he speaks of the blissful times of the storm. While these words related factually to the pan-European era, they were also understood as potentially inflammatory. On the initiative of Senator Walleen and submission by the Secretary of State for Finnish Affairs in Saint Petersburg, Robert Henrik Rehbinder , the Tsar ordered the suspension of Åbo Morgonblad on September 4, 1821 . The order was announced to Arwidsson on October 2nd. The 40th and final edition of the paper appeared the following day and had to be secretly distributed to subscribers.
Further activity in Turku and exile
As compensation for the subscriptions to his paper, Arwidsson published the eighty-page booklet Oskyldigt Ingenting in 1821 . In addition to literary contributions, this contained the reprint of the discontinuation order against the Åbo Morgonblad as well as the closing parts of several multi-part articles that remained unfinished because of the discontinuation. Arwidsson continued his journalistic activity in the magazine Mnemosyne , in which on February 28, 1822 his detailed article Betraktelser ("Considerations") appeared. It was to be his last contribution in a Finnish newspaper.
Although the "observations" were published without an indication of the author, the Finnish viewers quickly realized that Arwidsson was the author. The article was generally similar to its earlier publications and repeated many of the theses put forward there. In connection with a general criticism of the qualifications and training of Finnish officials, the article also contained a casual mocking remark about the state of the military leadership, the superficiality of the officers and their tendency to curse. The article, and in particular the statements mentioned, sparked general unrest in Turku's public. The former governor Knuut von Troil thought the article was downright subversive.
The initiative to dismiss Arwidsson from the post of lecturer and to ban him from the university came from Johan Fredrik Aminoff, who had meanwhile been appointed vice-chancellor of the university. Secretary of State Rehbinder supported the proposal, and on his submission, on May 20, 1822, Tsar Alexander ordered Arwidsson's permanent banishment from the university.
The protagonists Aminoff and Rehbinder, who were decisive for the exile, agreed with Arwidsson on many cultural-political issues and were well aware of the grievances in the administration. But they considered the revolutionary style in their opinion and the anti-tsarist attitude of Arwidsson dangerous. Opinions differ among historians as to whether this assessment was correct. On the one hand, Arwidsson's propaganda was not taken very seriously by the larger public - he was considered to be a harmless idealist, which earned him the nickname Fantastengranat (" Fantastenbombe "). On the other hand, Arwidsson exerted significant influence on many of the academy's young students, among them the philosopher Johan Vilhelm Snellman, who later found himself extremely uncomfortable . The fate of Arwidsson gave these students a clear signal that political activity at the academy was out of the question for the time being.
Finland debate in Stockholm
Even after his emigration to Stockholm Arwidsson remained politically active, especially in the form of mostly anonymous or pseudonymous newspaper articles on Swedish domestic politics. Above all, his participation in a debate on the national situation of his home country, the nature of Finnish autonomy and its relationship to the goals and hopes of the Finnish people attracted lasting attention. Between 1838 and 1841, the dispute was mainly fought over pamphlets published in pamphlets.
The debate began in September 1838 in a pamphlet by Professor Israel Hwasser, who emigrated from Finland in 1830 . He was of the opinion that Finland had emancipated itself from Sweden and that it had found its own identity in the Tsarist Empire, and that Finland was essentially satisfied with the status quo it had found. At the same time Finland had the historical task of representing Western civilization in the Tsarist Empire and thus bridging the differences between Russian-Asian and Western European cultures.
In response, the pamphlet "Finland and its future" ( Finland och des Framtid ), written by Arwidsson, appeared in November of the same year under the name Pekka Kuoharinen , in which the author described the system in Finland in gloomy colors. Finland had by no means concluded a separate peace with Russia at the state parliament in Porvoo in 1809, but, as a conquered province, had passed the resolutions dictated by the victorious Tsar. The connection with Russia had no economic advantages, but it did result in a strict censorship system.
