Let's Visit Finland (1935)

[Music] For centuries, Finland was a battleground, the theater of war between the conflicting imperial ambitions of Sweden and Russia. But in 187 it became part of the Russian Empire as a self-governing duche until in 1917 revolution overthrew the Tsaris regime and Finland gained her independence. The ravages of war and the destruction by innumerable fires have left little of historic interest in Helsingforce, the capital, though there still exist a number of the old wooden houses resting solidly on huge granite foundations and gracing many of the side streets. [Music] Some of the early efforts of Finnish architects to utilize the national reserves of granite as a building material are also still standing. [Music] But in the streets, Droskis, which might have stepped from a page of Russian history, still ply for hire in the shadow of an equally Russian church and the glittering white cathedral of St. Nicholas, which dominates the old city. But Helsing Force is building a new city. She is struggling to break away from the ornate cosmopolitan influence of foreign domination and create an original individual style of her own. In the market square, the railway station, a challenging structure stands boldly conceived in red granite. The parliament building is simple and austere, while the many dazzling white factories show no allegiance either to a classical or a romantic pattern. [Music] A bird's eyee view of the new suburbs shows the carefully planned housing estates stretching away into beautiful surroundings of forest and lake. They consist almost entirely of severely designed blocks of flats built of reinforced concrete. [Music] The roads between are pleasantly laid out with trees and vivid beds of flowers, while on a slight hill rises an impressive church of granite. The harbor lined with up-to-date keys and warehouses. The busy streets and imposing offices all give evidence of the commercial importance of Helsing Force. And as a relief from the strain of city life, there are many beautiful parks and gardens containing examples in staty of Finland's awakening appreciation for art. But Helsinkforce, besides being the capital, is the terminus of a road which leads northward for more than a thousand miles. right through the heart of Finland and finally making contact with the port of Lina Hamari, 300 m beyond the polar circle on the shores of the Arctic Ocean. After leaving the capital, the road for 20 mi is of concrete winding through pleasantly undulating country where pine and furwoods alternate with land cleared for agriculture. [Music] Machines for reaping are unknown. And in consequence, the sythe still reigns supreme. To dry the corn, the sheav are impaled on wooden poles fixed in the ground. And at harvest time, they form one of the most striking features of the Finnish countryside. [Music] The road continues over numerous streams and rivers and usually spans them with a double arched bridge of granite blocks. The peasant dwelling from a distance gives a picturesque impression surrounded by golden fields of corn and dark green pine trees. But close to they are seen to be rough wooden structures which in their crudness of construction are reminiscent of the Middle Ages. [Music] The scene changes gradually after 100 miles. The corn fields slowly giving way to country that is more hilly, more thickly wooded and interspersed with lakes and rivers. Finland is called the land of a thousand lakes, though actually there are some 60,000 of them. And from any hilltop there stretches an imposing panorama of green foliage and sparkling blue water. [Music] For 300 m, the road runs through similar surroundings until it comes into another district of Cornlands, where curious one-storied windmills stand in great numbers. From here, the road skirts the shores of the Gulf of BNA for a short distance, and the blue waters are in many places only a few yards from the highway. Then comes the first and only really important town on the whole route, Olu. A great river tumbles down to the Gulf, dividing the town into three, and great steel girder bridges have been erected to span these arms of water. The cobblestone streets are likely to snap the strongest carpring and seem to be laid with absolutely no regard to level. The buildings, including the cathedral, are of wood, many of them having elaborate and ornate facads, and little in common with the domestic architecture of more Western Europe. [Music] Leaving Olu, the road crosses a number of rivers and is carried over them on bridges which serve both for rail and road, demanding extreme caution to prevent a head-on collision. Down these rivers comes the wealth of Finland as they are used to float the great trunks of timber which are felled far in land. From the mighty forests of the interior is drawn a supply of wood which brings to the country a sum of4 million