From border country to nation state
The Russian Revolution and Finland
Deutsche Fassung
Abstract
The history of independent Finland begins several weeks after the October Revolution. The day Finland declared independence did in fact only mark the starting point of the civil war. The fight for Finland’s independence, which is often presented in linear terms, was in reality heavily fractured and characterised by inner conflicts. The Russian Revolution and the Russian civil war from 1918 played an important and often ambivalent role in Finnish statebuilding. The crises and fissures of the early 20th century cast a long shadow, and their traces can still be seen in the political system of contemporary Finland.
(Osteuropa 6-8/2017, pp. 463–472)