This book will provide a thematic overview of one of European history’s most devastating famines, the Great Finnish Famine of the 1860s. In 1868, the nadir of several years of worsening economic conditions, 137,000 people (approximately 8% of the Finnish population) perished as the result of hunger and disease. The attitudes and policies enacted by Finland’s devolved administration tended to follow European norms, and therefore were often similar to the “colonial” practices seen in other famines at the time. What is distinctive about this catastrophe in a mid-nineteenth-century context, is that despite Finland being a part of the Russian Empire, it was largely responsible for its own governance, and indeed was developing its economic, political and cultural autonomy at the time of the famine. Finland’s Great Famine 1856-68 examines key themes such as the use of emergency foods, domestic and overseas charity, vagrancy and crime, emergency relief works, and emigration.
Author(s): Andrew G. Newby
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Year: 2023
Language: English
Pages: 330
City: Cham
Translations and spellings
Acknowledgements
Contents
About the Author
List of Figures
Chapter 1: Finland’s Great Famine: Introduction
When Was the Great Finnish Famine?
Nineteenth-Century Finland: Geography and Rural Society
Famine in Finland: Terminology and Euphemisms
Chapter Overview
References
Bibliography
Official Reports
Newspapers
Printed Secondary Sources
Chapter 2: Famine in a Home Rule Land
“Sivistys Is the Only Salvation”—Autonomous Finland in the Russian Empire
“Finnishness” and Empire
Finland’s Economic Progress
“Famine Is Foreseen”: Entering the Great Hunger Years
“Skeleton-Like People Lying among Rags”. The Disaster of 1867–8
Conclusion
References
Bibliography
National Archives of Finland
Finnish Literature Society
Official Reports
Websites
Newspapers
Printed Secondary Sources
Chapter 3: Emergency Nutrition: Promoting Self-Sufficiency
Hunger Gaps and Surrogate Foods
“How Contemporary!”: The Use of Pine Bark Phloem
Education in Lichen Bread and Mushrooms
Panic and Patriotism: Food Propaganda, “Improvement” and the Impending Disaster
After the Frost Night
The Sea Doesn’t Compensate
Access to Foodstuffs
Conclusion
References
Bibliography
Finnish National Archives, Helsinki
Hull History Centre
UK National Archives, London
Snellman’s Correspondence
Official Reports
Newspapers
Printed Secondary Sources
Chapter 4: Domestic Charity: Nation Building in a Time of Crisis
Internal Aid in Finland—1856–7
Internal Aid in Finland—1862–3
Self-Sufficiency and Compassion Fatigue—1866–8
Helsinki in 1867–8
Other Parts of Finland
Conclusion
References
Bibliography
Official Reports
Newspapers
Printed Secondary Sources
Chapter 5: External Philanthropy 1856–1868
Overseas Aid to Finland 1856–1868: An Overview
Foreign Motivations for Charitable Interventions, 1856–1868
General Humanitarian Narratives
Imperial Connections
Scandinavian Connections
Other Ethnic and Linguistic Connections
Religious Connections
Business Connections
Knowledge of Finland and Personal Connections
Overseas Aid and the Fennomane Self-Sufficiency Narrative
Conclusion
References
Bibliography
National Library of Finland, Helsinki
National Board of Antiquities, Helsinki
Official Reports
Newspapers
Printed Secondary Sources
Chapter 6: Vagrancy and Perceptions of Crime
Migration in Nineteenth-Century Finland
Internal Migration and the Great Hunger Years
Overview 1856–1867
Bracing for the Worst
The Culmination of the Great Hunger Years
Conclusion
References
Bibliography
Snellman’s Correspondence
UK National Archives, London
Official Reports
Films
Newspapers
Printed Secondary Sources
Chapter 7: Relief Works Schemes
Relief Work in Finland
Road and smaller-scale local initiatives
Canal Work
Railway Work
Conclusion
References
Bibliography
Finnish Literature Society Archives, Helsinki
Finnish National Archives, Helsinki
Kuopio Museum
UK National Archives, London
Snellman’s Correspondence
Official Reports
Newspapers
Printed Secondary Sources
Chapter 8: Seeking Refuge Outside of Finland
Migration to Russia and the Russian Empire
Migration to Scandinavia
Migration to North America
Conclusion
References
Bibliography
Finnish National Archives, Helsinki
Official Reports
Newspapers
Printed Secondary Sources
Chapter 9: Conclusion
Contemporary Notions of Culpability
Counter-Hegemonic Narratives
Hard Times: The Work of Lost Generations
References
Bibliography
Snellman’s Correspondence
Newspapers
Websites
Printed Secondary Sources
Bibliography
Manuscript and Archival Sources
National Board of Antiquities, Helsinki
National Archives of Finland, Helsinki
National Library of Finland, Helsinki
Finnish Literature Society
Hull History Centre
Kuopio Museum
UK National Archives, London
Printed Sources
Snellman’s Correspondence
Official Reports
Films
Websites
Newspapers
Other Printed and Secondary Sources
Index
