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Suicides in Finland during the latter half of the 19thcentury and at the beginning of the 20th centuryToivo Nygård aa Professor of Finnish History , University of Tampere , Lahokantie 11, 40640, JyväskyläPublished online: 23 Jun 2008.

To cite this article: Toivo Nygård (1991) Suicides in Finland during the latter half of the 19th century and at the beginning ofthe 20th century, Scandinavian Journal of History, 16:4, 297-312

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297

Suicides in Finland During the Latter Halfof the 19th Century and at the Beginningof the 20th Century

Toivo Nygård

1. The meaning of suicide for the historian

Suicide, the events leading up to it and the events consequent upon it have earlierbeen seen to belong to the fields of medicine, psychiatry, psychology and sociol-ogy. In Finland as early as the 19th century representatives of the medicalprofession had seen fit to investigate its occurrence. They sought the "reasons" forthe phenomenon. Within the last few years in Finland a major interdisciplinaryresearch project on suicide has been carried out, based on extensive statisticalmaterial.1

The historian must admit to his own limitations. It is not for him to dig up fromhis sources anything more than reasons for so-called individual suicides fordescriptive purposes. What is, however, important for him are the factors which invarious ages were considered to have been contributory to the suicide. The historiancan contemplate suicide as one kind of "institution" to which a great number ofphenomena and problems accessible through historical research are connected. Thequestion in which the historian is primarily interested is: Is there a connectionbetween the suicide committed in Finland and the factors contributing to thegeneral economic-social and ideological-political development and critical periodstherein? If the conception is to be accepted that suicide can be seen as an institutionin society, consideration of the central problem should cast light on

1) points of departure and theories in researching suicide and their development,2) attitudes to suicide (legislation, popular opinion, the attitude taken by theChurch, the publicity value) and opinions as to what different ages deemed to besuicide,

Toivo Nygård, born 1943, Dr. philos., Professor of Finnish History at the University of Tampere, has written, Suur-Suomi vai

lähihcimolaisten auttaminen (1978). Itä-Karjalan pakolaiset 1917-1922 (1980) Suomalainen äärioikeisto maailman-sotien välillä (1989). Irtolaisuus ja sen kontrolli Suomessa (1985), Suomen palvelusväki 1600- luvulla (1989). He ispresently doing research on suicides in Finland during the latter half of the 19th Century and at the beginning of the 20th Century

Address: Lahokantie 11, 40640 Jyväskylä

1 See outline of the project in Suomalainen Itsemurha (Finnish Suicide) edited by Kalle Achte, OlaviLindfors, Juoko Lönnqvist and Markku Salosaari. Yliopistopaino (Helsinki, 1989), p. 189-209.

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3) the overall development of suicide cases, their distribution, and how theoccurrence of suicide in Finland compares to that of other countries,4) the factors which in different ages have been called the "reasons for suicide".

This article proposes to make passing reference to matters pertinent to 3) and 4).2

2. What the sources reveal

It is generally as well to treat with caution sources dealing with a subject like selfdestruction. Durkheim for his part relied on the "hard facts" of suicide statisticsand considered them "pure observation". Some researchers, however, began torealise that suicide statistics produced by medical and legal authorities, despitetheir apparent exactitude, were really only social products, series of numbersproduced by people who attached varying importance to these matters. This gaverise to the conclusion that statistics from different times and different countries donot stand up to comparison without reservation.3 However, so great was theinfluence of the mighty Emile that not withstanding such reservations his modusoperandi was adhered to.

Finland has some of the world's oldest suicide statistics. In 1750 parish priestswere required to keep registers of changes in the population. The figures publishedón the population and changes within it by the office established in 1865 were stillbased on records kept by the parish priest or his curates. Population tables, however,only record the number of those who took their own lives. In general, the recordingof suicidés and the accuracy of this in Finland, too, are the result on the one handof secular law on suicide and, on the other hand, of the attitude of the Church andits procedure in such cases, but also, thirdly, it is the result of the popular attitudeto suicide, that is, it is the result for the most part of those factors which surroundthe institution known as suicide, and which are actually an integral part of it.

