Greater Finland

The term bulk Finland (Finnish Suur- Suomi) was discussed in irredentistisch - nationalistic groups in Finland since the 19th century. He called the idea of ​​an independent Finnish nation-state in its supposedly " natural" limits, which should also include many Finns kindred peoples, in particular the Karelians, Kvener, Ischoren, Votes and wasp.

Expansion

The "natural limits " were often the North Sea as a northern boundary, the White Sea and Lake Onega in the East, and managed as southern border the rivers Svir and Rajajoki, sometimes the Neva River into the field. Therefore, in addition to all of Karelia and the Kola Peninsula and the Norwegian Finnmark was demanded. Even more radical concepts planned the inclusion of Estonia, Ingria and Swedish Lapland, to "liberate" the Estonians and Ingermanlandfinnen, and distantly related to the Finns seeds.

The Soviet diplomat Vladimir Petrovich Potemkin accused especially the Entente (which had also occupied Arkhangelsk 1918-1920 ) to stand behind the " plans of the Finnish bourgeoisie " to want to form a "Greater Finland " "... by the Loßreißung Karelia Petrozavodsk including, the Petrograd area, including the city of Petrograd [speaking of the later Leningrad, now St. Petersburg ], the Kola Peninsula to the ice-free port of Murmansk, and the whole Soviet north to the Urals from the associations of the [ Russian ] Soviet Republic. "

East Karelia, the Kola Peninsula and especially the northern Russian regions, however, had heard at no time in history to Finland or Sweden or were ever even momentarily of Swedes or Finns conquered, but rather peoples were living there Finnish, Ugrian and Uralic already in been subjected to the Middle Ages of the former Russian republic of Novgorod.

History

The large Finnish idea represents a radicalization of the 19th century awakening under Russian rule Finnish nationalism and reflects similar ideas in other forms of European National Romanticism such as the idea of ​​a Greater Germany, the Italian irredentism or the Pan-Slavism. With them, the great Finnish idea shares the organicist notion that a nation has a natural limit, the call for the unity of the " body politic ," and the desire to put those assumptions to underpin scientifically.

In science, you can A. Wirzen insinuate the situate the eastern border of the Finnish natural environment of the White Sea to geobotanical criteria such a motivated approach about the botanist J. E.. The description of the fennoskandinavischen rock shelf by the geologist William Ramsay was picked up by nationalist circles in Finland in order to delineate the one hand against Russia, and to in turn enhance the natural spatial limits of Finland. Not coincidentally made ​​about Sakari Topelius 1854 these surveys concerning his Antrittsverlesung at the University of Helsinki.

However, the Finnish nationalism sought in particular linguistics in order to propagate the about the relationship of the Finno- Ugric languages, the essentialist concept of a blood relationship with their speakers. That therefore peoples such as the Karelians and Kvener were incorporated into the Finnish national body, seen for example in August Ahlqvists poem Suomen valta (1860 ):

* In a version other than Ruijan suu, ie " at the mouth of Vadsø "

The central symbol of the Finnish National Romanticism was the Kalevala, a 1835 published by Elias Lönnrot of Finnish myths, which was quickly raised to the rank of a national epic. The fact that Lönnrot collected a large part of the compiled in the Kalevala legends in Karelia, led in the late 19th century to the emergence of the " Karelianism " (Finnish Karelianismi ), which reached its peak around 1890. The Karelianism manifested itself especially in literature and the visual arts, and had the idea for the basis that Karelia is the real fountain of Finnish culture and nation and Finland where the most pristine, so the " finnischsten " was. The Karelianism barg much political dynamite, because a large part of Karelia lay beyond the borders of the Russian Grand Duchy of Finland. In the resurgent Finnish independence movement, the boundaries of the to be constructed independent Finnish nation-state were discussed in the sequence.