Kaksintaistelukulttuuri kustavilaisessa ja jälkikustavilaisessa Suomessa

Authors

• Saara Hilpinen Helsingin yliopisto

DOI: https://doi.org/10.33520/aur.157035

Abstract

DUELING CULTURE IN GUSTAVIAN AND POST-GUSTAVIAN FINLAND

This article examines duels as a cultural phenomenon in Gustavian Finland and the Grand Duchy of Finland between 1770 and 1830. The phenomenon is analyzed through research, memoirs, diary entries, and legal sources. Previous research has suggested that the rise of dueling culture, which spread throughout Europe, was not seen in 19th-century Finland. But was this the case? The article presents duels that took place on Finnish soil, their backgrounds, and their consequences through source materials. The rhetoric related to dueling also seems to have been commonplace among gentlemen, and for example, professor Johan Bilmark (1728–1801) of Turku Academy deemed it necessary to publish a dissertation opposing dueling at the end of the 18th century. There was a notable moral inconsistency in attitudes towards dueling: the law harshly condemned duels, but communities often turned a blind eye to them. In the cases selected for the article, the future of the men involved in duels does not appear to have been adversely affected by the illegal act. The heating of emotions was considered part of the behavioral norms of gentlemen, and refusing a duel was seen as cowardice. Criticism of dueling has been part of questioning the monopoly on violence, and the phenomenon's origin has been attributed to, among other things, a false sense of honor. The article demonstrates that the phenomenon also extended to Finland at the turn of the 19th century and was an everyday part of the culture.