What all happened in Finland when the parliament voted for Finland’s independence? The newspapers that appeared 106 years ago told about food shortages, unemployment and the escalating situation.
crime skins, Oiva cigarettes, pickled fish, flannel and “lemons”.
Among other things, these products were advertised in Finnish newspapers on Friday, December 7, 1917.
The day before, the Finnish parliament had voted for the country’s independence. It was a shocking change for small Finland, but not so big that the newspapers would have cleared their front pages of advertisements.
On the front pages of the newspapers, everyday life rolled on. Associations announced their annual meetings, lawyers, doctors and midwives marketed their services, rubles were bought and sold.
The newspapers did closely follow Finland’s steps to become an independent state from the Russian Grand Duchy. Also on December 7, the newspapers reported in detail on the parliamentary vote and the related debate.
The Parliament had decided in its vote that Finland would become independent without negotiations with Russia, reported Turku Sanomat on December 7, 1917.
December 7th in the published newspapers, the ongoing First World War also gets a lot of column space. It has been fought for years. The papers tell about peace talks or at least rumors about it.
Aamulehti quotes Izvestija from St. Petersburg, which tells about the intercepted “spark message” from the Germans. According to it, peace negotiations would have started and hostilities ordered to be stopped on the Eastern Front.
“The general glandular gland is not ready yet,” reports Turku Sanomat. According to the newspaper, Russia demands territorial concessions. Germany proposes a truce but will continue fighting unless Russia gives up its demands.
When Finland became independent, the First World War had already been going on for years. The phases of the war were also closely followed in Finnish newspapers. Turku Sanomat, December 7, 1917.
in Finland there is no war, but the situation is restless, badly escalated and in some places anarchic. The November general strike, which has turned violent, is behind us.
The protectorate and the Red Guards compete to maintain order. The general social order is collapsing.
When the parliament votes on independence, it is not yet known that in less than two months the young country will already be in a civil war. However, the bad signs can be read in the papers published on December 7. The newspapers write about, for example, violence, robberies and threatening situations that happened in different parts of the country.
Sieges have been experienced in Tampere and Turku. Foreign workers in Tampere have invaded the city council meeting to demand salary increases and prevented the councilors from leaving.
In Turku, a similar situation has been experienced at a boat carving factory, where the workers have held the employer’s representatives demanding wage increases.
Helsingin sanomat newspaper says that the commandant of the Tornio station has shot himself. However, it appears from the news that it is not necessarily a suicide.
“It is said that B has committed his act under the compulsion of the Bolshevists and the hooligans who joined them.”
HS also tells about the actions of the Red Guards in Nurmijärvi on December 3.
“Threatening them with guns, they stole almost all the necessities and a large amount of hay from many houses,” HS writes.
“So that these powers of attorney could be delivered in peace”, these “hooligans” had forced the police chief to resign and had given the name man an order, “that he had to leave all his official duties at the risk of losing his life”.
Last Sunday, a 500-man protection committee was established in Rautjärvi “to prevent robberies and anarchy”, HS says.
Työmies magazine on the other hand, he writes that the bourgeois newspapers have falsely reported that the Red Guards looted foodstuffs in Tuusula.
According to the newspaper, the security guard confiscated foodstuffs that the householders intended to transport to Helsinki for “speculators”. According to the newspaper, for example, butter has not been seen in Tuusula for many weeks, and the confiscated goods were sold at marginal prices against cards to consumers.
The worker also writes about the citizens’ meeting organized by the “warakas” in Muurla. According to the newspaper, the meeting tried to convince the local workers to refuse the activities of the labor movement and to accept a resolution in which “all revolutionary events were condemned as the actions of thugs and hooligans”.
“Hasn’t the town’s peasants already noticed that they have to listen to the workers’ assurances that wikuring will no longer help.”
“Porwarilehtien walheita from Tuusula”, writes Työmies in his headline on December 7, 1917.
in Kuopio published Savon Sanomat writes that the violence that started with the general strike is still continuing in the form of robberies, extortion and violations of freedom of the press around the country.
According to the newspaper, the “villains” have the support of the socialist leaders, even though some of the leaders have been startled by the violence and crimes.
“At first it seemed as if a more reasonable direction was coming from our socialists, but the new armed forces and the recent outrageous acts of wäkipower do not at all speak in favor of this notion. Weapons have been transported from Wenäjä to different parts of the country in the last few days, and there is no doubt as to what purpose these weapons were intended to be used for .”
At the meeting of labor unions held in Masku in the Turku region, moderation has been announced, at least according to Aamulehti.
