Magazines of Finnish scout movement and Civil Guards and active citizenship 1917–1920

Authors

• Juho Wilska Turun yliopisto

DOI: https://doi.org/10.33350/ka.109297

Keywords:

magazines, scout movement, civil guards, Finnish Civil War

Abstract

The Finnish Scout movement began to re-organise in spring 1917. After the Finnish civil war (1918) rivalling Civil Guard organisation was founded. Scouts took part in the civil war. After the war it was natural that they also took part in memorial parades and celebrations of the so-called White Finland. There was a debate about the relationship of these two movements. Several articles were published about the subject in Finnish scout magazines. This article is about ideal citizenship in the magazines of Finnish scout movement 1917–1920. The research uses also materials from the archive the first Finnish scout’s union and the official organ of Finnish civil guard movement. The period analysed in this article begins with Finnish scouts starting their activities in spring 1917. The research ends at spring 1920 when the scout’s union was abolished. The article presents how the scouts movement connected it´s development to the building of Finnish independence. Later the movement was bounded to the so-called White Finland established by the victorious side of civil war. Readers of the magazines became familiar with the idea of responsibility and self-government. Terminology of political decision making were also presented to the readers. The scouting ideals included spontaneity and ability to take part in decision making. The difference between scouts and civil guards was that the civil guards trained their junior members to be good soldiers whereas the scouts aimed to raise ideal citizens - however, the scouts' ideal citizen contained the idea of a good soldier. In the context of democracy, the key finding of this article is that the scouting magazines taught the readers about democracy by presenting the conflicts and decision making of the movement.