Why this statue was in window of national poet of Finland, J.L Runeberg?

Kimmo Huosionmaa

Here you see the picture, what is taken to the window of the home of the National poet of Finland Johan Ludvig Runeberg (1807-1877). You might see the small statue in the window, and this kind of art is the mark of belonging some kind of secret societies. Those societies mark their members with paintings or statues, and maybe also Mafia does that. Secret societies were very common in 19th. century academic community and they were places where people might talk about things that were too radical for the people who were in the control of the state.


In 19th. century censorship was very usual in Europe, and almost every state kept political prisoners, and Finland what was the autonomic area of the Russian empire was not the exception to that rule. The reason why in this land was many societies like “Saturday club”, (Lauantaiseura) where many cultural people of influences belonging, was that the Finnish language is quite difficult, and there is also the sauna tradition. So in 1880’s those persons, who were members of this cultural club, were claimed that they were in sauna symposium. And if a member of “Okhrana” the political police of Russian empire tried to slip in that society, must that agent work naked, and those meetings continued all night long.


This society was established in 1830, and I believe that Runeberg was a member of this cultural society. The statue in the window of Runeberg's home at Porvoo symbolizes purity and naturalism. The element what are represented in national romantic paintings. Those wealthy characters were also the road to genetic purity, what has driven humans the most horrifying actions in history. There is nothing wrong with national romanticism itself, but those statues that are made in the same style as ancient Greek statues also were predicted the ideology of “Aryan race”. In this ideology, only strong persons are allowed to live. And this ideology was given an idea of “over human theory”.

The memory plate  of Runeberg in Porvoo

In this theory, what was created by Friedrich Nietzsche the group of “superhumans”, what has higher moral, higher intelligent level and what is stronger than others would become the leaders for other people or nations. The reason why Finnish people started to hate Russians was censorship. Many publishers were got a trouble, when they published texts, what was against the policy of the Russian authorities. And when the Saturday club was established, the time from 1809 was in in the fresh memory. There were only 21 years from the moment when Finland was connected to Russian Empire, and there were of course people, who wanted to connect this area back to Sweden. And of course there were people whose cousins or family members died in that war, and the rumors were living in that time.


The rising power of Europe was Germany, what wanted to create protective area against the Russians, and of course, it wanted to grow its influence in the Baltic Sea. So this state started to provocate all other nations for requiring the independence. And the best way to make that was to wake up the nation proud of the nation. In 1815 German General Blücher was in the big role when Napoleon lost in Waterloo, and that rose the national spirit in that area, what was connected in the command of Prussia in 1870. But there were also willing of extending that area before this. And of course, Prussians provocate the national spirit in Finland. When we are talking about the “Saturday club” those evenings might be spiced by alcohol, and that might cause the situation, that articulation turned very patriotic.


And if somebody was talked about penalties, what was got by cheapening the Russian authorities, that might cause hate against the Russians. Those penalties were taken as the rule of the man even in that time. The penalty caused to denying the officers position in the Russian Empire, and maybe some of those students or teachers were planned themselves as an officer. This was caused hate because in that time symposiums the voices were the rise, and minds were started to heat. I don’t know what happened, but in those societies rise also the Fascism and Nazism, what was used national romanticism as the “turbine”, when they were provocating people in fanatic hate against other individuals and nations.