This was followed by a series of compromise- ready newspaper articles by Professor of History Erik Gustaf Geijer , who, however, agreed with many of Kuoharinen's statements, and in September 1839 another pamphlet by Hwasser. Hwasser regards the alleged aspiration of the Finnish people back to Sweden primarily as an invention of the female exiles living in Sweden. The author, who appears under the name Kuoharinen, untruthfully pretends to be a Finnish citizen today and thus acts in the guise of those against whose interests he is arguing. Kuoharinen responded in 1840 with a second, even more pessimistic text compared to the first. Using numerous examples, he showed how indeterminate Finland's autonomous rights are in practice, and emphatically argued that a mere promise by the monarch without actual security would not be the basis for a secure state status for Finland.
Finally, in May 1841, another text, “Today's State Constitution of Finland” ( Finlands nuvarande Stats-Författning ) was published under the name Olli Kekäläinen, in which positive aspects of the Finnish system as well as the dangers for the future arising from it were presented in a mediating way. First and foremost, Kekäläinen attributes the credit to Hwasser for having taken up the issue and presented how the situation in Finland should be , while Kuoharinen presented the situation as it actually is , without, however, sufficiently addressing the desired developments. The throneid of Alexander I in Porvoo is a fact that cannot be discussed away, which at least makes it difficult to encroach on the rights of Finland. As a separate contribution, the Finnish people are expected to adhere unconditionally to the constitutional agreements and to patiently work out a favorable development. The motto of every patriotic Finn must be: loyalty and vigilance.
To this day, no final agreement has been reached about the authorship of Kekäläinen's writing, and it is still the subject of historical disputes. The conflicting opinions in the debate, which appeared in numerous newspaper articles as early as 1874, are essentially represented in today's research by two Finnish historians. Matti Klinge is of the opinion that the font must largely come from the pen of Johan Jacob Nordström , while Olavi Junnila defends the long prevailing thesis that Kekäläinen, like Kuoharinen, is none other than Adolf Ivar Arwidsson. Junnila explains the differences in style and depth between the writings of both pseudonyms with a systematic approach by Arwidsson, who initially wanted to shake up the Finnish public through the polemic actions of Kuoharinen and then use the attention he had gained through a forward-looking appeal to strengthen Finnish national identity .
After this exchange of blows, the political activities of Arwidsson calmed down and only experienced a revival during the Crimean War of 1854–1856, when the Finnish question was again lively discussed in Sweden.
Scientific work
As a historian, Arwidsson first drew attention to himself in the second decade of the 19th century with the Swedish translation of the work Finland and its residents by Friedrich Rühs . He also published the second edition of the work in Swedish in 1827, after editing it and supplementing it with his own account of the history of Finland from 1809. In 1819 he went on a trip to the collection of Finnish folk poetry, a work later taken up by Elias Lönnrot. In 1832 Arwidsson wrote a textbook on the history and geography of Finland ( Lärobok i Finlands historia och geografi ). Regardless of his banishment from Finland, this work was used in schools in Finland as well as in Sweden - but without naming the author.
Later, Arwidsson focused on publishing historical source documents related to Finland, the lack of accessibility of which he had recognized as a major obstacle to the development of Finnish historiography. Between 1846 and 1858, with the support of the Finnish Literary Society, a collection of documents, mostly from the 16th century, appeared in ten volumes ( Handlingar till upplysning av Finlands häfder ). He also put together collections of prehistoric Swedish chants and wrote biographical accounts of Swedish kings, especially in 1850 about Charles XIV. Johann .
reception
The work of Arwidsson marked the beginning of the awakening of Finnish national consciousness that began in the 1830s. While Arwidsson's early attempts to induce the Finns to engage in national political activity had little effect at first, the driving forces behind the national movement were lost Johan Vilhelm Snellman , Elias Lönnrot and Johan Ludvig Runeberg were decisively influenced by him. For them and their successors, Arwidsson was considered a national awakening. In 1878, the influential politician and Fenno newspaper maker Agathon Meurman wrote about the political climate of the time:
“One began to wonder whether it was possible for us to remain a people under the tremendous pressure that our protectors inadvertently put on us. Fear arose and turned into nervousness. In this general condition, the lonely, strange exception was Adolf Ivar Arwidsson. He alone was ready to fully accept the new position [of the country] and to build on it. "
Arwidsson was also often viewed as a thought leader for the later state independence of Finland. Recent studies, however, highlight the often speculative nature of Arwidsson's considerations. A possible independent Finland appeared to be an option - albeit never openly expressed - through Arwidsson's statements, but from his point of view it represented only one of many possible historical developments.
