THURSDAY 23 OCT 2025
13.00 LONNA
Martti Anhava, Kari Hotakainen / Touko Siltala
Anton Chekhov /
Anton Tšehov: Onni: valitut novellit 1880-1903 [Happiness: Selected Short Stories 1880-1903]. 1100 pp. Edited and translated by Martti Anhava. Hard cover. Helsinki: Siltala & Sanavalinta, 2025.
A literary highlight of the year is the publication of the largest ever Finnish edition of Anton Chekhov's short stories. The translator is our Chekhov maestro himself, Martti Anhava, who has also published a three-volume set of Chekhov's letters with excellent commentaries, a selection from Chekhov's notebooks, and a translation of the four great plays. According to my estimate, Chekhov wrote
605 short stories (according to Anhava, 580), of which a third have been translated into Finnish. Many stories even from his golden years 1888-1903 have never been translated. In this weighty tome there are 52 stories, of which 21 for the first time in a Finnish Chekhov collection. Intriguingly, also selections of the very earliest writings are included, such as his piece Number 2 "What is most often found in novels, stories, etc.?" (1880). I would instantly start to carry this book with me for tram reading, but the unwieldy size makes it impossible. I object to the current Finnish trend to publish as single volumes books that would require two or three. They may look grand, but they are not meant for readers.
13.30 LONNA
Lauri Timonen / Mia Öhman
The miracle man among Finnish film historians is Lauri Timonen. He followed Peter von Bagh as the editor-in-chief of Filmihullu magazine which has kept him busy. But his even more prominent film writing career has emerged in monographs of great artists. There is a book on Jean Seberg, but the main continuity is in ambitious trilogies. What I call his "Finnish trilogy" consists of volumes on Aki Kaurismäki, Matti Pellonpää and Matti Ijäs. He himself calls his "European trilogy" the mighty books on Fassbinder, Fellini and Bresson.
His 900-page Bresson book might be the most comprehensive in any language. This year Timonen has published two huge volumes (totalling 1441 pages) about John Ford. There is a formidable legacy of books about John Ford, and Timonen seems to know them all. His books might be the most extensive study of Ford's films, which is saying a lot. I like his touch. He knows the subject well but pursues an easy-going drive.
15.00 SUOMENLINNA
Ilkka Taipale / Antti Rinne, in the presence of Kalevi Suomela and the Mechelin family.
Leo Mechelin (1839-1914) was a great statesman whose contribution was crucial in the Finnish fight for its autonomy and the defense of the rule of law in the process that finally led to independence. He was also active in the international peace movement. He was a long term Senator. In the Estates, he first represented the bourgeoisie, then the nobility, and since 1906 in the first Parliament he represented the Swedish People's Party of Finland. He was what we would now call the prime minister in the "Mechelin senate" of 1905-1908 that achieved the first democratic parliamentary election of the country, complete with full political rights for women and the first female members of parliament in the world. In 1910 he received the most votes in the parliamentary election. He was a major international peacemonger and participated in the 18th Universal Peace Congress in Stockholm in 1910 and the 19th Congress in Geneva in 1912.
I participated in the event because of Ilkka Taipale (born in 1942) whose newest book, Sinisilmäinen pasifisti: kirjoituksia seitsemältä vuosikymmeneltä [Blue-Eyed Pacifist: Writings from Seven Decades] (Rosebud Books, 2024, edited by Kalevi Kalemaa) was supposed to be discussed in this event according to the original schedule. This was a precaution since it had not been confirmed that the Mechelin volumes would be ready in time, but they were indeed. Taipale is a hero of the same stature as Mechelin, a visionary behind the Finnish welfare miracle since the early 1960s. A book edited by him, 100 sosiaalista innovaatiota Suomesta: kuinka Suomesta tuli Suomi [100 Social Innovations from Finland: How Finland Became Finland] (Into, 2006 / 2017) is one of my greatest favourites. It is not just a list of those innovations. There is a vision much more profound about how all those innovations intersect to create a happy society. The book is both pragmatic and idealistic. It is also well written. A book worth rereading especially now.
Ilkka Taipale: Sinisilmäinen pasifisti: kirjoituksia seitsemältä vuosikymmeneltä [A Blue-Eyed Pacifist: Writings from Seven Decades]. 240 pp. Edited by Kalevi Kalemaa. Helsinki: Rosebud Books, 2024.
Ilkka Taipale: Sata innovaatiota Suomesta: kuinka Suomesta tuli Suomi [A Hundred Innovations from Finland: How Finland Became Finland]. 350 pp. Helsinki: Into 2006 / 2017.