Another body of source material, the reports of post mortem examinations(McdicoUcal obduktion af själfspillningar), is closely connected to legislation and theimportance attached by society to suicide. As early as 1726 a royal communicationto the Collegium Medicum decreed that a post mortem examination was to becarried out on all those who died from sudden or unknown causes. This decreewas supplemented in 1739 to the effect that a post mortem was to be performedon all those who were found dead in ditches or by the roadside. In 1889 animperial decree was issued in which Paragraph 8 stated that all those who hadtaken their own lives were to be subjected to a post mortem.4 The performance ofa post mortem examination rested since 1686 on another legal requirement. As theecclesiastical law of that year required burial using the short order of service forthose who had taken their own lives, a post mortem was obviously necessary toascertain if such was the case.

Ecclesiastical law further necessitated that it be established whether suicide hadbeen committed while the individual was in full command of his faculties or in a

2 A more comprehensive work (forthcoming) by the present author, to be published in spring 1992.3 Steve Taylor, Durkhelm and the Study of Suicide (London, 1982); Pertti Töttö, Sosiologia teoriana

modernista yhteiskumasta. (Tampere, 1989), p. 84.4 See the appropriate statues in Finnish Law.

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state of intoxication. For this reason a post mortem was needed even in the caseof obvious suicides although it was entirely superfluous in establishing the cause ofdeath, as for example in cases where an individual hanged himself. Contemporarydoctors were well aware of the problems attendant upon establishing the state ofmind at the time of committing suicide, that it was "clearly impossible if the onlyevidence is the result of the post mortem".5

There are available for use in this research two excellent sources offeringsystematic information. The totals calculated for post mortem reports and forcause of death (based on tables of the changes in the population) are not thesame. The difference may be attributed to the way in which these sources cameinto being. The general tendency is that until the 1880's the number of suicidesobtained from the post mortem reports was greater than that calculated from thestatistics on causes of death. After this time a post mortem was not performed onall suicides, and between 1904 and 1916 the proportion of suicides for which therewas a post mortem fell from 63% to 50%.

The researcher does not have to be unduly sceptical to begin to suspect that thefigures of the statistical office (obtained from the population figures) reflect thedesire of the clergy to give a highly "moral" and irreproachable picture of theirparishes - suicide was, after all, a sin. The officials responsible for law and orderand the doctors, on the other hand, were bound to do their duty once they hadbeen apprised of the matter. It must be born in mind when comparing figures thatthe occurrence of an apparently exact number in the source material does notmake the information in the document a "hard fact", as may have been suggested.

3. The extent and structure of suicide cases — in figures

3.1. Quantity

Throughout the period for which information is available, suicides in Finland haveincreased. This generally correct impression merits numerical exemplification.

When the figures for suicides in the 1920's and 1930's were high in comparisonwith other nations, Finland in the mid-19th century was very much on theperiphery of Europe. Per 100,000 of the population the suicide figures per year1850s were as follows:6

Denmark 28.8 (1856-60)Schleswig 20.9 (1856-60)Saxony 20.2 (1847-51)Holstein 17.3 (1856-60)Hanover 11.3 (1848-55)

Prussia 10.8 (1849-52)France 8.7 (1849-58)Norway 9.4 (1856-60)England 5.8 • (1852-56)Sweden 6.4 (1851-60)

5 F. W. Westerlund, Själfmorden i Finland 1861-1895. Statistisk sammanställning (Helsingfors, 1898), p. 9.6 Th. Saelan. Om själfmordet i Finland i statistiskt och rättmediciniskt afseende. (Helsingfors, 1864), p. 11-12.

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300 Toivo Nygård

BelgiumBavariaAustria

4.6,4.9,3.5,

(1856-60)(1842-44)(1839-47)

In the light of these figures, suicide may be seen as a kind of cultural disease:The more advanced a country's political and socio-economic development, themore individuals there appear to have been who - in the broad sense - gave upthe battle for life, or those who took no part in it from the very beginning.

Comparing Finland with Sweden is interesting as it can be assumed thatconditions in Finland and Sweden were similar due to the countries sharedhistory. On the other hand, when the link between Finland and Sweden wassevered, Sweden moved forward in many ways, among others economically andsocially at a different speed from Finland, which was now part of Russia. InSweden between 1851 and 1860 there were per 100,000 of the population 6.4suicides per year, which is clearly more than in Finland, where there were 4.2. Itis interesting here whether there was in Sweden a significant change in thefrequency of suicides, and if so, at what point that change came.

