ABSTRACT

An important era for the European Enlightenment-founded ‘republic of letters’ was the cultural internationalism of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. The fin de siècle was also significant in forming the concepts of both the European intellectual and the European public sphere. The starting point of my article is the Finnish liberal cultural intellectuals during this period. In their activities in Europe, these Finnish intellectuals operated in the context of Russification, and that left a national mark. On the other hand, Scandinavia was the first frame of reference for literary-oriented Finnish liberal intellectuals. Through empirical examples from the cultural periodicals they edited, I discuss how periphery intellectuals joined the European republic of letters and how transnationalism in exchanging ideas and sharing universal ideals was realized. The outcome of the article is that although transnationalism in history studies provides a fruitful way to approach the era in question, often nationalism play a significant role in the transnational activities of intellectuals in small nations. Besides the political situation of a young small nation in turmoil, the close relationship between the State and ‘intellectual labour’ makes the Finnish case interesting in terms of transnational history.

摘要

欧洲启蒙运动创立的“书信共和国”的重要时代是19世纪末至20世纪初的文化国际主义。本世纪末在形成欧洲知识分子和欧洲公共领域的概念方面也具有重要意义。我文章的出发点是这一时期的芬兰自由文化知识分子。这些芬兰知识分子在欧洲的活动是在“俄罗斯化”的背景下开展的，并留下了全国性的烙印。另一方面，斯堪的纳维亚半岛是面向文学的芬兰自由派知识分子的第一参考框架。通过他们编辑的文化期刊中的经验示例，我讨论了外围知识分子如何加入欧洲书信共和国，以及如何实现跨国主义在思想交流和共享普遍理想方面的实现。这篇文章的结果是，尽管历史研究中的跨国主义提供了一种有效的方式来解决所讨论的时代，民族主义常常在小国知识分子的跨国活动中发挥重要作用。除了动荡的年轻小国的政治局势之外，国家与“知识分子的劳动”之间的紧密关系也使芬兰的案例在跨国历史方面变得有趣起来。