Education as an Internalised Value
This second section discusses how cultural and social capital were interlinked on an ideological level in Yrjo Tamminen’s diary entries. It is suggested that in his worldview, education was bound to the concept of self-improvement and to Fennoman ideology.
Overall, his perception of education highlights the fact that although the offspring of the rising intelligentsia mostly went to the same schools as the children of the old elite, their goals stemmed from a different basis.Judging from Yrjo’s diaries, he and his siblings followed the example set by their parents; to associate themselves with the network of the rising intelligentsia, they made a distinction in relation to both the common people and the old elite. In Yrjo’s mind, making a distinction vis-à-vis the common people was easy; while he was educated, they were not. On the whole, the grammar school students were encouraged to distinguish themselves from the uneducated townspeople. On 27 September 1898, Yrjo remarked on the fact that the principal of his sister’s school had forbidden her students from promenading in the city park in the evenings because it was considered inappropriate that they would be ‘fighting over parks and park benches with artisans and maidservants’ (Diary of Yrjo Tamminen).
The way Yrjo made a distinction with regard to the rural people in Janakkala, where he spent his summer holidays, resembles the relationship between the rising intelligentsia and the uneducated rural people in general: the members of the rising intelligentsia were to both investigate and educate the rural people (Ollila 1993, 48. See also Rojola 2009, 31–34; Vares 2005, 273). For Yrjo, the rural population functioned as a source of earthy proverbs and curious habits, which he registered in his diary. However, for the most part he found the rural atmosphere and especially the workhouse mentally unchallenging.
On 25 June 1899, he reproached himself for not having ‘a single noble thought’ in his head and added in a laconic tone: ‘Then again, where could you get those in a place like this?’ (Diary of Yrjo Tamminen).Making a distinction with regard to the old elite was more complicated. On the one hand, Yrjo was prone to associating with his socio-economically superior schoolmates, such as the son of the principal. While in Janakkala, he only socialised with the more prominent local families and their summer guests. On 1 June 1899, he even confessed to his diary that he had not greeted a friend of his sister in the street because the girl ‘did not belong to the elite’ (Diary of Yrjo Tamminen). On the other hand, it is important to note that his remark was indeed a confession. It seems that deep in his heart, he did not want to imitate the old elite in its arrogance, but he wanted to become a more noble-minded individual instead. Thus, the distinction between him and the members of the old elite was not only a cold fact determined by the socio-economic reality but also a deliberate choice made by Yrjo himself.
A commitment to self-improvement is one of the recurrent themes in Yrjo’s diary.12 The constant pursuit for self-improvement was typical of the rising intelligentsia; while education was to be their route to prominent positions in society, self-improvement was to be their way of making sure that they would constitute a morally superior new elite. Thus, education and the pursuit for self-improvement became inseparably intertwined (Leskelä-Kärki 2006, 292; Ollila 1998, 38, 70–71, 76–77, 230; Vares 2005, 18, 41, 93). In Yrjo’s case, the commitment to self-improvement was strongly encouraged by his teachers. According to an entry written on 9 June 1898, one of Yrjo’s teachers had suggested that every student should set himself ‘the ultimate goal of becoming a good person’ (Diary of Yrjo Tamminen).
However, Yrjo found it difficult to be good and just, especially in the little everyday trials.
‘I have such a weak character,’ he complained in his diary on 2 June 1897, ‘I cannot resist temptations like a good soldier but have to run from them. [--] I once got a good piece of advice though: I should never permit myself anything I really want’ (Diary of Yrjo Tamminen). According to Yrjo, his weak character manifested itself, for example, in his constant craving for sweets, the fact that he had tried his grandfather’s cigarettes a couple of times, the crushes he had on different girls, his habit of swearing, his occasional gossiping and idle talk, writing school essays for his friends, laziness, and the bouts of vanity he saw himself as prone to. Yrjo’s harsh self-assessment gives a good impression of the way a member of the rising intelligentsia was expected to control himself (or herself) to be qualified as a morally superior model citizen.It seems that Yrjo’s pursuits for self-improvement were constantly challenged by the conditions in his grandfather’s household. The juxtaposition is illustrated in a diary entry an upset Yrjo wrote on 15 October 1898, after coming home from an uplifting student meeting to find his grandfather and the old man’s comrades completely intoxicated. He stated, ‘The noble causes we discuss at the fraternity meetings will get me nowhere, because my home life is so miserable.’ Yrjo set himself mentally apart from his grandfather: ‘I have got into such beautiful company: there are drunkards, brawlers, mockers, mad people […], atheists, and so forth. It is a small wonder I have managed to remain to some extent incorrupt as I am now’ (Diary of Yrjo Tamminen). Like many others among the rising intelligentsia, Yrjo and his sister became active supporters of the temperance movement (Jämbäck 2008).