16.00 SENAATINTORI
Neil Hardwick / Sanna Kangasniemi
Neil Hardwick is a living legend and a grand old man of Finnish television, also a beloved theater director and a director of one of the rare Finnish film musicals Jos rakastat. The director, playwright and actor is a true innovator in Finnish comedy and drama known for his wit and sense of humour but also with an access to darkness. Series such as Tankki täyteen, Parempi myöhään, Reinikainen, Sisko ja sen veli, Musta tuntuu, Niilin lähteillä, Kieli poskessa, Nyhjää tyhjästä and Pakanamaan kartta are household names in Finland. Their names are untranslatable because they are wordplays based on the Finnish language. Reinikainen even minted a new expression, "malli Reinikainen" ("model Reinikainen") about a people's police officer, inviting trust that can help justice. The opposite of Dirty Harry. The British nuclear physicist moved to Finland in 1969 because of love. The foreigner had an uncanny talent to understand the Finnish idiom in a new way. He was already established in television when Dennis Potter's The Singing Detective (1986) opened a new well of creativity in his work. His new book is a wistful memory journey. Hardwick does not bore us with thoroughness but inspires the reader with keywords.
17.00 SENAATINTORI
Hannu Harju, Kai Häggman / Mika Myllyaho
Hannu Harju: Jouko Turkka - narri, nero, nöyryyttäjä [Jouko Turkka - Fool, Genius, Humiliater]. 450 pp. Helsinki: Siltala, 2025.
Jouko Turkka (1942-2016) was a visionary, demon talent, agent provocateur and enfant terrible in Finnish culture. He was even dubbed the "valtakunnansaatana" ["the Satan of the Nation"]. As a teacher and director he started with physical exercise, even in its extreme form, and his sadism hurt young and sensitive actors for life. A contemporary parallel in international culture might be Rainer Werner Fassbinder. Turkka's method was to start with conflict, sometimes against the theatre board or the city hall, sometimes zeroing in on the most vulnerable member of the cast. The outrage electrified the production to a new level. There was no room for indifference. Jouko Turkka was no stranger to controversy: he thrived in it and withered without it. He created unforgettable productions at the theatre, as professor of the Theatre Academy, on television and in the radio, he wrote books and plays. His unique short pieces called Aiheita [Motifs] enjoy perennial esteem. The first Jouko Turkka biography was written during his lifetime, but this year the first books of his entire life have been published. In the wake of Me Too, Turkka has been in renewed spotlight, not because of sexual harassment, but cowardly bullying of the young and vulnerable. The Janus-faced Turkka was also a true intellectual, fascinating in debate and dialogue.
FRIDAY 24 OCT 2025
15.00 ESPLANADI
Jorma Sairanen, Kalle Kinnunen / Susanne Päivärinta.
Jorma Sairanen the television executive emeritus has a privileged insight in the golden age of linear television in Finland. Until 1986 the only nationwide television channels belonged to the public broadcasting company Yle / Finnish Broadcasting Company. The Finnish MTV / Mainos-TV [Advertising TV / Commercial TV] shared the broadcast stream in a symbiosis until they started a channel of their own in 1993. During the transition, in 1986, Kolmoskanava (TV3) had been established in a partnership of Yle, MTV and Nokia. In 1993, it merged with MTV. In 1997, another commercial channel, Nelonen [Channel Four of Finland] was launched. Jorma Sairanen had executive positions in all these commercial channels during 1986-2014, involved in program planning, greenlighting major acquisitions and co-financing a hundred motion pictures. Before Me Too in the first edition of Daddy Cool in 2017 Sairanen was a pioneer in revealing the sexual harassment conducted by Spede Pasanen (1930-2001), the biggest name in Finnish entertainment and a holy cow of the Finnish MTV. Sairanen now tells about the hate mail he received. It is important to be aware of this culture of impunity, because it explains why most of the Me Too stories remain untold. There are no new revelations from this alley in the new book, a third of which is new material. The most rewarding are Sairanen's assessments of the new media culture. He retired at the apex of linear tv. We now live in the turbulence of streaming and the internet. Sairanen also offers a frank opinion of the condition of moving images in Finland. New to the book is a list of 15 top names in contemporary Finnish television and cinema. - The standard of the moderators Helsinki Book Fair is high. My favourite is Susanne Päivärinta, an experienced television moderator, now a member of the parliament, in which she also works in key committees. She is also a member of the board of the Finnish Broadcasting Corporation.
