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A Cultural Community in the Making: Sport, NationalImagery and Helsingin Sanomat, 1912–36Mervi TervoPublished online: 07 Aug 2006.

To cite this article: Mervi Tervo (2004) A Cultural Community in the Making: Sport, National Imagery and Helsingin Sanomat,1912–36, Sport in Society: Cultures, Commerce, Media, Politics, 7:2, 153-174, DOI: 10.1080/1461098042000222243

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A Cultural Community in the Making: Sport,National Imagery and Helsingin Sanomat,

1912–36

MERVI TERVO

Introduction

The Finns were among the first nations to exploit sports intentionally and

effectively for political purposes. Both national and international sports events

were closely observed as early as the 1910s, and it is often argued that the

Finns adopted an extremely serious attitude towards sports – so serious that it

has until quite recently been difficult to criticize such subjects in Finland.1

This close connection between international sports and the nation–state is not

coincidental, however, for it has frequently been suggested that large-scale

sports movements could not exist as they do today without the nation–state

and the ideology of nationalism. Much of the attention paid to the Olympic

movement, for instance, is based on its usefulness in promoting national

sentiments and an understanding of ‘us’ within nation–states. Sports have also

been a tool for foreign policy, as success in sports has provided a means of

projecting a national image to an international public.2

The main goals of this study are first to examine the imagery of Finland

and the Finns in Olympic sports journalism in Helsingin Sanomat, and then to

analyse the connections between sports, nation and class in Finland during the

period before the Second World War. The texts analysed date back to the

beginning of the twentieth century, when the Finns were one of the world’s

leading sports nations. The aim was to gain international prestige and glory for

this small, new, northern nation that was considered to be located outside the

European core areas. The Finns thus conceptualized themselves through a

historical myth, a convention which placed them on the margin of European

civilization.3 Sports achievements were also considered part of the Finnish

struggle for independence in the face of Russian domination. Narratives of

sports victories were turned into national myths, and it is still believed by most

Finns that the new Finnish state was put – or literally ‘run’ – onto the world

map by the great sportsmen of the first half of the twentieth century.4

But sports did not lose their importance after independence was gained in

1917, for in order to survive, the newly established Finnish nation desperately

needed collective traditions and heroes to increase national consciousness and

Sport in Society, Vol.7, No.2 (Summer 2004), pp.153–174ISSN 1461-0981 print/ISSN 1743-0445 online

DOI: 10.1080/1461098042000222243 q 2004 Taylor & Francis Ltd

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integration during the first half of the twentieth century. This was due to the

Civil War that broke out in January 1918, almost immediately after the

declaration of independence, when the bourgeois groups, the ‘Whites’,

defeated the socialist groups, the ‘Reds’, in a few months, after which the

national community remained divided for decades.5

The material used here consists of newspaper articles that appeared in

Helsingin Sanomat, the most significant and widely circulated Finnish

newspaper, dealing with the summer Olympic Games of 1912, 1920, 1928 and

1936. Helsingin Sanomat was originally founded in 1889 under the name

Paivalehti. Its purpose was to function as the organ of a bourgeois political

party called Nuorsuomalainen puolue, the Young Finns, but it was suppressed

by the Russian authorities in 1904 on account of its anti-Russian views. After

this, the editors almost immediately started a new, and once more openly

political newspaper known as Helsingin Sanomat.6 As both of the chief

editors, Eero and Eljas Erkko, worked as government ministers before the

Second World War, it can be argued that the articles in Helsingin Sanomat

represented government policy and the ‘official line of argument’. This is also

the reason why this particular newspaper was chosen as a source of research

material. The aim is thus not to look at the margins of the Finnish nation, but to

explore the official nationalist imagery and articulations in Finland before the

Second World War. The material comprises articles and reviews, in addition

to which the pictures and cartoons from the newspaper were also analysed.

The news coverage also included material that was not considered relevant to

this research.7

Sporting nationalism had a significant role in Finnish nationalism during

the first half of the twentieth century, which is why there is a great variety of

research that deals with the history and political connections of achievement

sports in Finland.8 The interplay between sports and national stereotyping has

been less frequently explored, however, even though the sports achievements

of our athletes were used as a tool through which images of the country and the

nation were actively constructed and reinforced. The main goal of this essay is

to explore these images, which later on came to function as a basis for many

national myths and narratives in Finland. Even though the focus is on the first

half of the twentieth century, Finnish sports life is older than this, of course, as

sports such as gymnastics were institutionalised as early as the 1830s.9 Even

though the role of these sports has been significant in Finland, their relevance

for this study is considered minor, as their role in the nation’s sports imagery

has been a marginal one – for in the minds of the Finns the nation has been

‘run’ rather than ‘performed’ onto the world map.

In addition, there is also the fact that sports are not equal from a nationalist

viewpoint, as their usefulness for nationalistic purposes varies.10 Elements of

confrontation and masculinity are vital, for instance, for national sports heroes

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seldom come from sports such as gymnastics or figure skating, which are

based on aesthetics and technical skills and often appear less competitive in

character. Another important element according to which the popularity and

usefulness of sports for nationalistic purposes is determined is the class

background of the sport itself and those involved in it. Golf and riding, for

instance, are often considered upper-class sports and seldom arouse nationalist

feelings, whereas track-and-field athletics, skiing and ice hockey are not

designed to work on a class-exclusive basis and are within the reach of the

whole population, so that it is thus easy for most people to identify with them

and their representatives.11

The aim here is to examine the process of nation building and national

stereotyping in Finland from a critical perspective, because nationalist

articulations are always political, and often produced by upper-class patriots,

reporters, artists, scientists and politicians. This was clearly the case in

Finland, where the Finnish-speaking educated class sought to create a system

of values in which they themselves assumed a central role, while the rural

peasantry was seen as the cornerstone of the nation.12 This nationalist imagery

managed to obtain a powerful position in Finnish society, and Helsingin

Sanomat also promoted these originally bourgeois articulations in its sports

coverage. The male athletes were considered equal to the peasantry, for they

were depicted as typical lower-class men who were fulfilling their national

duties through hard work and physical performances. The stereotypic idea of

an average Finn in Helsingin Sanomat was thus clearly a socially and

politically specific concept. The emphasis in this essay will be laid mainly on

class relations, since other social postulates such as gender and race have been

discussed elsewhere.13 The essay begins by introducing the interpretative

geographical, sociological and historical framework to be adopted and

then goes on to explain more closely the role of achievement sports in Finland.

The rest of the study concentrates on the descriptions and imagery associated

with Finland and the Finns in Helsingin Sanomat during the first half of the

twentieth century.

A National Community in the Making

One of the best-known formulations of the origin and existence of the

territorial nation–state is the theory of nations as imagined communities put

forward by Benedict Anderson,14 who understands nations as imagined

because of the impossibility of an individual being familiar with all fellow

citizens, due to their large number and the vastness of the national territory.