pounds annually. [Music] [Music] [Music] The rivers provide the chief method of transporting the timber for many hundreds of miles down to the sawmills on the coast. [Music] But by the roadside too are stacks waiting to be carted in lorries. [Music] Very soon these logs will be thorn into boards to become in all probability pseudo Elizabethan bungalows in a developed suburban estate. The rough dusty road continues to wind through districts where lumbering is the sole occupation. The further north we go, the less frequent bridges become, and rivers have to be crossed in many cases on a primitive type of ferry. A sturdy cable is stretched from bank to bank, running over a pulley at each end of the ferry, which is made to move by heaving on a wooden handle suitably shaped to grip the wire. [Music] The ferryman's daughter, though small, nonetheless pulls her weight just as much as the ferryman and his passengers. Every 3 years, the government auctions these feries, and they're given to the one who will undertake to work them for the ensuing period for the lowest amount. So, efficiency is hardly to be expected, and it's no unusual thing to spend an hour or more crossing a river 50 yard across. For a further 100 miles, the scene changes to one where once again agriculture is the chief occupation of the peasantry. And dotted over the pleasant corn are many queerly shaped little churches. Built entirely of wood and painted white. The farm dwellings are characterized by the long poles with a bucket on one end and a counterbalance on the other which are used for raising water from the wells. Hay stacks are squat affairs covered with mud and resembling a giant Christmas cake. As this crop growing region is left behind, the scenery becomes wilder. And at Robanimi comes a great thrill as the imaginary line marking the Arctic Circle is passed. [Music] But the name Arctic is belied by the luxurant vegetation and the well-fed cattle which move sleepily over the road looking with rather bored curiosity at the approach of a car. Horses too with glistening goldenhaired coats seem to thrive in these northern climates. [Music] In the fields, the almost medieval sledge is used for carting hay, which in summer grows in abundance [Music] of Where coal is an unknown commodity, stacks of wood provide the winter's fuel. While with water only procurable from wells and brooks, the housewife takes her garments to the latter, lights a fire, boils the copper, and sets about the washing in the open air. So the road leads northward into Laplair, but now it is a road in name only. Its surface is but a succession of rubble, boulders, stones, and potholes over which a speed of 15 mph is a very good average. [Music] However, since it's repaired from soil dug from the ditches to the wayside, that is when it's repaired at all, this contract service is really quite understandable. [Music] But Lapland has its compensations, and those who linger here by the side of the Arctic Highway may see one of the most striking animals of these northern latitudes, the reindeer. Famous at least as the legendary steed of Santa Claus. They feed on green shoots in summer, but in the winter on the lychen or reindeer moss growing in the forests and on rocks. They belong entirely to the laplanders who in the summer while their reindeer are out grazing in the mountains, spend their time in log huts beside the rivers, fishing or growing a few crops. Over every hut as a kind of national emblem is a reindeer's antler. The Laplanders are a picturesque hardy race who spend most of their life out ofdoors and wear a type of handworked national costume which has changed little through the centuries. The headdresses in particular are strikingly made in the most vivid colors. While on the feet, high leather boots with toe caps cocked up into a point. They are highly skilled in craftsmanship and the women in particular knit and weave garments of the most intricate patterns. [Music] A feature of the countryside that now continues to become more and more conspicuous is the rapidly diminishing size of the trees. All plant life has an increasingly stunted appearance as the bumpy road nears its end. In the distance, gray shapes loom up. The horizon has a cold and oblique appearance. And in a few miles, the bare mountains of Finland's northern coastline come into view. Skirting the shores of granite bound lakes, winding past rocky points and huge crags. The road finally reached terminus at the deep water harbor of Lena Hamari. From Helsing Force, it stretches for a thousand miles to the edge of the Arctic Ocean, where in summer the sun never sets for 60 days, but over which winter throws its mantle of total darkness for several long months. It keeps contact with those who dwell, 1200 miles from the North Pole on the gaunt, wild shores that bound the steely gray water of the Arctic Ocean. [Music]