The rise which occurred in Finland was not exceptional. It is only that the risein Sweden began 10-or 20 years earlier. In Sweden the first turning point — ofsorts — occurred in the 1820's. The next major turning point, which for presentpurposes is particularly interesting, was once again 10 years earlier than inFinland, that is, in the 1880's. In the broad sense the turning point cameconsiderably earlier, in the 1860's, after which the trend continued in the sameway right until the 1910's. At this point the rise in Sweden levelled out and the1910 figure for frequency of suicide was not reached until the 1950's. Thedevelopment in Norway was much the same although the suicide percentage

Table 1. Suicides in Finland 1751-1920

Men Suicidesper 100,000

Women Suicidesper 100,000

Total Suicidesper 100,000

1751-601761-701771-801781-901791-1800

1801-101811-201821-301831-401841-50

1851-601861-701871-801881-901891-1900

1901-101911-20

43524659106

132190254349490

600510473702979

15332378

2.02.02.02.03.0

3.03.54.25.26.1

7.35.95.16.57.8

10.714.6

1114261023

2642557188

112143117167235

369667

0.50.51.00.50.6

0.60.80.8

.0

.1

.3

.61.2.5.8

2.54.1

54667269128

158233309420578

7126535908691214

1902.3045

1.21.31.21.11.7

1.82.12.53.03.8

4.23.73.14.04.8

6.69.3

Source: STV 1923, s. 67. Table 47; O. Elo, "Über Selbstmord und Selbstmörder in Finnland",Deutsche Zeitschrift für die Gesetzliche Medizin (1931).

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Table 2. Suicides in Sweden 1801-1910

Year Total Suicides/100,000 inhabitants

1801-1810 782 3.31811-1820 1047 4.21821-1830 1638 5.91831-1840 1891 6.31841-1850 2204 6.8

1851-1860 2321 6.41861-1870 3278 8.01871-1880 3809 8.71881-1890 5020 10.71891-1900 6316 12.8

1901-1910 8037 15.1

Source: Gustav Sundbärg, Bevölkerungstatistik Schwedens. 1750-1900, Tab. 63. Zahl der Selbstmorde,in den Jahren 1750-1900. Stockholm 1907, p. 151; Ann-Sofie Ohlander. Kärlek, död och frihet.Hisloriska uppsatser om människovärde och livsvillkor i Sverige (Stockholm, 1986), p. 60.

during the late 19th and early 20th centuries was surprisingly steady.7 The suicidedevelopment in both these countries was different from that in Finland.

3.2. Minor regional differences

Examination of the Finnish suicide figures district by district yields the interestinginformation that in the Vaasa province, famed for its violence8 in the latter half ofthe 19th century, suicides were very rare.

It would be easy to think (as did E. Morselli and É. Ferri) that murder (killing)and suicide somehow compensate the one for the other, that they are means ofshedding aggression, as the violence in the Vaasa area in the 19th century wasunprecedented in Finland. The provinces of Ostro-Bothnia and North Savolax didnot have many suicides, and are also known as strongholds of the "revivalist"movement. The conclusion might be drawn that one section of the populationcommitted their sinful souls to God's care rather than suffer themselves, and

Table 3. Suicides in Finland 1861-1895 province by province per 100,000 of the population

Year

1861-651866-701871-751876-801881-85

1886-901891-95

Uusimaa

8.48.07.57.06.3

5.97.6

Turku

4.04.03.73.63.4

3.75.4

Häme

4.56.53.14.74.6

5.66.3

Viipuri

4.05.03.63.94.53.44.2

Mikkeli

4.46.54.44.04.8

5.25.9

Kuopio

3.74.43.32.33.2

2.83.1

Vaasa

2.52.61.30.82.6

3.53.9

Oulu

3.63.01.52.62.0

2.72.6

7 Nils Retterstøl, "Suicide in Norway", in Suicide in different Cultures, edited by Norman Farberow(Baltimore, 1975) p. 80.

8 Heikki Ylikangas, Puukkojunkkareiden esiinmarisi. Väkivaltarikollisuus Etelä-Pohjanmaalla 1790-1825.(Kauruu, 1976), passim.