This means that national identities must be constructed and reproduced

through discursive practices and ideological apparatuses instead of actual

experiences. Paasi has labelled this process national socialization, which

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he sees as a particular case of a larger process of spatial socialization, in which

people become members of territorially bounded spatial units of various

kinds.15 National socialization is mediated by numerous administrative,

cultural and political institutions, of which the most obvious examples are

perhaps the media and the education system. The aim of such institutions is to

spread knowledge of national symbols, narratives, traditions and rituals to

people and to fuse local and personal experiences with the national

experience, so that territoriality, nationalism and discourses of national

identity become part of peoples’ everyday lives.16

It is often argued that the process of national socialization started to take

place in Finland at the beginning of the nineteenth century. The peace treaty by

which it was transferred from Swedish to Russian sovereignty in 1809

constituted the country for the first time as a clearly autonomous administrative

entity, and this political autonomy enabled it to develop a sense of national

identity of its own.17 Finnish nationalism at this time emphasized cultural rather

than political issues, however, as it was only towards the end of the nineteenth

century that the Finnish nationalist movement became a revolutionary one and

started to oppose Russian domination. Independence was finally gained in

1917, after two decades of intensive struggle. The political development that

took place in Finland was not unique, in that there were several other nations,

such as the Czechs, Estonians, Lithuanians, Slovaks and Norwegians, which all

detached themselves from multinational European empires at the beginning of

the twentieth century.18

The nation-building process turned out to be a more difficult one than

expected, as the left-wing supporters refused to hand over the maintenance of

law and order to the bourgeois groups. Internal suspicion between the ‘Red’

socialists and the ‘White’ nationalists had been accumulating since the general

strike of 1905, and in the midst of the political uncertainty both sides

established their own paramilitary organizations, the Civil Guards and the Red

Guards.19 This led to a civil war, which started in January 1918, only a couple

of months after the declaration of independence, and which ended in victory

for the Whites only four months later. People had lost confidence in their

fellow citizens and a political division into socialists and non-socialists had

been created that was to remain intact for decades afterwards.

Achievement sports were brought to the foreground of Finnish nationalism

during the 1910s, which is when the Finnish struggle for independence in the

face of Russian domination was to a substantial degree carried out on the

sports field – sports were, after all, one of the few international arenas where

non-independent nations such as the Finns were in some cases allowed to

appear under their own emblems.20 Even though Finland had participated in

the Olympic Games of 1908 with some amount of success (the team achieved

five medals in the discus, gymnastics and wrestling), it was the Games of 1912

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which became mythologized in numerous national narratives.21 One reason for

this was the fact that these Games produced the first true Finnish sports hero,

Hannes Kolehmainen, who won three gold medals, in the 5,000 m, 10,000 m

and cross-country race. The nationalist saying that Finland had been ‘run onto

the world map’ was born, as it was believed that Kolehmainen’s great victories

had made the country known throughout the world. It is difficult to say how

accurate this claim actually was, but these sports victories were important for

the Finns themselves, as they increased national consciousness and gave

people new ways in which to identify themselves with their national

community.22 The sports success of the Finns continued, and during the period

1908–36 the nation won 198 Olympic medals, equivalent to 7.4 per cent of all

the medals on offer. Most of these – over 70 per cent – were achieved in

track-and-field athletics and wrestling, and only 13 per cent in winter sports.23

It is thus no surprise that these two sports, athletics and wrestling, have come

to have a central place in Finnish sports imagery. Things changed after the

Second World War, however, as it was suddenly winter sports that brought

more medals to Finland.

Even though it is often argued that no other form of bonding apart from

war serves to unite a nation better than representational sports,24 sports

activities can nevertheless also divide nations, as happened in Finland.

The nation’s sports life started to break up as early as the 1910s, as marked

by the foundation of Svenska Finlands Idrottsforbund (SFI), a sports

organization representing specifically the Swedish-speaking population, in

1912. Nine years later this body decided to end all cooperation with the

Finnish National Sports Federation (SVUL) due to disagreements concerning

amendments in organizational rules.25 In addition to SFI and SVUL a third

major sports organization, the Workers Sports Federation (TUL) was

established in 1919, as members of the Red Guards were branded as traitors

and expelled from the bourgeois SVUL. Many of the successful Finnish

athletes were now representing TUL, which made it impossible for them to

attend the Olympics, as TUL refused to send its athletes to the Games.

The Workers’ Olympics were established in 1925, but they did not

offer enough of a challenge for the Finnish athletes, and as a result many

defected to SVUL. This only deepened the gap between the two organizations,

and it can be argued that the national sports scene was truly fragmented during

the 1920s and 1930s.26

Helsingin Sanomat, the newspaper from which the present material was

obtained, openly represented the views of the winning side after the Civil War,

its original purpose having been to function as the organ of the Young Finns

and to promote the ideas of a ‘white’ Finland. This era came to an end in the

late 1920s, when the editor-in-chief, Eero Erkko, died, and his son Eljas Erkko

took over. He was not an idealist as his father had been, but a businessman

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who detached the newspaper from the political interest groups and started to

develop it into the most successful one in Finnish history. Eljas Erkko was

able to expand the circle of readers mainly through editorial improvements.

Since sport was a popular topic, the space occupied by sports reports increased

both in absolute figures and in proportion to other content during the 1920s

and 1930s. While Olympic coverage accounted for 9 per cent of the average

newspaper in 1912, the proportion had increased to 23 per cent in 1936. A great

deal of attention was also paid to the quality of the sports reporting. As a result,

the paper started to attract readers from all political groups, so that it became

popular within a few years, and it has only confirmed its status ever since as

the most influential newspaper in Finland. Even though it is still mainly read in

the Helsinki area of southern Finland, it has a daily circulation of over 1.3

million, equivalent to more than 25 per cent of the Finnish population, and is

considered one of the most important news media in Finland.27

But in spite of the new cultural and editorial emphasis, political overtones

were still present, for the prevailing hegemonic bourgeois world-view and

power structures were not questioned at any time. They were able to attain an

apparently neutral tone, however, as right-wing articulations concerning the

Finnish nation, its past and its future were already considered to represent

the hegemonic and ‘official’ views of the nation by the late 1920s.28 Due to the

choice of this particular research material, the viewpoint adopted here is

related to the official and apparently neutral, but even so originally bourgeois,

narratives of the Finnish nation and society, which aimed at creating a picture

of a uniform and distinctive Finnish nation with ‘one mind’ and ‘one true

will’.29 This tradition did not recognize competing political interests, but saw

the nation as a ‘single subject’, so that official versions of the nation and its

history were expected to be shared by all members of the national community.

