The way the swastika and its use has been framed in Finland is a ruling class story like no other. I know I've mentioned this on Hexbear before, how it's rationalized as an ancient symbol in use far before the nazis.
But today it looks like the national news has taken it upon themselves to re-educate everyone about this. This is a follow-up of some news articles lately of a gymnasium that has a swastika painted on the floor and how it isn't removed due the building being historical. And the recent air force symbol change where they just went for another fashy symbol. And most of all there was this Swedish intelligence report in the news where the new claim about Putins propaganda is that Putin is trying to get the Finnish people to think they were nazis (which we were) and how this is bad (says the completely neutral Swedish defence report and the national news). /s
So here we go, this is pretty much exactly how we are taught this in school, some translated bits from the article:
Headline:
Hitler's Germany turned the swastika into a hate symbol, but in Finland, you can still see the symbol in the most diverse of contexts
Background:
There is discussion about swastikas is Finland, partly, because the headmaster of the Iisalmi Lyceum would like to cover the swastikas on display in upper secondary school.
Here the explaining it away starts, remember that in Finland no discussion or awareness of the civil war, the White purges or any of that exist whatsoever, so the 1930s is just the era of wholesome independent Finland, nothing at all was going on. Don't read about the supression of proles:
The high school building, designed by Yrjö Sadeniemi, was completed in 1931, i.e. before the Nazis came to power in Germany. However, the way the swastika pattern has ended up on the floor of the lyceum is a mystery.
Then comes a long speculation on how nobody knows why this symbol that actually was not even in the original plans was updated to the swastika. Again, let's not look at what was happening in this society at the time.
Then we get to the good stuff:
Aino and more than 50 swastikas
In Finland, the swastika was part of the national awakening in the 19th century.
Whose awakening? Surely not the Swedish and German born and other aristros who changed their names to Finnish sounding names and talked about Greater Finland?
One example of this is Akseli Gallen-Kallela's triptych Aino-taru, the first version of which was completed in Paris in 1889. The frames of the National Treasure have a total of 54 swastikas made by the artist.
In her book History of the Swastika, published in the autumn, Teivo Teivainen, Professor of World Politics at the University of Helsinki, described Gallen-Kallela's work as the most famous starting point of the Finnish nationalist swastika tradition.
Aino and the swastikas can also be found in the collections of the Kuopio Museum of Cultural History. This is an Aino-crossed doll with as many as 56 swastikas embroidered on the hem of the dress.
According to Pekka Kankkunen, the museum's curator, the doll was produced in the 1890's.
Again, can't be a nazi symbol see, too soon...
Notice how this being pre-ww2 is the unwritten logic here. It can't have anything to do with fash ideology. This is how it's always framed at schools as well, because all of us have asked: "But why?"
"The symbol came into fashion then, and it was used in many different places.
Yes, it just "came to fashion" for some bizarre reason.
According to museum amanuensis Anu Reijonen, one of the uses was textiles, where the swastika was used as an ornament pattern.
"Even some of the national costumes have originally had swastika patterns.
Swastikas can also be found in old photographs
The swastika symbol also appears in several photographs taken by the Kuopio-based photographer Victor Barsokevitch at the turn of the last century.
In one of them, there are a group of children who decorate clothes. One of the girls has already sewn two swastikas, while the other has an Aino doll on her lap for the Barsokevitch family.
The article fails to notice that in this picture the children are very much upper class clothed, considering the era.
As a museum professional, Kankkunen does not support the idea that a swastika should be removed from old objects or buildings.
“If we went to censor history, we would destroy part of the cultural-historical heritage.
Yeah would be a real shame if we actually came to terms with the latent fascism in the country and actually had a discussion on why this particular symbol "became fashion" and whose fashion it was. It sure wasn't the peoples choice.
Sun kissed tree tops
Frost covered spruce trees on a hillside
A view from a raised peat bog towards a frozen lake close to sunset
Sunset from a trail on a hill