The diary entries suggest that the morality of the young Yrjo Tamminen was also insulted by the reckless behaviour of his grandfather’s maidservant. Yrjo could not find sympathy for the pregnant woman or for morally questionable women in general.
His uncompromising attitude stemmed from his commitment to the ideal of premarital chastity. The rising intelligentsia promoted this ideal as a morally sound alternative to the relative sexual morality favoured by both the common people and the old elite (Häggman 1994, 187; Markkola 2014; Melkas 2009, 111; Nieminen 1951, 74, 82; Rajainen 1973, 96–97; Siltala 1999, 560). On 2 November 1899, Yrjo wrote in his diary that he wanted to keep his ‘first love pure’ and had therefore refrained from kissing his long-time infatuation despite the romantic setting of a promenade in a forest. His choice, alongside his decision to avoid alcohol, indicates that he was prepared to live up to his ideals.In Yrjo’s diary entries, getting a grammar school education and engaging in self-improvement were linked with Fennoman ideology. This, too, was typical of the members of the rising intelligentsia, who considered themselves the torchbearers for the entire Finnish nation. Fennoman ideology was rooted into the curricula of the Finnish-speaking grammar schools (Vares 2005, 65), such as the ones in Mikkeli. Yrjo, however, was a second- (if not third-) generation Fennoman. His father Juho Tamminen was one of the spokesmen who had campaigned successfully for Finnish grammar school education in Mikkeli in the late 1870s and early 1880s. Moreover, Juho’s appointments as the city treasurer and as the secretary of the City Council were linked with the growing Fennoman influence in the city administration (Kuujo 1971; Mikkeli City Council 1879–1889).
Whereas the Fennoman movement had provided Yrjo’s father with new opportunities for gathering social capital as a man of the cause,13 Yrjo himself associated Fennoman ideology with sacrifice and duty. His perception was probably influenced by the tense political situation of the late 1890s. In February 1899, Finland was subjected to a Russification campaign launched by Czar Nicholas II of Russia. The Fennomans opposed the campaign strongly as a threat to the autonomy of Finland and to the future of the Finnish nation.
Although Yrjo self-censored his writings on daily politics, he clearly followed the political situation keenly. He also joined the ranks of the half a million Finns (circa twenty percent of the total population) who signed the petition that was to be brought to the Czar in order to convince him to cancel the Russification campaign (Great Petition 1899).The thought of patriotic sacrifice was most evidently present in a diary entry Yrjo wrote on 14 March 1899. He described the beauty of the Finnish rural landscape:
The wind whispered in the trees above me, and a spring-like cuckoo called down into the valley. Should someone have asked me then if I would give my life for all this, I would have answered without hesitation: ‘Yes, I would’.
(Diary of Yrjo Tamminen)
The thought of sacrifice was also connected to Yrjo’s understanding of the more mundane duties of a young man, as revealed in an entry he wrote on 5 March 1899:
I would like to accomplish something great, something magnificent that would bring glory to my fatherland…. However, should every man become ‘great’, we would be lacking ‘the small’, who are equally important. Finland now needs the help and vigour of all her sons…. If everyone fulfils his duty conscientiously, without pursuing personal glory, if everyone sacrifices himself for the fatherland and the people, Finland will be fortunate and our small nation may expect a good future.
(Diary of Yrjo Tamminen)
It seems that at the age of seventeen, Yrjo Tamminen had come to understand that even the rising intelligentsia could be divided into a vanguard and a larger bulk of more ordinary actors.
The diaries of Yrjo Tamminen suggest that he had dreams of a career as a journalist. At the same time, Yrjo knew that his mother had another plan for him: after graduating from grammar school, Yrjo was to head for a career on the railways. However, he was not to become a regular worker but an official. The diary entries indicate that Hanna Tamminen had discussed her son’s future with a treasurer whose identity is not revealed.
According to her, the treasurer had emphasised the importance of taking a law degree at university before entering the railways. As such, Yrjo would have opportunities for advancement within the institution, which would eventually secure his social standing among the rising intelligentsia. As mentioned earlier, Hanna turned out to be right.On the one hand, it seems that Yrjo himself was not particularly interested in the railways. On the other hand, he knew that it was his duty to relatively quickly acquire a regular income to be able to help his mother and siblings financially. Sacrifices had been made for his education—and in the end, he was willing to sacrifice his private dream of becoming a journalist; he started making concrete plans on how to proceed in the railways. In a diary entry written on 7 January 1900, he already pictured himself as a Fennoman stationmaster:
Many years from now, I will have become a station master. [My office] will resemble a Finnish farmhouse living room, something like the one described in Maila Talvio’s novel Kaksi rakkautta with the addition of having a specific bookcase filled with exclusively Finnish literature.
(Diary of Yrjo Tamminen)