The analysis is carried out in three sections, of which the first introduces the

arguments which were employed in order to place the Finns in a global,

comparative framework. The second part turns to explore the ideas of National

Romanticism, and the third examines the process of national stereotyping

from a more critical viewpoint.

A Small, Poor, Marginal Country in the North

Geographical location has provided a clear profile for the Nordic countries,

and the national imagery of Finland has also been based to a large extent on

the northern location of the country. It is thus the north in itself, characterized

by its natural features, the proliferation of lakes and the rugged forests,

and not by its human achievements, that is often used to depict

Finland’s distinctiveness.30 Besides this emphasis placed on natural

conditions, northernness has also been understood as denoting peripherality

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and marginality and dependence on the world’s political and cultural centres.31

Finland’s subordinate position in world politics is further enhanced, however,

by another factor, its small population, so that its possibilities for participating

in international discussions are considered to be limited.

Such representations of the country and its population date back to the

seventeenth century, but they became part of the common national knowledge

during the nineteenth century, with the establishment of a Finnish national

literature.32 All these traditional representations of the country were also

dominant in the sports coverage of Helsingin Sanomat between the

World Wars. But on the sports fields the Finns would no longer agree to

stay on the margins, for the sports arena was considered a place where small

countries were able to confront larger ones on equal terms – it was not the

number of men that determined the results in sport but their character. In fact,

the small population of Finland was a factor which only increased the value of

the nation’s sports achievements, as this small nation of 3.5 million

people was able to send almost as many excellent sportsmen to the Olympics

as the USA, with a population of 100 million people. But even so, the

journalists thought little of Finland’s position in a global framework, for

compared with the world’s core nations, it was a marginal, northern nation that

had to make it on its own and could not expect to enter into any international

alliances. This imagery was especially prominent in 1936, when the 1940

Games were awarded to Japan despite Finland’s intensive bidding campaign

(see Figure 1).33

This small country from the north has time after time astonished the

whole world on the sports fields. . . The valuable and fortunate idea of

Olympic fraternity manifests itself most beautifully in the fact that a

small nation can equal the larger ones and be king for the day, even if

only in the world of sports. (HS 3.8.1936)

Those who were on the spot at the Olympics claim that things did not go

very well for our boys in those sports in which one had to score points –

because we did not realize that we had to ‘train’ enough friends among

the umpires. And because Finland as a small country that remains aloof

does not have many political friends that would mean anything in real

situations. Even the Americans repaid their ‘debt’ by voting the next

Olympics to Japan, because the Japanese had been ‘friendly’ to them,

as they explained. (HS 14.8.1936)

Northernness has meant for the Finns not only a remote location and

marginal position, but also tough natural conditions, a harsh climate and a lack

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of natural resources. The country’s peripheral and marginal status has thus been

defined not only in terms of physical distance from the ‘centre’, that is

the Western European countries, but also in terms of the inferior quality of the

environment. These are both factors, which have been regarded as obstacles to

FIGURE 1

PART OF A LARGER CARTOON DRAWN UNDER THE PSEUDONYM ‘TIIKERI’(TIGER). FINLAND WAS EAGER TO HOST THE OLYMPIC GAMES OF 1940,

AND THE OLYMPIC COMMITTEE MADE ITS DECISION ABOUT THIS INBERLIN DURING THE 1936 GAMES. IN THE CARTOON THE ‘SMALL’,

‘POOR’, ‘MARGINAL’ FINLAND IS PORTRAYED BY TWO SMALL SHIPS ONTHE RIGHT, WHILE FINLAND’S STRONGEST RIVAL JAPAN HAS TURNED UPTO THE SCENE WITH A FLEET THAT CONSISTS OF AN ENDLESS LINE OFHUGE SHIPS. IN THE RIGHT UPPER CORNER IS ENGLAND, WHICH ALSO

MADE A BID FOR THE GAMES, BUT WITHDREW ITS APPLICATION AT THELAST MOMENT. THE 1940 GAMES WERE GRANTED TO JAPAN, BUT ONLYTWO YEARS LATER THE OLYMPIC COMMITTEE TRANSFERRED THEM TO

FINLAND DUE TO JAPAN’S BELLIGERENT BEHAVIOUR IN ASIA. THEGAMES OF 1940 NEVER TOOK PLACE, OF COURSE, AS THE SECOND WORLD

WAR BROKE OUT IN 1939. (HS 30.7.1936)

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the nation’s economic development. As a result, there has been a tendency until

quite recently to emphasize Finland’s poor economic situation in nationalist

statements.34 This was also the case in Helsingin Sanomat, as the sports activity

of each nation was considered to be connected in one way or the other with its

economic situation. Since Finland was a poor country, it was able to compete

only in sports such as track and field and wrestling, which did not require large

financial investments. These were also considered ‘lower class sports’ as

compared with events such as riding, polo, fencing and the pentathlon for army

officers, which were branded as ‘artificial’ events, intended for the nobility and

members of an ‘upper class’ elite (HS 18.8.1920). Again the gold medals

increased in value on this account: not only were the Finns a small nation but

also a poor one, and yet they were often able to achieve better results than many

of the richer and larger nations, notably the Swedes, Americans and Germans,

who invested large amounts of money in sport.

This most artificial display of the physical condition of army officers is far

too ‘exquisite’ for us, beside which it requires excessive financial sacrifices

from individuals in order to expect any success from it. (HS 6.8.1936)

Our athletes do not have such excellent training facilities as many other

country’s sons and daughters. They do not have expensive trainers to

advise them, and by no means all of our men are able to recover their

strength with the splendid help of a massage. I would not be mistaken if

I argued that all our athletes and gymnasts who were selected for

Stockholm, trained as thoroughly and as carefully for these world games

as it was possible for them to do. (HS 16.6.1912)

But even though it was admitted that Finnish society and its infrastructure

were not as well developed and modern as those of many Western European

countries, it was passionately denied that the Finns were in any way inferior to

these ‘core’ nations. The nation’s state of development was proved by the fact that

the Finnish Olympic teams had been able to conquer sports fields on equal terms

with the core nations. A nation’s physical condition was thus inseparable from its

cultural state, so that success in sports was simultaneously an expression of

psychological, political and cultural strength and vitality.35 Journalists tended to

support the Enlightenment idea of civilization as a path or ladder on which the

developmental standard was set by the western industrial nations.36 Moving

forward, or upward, meant increasing one’s level of civilization, and success in

sports was articulated as one indicator of this process.

The display of Finnish strength, durability, will-power and nerves that

you gave in these world games is especially significant to our small,

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newly independent nation that has sworn to preserve its sovereignty in

the future. May your example lead to the improvement of these qualities

in our nation. (HS 12.8.1928)

As a small nation, we have achieved remarkable sports victories,

through which we have corrected mistaken impressions regarding our

country, and by this means we have been able to obtain a favourable and

respected position among the true sports nations . . . Your journey has

thus two aims: internal and external. You have to show those who stay at

home the value of sports among civilized nations, and you have to

demonstrate our physical condition to the whole wide world.