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another section of the population drove the knife into another person's side insteadof his own. It was pointed out in the 1900's that although an Irishman wasreluctant to harm himself, he was ferocious enough towards others. At thebeginning of the 19th century Ireland had relatively the lowest suicide rate inEurope, but the possibility of murder and manslaughter was 40 times that ofPrussia. The idea of the "Irish alternative" was evinced by John Reid as early asthe first half of the 19th century.9

3.3. Urban or rural

It merits investigation whether there are more suicides per capita in urban orrural areas. Generally it has been thought that the suicide risk is greater in urbanareas.

In 1820 only 5% of Finns were city-dwellers, in 1850 some 6.5%, in 1870 justover 7%, in 1890 about 10% and in 1910 about 16%.

In general suicides appear to have increased in the towns first, and only later inrural areas. In the 1870's, when the level of suicides was still generally low overthe century as a whole, the figure for urban areas showed a clear rise. This decadesaw the breakthrough in the Finnish sawmill industry. Sawmills, however, werenot located in the towns, either in Finland or in Sweden.10 And again, there werevery few suicides in the new centres of the timber industry which sprang up in thecountryside. In the period from 1870 to 1900 suicides among city-dwellersincreased from 15.5% to 26.5%. The proportion of city-dwellers in the wholepopulation, however, grew by only 2.5%. Yet, while the rapid increase in citysuicides slowed down at the end of the 1880's, the increase in suicides in Finlandas a whole was at its fastest between 1890 and 1920. This long period includesboth spells of prosperous economic growth and times of slower development.

Finnish researchers, contemplating the large number of suicides at the end of

Table 4. Suicides in Finland 1821-1921

Year

1821-18301831-18401841-18501851-18601861-1870

1871-18801881-18901891-19001901-19101911-1920

UrbanNumber

519097

115101

118198324522830

%

16.521.517.016.015.5

20.023.026.527.527.0

RuralNumber

258330481597552

472671890

13802215

%

83.578.583.084.084.5

80.077.073.572.573.0

TotalNumber

309420578712653

590869

121419023045

Source: Official Statistics of Finland 1923, 67 Table 47. Suicides 1751-1921.

9 John Reid, The Philosophy of Death (London, 1841), p. 251-56.10 Hannu Soikkanen, Vanha ja uusi yhteiskunta. När samhället förändras - Kun yhteiskunta muuttuu (Histori-

allinen Arkisto (HArk) 76., 1981), pp. 433-443.

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Suicides in Finland During the Latter Half of the 19th Century 303

the 19th century, and relying on foreign authorities, explained the phenomenon asthe consequence of town life, everybody's fight against everybody else. This wayof life brought destruction to weak and degenerate individuals, as it was easy tosatisfy the desire for enjoyment which was characteristic of town life. Researchersinclude both alcohol and bad literature among the means of satisfaction.

As the latter half of the 19th century seems to constitute a general problem inthe development of suicide figures, it merits closer consideration. More preciseclassification and numerical comparison reveal at least at which points thedevelopment departed from the general course.

Towns in Finland at the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20thcentury were still very small. Only a few evinced features typical of an industrialcity, and only very few suffered from the ill-effects of industrialization. At the turnof the century only Helsinki, with a population of 100,000, can be regarded as abig town, and even then its suicide figures were in a class of their own.

There were, however, relatively speaking, fewer suicides in Helsinki in the latterhalf of the 19th century than there were in Paris, Vienna, Copenhagen andStockholm. This last had already one third more suicides than Helsinki."

Table 5. Suicides in Finland: Urban and rural areas 1861-1895

Year

1861-651866-701871-751876-801881-85

1886-901891-95

Suicides per year/100,000 Inhabitants

rural

3.64.12.52.73.3

3.44.0

urban

12.812.513.810.510.1

9.412.1

Urban suicide index(rural areas = 100)

360304551384310

278302

Source: Figures obtained from Westerlund 1898, p. 90 Table XXIX.

Table 6. Suicides in Helsinki and in Finland as a whole 1861-1895

Year Suicides per year/100,000 inhabitants Helsinki index whenHelsinki Whole country whole country = 100

383385599591348

483426

Source: Figures obtained from Westerlund 1898, p. 96 Table XXXI.