The meeting has decided on inspections of producers’ food stocks, but also on the fact that labor unions in the region should prevent the sending of punitive expeditions to the countryside.
It was stated at the meeting that no organization is allowed to establish armed patrols. Members were asked to appear decently everywhere.
The situation the escalation affects part of the citizens, but a larger group suffers from unemployment, poverty, food shortages and even hunger.
The newspapers say that the city’s emergency aid committees have organized jobs for unemployed women and men. More work would be needed.
According to Työmies magazine, 400 women in Helsinki have been unemployed for weeks and among them are widows with 5-6 children to support.
“We’ve run out of bread from Pietarsaari,” says HS. According to the newspaper, the Pietarsaari food board distributed the last flour to retailers and bakeries, which is only enough for a couple of days.
Aamulehti shares the household committee’s instructions on how to bake bread from lichen.
In the independent country of Finland, there is a severe food shortage. On December 7, 1917, Aamulehti tells how lichen can be used in baking bread. The magazine publishes three different lichen bread recipes.
According to the worker, there are several worker families in Lope without bread and the municipality’s food board has not been able to eliminate the problem. The newspaper says that there is grain in the village, as some of the producers have declared their grain stocks to be smaller in order to sell the grain to trocars at a higher price.
In inspections carried out at the request of the working population, bread and cereal have been found in strange places, such as beds.
According to the worker, no food cargoes have been allowed from Russia to Finland. The newspaper criticizes this and also criticizes the fact that the country’s small food reserves have been diverted to the military, as a result of which ordinary people suffer from hunger.
According to several magazines, foodstuffs are exported to Russia without permission. For example, at the end of November, Russian soldiers have taken a couple of cows, a thousand kilos of hay, 700 kilos of oats, rye flour and rice and barley groats past the customs guards.
Finns life in 1917 is also shed light on the following newspaper articles.
The worker says that the Red Guards were destroying pontikka factories in Jaala, which has recently been “those ravenous [pontikka] breeding nests”.
According to the newspaper, a brandy and four liters of liquor were found in one of the farms. When the first bottle was found, the owner of the farm had said that he had bought it for his wife. When more bottles were found under the floor, the man was asked, “did he buy them from his own watsa, did Warten waiko boil them, so there was no answer”.
Savon Sanomat reports on December 7, 1917. In the same newspaper, there is a big advertisement for engagement and wedding rings from a gold and watchmaker’s shop.
The newspaper also tells about an accident in which a “Russian lady” fell under the train with the result that “both legs were detached from the body”. The injured person was taken to Vyborg for treatment.
A watchmaker’s shop was broken into on Kasarmikatu in Helsinki. The man broke “the window pane and stole a dozen watches from the window,” says HS.
“The owner immediately rushed to Owea to tame the warka, but he had been so stubborn that he had wedged a wooden stick in such a way that Owea couldn’t reach Awata from the inside. The owner then fired two shots from his revolver at the wara, but without hitting.”
The title Commendable camaraderie below, HS tells about a train on the way from Ostrobothnia to Helsinki, where the passenger’s overcoat was lost. The suspicions of a few passengers focused on the soldier, who was informed that “if he does not agree to open his luggage on the count of three”, he will be shot on the spot.
The man allowed his belongings to be checked, among which the missing jacket was found.
From newspapers it also turns out that even though Finland, which has just gained independence, is living through a difficult and vulnerable time, there is also entertainment available to the people.
Etelä-Suomi-lehti reports on December 8 that the Rasputin film, among other things, has been shown in Hamina’s autumn market in “living pictures”. There has also been a circus, shooting tents and a “loud-sounding carousel”.
Announcements about proms, evenings and “funny masquerades” are published in Työmiehe.
Announcements from the front page of Helsingin Sanomat on December 7, 1917.
From HS’s announcements, it is clear that on December 7, people have been able to watch the opera at the Helsinki National Theatre: Cavalleria rusticana or Jolanta.
In the same magazine, the MM Seura announces that it will celebrate a Christmas party in the evening. There will be dinner and a “rich program”. The announcement reminds: “Note! Bring a bread card!”
Turku Sanomat considers that independence should be celebrated. The paper raises the idea of a national holiday, when flags would fly. That’s why the magazine points out:
“Uljaan Finland must get its own, universally recognized national flag as soon as possible!”
Correction on Wednesday 6.12. at 10:47 a.m.: Removed incorrect information about World War II peace negotiations from the caption.
#Independence #Day #Senseless #carnage #loomed #ahead #happened #Independence #Day