(HS 5.8.1920)

Rapid development has been achieved in different spheres of sports in

many countries throughout the world . . . The Finns were among the first

nations that truly took up the issue and gained results. The situation is

now different. Sports training is going on continuously in all civilized

countries, the achievements of sportsmen of different nationalities are

being carefully studied and actual professional trainers are responsible

for the counselling. (HS 7.8.1928)

A close relationship was perceived between sports and other spheres of

cultural life. By the 1928 most ‘civilized’ nations had already taken up

systematic training, and professionalism was also on its way. Sports were thus

understood right from the beginning as being much more than just physical

activities, as they required sustained, consistent work combined with a goal-

oriented mind, which were expressions of a nation’s cultural rather than

physical capabilities. But since modernization was a path, which all nations

were supposed to pass along, all nations were also expected to adopt sports and

strive for success in these sooner or later. This was already visible in 1928, as

more and more nations coming from outside the Western world started to

attend the Games. This changed the attitude towards the Games: while in

1912 the Olympics were still depicted as a happening for the representatives of

the world’s civilized nations, in 1928 they were already a meeting place for

‘five different races coming from five different continents’ (HS 28.7.1928).

Merely attending the Games did not indicate that you were civilized any more,

as there was now a demand to win and be successful.

National Romanticism and the Re-evaluation of Peripherality

The civilization discourse placed Finland in a global framework, in that its level

of progress was compared with that of other countries and its prospects for the

future were defined in terms of Enlightenment rationality. There were also

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other views on the Finnish nation and its future, however, of which that of

the National Romantics was the most influential. Instead of international

tendencies and ideas of eventually arriving at homogeneity, these people turned

their attention towards distinctively national elements, and placed emphasis on

the cultural heritage of the ordinary people.37 Romanticism thus added a new

character and force to nationalism, and made it an ideology that also appealed to

the lower classes.

Even though both of these doctrines, the National Romantic movement and

the development discourse, were products of modernity and supported the

same spatial and social structures based on national arrangements,

they nevertheless operated through different and even conflicting imagery.

As a result, many of the attributes considered harmful to the nation’s

modernization process were idealized by the National Romantics. One of

these was the northern location of the country. Instead of seeing it as an

obstacle and a restrictive factor, the National Romantics claimed that tough,

northern conditions and economic poverty bred hardy, active people, which

was enough to guarantee a prosperous future for any nation in the long run.

There were thus two differing views by which Finland’s success in the

Olympic arena was explained in the sports coverage: while it was often

mentioned that the Finns had achieved their sports victories through hard and

persistent training, it was also argued that strength and physical mastery came

almost naturally to them. This was because the country’s northern location,

severe climate and sparse population produced calm, introverted, quiet,

honest, strong, hard-working, persistent individuals who were almost natural

athletes as compared with other nationalities.38

The Finns have performed brilliantly in these competitions. . . The

triumphs of the Finnish athletes have substantially proved that

the special characteristics of this nation living under austere northern

conditions are persistence and strength combined with suppleness and

vigour. (HS 31.8.20)

This imagery that linked national characteristics with environmental

conditions was often apparent in sports journalism, as deterministic

environmental images were used to explain the athletic performances of

sportsmen coming from hot and cold regions of the globe,39 but at the turn of

the twentieth century the effect of an environment on its inhabitants was

considered more extensive than this, as it was also assumed that an urban

industrial culture led people into profligacy and depravity, while the rural life

maintained high moral and physical standards. As a result, the vast forest

areas, farm lands and lake districts that existed throughout the country were no

longer seen in the Finnish national imagery as places that lacked development,

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but as places that had not been corrupted by the industries, luxuries and

cultural institutions of the cities.40 The agrarian way of life was also considered

to be one factor behind Finland’s sports success in the 1920s and 1930s, as it

was argued by both Finnish and foreign journalists and writers that the

presence of these vast, unspoiled living environments almost forced the Finns

to take up hard physical exercise.41

Thus, even though the sports journalists in Helsingin Sanomat may have

admired and even envied the wealth, prosperity and excellent training facilities

to be found in many North American and European countries, they regarded the

true sporting spirit as being achieved by abandoning modernity, including

the cities and their exhausting life, and relying on a healthy, agrarian way of life.

And it was not only the Finns that were able to benefit from such a ‘natural way

of life’, as only a month before the Berlin Olympic Games a ‘country boy’,

Don Lash – who is nowadays regarded as one of the first great American

long-distance runners – was able to break the world record in the two-mile race.

This was noticed by the Finns, as the record had been set five years

earlier by Paavo Nurmi, who is perhaps the best-known Finnish runner of all

time. Even though Lash was seen to pose a threat to the Finns in the 5,000

and 10,000 m races in Berlin, in the end he gained no medals, in contrast to the

Finns, who brought Finland two gold, two silver and one bronze medal from

these two races alone.

The 10 000 m may squeeze the juice out of the persistent American,

whose running has a lot of ‘primitive strength’ about it. Lash is a country

boy from a small, quiet locality, and has not been tired out by the city life.

His nervous strength is still there. . .Lash runs mostly in the woods behind

his village, where Penttila (Finn.) keeps him company. (HS 28.7.1936)

It was not only the images of northernness and an agrarian environment

that were re-evaluated, as the notions of marginality and isolation also gained

new meanings. This was because marginality meant isolation, and isolation

meant preservation of a nation’s authenticity, purity, innocence and

originality, as it was able to remain untouched by foreign cultures

and international tendencies. The marginal location thus ensured preservation

of the genuine Finnish national culture, which, of course, was the basis of

any nation’s national existence. But it was not only the cultural traditions

that were preserved by isolation and marginality, for there was also the

issue of biological heritage and racial stock, which had to be maintained

pure and untouched. Remote location had thus preserved the Finns from

both cultural and biological ‘degeneration’, which were processes already

apparent among many civilized nations dominated by urbanization

and industrialization.42 As a result, the elements and building materials for

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a ‘perfect’ Finnish nation were to be found in its past and not in modernization

or its future development.

Our skilled throwers, wrestlers and long-distance runners have been able

to attain second place for our country. We cannot assume that this great

ability was brought about by particularly hard training. . . No, our

success compels us to believe that among other factors, the

racial qualities of our nation have remained fairly good.

