In memoriam: Runeberg
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Topic: History
In Febuary Finland celebrated the 200th anniversary of the great Finnish poet J.L. Runeberg. Today 127 years ago he died.

Runeberg was the father of Finnish moral identity, as he used folk traditions in his poetry and established through that a somewhat idealistic picture of the Finnish nation. Thanks to his creations Europe started to see Finnishness as an equal one among the other nationalities.

Besides his work as a writer he was an active politician, journalist and teacher. Politically he represented the conservative line, which followed the official ideology under the Russian Imperium.

Runeberg was born on 5.2.1804 in Pietarsaari. He died on 6.5.1877 in Porvoo.