history

There used to be a sort of socialist movement and commune in a rather obscure place called Munsala in Ostrobothnia, about 80 or so kilometers north of Vaasa. The Munsala socialism, or Munsala radicalism, they called it. It was started by people from the region who returned after having emigrated to the US in the late 1800's. Many of them had found that US labour rights were absolutely fucked, and had began to work with various labour movements, and eventually discovered Marxism. A few dudes that returned home to Munsala in the early 1900's started spreading the good word of Karl Marx in the region, and it was very popular among the almost entirely agrarian proletariat. It was a also rather religious movement. The local preachers took to incorporating the teachings of Marx in their sermons. They emphasised pacifism, sobriety, education, and parliamentarianism.

That is, until the civil war broke out. The Munsala socialists mostly tried to stay out of it, but since the whites had decided to base themselves in Vaasa (80km away) and Pietarsaari/Jakobstad (30km away), they found themselves pretty much at the heart of enemy territory. They were often harassed by whites and cops, and used guerrilla style hidey holes in the local forests to hide. Many who didn't hide were captured and executed or fled to Sweden. During the second world war, many Munsala socialists refused to fight, because of the finnish state's alliance with Hitler and therefore its support for fascism. The able bodied men went back into hiding in their old forest hidey holes, while the rest of the village kept watch for cops and whites. In the 1930's, a Munsala socialist and teacher named Walter Blomqvist fled to the US. He eventually ended up in Cuba, where he supposedly hung out with Castro and Che and took part in the revolution (here is an interview with the guy, in swedish)

The Munsala Socialism is said to have been eradicated in the 70's, after fur farming became a thing. It brought in vast amounts of money and resources to the thus far poor agrarian community, which "did away with any need for socialism".

This whole thing is of great personal meaning to me, because I grew up quite close to Munsala. I've driven through Munsala a fair few times. My grandma and grandpa both have roots in Munsala. Me and many in my family speak the same (or a similar) swedish dialect spoken in Munsala. So by all accounts, this should be common knowledge, or at least something I would have been taught, but no. I never ever once, not even a litte, heard of this before. Not a word about it in school or anything. Unbelievable. First time I heard of this was in maybe 2015, when a random woman at an anarchist café in Turku (southwest finland) overheard me saying something in swedish. She could tell I was from Ostrobothnia by the dialect, I guess. She asked if I'm from there, and I said that yeah, but I didn't really like it because of its still very prevalent white (both as in mayo and as in wrong side of the civil war) mindset and culture. She told me to not feel bad about it, because there is a vast and colourful history of labour movements and class struggle there, "for example the Munsala Socialists".

Finnish natopedia article: https://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Munsalan_radikalismi

Here is one article and videos about it in swedish: https://svenska.yle.fi/a/7-883429

full documentary, also in swedish: https://areena.yle.fi/1-4261007

Doesn't seem to be available with subtitles either. It's unfortunately very hard to find any more information about this in English. Erased history, I suppose.