SATURDAY 25 OCT 2025
11.30 FISKEHAMNEN
Anna-Lena Laurén / Yukiko Duke
Anna-Lena Laurén is my favourite journalist in Finland. Her media include Hufvudstadsbladet, Svenska Dagbladet, Dagens Nyheter and Suomen Kuvalehti, and she has also worked for the Finnish Broadcasting Company. From 2006 until 2023 she was mostly stationed in Russia. When her visa was not renewed, she moved to Ukraine, and the year after to Berlin to take better care of her little daughter. She has written major books about Russia and Ukraine. Medan kriget pågår finns ingen försoning is her seventh book.
When Russia is on warpath, insider knowledge and information is even more important than in peacetime. Know well the one you are dealing with, in peacetime and even more importantly in wartime. This is a lesson we are ignoring. Hate takes away 80% of our wit, hate speech spreads stupidity even more, and "social media" is the nadir. Fatal mistakes happen because of ignorance (see Afghanistan, Iraq... the list goes on).
Writers such as Anna-Lena Laurén are priceless treasures.
14.00 BLÅBÄRSLANDET
Karin Helander / Pekka Heino
Karin Helander: Bergman bakom kulisserna: Ingmar Bergmans samarbeten på teatern [Bergman Behind the Scenes: Ingmar Bergman's Collaborations at the Theatre]. 352 pp. Hard cover. Stockholm: Appell förlag 2025.
Karin Helander, professor emerita in theatre studies at the University of Stockholm, approaches Ingmar Bergman's theatre work from a new angle: not as an achievement of a single genius but as collective work with art directors, actors, playwrights, translators, script editors, costume designers and technical engineers. The book, with illustrations from rehearsals and performances, is based on correspondence between collaborators but also with politicians, journalists and life partners such as Ellen Lundström, Käbi Laretei and Liv Ullmann. The letters are often dramatic in their own right. Bergman's arbetsböcker (workbooks) and interviews are sourced. We begin to understand a work mode based on paradoxes: authority and collaboration, discipline and playfulness, temperament and patient listening. Power play is a driving force, an interest in theatre politics is alive, and an interchange between theater and the cinema is a foundation for the art of direction. (From the Appell website).
16.00 TÖÖLÖ
Suomen Kirjailijaliitto: Suuri seksikeskustelu: miten kirjoittaa kiihottavasti? [The Great Sex Discussion: How to Write and Excite?]
Terhi Tarkiainen, Juri Nummelin / Salla Simukka.
Terhi Tarkiainen: Pidä mut [Keep Me]. 368 pp. Helsinki: Tammi.
Juri Nummelin: Kiiman kutsuhuuto: suomalaisen eroottisen ja pornografisen kirjallisuuden historia [The Mating Call: the History of Finnish Erotic and Pornographic Literature]. 313 pp. Espoo: Oppian, 2024
In the discussion about sex in (Finnish) literature I learned that the playing field has totally changed during the last 15 years. Taboos are broken, genres are transgressed, and female agency is increasing. Romance, fantasy, horror and science fiction are among the genres in which explicit sexuality is on the rise, and the books are very popular. Terhi Tarkiainen is an excellent example of this contemporary trend.
I keep thinking that this change happens during a period in which people are engaging in sex less than ever during my lifetime. Perhaps not independently from this people are having less and less babies. I wonder if the rise of literary sex is a part of the transition from the real to the virtual.
I would like to write at length about Juri Nummelin, but I would need several blog entries to even start covering his achievements. He has published more books than anyone in Finland. He is a serious film connoisseur. He goes against the grain. More about him later!
16.30 SUOMENLINNA
Erkki Tuomioja / Unto Hämäläinen
Erkki Tuomioja belongs to the cadre of Finnish politicians who can be ranked as statesmen. He is also busy as a writer, with pamphlets, weighty historical tomes and a comprehensive series of political diaries. The double biography of the brothers Eino and Mauno Pekkala belongs to his important works of Finnish political history, starting from the imperial years and culminating at the beginning of the Cold War. The world changed violently, as did Finland. In the Social Democratic Party the brothers refused to join the Civil War. They were left of center but kept a margin to Communists. During WWII they belonged to the Peace Opposition, against Finland Waffenbrüderschaft with Hitler. That is why they were in demand after the war, Mauno Pekkala as prime minister and Eino Pekkala as minister of justice. In 1927 Eino Pekkala had been kidnapped from a meeting of the Commission of the Constitution (!) by extreme right vigilantes of the Lapua Movement. After the downfall of Nazism, Eino Pekkala did not pursue revenge but justice. The brothers were always defenders of the rule of law. Erkki Tuomioja has written a book in which reality is more thrilling than fiction.
