145 The Interwar Years

The two decades between the world wars transformed Scandinavian society. Democracy was firmly established and ambitious welfare programs were put in place. But there were also challenges, not least the global economic crisis in the early 1930s. The period was especially difficult in Finland, a country that was still reeling from a brutal civil war.

Civil wars tend to be particularly brutal conflicts, tearing communities apart. Sadly, the Finnish Civil War was no exception. When the fighting officially ended on 15 May 1918, the majority of the people who would die as a consequence of the war were actually still alive. The conflict claimed far more victims in the summer of 1918 than on the battlefield.

When Finnish socialists declared a revolution on January 27 1918, this triggered a conflict known to history as the Finnish Civil War. Two hastily assembled armies struggled to organize and fight. Like civil wars tend to be, the conflict was chaotic and brutal.

Social and political tensions in Finland intensified during 1917, as the collapse of Russian imperial rule created both hope and turmoil. Economic hardship, strikes and ideological divisions polarized Finnish society. As a result, political rivals started to arm themselves in preparation for a seemingly inevitable showdown.

In the beginning of the 20th century, the kings in Copenhagen and Stockholm struggled to come to terms with their diminishing political influence. Sometimes they overestimated their powers, causing constitutional crises threatening their thrones. But the Scandinavians had bigger fish to fry. When the First World War set Europe ablaze, they watched from the sidelines, desperately trying to stay out of it.

In the 1800s, Finland was still a part of the Russian empire. Much like in other places in Europe, a Finnish national consciousness was taking shape. But it was complicated. One complication was the competing visions for what that nation should be like. Another, was the fact that the Russians weren’t having any of it.

For decades, the union between Norway and Sweden seemed stable. But as democracy, national identity, and political ambitions gathered momentum, tensions steadily mounted. The Swedes would have to play a careful and skillful game if they wanted the union to survive.

The Norwegians never enthusiastically embraced the union with Sweden, but for many years it wasn't a hot topic in politics. Instead, the Norwegians were busy arguing over other things. Questions like who was a Norwegian, and what was Norway?

Over a few generations starting in the mid-1800s, millions of Scandinavians left their homes to seek new lives across the Atlantic. Why did they do it? Where did they go? And what did the people who stayed behind think about it all?

Scandinavia had always been a poor, agrarian region on the margins of European civilization. But within a few decades in the late 1800s, things happened fast. Industrialization hit Denmark, Norway and Sweden like a tidal wave, changing the Scandinavian economy and society forever.