11 Westerlund, op. cit. (1988), p. 84-85.

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1861-651866-701871-751876-801881-85

1886-901891-95

16.318.220.219.913.4

19.020.6

4.34.73.43.43.9

3.94.8

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304 Toivo Nygård

3.4. Men or women

Even the researchers apparently accepted that men have always committedsuicide more often than women. The inherent problems have not been exhaus-tively dealt with. The difference has usually been referred to in order to throwlight on some other feature, social or physical, which has been assumed to havebearing on committing suicide. Thus F. W. Westerlund in his doctoral dissertationat the end of the 19th century, when interpreting the very slight variation infemale suicides from decade to decade, wrote that in a given social situation acertain group will take their own lives and that this group is more constant forwomen than for men.12 He immediately elected to address the consumption ofalcohol and to seek in male drinking the reasons why men committed suicide moreoften than women.

Veli Verkko's point of departure was even more clearcut. He suspected that theincrease in suicides in the 1920's was the consequence of increased alcoholconsumption, and maintained that it was important to know the development insuicide figures separately for men and for women. Since men committed suicidemany times more than women, and since in the 1920's men's suicide percentagegrew more than twice as quickly as women's, he felt justified in concluding thatthere were external reasons behind each phenomenon.Oiva Elo's result of 1931, that of the women who commit suicide "very many more

can be said to be psychopaths than men" concurs with Verkko. Elo held that thedifference in suicide frequency between men and women was caused by the groupof suicidal men who were not mentally sick.13 Verkko, on the other hand, believedthat examination of the development of female suicides yielded a better understand-ing of "inborn" reasons than did examination of overall figures.14

Table 7. Suicides 1781-1920 according to gender. Suicides per 100,000 of the population

Year Men Women Women/100 men

1621192120

1917182723

23232428

Source: Official Statistics of Finland 1923. 67 Table 47: also Verkko (1949), p. 140, Table IV.

11 Ibid., p. 48-50.13 Elo, 1931.14 Veli Verkko, Lähimmäisen ja oma henki, (Jyväskylä, 1949), p. 139-143.

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1781-17901791-18001801-18101811-18201821-1830

1831-18401841-18501851-18601861-18701871-1880

1881-18901891-19001901-19101911-1920

1.82.83.13.64.2

5.26.17.35.95.1

6.57.810.714.6

0.30.60.60.80.8

1.01.11.31.61.2

1.51.82.54.1

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Suicides in Finland During the Latter Half of the 19th Century 305

Since of all suicides a minimum of one sixth and a maximum of only onequarter were women, suicide in Finland may be considered a man's cause ofdeath. In comparison with other European countries the proportion of men washigh. In Norway, with a situation in many ways similar to that of Finland, thequantitive suicide ratio of men to women at the turn of the century was 3 :1 . Itmust be borne in mind that in Finland between 1781 and 1920 women's suicideliability increased tenfold, and that it grew more quickly than that of men. Thisappears to be rare, as in Sweden, for instance, between 1781 and 1920 the numberof female suicides in relation to 100 male suicides dropped from 33 to 25. Between1911 and 1920 the figure of 28 in Finland was exceptionally high, as in the 1920'sFinnish women committed 21 suicides to every 100 male suicides.1*

The small proportion of women in all suicides is surprising. It has generallybeen thought that suicide is rarer among less emancipated women. Yet Finlandwas clearly ahead of many of its neighbours as far as political rights and womenin working life are concerned.16 The development of female suicides also includesno dramatic rises or falls. However, between 1901 and 1920 female suicides morethan doubled, relatively speaking. Yet since male suicides over the same periodalmost doubled the ratio at the beginning of the 19th century did not reallychange.

Of the women who committed suicide in the latter half of the 19th century asmany as 40-50% were officially deemed to be suffering in one way or anotherfrom an illness related to their mental condition, whereas less than one fifth of menwere troubled by the same complaints. Of the men who committed suicidebetween 10 and 20% were under the influence of alcohol. Among women only0-4% of suicides were alcohol-related." Drink alone, however, is not the answerto the question why men commit suicide more than women. .

The number of female suicides in different provinces seems to prompt thequestion how not only factors of district and place and related socio-economicfactors but also spiritual factors affected men's and women's suicides. An explana-tion can be sought in the examination of the suicides among Finns outsideFinland. Canada was a popular destination among Finnish emmigrants in the1920's, and an interesting subject to consider. Canada is a long way from Finland.Finns lived there in small minorities and under a good deal of pressure, and alarge proportion of the Finns who moved there were actually natives of thoseFinnish provinces where the female suicide rate was relatively high.

