tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2041385492321829905.post4393156893180474560..comments2024-02-03T10:27:22.640+00:00Comments on Nordic Voices in Translation: Eva Wichman: Five PoemsDavid McDuffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01515361544462041148noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2041385492321829905.post-75000988324507671592009-04-19T08:53:00.000+01:002009-04-19T08:53:00.000+01:00I'm afraid I don't share Eric's willingness to dis...I'm afraid I don't share Eric's willingness to distinguish between Finland's so-called 1970s "Stalinists" and the other Finnish Communists. For one thing, all the Finnish Communists - whatever their internal stripe or colour - were funded, cultivated and encouraged by Moscow as part of the Finlandization policy, and the Taistoists were never expelled from the SKP. For another, Brezhnev's Soviet David McDuffhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01515361544462041148noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2041385492321829905.post-82465824545818423622009-04-18T23:42:00.000+01:002009-04-18T23:42:00.000+01:00Although the wake of the poetry of Eva Wichman may...Although the wake of the poetry of Eva Wichman may be a slightly odd place to begin a public debate about Finnish Stalinism, I must make a plea, as someone who was there at the time, to recognise that not all 1970s Finnish Communists be tarred with the same brush. I certainly know of people who are nowadays accused of having, for instance, collaborated with the Stasi. That is one end of the Eric Dickenshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11473407452357469485noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2041385492321829905.post-35943532021106472222009-04-18T16:08:00.000+01:002009-04-18T16:08:00.000+01:00There's a difference between being "left wing" and...There's a difference between being "left wing" and espousing the kind of fanatical intolerance that was characteristic of the programme of the so-called "Stalinist" or "minority" wing of the Finnish Communist Party. <br /><br />The list on the Yahoo group is very revealing. What it suggests above all is that in Finland the political centre has never really established itself properly. If one David McDuffhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01515361544462041148noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2041385492321829905.post-73228100002248157982009-04-18T15:35:00.000+01:002009-04-18T15:35:00.000+01:00From my experience - and I lived amongst Finland-S...From my experience - and I lived amongst Finland-Swedes for four years during the 1970s - most Finland-Swedish authors have at some time in their lives been left-wing, especially those from more humble backgrounds in Ostrobothnia. In the 1970s, an F-S author who was not in any way connected with the Communist Party was somehow less salonfähig, especially among those who were around 20 years old Eric Dickenshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11473407452357469485noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2041385492321829905.post-74225917101316894692009-04-18T12:31:00.000+01:002009-04-18T12:31:00.000+01:00It would be interesting to see a list showing whic...It would be interesting to see a list showing which modern Finland-Swedish writers belonged to the CP, and which didn't. Carpelan didn't, for example, and neither did Warburton, but many others did - I think it's quite disturbing at one level, but at another, creative one, it somehow doesn't matter. What seems extraordinary is that so many were Communists, when they lived practically next door toDavid McDuffhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01515361544462041148noreply@blogger.com