Edwin Linkomies Guide, Meaning , Facts, Information and Description
Edwin Linkomies (1894–1963), Prime Minister of Finland March 1943 to August 1944, was one of the seven politicians on Soviet demands convicted to prison as allegedly responsible for the Continuation War, and a prominent fennoman academic, pro-rector (administrative head) of the University of Helsinki 1932–43, rector 1956–62, and the government’s Chancellor of the University from 1962 till his death.Edwin Linkomies was born as Edwin Flinck in East-Finnish Viipuri, as son to a Finland-Swedish officer who died soon after his birth, but grew up in West-Finnish Raumo, north of Turku, in a purely Finnish-speaking region of Finland. He did a quick and splendid career in academia, graduated as 19 years old, wrote his dissertation as 22 years old at Finland’s university (in Helsinki), where he seven years later was appointed professor and head of the department of Latin literature. Meanwhile he'd continued his research in Germany, in Leipzig and Halle, and would keep close contact with German universities for all of his life; although as a teacher and scientific leader he was known for his "Anglo-Saxon style" — clear and simplistic in his presentations emphasizing the grand lines rather than intriguing details and exceptions — but also as demanding, authoritarian and maybe too self-confident.
An assessment of Linkomies’ roll as politician is complicated by the fact that he at, at least, two critical moments in Finland’s history deliberately spoke and acted against his own conviction, if one is allowed to believe his account in his memoirs.
- In the early 1930s, he argues that his ambition was to steer Finland’s Conservative party, Kokoomus, in democratic direction after its entanglement with the semi-fascist Lapua Movement. But in order to achieve this, he appeared conform to the lesser evils of anti-parliamentarism, militant anti-Socialism and authoritarianism.
- During the Continuation War, after the Wehrmacht’s defeat at Stalingrad, he was appointed prime minister with peace on the top of his agenda, but neither in deeds nor in words would the government led by him and president Ryti reveal this aim, fearing the majority of the Finns to be unprepared, and the German co-belligerent still too strong. Furthermore, he did not dare to establish contacts with the growing domestic opposition against the war, and only very cautiously and hesitantly with countries that probably would have been inclined to support the peace process, notably the United States, Sweden and Britain, if they had had confidence in Finland’s wish for peace.
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