As a young literary critic for Helsingin Sanomat, I was enthralled by Finnish modernism and did my best to attract more readers to it. I praised the early poems of my friend Pentti Saarikoski.

When it came to literary realism, I may have been somewhat blind. In my review of Väino Linna’s Under the North Star trilogy, I compared it negatively to the works of Frans Emil Sillanpää and Joel Lehtonen. In hindsight that was rather foolish, as Linna’s literary intentions were quite different. But even then I recognised the social importance of Akseli Koskela, one of the central characters in the trilogy. I wrote that it was a sign of the nation’s healing wounds and internal unity that a new literary hero could come from the ranks of Red Finland. My review of Linna’s work reflected the phase I was going through as a critic: as a modernist, I did not give enough credit to the artistic qualities of its language. At the same time, my awakening social consciousness saw the national and societal significance of a novel dealing with the Finnish Civil War.

The books of Väinö Linna deserve much of the credit for literature’s considerable influence on Finnish society. Nevertheless, I understood that studying Literature was not enough, and I chose Sociology as my minor. A course given by Professor Erik Allardt taught me how to adopt a scientific approach.