Murroksia ja jatkuvuutta

1980-luku historiantutkimuksessa ja presidentin muistelmissa

Authors

• Juho Ovaska Turun yliopisto

DOI: https://doi.org/10.37449/ennenjanyt.90739

Keywords:

historiankirjoitus, historiantutkimus, muistelmat, Suomi, 1980-luku

Abstract

In the article are analysed the history portrayals of 1980s in Finnish historiography and the President Mauno Koivisto's memoirs. The starting point for the study is decade division, founded on the everyday understanding concerning decades as a calendar period. Consequently, it enables to focus on the examination of historiography to the researches, where the attention has been in the 1980s. Several major changes occurred in the Finnish society in the 1980s; for example, the power relations in domestic policy, the regulation of the economy, shifts in ideological thinking, and the breakage of the media business. These substantial structural changes took place in a domestic policy sphere, whereas continuity was emphasised in the foreign policy. Style of Koivisto, to describe the events in his memoirs peaceful, short of panic, and lacking crisis atmospheres, emphasises the impression of the stability in the 1980s. His two volume memoirs reflect the political strategy of "the low profile” when depicting the events of the 1980s. 

From a national point of view, the decade did not contain high dramatics since the premature termination of the President Urho Kekkonen’s period in office in 1981, until the international breakages in autumn of 1989. However, the historical research focusing on the 1980s reflects wider changes, which have taken place in different sectors of the society. The relatively calm tempo of changes during the 1980s has made the changes appearance steady and controlled. The history representations create the impression that the decade was an exceptionally crisis-free period in the history of the 20th century in Finland.