Remained, because the scientific study of racial qualities has

proved that physical qualities in particular are deteriorating

alarmingly under the burden of the present cultural life. We owe our

thanks for this success (at the Olympics) first of all to the relatively

distant location of our country, which has protected us from the

drawbacks of civilization, and to our healthy ancestors and their healthy

sauna bath habits. (HS 18.7.12)

The ‘Naturally Athletic Finn’ as a Class-Specific Construct

The journalists in Helsingin Sanomat were constructing and reproducing

National Romantic ideas according to which the connections between the

Finnish nation, the natural environment and the nation’s cultural traditions

were stronger than for many other European countries at the beginning of the

twentieth century. But there was yet another factor that often appeared in

the Finnish national imagery, namely hard work. The National Romantic

attitude had become intertwined with liberalist views which emphasized

the importance of economic and social order and the future development of the

country, all of which was to be achieved through hard, controlled and

persistent work.43 But while the Liberals counted on cities and industrial

development, the mainstream of Finnish political life nevertheless directed its

attention towards the countryside and the people living there – for most of

the Finns were, after all, still living in the rural areas in the first half of the

twentieth century.

All these elements of the national self-image, hard work, the emphasis on

popular culture, the significance of the countryside and the close connection

with the natural environment, appeared to coincide in the agrarian free peasant

life, as it was the farmer who guaranteed the existence of the traditional

cultural heritage of the nation, and who through his hard work constantly tried

to gain mastery over difficult conditions close to the frontier with the

wilderness. In fact, by virtue of the late industrialization of the country, rural

peasant values came to form the cornerstone of the Finnish national identity

until the latter part of the twentieth century.44 Due to this strong emphasis on

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such values in the national imagery, sports journalism in Helsingin Sanomat

occasionally sought to associate the Olympic athletes with this national myth.

It was not merely the cold northern environment,45 but above all the hard

agrarian work the Finns were forced to do that produced strong, persistent

sportsmen, almost natural athletes (see Figure 2).

Kuokka was unhappy about his poor results. Running hadn’t been as

easy in Amsterdam as in Kauhava. After changing his hard farm work

for idleness on board the ship, he had suffered from inactivity to an

FIGURE 2

THERE WAS A COMMON BELIEF AT THE BEGINNING OF THE TWENTIETHCENTURY THAT THE FINNS WERE ALMOST NATURAL ATHLETES DUE TOTHEIR COUNTRY’S SEVERE CLIMATE, TOUGH LIVING CONDITIONS, ANDNATURAL ENVIRONMENT. AS THIS PICTURE SHOWS, AT LEAST THE FINNS

THEMSELVES WERE ASSURED OF THEIR STRENGTH BY COMPARISONWITH OTHER NATIONS. THE CAPTION REFERS TO THE OLYMPIC GAMESAS FINLAND’S STRUGGLE AGAINST OTHER NATIONS, AND SAYS ‘AGAIN

WE WEIGH THE SITUATION UP’. (HS 18.8.1920)

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extent that his condition had started to deteriorate. To get even some

comparable exercise, Kuokka had worked occasionally as the ship’s

stoker, and in Amsterdam he had spent 3 hours one day digging a ditch,

while the actual workman had praised him to the passers-by, saying

‘look at that Finn, look what he’s doing’. (HS 13.8.1928)

The image of the average Finn as strong, hard-working and living in a rural

area was obviously a gender-specific construct, as it was only male citizens

who were considered to work as farmers and were performing the duties of an

ideal, ‘average’ citizen in this way.46 The practice of identifying nationality

with masculinity was also demonstrated by the act of representing, defending

and fighting for a nation–state – whether on the battlefield or in the sports

arena – was considered by most people in Finland to be exclusively a male

duty before the Second World War.47 At the same time, this image of the

typical Finn and these definitions of the Finnish national character were also a

class-specific construct. This was because it was only the lower-class men who

had the calling and ‘privilege’ to do hard agrarian work and whose lives were

in this way affected by the northern environment.48 Correspondingly, physical

strength was also an attribute that characterized only this part of the male

population. As a result, the idea of the Finns as almost natural athletes referred

only to lower-class men, as women were practically excluded from sports

imagery and white-collar workers were held to be physically inferior due to

their way of life. The Finns were thus amazed at the fact that sports were

incorporated into academic activities in some nations. But there was

nevertheless at least one successful white-collar athlete in Finland, too:

By the way, it is funny that all the representatives in the American team

have an academic background, and also in the Canadian team. In

contrast to our wrestlers, it should be mentioned that in these countries

wrestling takes places only partly in clubs, as the whole activity is

maintained by the universities. (HS 6.8.1936)

Hockert has made a splendid exception to the rule prevailing in Finland

that students or white-collar workers cannot qualify as long-distance

runners. (HS 8.8.1936)

It was not possible to have it all. White-collar workers were not physically

strong, but on the other hand, Finnish sportsmen were not always renowned

for being especially quick thinkers or decision-makers. This was because the

cold northern environment created individuals who were slightly stiff,

constrained and slow of thought, in contrast to the ‘southern athletes’, who

turned out to be temperamental and impulsive in their actions. On the other

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hand, the members of the lower class were not even required to make difficult

political or cultural decisions, as it was their physique that carried them

through their national duties, while political games were the territory of

the upper class.49 The Olympic teams were thus ideal miniatures of the Finnish

society, social spaces without any conflicts, spaces where the lower-class

athletes took care of the physical performances while the management

handled political negotiations such as the bidding for the 1940 Games.

Our representatives in the heavyweight class have turned out to be very

ineffective. They have been slow, stiff and reluctant to take the

initiative. This all proves that the foreigners, who have more

vivid minds, can foresee the coming moves in the fight more quickly

than our men. . . The southern temperament starts to come into its own.

(HS 5.8.1936)

. . . the boys shared a common opinion according to which you

Gentlemen can busy yourselves with acquiring the 1940 Games. We

don’t care, as we have our own worries, such as getting into shape . . ..

(HS 25.7.1936)

A national space without social conflicts was more a dream than a reality in

Finland during the period between the World Wars, however, as the Civil War of

1918 had divided the nation into two groups, the winners and the losers of the

war.50 Irrespective of this, Helsingin Sanomat never brought up the confrontation

between these two social classes in its Olympic coverage, as all members of the

Finnish Olympic teams were seen to represent the official, originally bourgeois,

nationalist line. There were, however, also many ‘red’ athletes in these teams,

who had previously been members of the Workers’ Sports Federation but who

had defected to SVUL.51 The Finnish nationalist discourse thus tended to divide

the working-class men into two, as there were unpatriotic, revolutionary ‘red’

workers who supported the ideas of socialist Finland and participated in the

activities of TUL, and good, patriotic, ‘white’ workers who, in spite of their social

and class background, nevertheless supported or had come to support the official

nationalist line. These men were also welcome to join the SVUL.52 In conclusion,

it can be argued that the idea of a hard-working, persistent, naturally athletic Finn

was an exclusive and politically specific concept in the sports journalism of

Helsingin Sanomat, in that it was based on hegemonic national imagery of a male

worker or farmer of a ‘white’ persuasion who accepted and supported the

prevailing social order, its world-view and power structures, without question.

