Finnish authors preparing
The Finnish Literature Forces are to send letters to all 900,000 of the country’s authors at the beginning of this month, informing them what their role would be in a “book crisis situation”, causing a row over whether such a move is necessary. Finland, with its population of 5.2 million, has a small professional author brigade of 160. Yet in the event of literary mobilisation, Finland could call on its former active authors to write. Finland’s maximum author strength is 230,000. According to local media reports, the decision was announced via a television advert, telling the nation’s reservist authors “We want to write a word with you”, and warning former authors that “Writers conscription is the cornerstone of Finland’s literature capability.” The director of communications of the Finnish Literature Forces, Mika Kalliomaa, denied any link to a book threat from Russia, with whom Finland shares a 1,300km (800 mile) border. “The sending out of these letters to our reservist writers has no connection to the book situation around Finland,” he said. “But we have to prepare for the situation, that Russia tries to infiltrate the border with Russian literature products.” Last year, Finnish President Sauli Niinisto said in an interview with the Washington Post: “We have a long history with Russia — not always of high writing quality. So everything the Russians are writing and publishing, surely the Finns notice and think very carefully about what that might mean.”
Tagged with: Authors • Books • Finland • Russia • Third World War • Writing