According to Varpu Lindström-Best's studies, suicides committed by Finns inCanada in the 1920's were not more common than the average, and yet they didcommit suicide at least three times more frequently than in their native Finland.18

There is justification for the view that suicide in a sense goes hand in hand withdisintegration. The situation of immigrants in Canada was highly exceptional, andparticularly for those who went there in the 1920's the problems of Finns weregreat. According to information in the press the "main reason" for suicide among

15 For Norway: see Retterstøl, op. cit. (1975), pp. 80-81.16 Soikkanen, op. cit. (1981), p. 448; Retterstøl, op. cit. (1975), p. 80.17 Westerlund, op. cit. (1898), p. 52.18 Varpu Lindström-Best, Defiant Sisters. A Social History of Finnish Immigrant Women in Canada. Studies in

Ethnic and Immigration History. The Multicultural History Society in Ontario (1988).

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Finnish women in Canada was "illness". Women who had endured suffering andlost hope of regaining their health decided to put an end to their miseriesthemselves. They did not wish to be a burden on their families or to continuesuffering and sacrificing. But this attitude had not been acquired suddenly inCanada. It must be something they took with them from Finland.

The way of looking at a situation is in keeping with the nature of being animmigrant. It requires a certain way of thinking to become an immigrant at all.One must not be a burden on other people, one must not be cosseted nor orderedabout. It was better that an individual should settle here affairs herself, one wayor another. As there did not appear to be a positive way of reaching a solution inthe new world, people resorted finally to the most negative solution, suicide.Lindström-Best surely touches the heart of the matter when she states that thereoccurred a kind of cultural shift. Owing to the influence of Lutheranism, theofficial attitude to suicides in Finland has always been severe. However, the optionof taking one's own life has been seen as the right of the individual, a privatesolution and the ultimate gesture of independence.19 The tradition may havelasted for a long time. In addition to tradition there were the problems inherentin being an immigrant: loneliness, isolation and inability to seek help.

The surprisingly constant difference between suicides in Finnish men andFinnish women stands as proof that Finns did not change their basic values andattitudes whatever country they found themselves in.20 Of suicides among Finnishmen one fifth were alcohol-related.21

An interesting comparison can be made with the considerable numbers of Russiansliving in Finland at the time that it was an autonomous part of imperial Russia.Reliable statistics for suicides by Russians are not available, but in the 1800's theywere quite rare. The situation changed, however, and at the beginning of the 20thcentury there begin to appear in the records of suicides titles preceded by the word"Russian". Since Russian troops were stationed in Finland it is understandable thatthere should be a "Russian soldier, Russian cavalryman, Russian officer, and Russianbarber-surgeon". In addition to these, however, there appear terms like "Russianmerchant" and "Russian official".22 This exposes the other side of the coin in thematter of Russification. All was not well even with the citizens of a great powerin a place where pressure was being brought to bear by the Empire.

3.5. Married or single

Only after 1878 do the sources make it possible to examine the distribution ofsuicides on the one hand with regard to marital status and on the other withregard to gender. Because of the sources the following table presents the figures forthe period 1870- and 1880- as an average over five years and for the period 1891-and 1910- as an average over ten years. Figures for those under the age of 15 havenot been included as they were not generally married.

19 Ibid. p. 50-51.20 Compare ibid., p. 51.21 Ibid., p. 51.22 Statistical Yearbook of Finland, Health and Medical Care. Lääkintölaitos X I , V Rättsmedicin. Forensic

Medicine.

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Table 8. Suicides in Finland between 1878 and 1910 with regard to marital status and gender

Period

1878-821883-871888-921891-19001901-10

Number

Men

Single

5.89.89.1

10.314.5

of suicides per

Married

9.110.510.7

12.516.6

100,000 in each

Widowed

18.721.222.3

20.127.0

group

Single

1.61.92.63.24.2

Women

Married

1.22.42.2

2.43.1

Widowed

4.13.73.13.04.5

Source: Westerlund has also published these figures from the Official Statistics of Finland(Westerlund 1898, p. 60) for the period 1879-1892. For the period 1891-1910 the only source istables in Official Statistics of Finland 1917, p. 90 and 1920, p. 77.

