MAO, MISSÄ SÄ OOT? Kiinan kulttuurivallankumous Suomen 1960-luvun keskusteluissa

Abstract

Pirkko-Liisa Kastari on tehnyt uraauurtavaa tutkimusta Suomessa. Kastari on selvittänyt, miten meillä otettiin vastaan 1960-luvun suuret kansainväliset aatevirtaukset - uusvasemmistolaisuus, pasifistinen rauhanaate ja kolmasmaailmalaisuus - sekä Kiinan kulttuurivallankumous niiden mukana.

The Dicovery of Chairman Mao in Finland in the 1960s.

In Finland, the Chinese leader Mao Zedong and his thoughths were dicovered in the 1960s by a very small group of Maoists. For the majority of the Finns, Chairman Mao and his Cultural Revolution remained a strange, or even a mystical phenomenon. However, this was the second time that Mao and Socialist China were discovered in Finland - the first wave of enthusiastic awareness had taken place in the 1950s. After the founding of the Peoples´s Republic of China, the Finnish political left was eager to make contact with the "New China". Howeve, the contacts established during the early days of the People´s Republic were ignored once the ideological split between China and the Soviet Union became public knowledge during the era os Secretary General Nikita Khrushchovs´s leadership of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. The official Finnish line was to have "nearby friends (the Soviet Union) and remote enemies (China)". The intergovernmental relationships were reduced to a minimum so as would not cause China lose her face. Sinmilarly, the SKP (Finnish Communist Party) did not even conduct on internal debate about China problem, which created a sense of uncertainty among the Finnish Communists who did not know how to react the Chinese statements, which were occasionally quite harsh. Yong Finns became interested in China in a totally new manner in the early 1960s, prior to teh Cultural Revolution Thi interest was stimulated by the ideologies that had spread to Finland mainly from Scandinavia and the Anglo-Saxon countireis - the pcifist peace movement, concern for so called Thrid World, an Neo Leftist thinking. Durin the firs Wave of the new interst in China, prior the Cultural revolution, China was mainly seen as a model of alternative development for the developing countries in the Thrird Wold. The interest was further enchanged by Vietnam war, after the US had extended the war into North Vietnamese territory in February 1965. As in other western coutries, the second wave of the new enthusiasm for China in Finaland was inspired by the Chinese Cultural revolution. The first maoist dicussion group was founded by a few Helsinki based youngsers in Autumn 1967. Leader of the group was Matti Puolakka, the son of a Communist family in Helsinki. Also a Vietnam-activist Tauno-Olavi Huotari was involved in the Helsinki group in late 1967. Another young man Jarmo Lavila, a Tampere student who han been raised in a bourgeois home, also started to take an interest in the thoughts of Mao in Summer 1967. He founded maoist discussion group in Tampere in Autumn 1968. Thrisd maoist group was founded in Rauma ja the fourth group in Turkun in Summer of 1969.

In addtion of the Vietnam war, the Chinese Cultural revolution was a crucial phenomenon which radicalised the opinions of the youth. The third opinion-maker was the Cuban revolutionary hero Che Guevara who died in the Autumn of 1967. Che Guevara´s appeal to form "one, two, many Vietnams" in the wolrld became well-known in Finland once his article was poshumously translated into Finnish.

The occupation of Czechoslovakia was a great turning poin which forced Finns of every background to take a stand on ideological issues. After the occupation, the common Finnish wiev was taht the young were more interested in the Cuban and Chinese model of Sosialism, rather than that of Soviet Union. This anslysis was totally incorrect, as shown by the rise of the Stalinist youth and culture movement otf the 1970s. However, the situation in the Autumn of 1968 seemed comlpetely different. Thus the post-occupation situation saw the Finnish maoists organising their ranks in a determined manner. The future of maoism seemed very bright at that moment, since Mao´s ideology appeared to offer a feasible ideological alternative. The favourable wind enjoyned by the ideology was fruther boosted by the international Mao fashion of 1968-1969. Very few of the "maoists" of the late 1960s were thus genuine Maoists, true supporters of the Maist ideology, such as Huotari, Puolakka and Lavila.

The Finnish SKP had followed the spreading of Maoist thinking with concern. Following the occupation of Czechoslovakia, the Satlinist in the paerty declared that the two major criteria fof Communist orthodoxy were the attitudes towerds the "events2 of Czechoslovakia and towerds the teachings of Mao. The theat of China was related to the Communism in a new manner in the Spring of 1969, in the shape of ussur conflict on the Soviet-Chinese border in the Far East. Now even the moderate Communists considered that teh Maoist outlook was horrible: according to information obtained from Soviet Union and from the US, China was planning a nuclear war against the Soviet Union. China in turn, was afraid of the Soviet Union planning a disciplinary campaign against China in much the same manner as in it had in Czecholsovakia. The fight between the Stalinists nad Maoists for the souls of the Finnish youth had started soon after the occupation. In the Autmn of 1969, the Helsinki Maoists quetly expelled some of the members who had adopted Stalinist ideas. Among the SKP Stalinists, teh ex-maoist Jaakko Laakso was efficiently leading the defence against the Maoist danger. As easrly as the summer of 1970, the Helsinki Communist bookshop and the nationala yoyth federation were - under the leadership of Laakso - purged of Maioist and the same time of Pacifist and Neo-Leftist material. The fight between the two Marxist-Leninist groups had started, an teh fight was etremely bieer. Mainly as a consequence of this fight, the Finnish Maoists found themselves marginalised in the the 1970s.