| Gylling in Finland. Introduction. Edvard Gylling more than anyone else was responsible for Karelain fever. His life can be divided into two halves: Up to June 1918 he resided in Finland. He spent two years in Stockholm, 1918-1920. From May 1920 until his execution in June 1938, he was a citizen of the Soviet Union. In Finland Gylling simultaneously was both politician and academic. As an academic he pioneered the use of statistical methods in the agrarian history of Finland. As a leading member of the Finnish Social Democratic Party, he was the party's expert on agrarian affairs. In whatever he did Gylling found a unifying principle in Finnish nationalism. He deplored the emigration from Finland of the early 20th century just as he deplored the Finnish civil war. Both phenomena undermined the demographic stability of Finland. In politics Gylling was committed to compromise and negotiation. He believed that even the most contradictory principles could be reconciled. As a respected and influential member of the Finnish political and academic establishment, Gylling's life in Finland would seem to be unlikely preparation for his subsequent role as Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of Karelia and the ultimate contradiction to his experience in Finland. It was a measure of Gylling's political talent that he would try to reconcile such contradictory experiences. |
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Any explanation of Karelian Fever must begin with the life and career of Edvard Gylling. Gylling was born in Kuopio, Finland in 1881. He grew up in a prosperous middle class family. Early in life he became steeped in Finnish patriotism and Finnish cultural identity. Gylling Family Estate
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E. Gylling
Gylling
grew up in a family of women, his mother and sisters raised him
as his father was often away on assignment for the Finnish state
railway. On the family estate he learned his love for the countryside
and became aware of the poverty that afflicted so many in rural
Finland.