Finally, the image of hard farm work as a training method was also more or

less questionable, as only some of the nation’s top-rank athletes were

employed in hard manual work, and only a tenth were farmers. Even though

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their roots were often in the countryside, large numbers of sportsmen moved to

the cities in southern Finland at an early stage in their careers, because training

facilities were considerably better there and the attitude towards sport was

more encouraging and stimulating.53 In addition, some of these men were

students during their sports careers, and some were employed either in

business or in industry, where they were given lighter and better jobs and their

career prospects generally exceeded those of ordinary people.54 Since 90 per

cent of the Finns were at this time still living in the countryside and gaining

their living from agrarian work without any prospects of any rise in social

standing, it can be argued that the position and status of Finland’s Olympic

athletes often did not conform with the life of ordinary lower-class people.

Discussion

The breakthrough of modern competitive sports in Europe and the United

States at the end of the nineteenth century coincided with the calculated

establishment of collective rituals on a national scale.55 In Finland, sport soon

became an important tool for the production and reproduction of a collective

consciousness and national identity, as it was both regulated and employed by

the government for nationalist purposes. Narratives of sports victories were

turned into national myths, and it is still believed by many Finns, for instance,

that the new Finnish state was put – or literally ‘run’ – onto the world map by

the great sportsmen of the first half of the twentieth century. Sport was

considered one of the few spheres through which this small, marginal,

northern, poor country was able to attract the world’s attention and create a

favourable image of itself.56

Sports journalism in Helsingin Sanomat before the Second World War was

widely committed to the project of nation building, and mediated images of

Finland and its sports victories to people throughout the country. The nation’s

sports successes were approached mainly from two viewpoints, the first

reflecting the ideas of modernity, development and civilization, according to

which sport was based on controlled, determined, goal-oriented behaviour and

was part of a civilization process which would eventually reach all nations

throughout the world, and the second based on the ideas of National

Romanticism, which claimed that it was the tough northern environment and

cultural traditions which produced calm, honest, physically strong, hard-

working, persistent individuals who were almost natural athletes. Physical

strength, associated with hard work, was a feature without which the nation

would never have been able to survive in this cold, barren environment.

These definitions of the country, nation and national characteristics were

not neutral articulations, however, as the process of national imagery is

usually in the hands of socio-economic elites.57 This was the case in Finland,

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at least, where the minority intelligentsia articulated the national identity and

character on behalf of the whole population. The life of an ‘average Finn’ was

idealized, to the extent that those who lived a simple, hard-working, modest

life were said to be morally and physically superior to those who lived in

cities, surrounded by luxury and profligacy. The ‘average Finn’ was also

portrayed as humble and submissive to authority, in that he avoided rebellious

activities and supported the national government. National characteristics

such as these excluded from the national arena not only supporters of counter-

hegemonic politics but also women, who were not expected or even allowed to

follow the national stereotypes based on a male sphere of life. In addition,

excellent physical condition and an inclination towards hard manual work

were attributes that were associated only with the lower-class way of life – so

that not all men were expected to qualify as ‘natural’ athletes or to be involved

in hard manual work on behalf of their national community.

Sports coverage was thus aiming to create a picture of political activity as

the sphere of the upper class, while the ‘average citizen’s’ task was merely to

perform his national duties through physical effort. As expected, this national

imagery was questioned by various social groups throughout the twentieth

century. Members of the working class were already participating in the

nation’s political life at the turn of the twentieth century, and the nationalist

imagery of the Finns having only ‘one mind’ and ‘one true will’ was proved

wrong by the Civil War of 1918. Even if nationalist articulations often achieve

a hegemonic and official position within national communities, in reality

many people do not follow them but construct alternative, counter-hegemonic

narratives of the nation, its past and its future. This was also obvious on the

sports fields. The appearance of TUL – and the whole working class

movement – was a sign of counter-hegemonic activities, in addition to which

women never agreed to exclude themselves from sports. The political gap has

disappeared from sports nowadays, however, as TUL concentrates on work

among young people and physical exercise in general, and SVUL ceased its

activities altogether in 1993. Each top-ranking sport is nowadays run by a

separate organization, which concentrates entirely on one sport or a certain

specific range of sports.

University of Oulu

NO TES

1. S. Hentila, ‘Jaloon Uskomme Urheiluun. . .’ [In Noble Sport Shall We Confide], inT. Pyykkonen (ed.), Suomi Uskoi Urheiluun [Finland Confided in Sport] (Helsinki: VAPK-Kustannus, 1992), pp.12–15.

2. For the origins of the Olympic Games, see A. Guttmann, The Olympics: A History of theModern Games (Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1992), pp.19–20. Regarding

SPORT IN SOCIETY170

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the connections between sports and national identity, see J. Bale, Sports Geography (London:

Spon, 1989), pp.19–20.3. H. Meinander, ‘Prologue: Nordic History, Society and Sport’, in H. Meinander

and J.A. Mangan (eds.), The Nordic World: Sport in Society (London: Frank

Cass, 1998), p.1. For Finland as the ‘athletic superpower’ before the Second World

War, see R. Hayrinen and L. Laine, Suomi Urheilun Suurvaltana [Finland as a Sports

Superpower] (Helsinki: Liikuntatieteellinen seura, 1989).4. ‘Running Finland onto the world map’, see P. Jørgensen, ‘From Balck to Nurmi: The Olympic

Movement and the Nordic Nations’, in Meinander and Mangan, The Nordic World, p.82.

Regarding national myths and the Finnish national identity, see A. Paasi, Territories,

Boundaries and Consciousness: The Changing Geographies of the Finnish–Russian Border

(Chichester: John Wiley, 1996), p.99.5. F. Singleton, A Short History of Finland (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998),

pp.108–11.6. Ibid., pp.91–5.7. There were 154 sports pages to begin with, of which 55 per cent were published in 1936, 24

per cent in 1928, 9 per cent in 1920 and 12 per cent in 1912. All reports and reviews that were

considered irrelevant (telegrams, plain commentaries, score tables, etc.) were rejected from

the final analysis, and in the end approximately half of the material was included.8. See, for instance, Meinander and Mangan, The Nordic World.9. A. Heikkinen, ‘Voimistelun lapimurto’, in Pyykkonen, Suomi Uskoi Urheiluun, pp.65–79.

