History of Finland
The history of Finland begins around 9,000 BC during the end of the last glacial period. Stone Age cultures were Kunda, Comb Ceramic, Corded Ware, Kiukainen, and Pöljä cultures. The Finnish Bronze Age started in approximately 1,500 BC and the Iron Age started in 500 BC and lasted until 1,300 AD. Finnish Iron Age cultures can be separated into Finnish proper, Tavastian, and Karelian cultures. The earliest written sources mentioning Finland start to appear from the 12th century onwards when the Catholic Church started to gain a foothold in Southwest Finland.
Grand Duchy of Finland
However, Finland did have a nationalistic revolution in the 1830s, one that was based around literature. Thus, this was the beginning of the Fennoman movement, a nationalistic movement that would remain in Finland until its independence. In 1831, the Finnish Literary Society was founded, which formed on the basis of appreciation of the Finnish language. Finnish was not represented as language of the scholarly elite, as most printed academic works, novels, and poetry was written in either Swedish or Russian. Copying the German reading rage, Lesewut, and subsequent Swedish mania, Finland entered the reading frantic by the 1830s. This rage heightened in 1835 with the publication of Kalevala, the Finnish epic. Kalevala's influence on Finland was massive, and strengthened Finnish nationalism and unity, despite the epic being poetry or stories about Finnish folklore. The quest for literature expanded into the 1840s and 1850s, and caught the eye of the Finnish church and the Russian crown. Finnish newspapers, such as Maamiehen Ystävä (The Farmer's Friend), began being published in both urban and rural areas of Finland. Despite this, Finland's literature movement was met with opposition from the Swedish academic elite, the church, and the Russian government. Archbishop Edvard Bergenheim called for a double censorship on works that go against the church and works that are socialist or communist. The reactionary policies of the Lutheran Church convinced the also reactionary Nicholas I to prohibit the publishing of all Finnish works that were not religious or economical, as such works would have been considered revolutionary and would convince the Finnish majority to revolt against the church and crown. Despite that, the censorship only fueled Finland's language strife and the Fennomanian movement.