But he places the main responsibility with the upper class, who, if nothing else, is educated and hence should know better. Linna does not hide that the rank and file soldiers, too, can let themselves be caught up in Greater Finland fantasies and pure trigger-happiness. The Greater Finland dreams are another matter. In a way, this is as much a book about the Finnish Civil War as a novel about the Continuation War!įor the private soldiers, the purpose of the latter is mainly to push the Red Army out of the areas it took with force from Finland during the Winter War. Instead, its dramatic core lies in the relationship between the private soldiers and their officers: a mirror of the class struggle between the people and the 'masters'. It is significant that the conflict in The Unknown Soldier is not in relation to the outer enemy, the Soviet Union.
His critique of the Finnish class society constitutes perhaps the most central theme of the novel, and as a reader one cannot help but sense a strong, personal indignation exuding from the author. He is also the one character in the novel who most clearly has seen through the class related aspect and is capable of expressing his dissatisfaction with 'the masters'.įor Linna this issue has highest priority. Otherwise, most of the critique against the Finnish Army's advance into East Karelia is expressed though draftee Corporal Lahtinen.
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