10. K. Heinila, ‘Urheilu viihteena’, in Liikunnan yhteiskunnallinen perustelu. Tieteellinen katsaus[Sport as Entertainment, Social Justification of Sport, A Scientific Review] (Jyvaskyla:

Liikunnan ja kansanterveyden edistamissaatio, 1994), pp.108–120.11. See Bale, Sports Geography, pp.19–20; and A. Heikkinen, ‘Urheilu kansan yhdistajana ja

erottajana’, Liikunta ja Tiede, [‘Sport as a Nations Unifying and Dividing Force’, Physical

Education and Science.], 24, 6–7 (1987).12. R. Alapuro, ‘The Intelligentsia, the State and the Nation’, in Max Engman and David Kirby

(eds.), Finland: people, nation, state (London: Hurst and Company, 1989), pp.147–8.

Also, M. Klinge, Kaksi Suomea [Dual Finland] (Helsinki: Otava, 1982), p.91; and M. Hroch,

Social Preconditions of National Revival in Europe: A Comparative Analysis of the Social

Composition of Patriotic Groups among the Smaller European Nations (Cambridge:

Cambridge University Press, 1985).13. For a discussion of the connections between achievement sports and gender in Finland before

the Second World War, see M. Tervo, ‘Nationalism, sports and gender in Finnish Sports

Journalism in the Early 20th Century’, Gender, Place and Culture, 8, 4, pp.357–373 (2001).

For a discussion on sports and race, see M. Tervo, ‘Sports, ‘‘Race’’, and the Finnish National

Identity in Helsingin Sanomat in the Early 20th Century’, Nations and Nationalism, 8,

3, pp.335–356 (2002).14. B. Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism

(London: Verso, 1991).15. A. Paasi, Territories, Boundaries and Consciousness, p.54.16. Nowadays nations are understood to be social constructs, which means that they must be

articulated and defined in order to exist, and the definitions must be propagated to people.

See, for instance, M. Billig, Banal Nationalism (London: Sage Publications, 1995); E. Gellner,

Nations and Nationalism (Oxford: Blackwell, 1996), pp.43–4; and Hroch, Social

Preconditions of National Revival in Europe.17. M. Klinge, Let us be Finns: Essays on History (Helsinki: Otava, 1990); and Singleton, A Short

History of Finland, p.65.18. Hroch, Social Preconditions of National Revival in Europe, p.919. T. Pulkkinen, ‘One Language, One Mind’, in T.M.S. Lehtonen (ed.), Europe’s Northern

Frontier: Perspectives on Finland’s Western Identity (Jyvaskyla: PS-kustannus, 1999), p.133.

Also Singleton, A Short History of Finland, pp.108–10; and Alapuro, ‘The Intelligentsia, the

State and the Nation’, p.156.

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20. The Finns persuaded the International Olympic Committee to let them march under their ownflag – a privilege not granted to the Irish. See Guttmann, The Olympics: A History of the

Modern Games, p.34.21. L. Laine, ‘Suomi huippu-urheilun suurvaltana’ [Finland as a Superpower in Sport], in

Pyykkonen, Suomi Uskoi Urheiluun [Finland Confided in Sport], p.222.22. S. Hentila, ‘Suomi uskoo urheiluun’ [Finland Confides in Sport], in H. Karjalainen and

H. Westermarck (eds.), Terve sielu terveessa ruumiissa [A Healthy Soul in a Healthy Body]

(Helsinki: Helsingin yliopisto, Vapaan sivistystyon toimikunta, 1996), pp.51–7.23. See Hayrinen and Laine, Suomi Urheilun Suurvaltana [Finland as a Sport’s Superpower],

pp.26–43.24. See, for instance, J. Bale and J. Sang, Kenyan Running: Movement Culture, Geography and

Global Change (London: Frank Cass, 1996), p.39.25. L. Laine, ‘Jarjestoelaman oppivuodet’ [The Learning Years of Organisational Activities], in

Pyykkonen, Suomi Uskoi Urheiluun, p.167.26. S. Hentila, Suomen Tyolaisurheilun Historia 1 [The History of Finnish Working Class Sport I]

(Hameenlinna: Arvi A. Karisto Oy, 1982). On the Workers’ Olympics, see Guttmann, The

Olympics. A History of the Modern Games, p.45.27. The history and content of Helsingin Sanomat has been studied from various viewpoints

during the recent decades: see, for instance, K. Pietila and K. Sondermann, Sanomalehden

Yhteiskunta [A Newspaper’s Society] (Tampere: Vastapaino, 1994), and P. Klemola,

Helsingin Sanomat Sananvapauden Monopoli [Helsingin Sanomat a Monopoly of Liberty of

Speech] (Helsinki: Otava, 1981).28. The efforts at reconciliation after the Civil War were quite successful, and bourgeois

statements concerning the organization and integration of Finnish society soon

gained an official status, as the moderate left also started to support them. There was

a short-lived minority government headed by the Social Democrats as early as 1926, for

instance, only eight years after the end of the Civil War. See Singleton, A Short History of

Finland, pp.115–18.29. This political tradition of understanding the nation in terms of a single subject that has ‘one

mind’ and ‘one true will’ works in the opposite manner from the Anglo-Saxon liberal notion

of a political space made up of individuals and groups striving to pursue different interests.

See Pulkkinen, ‘One Language, One Mind’, pp.131–3.30. See Klinge, Let us be Finns, pp.7, 21; Klinge, Kaksi Suomea [Dual Finland], p.103; and

Pulkkinen, ‘One Language, One Mind’, p.130.31. Images associated with marginality have often been used as a basis for regional

imagery and identity, see S. Pollard, Marginal Europe: The Contribution of

Marginal Lands since the Middle Ages (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1997). Regarding

the Finnish context, see P. Rantanen, Suolatut Sakeet: Suomen ja suomalaisten diskursiivinen

muotoutuminen 1600-luvulta Topeliukseen [Vitriolic Verses: Discursive Construction of

Finland and Finnishness from the 17th Century to Topelius] (Helsinki: Suomalaisen

Kirjallisuuden Seura, 1997), p.205.32. P. Lyytikainen, ‘Birth of a Nation’, in Lehtonen,Europe’s Northern Frontier.33. J.A. Pattengale, ‘Tokyo/Helsinki 1940’, in J.E. Findling and K.D. Pelle (eds.), Historical

Dictionary of the Modern Olympic Movement (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1996).34. See Rantanen, Suolatut Sakeet [Vitriolic Verses] Pollard, Marginal Europe, p.58.35. Victor Balck, a Swedish general and an influential member of the International

Olympic Committee, argued that a nation’s sports life expressed its vitality and ensured

national survival. For details, see H. Meinander, ‘The Power of Public Pronouncement:

The Rhetoric of Nordic Sport in the early Twentieth Century’, in Meinander and

Mangan,The Nordic World; and Jørgensen, ‘From Balck to Nurmi’, p.82. Sports were also

seen in Finland as a means of improving the characteristics of the nation, see E. Vasara,

Valkoisen Suomen Urheilevat Soturit: Suojeluskuntajarjeston Urheilu- ja Kasvatustoiminta

vuosina 1918–1939 [The Sporting Heroes of White Finland: The Civil Guard’s Sporting and

Educational Activities During 1918–1939] (Helsinki: Suomen historiallinen seura, 1997).