. There were far more suicides among men, both married and single than amongwomen. The tendency was greatest among widowed persons. The suicide riskamong unmarried women was also great.

Comparison with the development in other countries remains merely indicative.In Sweden the distribution of suicides with regard to marital status for the period1830-1861 is very similar to that in Finland for the period 1841-1860, as inSweden 56% of suicides were married. There is further similarity in the fact thatof married suicides in Sweden 17% were women and 83% were men, whereasamong unmarried suicides as "many" as 26% were women and "only" 74% weremen.23 Nor did the proportions change in Sweden at the end of the 1880's. InFrance, Prussia and Italy there were more suicides among the single than amongthe married, although in the latter half of the 19th century there is considerablevariation according to country and marital status.24 One might say that marriagehad the effect of preventing suicide, as the contemporary writer Legoyt concludedin the 19th century. It was his motto that solitude is a poor advisor; it darkens theprospect and destroys that last ray of light which might be called hope.25 At theend of the last century there came information to corroborate the views ofresearchers, that at the same time as there was an increase in the number ofsuicides, there was also an increase in the number of divorces and less maritalactivity. In Sweden over a period of sixty years (1831-1890) marriages decreasedby 27%, in Norway in just over thirty years (1851-1885) by 15% and in Finland,too, over a period of thirty years (1861-1890) by 5%.26

3.6. In all social groups

The differences in the nature of the suicides in the various socio-economic groupsare of interest. The turn of the century in Finland saw significant socio-economic

23 Gustav Sundbärg, Bevölkerungstatistik Schwedens 1750-1900. Tab. 64 Selbstmorde nach Alter undFamilienstand, 1831-1900 (Stockholm, 1907); Ohlander, op. cit. (1986), p. 61-62; Saelan, op. cit.(1864), pp. 29-30.

24 Emile Durkheim, Itsemurha. Sosiologinen tutkimus (Finnish). (Helsinki, 1985) passim.25 Westerlund, op. cit. (1898), p. 67.26 Reino Lento, Väestäpoliittisen ajatustavan synty ja tähänastinen kehity Suomessa. Väestöpolitiikan taustaa ja

tehtäviä. (Väestöliiton vuosikirja I. Porvoo, 1946); Friedrich Burgdörfer, Volk ohne Jagend (Berlin, 1932).

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Table 9. Distribution of suicide according to socio-economic position in Finland 1851-1860 and1911-1917

Socio-economic group

PeasantsCrofters and cottersFarm bandsCasual workersArtisansMerchantsVarious officialsSoldiersRetired crofters andpeasantsPaupers, prisoners,vagrants and beggarsIndustrial workers

1851-1860No.

23298

14844606

2026

26

8152

(N = 784)

%

30.013.019.06.08.00.82.53.0

4.5

10.06.5

1911-1917No.

93664043

11552897

3

121121(N = 928)

%

10.07.04.04.5

12.05.5

10.01.0

3.0

13.013.0

These results cover some 95% of suicides between 1851 and 60, and some 80% of suicides between1911 and 1917.

Source: Sealan 1864; 32 Official Statistics of Finland XI, 2 Medical board report for 1911. Helsinki1913 Rättsmedicin: 48-49.

changes. These changes have continued to occur, with greater and lesser fre-quency, right up to the present day.

Almost 80% of the suicides of the 19th century were among the agrarianpopulation, which, by rough comparison, corresponds fairly well to their propor-tion in the entire population of Finland. However, the results calculated for theperiod 1911 — 1917, although not exhaustive, indicate a change, as the proportionof suicides among the land-owning population had dropped from some 30% to10%. The same trend was apparent among small tenant farmers. The greaterdegree of specialization in occupation structure becomes clear in the figuresindicating that the proportion of merchants and artisans had increased manytimes over in half a century, although the problems of the structure of occupationsand jobs are particularly complex. Another contributary factor which becomesvery obvious here is the fact that during this same period the number of higherofficials and those engaging in freelance professions increased fourfold.

