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Article: Finland's European vocation.
- Article from:
- Scandinavian Studies
- Article date:
- September 22, 2002
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2002 Society for the Advancement of Scandinavian Study. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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IN 1843, ZACHARIUS TOPELIUS, then a twenty-five year old student of natural philosophy, gave a public lecture entitled "Do the Finnish People Possess a History?" at the Imperial Alexander University, which in time became the University of Helsinki. He answered in the negative. Because Finland had no political existence, he argued, it was not a legitimate topic of historical investigation. The Finns had not been sovereign agents. They had never acted politically on their own behalf but always as part of another political entity.
Topelius was the youngest of a small group of writers and intellectuals who set about to create a Finnish national identity where none ...