Finland [antikvár]

PREFACE Finland's cultural development has been fundamentally shaped by the country's geographical position. Situated in the north-eastern corner of Europe, Finland has absorbed influences from both the East and the West throughout most of her history. The country's intelligentsia and upper class, which were largely Swedish-speaking until relatively recently, maintained strong ties with cultural developments in western Europe from the Middle Ages onwards. Parallel to these western ties, Byzantine culture, particularly in the shape of the Orthodox Church, made its influence felt in the eastern parts of Finland. Thanks to its linguistic isolation, the bulk of the Finnish-speaking peasant population, living far from the country's few major centres of population, preserved much of its own distinctive, individual identity until relatively recently. The nineteenth century saw the country's indigenous culture acquire a new role, as Finland began to explore the question of her national identity. One of the most visible manifestations of this new interest was the appearance in 1835 of the Finnish-language national epic, the Ka-