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The home pages for the Usenet newsgroup soc.culture.nordic

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Subject:      Re: Sweden's occupation of Aland (was: Jorn Donner)
From:         Jari Partanen
Date:         1997/09/16
Message-Id:   <341EC4D1.D31@utu.fi>
Newsgroups:   soc.culture.nordic


Jan Böhme wrote:
> The book by Meinander, summarised earlier in the thread, makes
> assumptions about Swedish aspirations that are not borne out in
> contemporay source material. There are no signs in the sources that
> Sweden really aspired to take over Åland. BTW, had she wanted to do
> so, it would have been relatively easy.

Are you saying, that the case was taken to the League of Nations, even though Sweden would have refused to take Åland?

> So to summarise: In Sweden there is essentially no popular opinion
> whatsoever about the Åland crisis and its conclusion. It is simply
> forgotten.

As a common well-educated Finn I can confirm, that this same mostly applies to Finland. History books generally mention the Åland dispute in one paragraph; the military intervention by Sweden is mentioned in one sentence. Keeping in mind the turmoil in Finland's history in this century, the Åland dispute cannot get more space. (I do not know, what the Finland-Swedish history books tell, however.)

Before starting to read s.c.n. I had never given the dispute a second thought - in this I believe I am an average Finn (well - an average Finn probably would not remember the existence of the dispute at all). There is one reason, why this has been discussed so much, and what made also me to go to the neighbor building and check what the library of the history department reveals. And this reason is Jarmo Ryyti - congratulations to him.

> In some quarters in Finland, there is a rather vivid
> picture, which is very critical with regards to the true motives
> behind Sweden's actions. However, there is very little basis for this
> view if you examine the actual course of events, or contemporary
> sources.
>
> So it seems to be justified to speak about a "national myth" in
> Finland about the Åland crisis, which is not based on the events at
> the time. The question is: what, then, is it based on?

A typical Finnish history book tells:
"...Sweden sent military troops to Åland..."
"...The dispute of the rule of Åland was settled in the League of
Nations..."

That is about all. No more space is spent in the issue; no motives for the Swedish intervention are presented. (Of course, the Finnish reader may imagine the rest - maybe some more background should be explained, because the picture the Finnish reader gets may remain too black-and-white. But, on the other hand, the issue might then get too much attention.)

> It can be based on several elements. One, as Johan indicated, might be
> a sense of resentment from the White side for not getting the Swedish
> support they deserved when they were fighting the Red menace.

As a symphathizer of the Red side (because of my family history) I might easily believe anything bad about the White. However, even the horror deeds of the White against the supporters of the Red are well known, and exact, unfalsified numbers are available in public - why would they have bothered to falsify something of secondary importance?

> Of course, general resentment against Big Brother, as is often evident
> in attitudes vis-à-vis Sweden in other Scandinavian countries, might
> play a role, too.

Yes, maybe. It may sound like annoying big-brother arrogance, if a Swede claims, that Sweden did everything right.

...
> After all, Finland _did_ deny the Ålanders
> the right of self-determination that it so eagerly cherished for
> itself, in a manner that might, if you are sensitive, be described as
> tending towards imperialism.
>
> In order to deal with this in the collective subconscience, there
> might have been feelings of a need to justify this, rationalise it, as
> it were, by remembering the actions of _Sweden_ on the issue in
> slightly darker colours than is historically actually justified.

I do not believe in this theory. A Finn would not reason in this way.

IMHO, there is just once again a difference in the way of thinking, due to cultural background. Let us take another example of the basic difference in Finnish and Swedish way of thinking:

In Sweden, carriers of AIDS-virus may be kept in isolation, if there is reason to doubt, that the carrier might spread the disease. This is not possible in Finland: a person, who has not spread the disease, cannot be isolated, because it would be the same as dooming someone before he has done anything criminal. Instead, in Finland the person gets an EXTREMELY HEAVY PENALTY AFTERWARDS, IF he is found in court guilty of delibarately spreading the disease.

In the same way, normal Finnish moral conceptions just cannot accept, that Swedish troops entered Åland, even though not one hair of an Ålander had been cut, and Finland had not done anything bad to Sweden. No matter, whatever excuses there would be.

But I agree, from today's point of view, the result of the dispute was the best possible.

Best regards,
Jari P.

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