UNDER THE NORTH STAR - II

Author: Väinö Linna
Year: 1988 (1960)
Publisher: Wahlström & Widstrand
Language: Swedish (Translator N-B Storbom)

If the initial tome of Väinö Linna’s famous trilogy “Under the North Star” (see my review from March 2024) lays bare the rift in the social fabric of pre- First World War Finland, the second instalment “Upp Trälar” (published in English, and indeed the original Finnish simply as Part Two of the trilogy) sees Finland completely torn apart. The cataclysmic upheaval of the world war that brought an end to the oppression of the Muscovites, also hurled an already weary nation into a brief but bitter civil war between the forces of a marching Socialism and an entrenched Bourgeoisie.

In “Upp trälar”, Väinö Linna ventures forth into a grim era in Finland’s history, wasting no concern to embellish or veil the unspeakable evil wrought by one countryman upon another. What once was a resigned acceptance of fate, gradually sprouts into fear and suspicion, blossoming into fervent resistance and protest. We follow the genesis of the labour movement and how the first workers’ strikes compel the landowning classes to yield their first concessions. We are there when they later attempt to claw back some of their privileges in the midst of the turmoil following the Russian Czar’s effort to reassert dominion over an increasingly unruly Finland. We observe the violent reaction from the downtrodden, their blazing spirit under the scarlet banners of Socialism. We witness how Finns, increasingly wary of one another, engage in an arms race and ultimately a brutal and relentless war. And we mourn alongside the lone voices of reason their futile bids to prevent the looming calamity.

The atrocities perpetrated by all sides in the conflict defy all concepts of humanity, as the blind rage of vengeance knows no bounds other than its own indiscriminate barbarianism. People who have seen no other world than that populated by one another are pitted against each other, unleashing a hatred beyond comprehension. The outcome can only be death, suffering, and unspeakable despair.

Such events are, of course, not inherent to Finnish history or culture but form a humiliating leitmotif throughout the ages of human development. Whether religious wars, the Inquisition, the Rein of Terror, the October Revolution, the Massacres at Volhynia, Endlösung der Judenfrage, the Balkan War… the list goes on. And this is accounting for merely one of the six populated continents of the world. When given the chance, man reveals himself all too eager to provide evidence that what differentiates him from the beast is not his intellect or culture, but rather his unmatched capacity for hatred, barbarism, and his insatiable hunger for destruction, power, and blood.

As I argued in the review of the first part of this trilogy, the typical Swedish reader will scarcely be able to fathom the magnitude of such trials as Swedish socialists, faced with diametrically different challenges than their Finnish counterparts, had the luxury of riding the tide of a rapidly rising democratic movement allowing them to steer their course toward reform rather than revolution. By immersing ourselves in the Finnish experience we are unceremoniously confronted with the prospect of what could have been, a revelation that should give us pause in our insular sense of entitlement.

Although the tone in “Upp trälar” is endlessly darker than that in the first book, Linna’s literary genius remains beyond reproach. With his masterful touch, he treats each of his characters and every event with the utmost respect, offering neither accusation nor defence beyond that what their own deeds already dictate. While history teaches us that the socialists were defeated by a joint intervention of Finnish and international military forces, on an individual plain there were no victors. Here Linna, in his inimitable way, delivers each and every one of them to us for forgiveness or condemnation according to the inclination of each individual reader’s own conscience.

Indeed, if the first part of the trilogy resounded of hard labour punctuated by sparse but genuine laughter, the second book echoes of nothing but gnashing teeth and inconsolable screams into the darkness of an indifferent universe.