Väinö Linna

Väinö Linna around 1947.

Väinö Linna  [ ˈvæi̯nœ ˈlinːɑ ] (born December 20, 1920 in Urjala , † April 21, 1992 in Tampere ) was one of the most famous Finnish authors of the 20th century. His best-known work The Unknown Soldier or Crosses in Karelia (Finnish original title: Tuntematon sotilas ) was published in 1954.

Life

Linna's grave in Tampere

Väinö Linna was born in a small village in western Finland to Viktor (Vihtori) Linna (1874–1927) and Johanna Maria (Maija) Linna (1888–1972). After completing his training, he went to the industrial city of Tampere and worked there as a fitter in a textile factory. In 1940 he was drafted into the army and served as a sergeant in the Finnish-Soviet Continuation War. He made notes during the war and later wrote down his experiences from this time. His third novel, The Unknown Soldier , became his best-known book, which was filmed in 1955, 1985 and 2017. After his literary success, he lived as a freelance writer.

In his romantic trilogy Hier unter dem Polarstern (Finnish original title: Täällä Pohjantähden alla , 1959–1962), Linna, whose style can be assigned to social realism , describes the story of three generations of the small farmer family Koskela between 1884 and 1950. Here he also processes new aspects of the Finnish contemporary history. In the life of small rural communities, which is mainly portrayed in the novel, class differences came to a head during the Finnish civil war . Furthermore, the perpetual struggle against the forces of nature that shape life is described. This work was also filmed several times and staged as a play. The third part of the novel was honored with the Literature Prize of the Nordic Council in 1963 .

In 1980 Linna was honored with the Finnish Academic Award.

Varia

From 1993 until the introduction of the euro in Finland, it was depicted on the front of the Finnish 20-mark banknote .

Web links

• ZeitZeichen: April 21, 1992 - Anniversary of the death of the writer Väinö Linna , April 21, 2017
• Nordic Council Literature Prize (English)

Commons : Väinö Linna  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Literature by and about Väinö Linna in the catalog of the German National Library