The Petersburg years of ‚Marski’ — Marshall Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim — in the Finnish novel of Paavo Rintala "My Grandmother and Mannerheim"

Abstract

The article concentrates on presenting a literary picture of the Marshall of Finland C.G.E. Mannerheim from the time of his service in the Tsar’s army in Petersburg, which was created by of the most prominent Finnish writers after World War II in his trilogy My Grandmother and Mannerheim. The writer tries to settle with the myth of Marshall Mannerheim which was created in the awareness of the Fins starting from his return to Finland from Russia in 1917 and participation in the 1918 civil war (he was the commander-in-chief of the new-born Finnish army). It was then when the former Tsarist officer and general for the first managed to save the independence of the country, which had been regained only a few months before. In the first part of the trilogy, which is the object this analysis, Rintala concentrates on a period which was very important for the formation of Mannerheim’s personality during his stay in Saint Petersburg — in the Mikolayevska School of Cavalry and his officer’s service in the Tsar’s personal guard. The article stresses those moments in the novel, which in the literary picture created by the writer were to demythicize the figure of the future Marshall and give him features of and ordinary human being. As Rintala stresses it, the formation of these qualities of character which contributed to the future military and political carrier of Mannerheim took place during the years of his stay and service in Petersburg.