ABSTRACT
The emergence of the Finnish modern polity turned out to be quite different from the idealistic picture the Fennomans had envisaged, and the processes whereby it was achieved were anything but smooth and predictable. At first, the Finnish modern polity was more about creating a social order where the place of the individual would not be determined at birth, and where the individual would be regarded as a sovereign agent with regard to the rule of law. The emergence of voluntary organisations on a large scale, such as the Finnish revivalist movement, the temperance movement, and the voluntary fire brigades, contributed to the creation of the modern nation state. The temperance movement and youth organisations were in the beginning of the twentieth century larger in number than the Social Democratic Party and the trade unions, and for a few decades they continued to be a source of solidarity and national integration.