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36. P. Taylor ‘The Error of Developmentalism in Human Geography’, in D. Gregory andR. Walford (eds.), Horizons in Human Geography (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1989).

37. M. Cranston, The Romantic Movement (Oxford: Blackwell, 1994), pp.138–40; Singleton,A Short History of Finland, pp.67–73.

38. It was often argued in international discussions that ‘persistence seems to be an inherentcharacteristic of Finns’, see Jørgensen, ‘From Balck to Nurmi’, p.83; and also Bale and Sang,Kenyan Running. The challenging environment was thus considered to have a positive effecton the Finnish nation, see also Pollard, Marginal Europe, pp.88–91.

39. On environmental imagery in sports journalism, see, for instance, H. O’Donnell,‘Mapping the Mythical: A Geopolitics of National Sporting Stereotypes’, Discourse andSociety, 5, 3, pp.345–380 (1994).

40. The romantics placed emphasis on the geographical rather than the temporal dimension, forRousseau himself insisted that there was no going back in time: escape from the sophisticatedmodern world could be attained by escaping into villages and country places. See Cranston,The Romantic Movement, pp.16–17. On the Finnish national imagery, idealized nature, theFinnish landscape and the agrarian way of life, see Rantanen, Suolatut Sakeet [VitriolicVerses]; and Lyytikainen, ‘Birth of a Nation’, pp.138–65.

41. Bale and Sang, Kenyan Running, p.144.42. M. Hietala, ‘From Race Hygiene to Sterilization: the Eugenics Movement in Finland’,

in G. Broberg and N. Roll-Hansen (eds.), Eugenics and the Welfare State: SterilizationPolicy in Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and Finland (East Lansing, MI: Michigan StateUniversity Press, 1996).

43. Rantanen, Suolatut Sakeet [Vitriolic Verses], pp.201–7.44. See, for instance, Alapuro, ‘The Intelligentsia, the State and the Nation’p.157. Also, Hietala,

‘From Race Hygiene to Sterilization’, p.196; and J. Hakli, ‘Cultures of Demarcation:Territory and National Identity in Finland’, in G.H. Herb and D.H. Kaplan (eds.), NestedIdentities: Nationalism, Territory, and Scale (Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 1999),p.136.

45. On the relations between northern environment and the Finnish nation’s character, see, forinstance, Bale and Sang, Kenyan Roming, pp.144.

46. Portrayals of a ‘true’ or ‘typical’ Finn in the Finnish national literature and imagery have beenbuilt on masculine determinants and a masculine way of life. See M. Lehtonen, PikkuJattilaisia: Maskuliinisuuden Kulttuurinen rakentuminen [Little Giants: Cultural Construc-tion of Masculinity] (Tampere: Vastapaino, 1995), pp.138–40.

47. On gender and sports in Finland, see, for instance, Tervo, ‘Nationalism, Sports and Gender inFinnish Sports Journalism in the Early 20th Century’. On the turning of male sports intonational sports, see E.P. Archetti, ‘Masculinity and Football: The Formation of NationalIdentity in Argentina’, in R. Giulianotti and J. Williams (eds.), Game Without Frontiers:Football, Identity and Modernity (Aldershot: Arena, 1994), p.226. There is also a great varietyof literature that discusses connections between gender and national identity from viewpointsother than sport. See, for instance, T. Mayer (ed.), Gender Ironies of Nationalism: Sexing theNation (New York: Routledge, 2000); and S. Radcliffe and S. Westwood, Remaking theNation: Place, identity and politics in Latin America (London, Routledge, 1996).

48. Lyytikainen, ‘Birth of a Nation’, p.140; Rantanen, Suolatut Sakeet [Vitriolic Verses], p.122.49. For more about the role of hard work and self-control as masculine and national virtues in

Finland, see Lehtonen, Pikku Jattilaisia [Little Giants], p.99; and Lyytikainen, ‘Birth of aNation’, p.143.

50. Pulkkinen, ‘One Language, One Mind’, p.133.51. Many of the great Finnish athletes had originally joined the Workers’ Sports Federation

(TUL), but defected to the Finnish National Sports Federation during the 1920s and 1930s, asTUL refused to send its representatives to the Olympics. This was because Olympic idealswere seen to promote bourgeois values such as nationalism and chauvinism, which stood insharp contrast to socialist ideals of international understanding. But even so, no clearideological distinction between bourgeois and workers’ sports was ever fully made, asachievement sports managed to maintain their importance in TUL as well. See Hentila,

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Suomen Tyolaisurheilun Historia 1 [The History of Finnish Working Class Sport I],pp.101–5,157; and S. Hentila, ‘Urheilu, Kansakunta ja Luokat’ [Sport Nation and Classes], inR. Alapuro et al. (eds.), Kansa Liikkeessa [The Nation in Motion] (Helsinki, Kirjayhtyma,1989), p.227.

52. Alapuro, ‘The Intelligentsia, the State and the Nation’, pp.155–7. After the Civil Warthe leaders of the Finnish National Sports Federation quite soon started to promotethe idea that not all workers were socialists. This meant that workers were welcome to join the‘non-political’ SVUL but only if they ‘abandoned politics’ and concentrated merely on sports.See Hentila, Suomen Tyolaisurheilun Historia 1 [The History of Finnish Working ClassSport I], p.84; and Erkki Vasara, Valkoisen Suomen Urheilevat Soturit [The Sporting Heroesof White Finland], p.88.

53. Hayrinen, Yleisurheilu Suomen Sisunnaytteena: Yleisurheilun Motivaatio- ja Menestysteki-joita Olympialaisissa vuosien 1908–1936 valisena aikana (Suomen urheiluopisto: Heinola,1994), p.154.

54. Hentila, Suomen Tyolaisurheilun Historia 1 [The History of Finnish Working Class Sport I],p.277; Laine, ‘Suomi Huippu-Urheilun Suurvaltana’ [Finland as a Superpower in Sport],pp.226–7; Hayrinen, Yleisurheilu Suomen Sisunnaytteena [Athletics as a Proof of the NationsStamina], p.48.

55. H. Meinander, ‘Prologue: Nordic History, Society and Sport’, p.5; and also E. Hobsbawm,Nations and Nationalism since 1780: programme, myth, reality (Cambridge: CambridgeUniversity Press, 1990), pp.142–3.

56. Hayrinen and Laine, Suomi Urheilun Suurvaltana [Finland as a Superpower in Sport], pp.28,287–90; and Jørgensen, ‘From Balck to Nurmi’, The Nordic World, p.82.

57. Radcliffe and Westwood, Remaking the Nation, p.13.

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