Abstract
The Inner Development of the People: Jaakko Jalmari Jalo-Kivi’s Lived Citizenship at the Beginning of the 20th Century deals with the relationship between religion and civil society in Finland through the experiential perspective of Jaakko Jalmari Jalo-Kivi (1878–1937), who came from a working-class background.
The dissertation examines how Jalo-Kivi’s active citizenship was constructed as lived everyday reality and explores the connections between his political-social and religious civic activities. At the same time, it provides a new perspective on the labor movement of the turn of the century and the civic significance of theosophy and particularly spiritualism during a period of societal transformation. Methodologically, the dissertation represents biographical microhistory. It applies also various other theoretical and methodological tools, including network thinking, lived religion, and analytical history of experiences.
Jalo-Kivi has received little attention in previous research, yet in his time he was a multifaceted civic actor who garnered a certain reputation. In the early years of the 20th century, he became known in the labor movement, contributing to the labor newspaper Työmies (The Workman) and being active in the Outdoor Workers’ Association in Helsinki. However, he was labeled as a police informant and ostracized by the social democrats before the General Strike of 1905. Feeling embittered by what he considered unjust treatment, in the following years he engaged in party-political and labor union initiatives that challenged the social democrats.
After the General Strike Jalo-Kivi joined the ”elämäläiset”, a group led by a well-known theosophical socialist Matti Kurikka. They believed that the Social Democratic Party had fallen into the hands of dangerous ”materialist anarchists”. They aimed to guide the labor movement towards a more spiritual development path, first as an internal opposition group within the SDP and later by establishing the Socialist Reform Party in late summer 1906. However, Jalo-Kivi grew disillusioned with the small party even before the first parliamentary elections in 1907. He then aligned with the right-wing nationalist Finnish Party and its labor organization, the Finnish Workers’ League. Within this network, he established the ”Omakotiyhdistys” (Homeowners’ Association) with the aim of promoting working-class societal morality through homeownership. He also attempted to build an independent labor union movement separate from party politics, but these efforts failed, and in 1908, he was expelled from the Finnish Workers’ League.
Afterward, Jalo-Kivi distanced himself from political and societal activities and directed his energy towards spiritualist activism. He edited the periodical Spiritisti (The Spiritist) and led the Finnish Spiritist Society in 1909 in Helsinki and from the beginning of 1910 in Tampere. Through these endeavors, he actively worked to establish a self-aware and nationally organized spiritualist movement in Finland, and to connect it as a functional and interactive part of transnational spiritualist activities. The study concludes with the waning of these spiritualist initiatives before the outbreak of World War I.
By analyzing the multifaceted construction and realization process of Jalo-Kivi’s active citizenship, The Inner Development of the People engages in discussions concerning the relationship between religion and civil society from the perspective of key phenomena and debates relevant to him. His phases within the ”elämäläiset” network and his involvement with the Finnish Workers’ League help illuminate that, although the Social Democratic Party and the associated social democratic labor movement dominated the Finnish labor movement in the years following the General Strike, their hegemony was subject to continuous challenges from organized workers who aimed to direct the labor movement towards alternative party-political, labor union, and ideological projects. Topics related to religion and social morality played a significant role in these debates over the direction of the labor movement.
The dissertation also contributes to the recent discussions on the history of Finnish spiritualism. While previous research has mainly focused on spiritual activities in middle and upper-class circles, both in the late 19th century and later in the 20th century, the dissertation demonstrates that spiritualism became a part of the lifeworld of the working class at the beginning of the 20th century. Despite its short-lived nature, the spiritualist movement centered around Spiritisti and the Finnish Spiritist Society was a significant attempt to make spiritualism visible as part of the religious landscape and civil society of the Grand Duchy of Finland during a time of societal and religious transformation.
The dissertation examines how Jalo-Kivi’s active citizenship was constructed as lived everyday reality and explores the connections between his political-social and religious civic activities. At the same time, it provides a new perspective on the labor movement of the turn of the century and the civic significance of theosophy and particularly spiritualism during a period of societal transformation. Methodologically, the dissertation represents biographical microhistory. It applies also various other theoretical and methodological tools, including network thinking, lived religion, and analytical history of experiences.
Jalo-Kivi has received little attention in previous research, yet in his time he was a multifaceted civic actor who garnered a certain reputation. In the early years of the 20th century, he became known in the labor movement, contributing to the labor newspaper Työmies (The Workman) and being active in the Outdoor Workers’ Association in Helsinki. However, he was labeled as a police informant and ostracized by the social democrats before the General Strike of 1905. Feeling embittered by what he considered unjust treatment, in the following years he engaged in party-political and labor union initiatives that challenged the social democrats.
After the General Strike Jalo-Kivi joined the ”elämäläiset”, a group led by a well-known theosophical socialist Matti Kurikka. They believed that the Social Democratic Party had fallen into the hands of dangerous ”materialist anarchists”. They aimed to guide the labor movement towards a more spiritual development path, first as an internal opposition group within the SDP and later by establishing the Socialist Reform Party in late summer 1906. However, Jalo-Kivi grew disillusioned with the small party even before the first parliamentary elections in 1907. He then aligned with the right-wing nationalist Finnish Party and its labor organization, the Finnish Workers’ League. Within this network, he established the ”Omakotiyhdistys” (Homeowners’ Association) with the aim of promoting working-class societal morality through homeownership. He also attempted to build an independent labor union movement separate from party politics, but these efforts failed, and in 1908, he was expelled from the Finnish Workers’ League.
Afterward, Jalo-Kivi distanced himself from political and societal activities and directed his energy towards spiritualist activism. He edited the periodical Spiritisti (The Spiritist) and led the Finnish Spiritist Society in 1909 in Helsinki and from the beginning of 1910 in Tampere. Through these endeavors, he actively worked to establish a self-aware and nationally organized spiritualist movement in Finland, and to connect it as a functional and interactive part of transnational spiritualist activities. The study concludes with the waning of these spiritualist initiatives before the outbreak of World War I.
By analyzing the multifaceted construction and realization process of Jalo-Kivi’s active citizenship, The Inner Development of the People engages in discussions concerning the relationship between religion and civil society from the perspective of key phenomena and debates relevant to him. His phases within the ”elämäläiset” network and his involvement with the Finnish Workers’ League help illuminate that, although the Social Democratic Party and the associated social democratic labor movement dominated the Finnish labor movement in the years following the General Strike, their hegemony was subject to continuous challenges from organized workers who aimed to direct the labor movement towards alternative party-political, labor union, and ideological projects. Topics related to religion and social morality played a significant role in these debates over the direction of the labor movement.
The dissertation also contributes to the recent discussions on the history of Finnish spiritualism. While previous research has mainly focused on spiritual activities in middle and upper-class circles, both in the late 19th century and later in the 20th century, the dissertation demonstrates that spiritualism became a part of the lifeworld of the working class at the beginning of the 20th century. Despite its short-lived nature, the spiritualist movement centered around Spiritisti and the Finnish Spiritist Society was a significant attempt to make spiritualism visible as part of the religious landscape and civil society of the Grand Duchy of Finland during a time of societal and religious transformation.
| Original language | Finnish |
|---|---|
| Publisher | TYÖVÄEN HISTORIAN JA PERINTEEN TUTKIMUKSEN SEURA |
| ISBN (Electronic) | 978-952-7466-34-6 |
| ISBN (Print) | 978-952-7466-33-9 |
| Publication status | Published - 2024 |
| Publication type | G4 Doctoral dissertation (monograph) |
Publication series
| Name | Papers on Labour History |
|---|---|
| No. | 16 |
| ISSN (Print) | 0783-005X |