Pan-Finnicism
Zacharias Topelius published an essay called “Den Finska Literaturen och dess Framtid" (transl.
The Finnish Literature and Its Future) in 1844 where he states the following:[3] Two hundred years ago few would have believed that the Slavic tribe would attain the prominent (and constantly growing) position it enjoys nowadays in the history of culture.
What if one day the Finnish tribe, which occupies a territory almost as vast, were to play a greater role on the world scene than one could expect nowadays?
This led to Turanism becoming the mainstream in the Fennoman movement, and Arthur Castrén, who was a prominent fennomanist, believed that based on his research, the Finno-Ugric, Turkic, Mongolian and Tungusic languages were all of the same origins and family.
[3] The developments of Pan-Finnicism were popular in Finland to an extent, however in other more literate regions such as Hungary, where ideas about being related to the ancient Scythians and other Turkic ideas about the Hungarian ethnic make-up were being formed due to their cultural isolation, the influence of the Turanian society and the perceived threat of Pan-Slavism which was promoted by the Russian Empire.
We must, however, give up all possible kinship with the Hellenes, with the ten tribes of Israel, with great and privileged nations in general, and console ourselves with the notion that “everyone is heir to his own deeds” and that real nobility has to be achieved with one's own skill.
The Russian Empire, specifically the Arkhangelsk Governorate began to react poorly to what they deemed harmful foreign influence, in Summer 1908, the Governor of Arkhangelsk, Ivan Vasilyevich Sosnovsky deemed that the effect of Pan-Finnicism was minimal, however still urged for the Russification of White Karelia, by building Russian-language educational facilities.
[13] Pan-Finnicism was also a major policy within the Eastern Karelian Military Administration until 1943, where Finno-Ugric peoples where set to a higher standard than the East Slavs, who were sent to camps, leading to an alleged genocide according to the Russian Federation.
[14] In East Karelia, with the East Karelian uprising due to rising food shortages, growing nationalism and lack of respect for cultural autonomy by Bolshevik Russia, cultivated into the rise of various nationalistic and Pan-Finnic militias and paramilitary units being established, both in Karelia and Finland, most famously the Metsäsissit (Forest Guerillas).
[16] Pan-Fennicism, and its sub-ideology, the Greater Finland idea were now supported by many Karelian people following the Finnish Invasion of East Karelia due to their liberation from the Soviet Union and their new ability to use their language more.
[19][20] Estonian pan-nationalist sentiment was therefore limited to volunteers such as the Infantry Regiment 200 following the annexation of Estonia by the Soviet Union, as Finland was seen as the only country left to defend the Finno-Ugric peoples and therefore to unify them, which gave more way to the Greater Finland idea to become more mainstream than an equal union between nations, as all other "nations" had been occupied by the Soviets.
The Hungarians provided a volunteer battalion to the Finns during the Winter War and with the two nations fighting on the same side during Operation Barbarossa, relations only improved.