One of the identity-creating quotes of the national movement in the Grand Duchy of Finland in the late 19th century was the saying ascribed to Arwidsson: “Svenskar aro vi icke mera, ryssar kunna vi icke bli, derför måste vi vara finnar.” (“We are no longer Swedes, Russians we don't want to become, so let's be Finns! ”) This quote does not actually come from Arwidsson, but is an exaggeration formulated by Johan Vilhelm Snellman in 1861. It does not necessarily reflect Adolf Ivar Arwidsson's world of thought, but it does provide information about its importance for immediate posterity. Today a street on the university campus in Turku is named after Arwidsson.
literature
- Liisa Castrén: Adolf Ivar Arwidsson - Nuori Arwidsson ja hänen ympäristönsä . Otava, Helsinki 1944.
- Liisa Castrén: Adolf Ivar Arwidsson isänmaallisena herättäjänä . Suomen Historiallinen Seura , Helsinki 1951.
- Olavi Junnila: Ruotsiin muuttanut Adolf Iwar Arwidsson yes Suomi . Suomen Historiallinen Seura, Helsinki 1972.
- Kari Tarkiainen: Adolf Ivar Arwidsson , in Matti Klinge (ed.): Suomen kansallisbiografia 1 . SKS, Helsinki 2003, ISBN 951-746-442-8 .
- Eino Karhu: Nation building in Finland and Ingermanland . Herne 2007 (v. A. Pp. 53–63)
Web links
- Works by and about Adolf Ivar Arwidsson in the German Digital Library
- Helsinki University digital collection - All issues of Åbo Morgonblad .
Individual evidence
- ^ Tarkiainen, p. 403
- ↑ Castrén 1951, pp. 32-53
- ↑ Castrén 1951, pp. 54-61
- ↑ Castrén 1951, pp. 62-113
- ↑ Castrén 1951, pp. 114-130
- ↑ Castrén 1951, pp. 131-141
- ↑ Castrén 1951, pp. 141-168
- ↑ Castrén 1951, pp. 173-197
- ↑ Castrén 1951, pp. 206-219
- ↑ Castrén 1951, pp. 203 f.
- ↑ Castrén 1951, pp. 356-373
- ↑ Castrén 1951, p. 372 f.
- ↑ Castrén 1951, p. 383 f.
- ↑ Castrén 1951, pp. 260-263 and 383-386
- ↑ Castrén 1951, pp. 384-389
- ^ Tarkiainen, p. 404
- ↑ Raija Majamaa, Leeni Tiirakari: JV Snellman. Valtioviisas vaikuttaja . SKS, Helsinki 2006, p. 21
- ↑ Junnila, pp. 15-17
- ↑ Junnila, pp. 17-19
- ↑ Junnila, pp. 19-25
- ↑ Junnila, pp. 25-28
- ^ Matti blade: Adolf Ivar Arwidsson eller Johan Jakob Nordström? , 1968, cited in Tarkiainen, p. 405
- ↑ Junnila, pp. 28-73
- ↑ Meidän liberaalit . In: Uusi Suometar (magazine), issue 47/1878; quoted in Junnila, p. 138 f. (Translation by the author)
- ↑ a b Tarkiainen, p. 406
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Arwidsson, Adolf Ivar |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Finnish politician, writer and historian |
| DATE OF BIRTH | August 7, 1791 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Padasjoki , Finland |
| DATE OF DEATH | June 21, 1858 |
| Place of death | Viipuri, Finland |