Radio review The Worker’s Family listening series was Hella Wuolijoki’s class-conscious counterbalance to Suominen’s family

Suominen’s family are still remembered by many, even though the series was listened to between 1938 and 1958. The program was the most listened to on YLE and also produced six films.

But who remembers Worker’s family?

Broadcasting leftist from 1945-1949 Hella Wuolijoki piti Suominen’s family bourgeois and wanted to develop a working-class equivalent to it.

Wuolijoki wrote Worker’s family (1949–1951) under the pseudonym Juhani Tervapää itself – although doubts have been raised that Wuolijoki was not the only screenwriter in the series. The audition series was told by the crofter Kustaa Rantanen (Vilho Siivola) from the stages of the genus in the late 19th century to the 1950s, i.e. at the end of the plot reached the present.

Worker family did not get anywhere Suominen’s family popularity. The obvious reason is probably the open propaganda of the listener. There where Suominen’s family there is entertainment and an early soap opera, Worker’s family floods the listener’s ears with a crofter release and general strike.

The Finns never seemed to talk about “class hatred”.

In itself Worker’s family There is also an interesting current picture of, for example, the early stages of Finnish urbanization and the birth of the trade union movement. But it is also a prime example of a politics dressed as entertainment that fails to hide its purpose.

Of the 29 surviving episodes in the audition series, the first ten have now been published, leading up to the Civil War.

From the original Even Suominen’s family can be found in the Arena.

Worker’s family, Yle Areena.

Also read: The virtuous Suominen family was an early soap series.