17.00 SUOMENLINNA
Tuomas Hoppu / Juha Kanerva
Tuomas Hoppu is a distinguished historian who has written remarkable books about Finnish wars, including the little-known contribution of Finns to the First World War. Together with Pertti Haapala he has edited Sisällissodan pikkujättiläinen, a compact giant about the Finnish Civil War in 1918, one of my favourite books. Its approach to the extremely complex subject is magisterial. It is even a lesson of lucidity in complexity.
Now Hoppu has written the first biography of Hugo Salmela (1884-1918) who became the commander of the northern front of the Red Guard in the Civil War. He led the exceptionally ferocious defense of Tampere and was accidentally killed in an explosion before the end of the war.
Hoppu goes beyond cliches and stereotypes. Even in wartime people are more than the sum of their contradictions. Salmela was a man of culture, a successful man of the theatre and an activist in the trade union movement. He was a rebel for freedom and justice with no military training, but history pushed him to the frontline of the bloodiest front of the bloody Finnish Civil War.
As I stumbled upon Panu Rajala, the authority and biographer of the great man of letters Mika Waltari (1908-1979), he gave me the yearbook of the Mika Waltari Society called Illusioni, after Waltari's breakthrough novel The Grand Illusion. At 220 pages, and 26 contributors, it is a rich survey into culture and history through the common protagonist. Themes include Egyptology, religion, France, Nazi Germany, Soviet espionage, horror, and Waltari's attitude to the cultural radicalism of the 1960s. Exemplary.
18.00 HAKANIEMI
Antti Blåfield, Erja-Outi Heino, Toni Stenström
Toni Stenström: Puola ja Suomi: yhteistyön historia [Poland and Finland: History of Collaboration]. 346 pp. Helsinki: Rosebud Books, 2025.
The parallel histories and experiences of Poland and Finland are the subject of two new books by Antti Blåfield & Erja-Outi Heino and Toni Stenström. Our geopolitical destinies have been different, based on different setups with key countries such as Germany and Russia. In the 1930s Poland belonged to the authoritarian zone, while Finland kept its democracy. WWII was incalculably more devastating for Poland, as well as its aftermath as a buffer zone in the Cold War. After the Cold War Poland has flourished but has been at times closer to authoritarianism again. During all these periods, Polish culture, including the cinema, has been highly appreciated in Finland. Andrzej Wajda, Krzysztof Kieslowski and many others have been feted and welcomed. The authors of the new books provide a foundation for more profound understanding of Poland from the Finnish viewpoint.
SUNDAY 26 OCT 2025
12.00 KRUUNUNHAKA
SUOMEN KUVALEHTI: MILLOIN SIVISTYKSESTÄ TULI TAAKKA? [untranslatable: "When Did Bildung Become a Burden?"]
Arto O. Salonen, Johanna Vuorelma / Matti Kalliokoski
Helmi Jyrkkänen, Janne Kotiaho, Kyösti Ylikulju & Sanna Karkulehto: Sivistyksen vuoksi [untranslatable]. Contributors: Ilkka Niiniluoto, Tarja Halonen, M. A. Numminen, Jari Ojala, Arto O. Salonen, Ilona Herlin, Seela Sella, Jarkko Martikainen, Iikka Kivi, Sanna Karkulehto, Tiina Parviainen, Sami Kolamo, Anni Vuohijoki, Kari Silvola, Quivine Ndomo, Johanna Vuorelma, Kirsi Piha, Janne Riiheläinen, Tuija Saresma, Juha Hurme, Oras Tynkkynen, Julia Thurén, Sixten Korkman, Jussi Jäppinen, Kaj Nyman, Piia Viitanen, Yrjö Sepänmaa, Kaarlo Hildén, Hannu L. T. Heikkinen, Liia-Maria Raippalinna, Kerttu Kotakorpi ja Anni Sinnemäki. 304 pp. Helsinki: Into, 2025.
Writing in English, I register that the keyword does not exist in English. Sivistys in Finnish is Bildung in German. In English the German word is also used, also in the expression Bildungsroman. A semantic question and a philosophical question. The excellent first chapter of the book is by the senior philosopher Ilkka Niiniluoto who covers a lot of ground, including Cicero, Turgot, Humboldt and the great Finn J. V. Snellman.
Whatever Bildung is, its must be constantly revived and reinvented. Arto O. Salonen stressed the responsibility of the limits of the planet based on the Aristotelian ideal of the golden mean. Johanna Vuorelma commented the topical over-emphasis on polarization. From a Finnish perspective, we have endured much more polarized times before. We can handle the current situation also.
I have been worrying about the downfall of culture in recent years. After the Helsinki Book Fair I am less worried. I did not feel polarization but discovered passion for the sake of culture emerging from different social orientations. I was happy to register many children and young people enthusiastic about the programme.
