Fig. 37—Above the Koivukoski Falls at Kajana. Finnish waterways are the usual lanes of traffic between the inland seas of that country.
Finland’s union with the west failed, however, to bring about Swedish predominance in the land. The Finns preserved their language and tended in fact to assimilate their conquerors. The physical isolation of their country from Sweden contributed largely to foster this incipient stage of Finnish nationality. The Gulf of Bothnia and the frozen solitudes of Lapland proved an effective barrier to the complete fusion of Swedes and Finns. Eastward, however, no natural obstacles intervened between Finland and Russia. The prolonged struggle between the latter country and Sweden hence inevitably led to the Russian conquest of Finland.
The peace of Nystad in 1721 enabled Russia to occupy Finnish territory for the first time. All of the southeastern portion of the duchy then became part of the Muscovite empire. A further cession in 1743 at the treaty of Åbo brought Swedish frontiers as far west as the Kymmens line. The final conquest was ratified by the treaty of peace signed by Swedish and Russian plenipotentiaries on September 17, 1809. Sweden formally renounced its rights over Finland and the duchy became part of Russia.
Today Finland is a country with three languages. Russian is the channel of official activity. Finnish, through a literary revival, has won its right to be the language of the land and this is a symbol of the Finns’ desire for independent national existence. Swedish remains as the age-old medium through which Christianity and western culture were conveyed. It is also to a large extent the business language of the province, especially for communication with western Europe. Competition between the three languages is carried on with unabating energy. The struggle is an outward manifestation of the fight for independence waged by the natives of Finland in the presence of Swedish and Russian efforts to dominate the country. The common danger from Russia has lately drawn the Swedish and Finnish groups together, although the Finns were previously strongly anti-Swedish. The old antagonism still lingers in society life. The Swedish-speaking element rarely mixes with the Finnish-speaking. This is particularly noticeable at Helsingfors, where each language represents a distinct stratum of social life.
In Russia’s Baltic provinces two of the world’s oldest yet absolutely distinct languages are spoken. South of the Gulf of Finland the Esthonians or Chuds still retain a primitive form of Mongolian. In the neighboring Letto-Lithuanian group, on the other hand, a speech which is closely akin to the old Aryan is employed. Almost any Lithuanian peasant can understand simple phrases in Sanskrit. The survival of archaic languages in this section of Europe is the result of isolation provided by a forested and marshy country in which folk-characteristics maintained their ancient forms. From the racial standpoint Esthonians, Letts and Lithuanians are fair, generally tall, narrow-faced and long-headed. In the Fellin district, in southern Estland, a very pure Nordic type is found among peoples of Esthonian speech.
Early Russian chronicles describe the Letts and Lithuanians as divided into several tribes.[87] The Yatvags were scattered along the banks of the Narev. The Lithuanians proper together with the Shmuds peopled the Niemen valley. Very little dialectical differences exist between the two. The Shmuds cluster now in northwestern Kovno without, however, attaining the Baltic shore. The left bank of the Drina was occupied by the Semigals, while on the right dwelt the Letgols who were the ancestors in direct line of the Letts of southern Livonia. The Kors, who lived on the western shores of the Gulf of Riga, were later to impose their name on the province of Kurland.[88]
Two of these tribes, the Shmuds and the Lithuanians, escaped the Teutonic conquest through the inaccessibility of their forested and marshy retreat. Around them the Kors and the Letts, as well as the primitive Slav occupants of Prussia, had been subjugated by the Knights of the Teutonic Order. The only salvation for these tribes from Teutonic oppression consisted in their seeking the natural shelter occupied by the two more fortunate groups of their kinsmen. Behind this natural barrier Lithuanian nationality was born in the middle of the thirteenth century under the leadership of Mindvog, an energetic chieftain who insured his own supremacy by causing the leaders of rival clans to be put to death. With the help of the Poles the Lithuanians eventually checked the easterly expansion of the Teutons.
The region occupied by Lithuanians in former times can be traced today by the distribution of the type of dwelling peculiar to this people. The ancient area exceeds the borders of the present linguistic zone. The earliest examples of Lithuanian houses consist of a single room. The indoor life of a single family was spent within this one apartment. This primitive habitation grew into the modern style by the successive addition of rooms. In course of time a kitchen or a stable was added to the main building. Sometimes the old type of house stands to this day adjoining more modern buildings. In such cases it is used as a barn.
The old Aryan of the Lithuanians is in vogue principally along the Duna and Niemen rivers as well as around Vilna, where this people are settled in compact masses. In spite of the antiquity of their language, no texts prior to the sixteenth century are known. Emigration in the past decade to large Russian cities, and to America, has decreased their ranks appreciably. Their number is now estimated at 3,500,000.[89] In his native land, the Lithuanian is not on the best of terms with neighboring peoples. He looks upon the Russian as his political oppressor and upon the Pole as his hereditary foe. The Lett is regarded with somewhat less animosity as a rival. The Letts spread inland from the shores of the Gulf of Riga and number about 1,300,000. Owing to Polish influences, many Lithuanians are Catholics, but, in the main, both Letts and Lithuanians are stanch Lutherans.[90] Their land is the home of religious free thought within orthodox Russia. German influence prevails among them on this account, although it is doubtful whether it extends to the point of their preferring German to Russian rule. Evil memories of the attempts of the Teutonic Knights to conquer the immemorial seat of the Lettish and Lithuanian populations survive throughout their forests and marshes. Neither people has forgotten that its ancestors were refugees who sought the shelter of their boglands as a last recourse from Teutonic aggression.