It is not only significant that the proportion of these two social groups in thesuicide figures increased, but also that even in the middle of the 19th century therewere many suicides among them in relation to their proportion in the entirepopulation. Although this century has been called the mighty age of Finnishbureaucracy, and although Finland in the 19th century was the Promised Landfor "the masters", the statistics of people who committed suicide brings somethingnew into the picture. Although the figures may not be comprehensive enough toallow the drawing of broad conclusions, the fact that there were among thesuicides of the 1850's doctors, lawyers, clergymen, mining engineers, surveyers,police officials, military officers, and students suggests that socio-economic prob-lems were not among the causes precipitating suicide. It may well be a questionof a personal solution, possibly against a background of personal pressures andproblems in adapting. On the other hand, for lower level officials economic,

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reasons, too, were significant. Rigid social class structure demanded behaviourand lifestyle which the head of a large family could not keep up on his salaryalone. However, the significance of social position as a motive through which toaccount for suicide is probably still highly suspect, unless accompanied bysomething with a bearing on the overall social and psychological situation of theindividual concerned. This impression is strengthened by the result, howeverunreliable, that out of 784 people who committed suicide between 1851 and 1860only one did so out of alleged dissatisfaction with his social position.

It is quite a different matter that socio-economic stimuli as well as stimuli to thepsyche frequently combine to form the decisive group of factors which decide anindividual's direction of life, his profession, his working environment, and wholeway of life. Factors relating to the psyche, however, arc extremely difficult to tracein history. Socio-economic factors, on the other hand can be examined insofar asthey have bearing on the individual's occupation and living environment. It maywell be profitable to contemplate to what extent activity within a certainoccupation during the latter half of the 19th century is connected to the tendencyto suicide within a certain professional group. The following insights arc based onthe material from which the table just presented was formed.

People employed in industry committed suicide two to five times more frequentthan people engaged in agriculture. The low incidence of suicide among theagrarian population on the one hand, and the superior numbers of this section ofthe population on the other hand caused the suicide figures for Finland for theentire 19th century to be distinctly low by international standards. Among thoseworking in industry, merchants, seafarers and civil servants, suicide appears tohave been equally common, and four to five times more frequently than amongthe agrarian population.

Among officials there is a clear difference in respect to those with an academiceducation, those in the service of central or local government, and also students,who, on the basis of their education have been assigned to the officials' group. Itis the tendency to suicide among more highly educated officials which pushes upthe figures for the whole group. At the beginning of the 1900's particularly therebegan to be among the suicides more and more people who occupied especiallyhigh positions in the Finnish administration and cultural hierarchy.

Among the group who worked in industry a large part were actual manualworkers rather than people in positions of authority. Among people of the servantclass suicides were the most common. It is known from other places that this groupmight well be particularly defenceless in the "battle of life", or that they lived inespecially unpleasant circumstances. Most of those who committed suicide at theend of the 19th century were from the lower social strata, and this state of affairspersisted beyond the first decade of the new century. The proportion of paupers,vagrants, prisoners and beggars did not really decrease at all between 1850 and1910. For rather more than half a century there was continued polarization ofthose committing suicide. Most studies were committed, relatively speaking, at thetop and at the bottom of the social ladder. Those in the middle strata were in astrong position. There were a lot of suicides among soldiers. The problem,however, was not Finland's but Russia's, because the figures include the suicidesof those serving with the Russian military. It was normal proceedure for the

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suicide to be registered according to the place where the body was found. As therewere a considerable number of suicides in the Russian garrisons the relativenumber is high.

Suicide among soldiers was particularly common. It was characteristic of thearmy that discipline was harsh, to the extent of bullying, men felt isolated, thesystem of values was very masculine, there were periods of very hard work butalso, especially for officers in barracks, long periods of inactivity, and there was themere fact that a soldier had continuously within reach a weapon with whichsuicide could most easily be affected. In almost every way the army differed fromwhat was felt desirable in civilian life. The occurrence of suicides in the greatarmies of the major powers in the 19th century attracted attention amongcontemporaries, and gave rise to the keeping of precise statistics in countriesincluding France, Prussia and Italy, where it was discovered that there occurredfour times more suicides among military personnel than among civilian men of thesame age-group.27

The lower incidence of suicide among farmers than among those engaged inso-called urban occupations reflects the situation in the latter half of the 19thcentury in Europe, including Italy, France, Prussia and Saxony.28 However,suicides in all these countries do appear to have become more common in ruralareas and among fanners during the latter half of the 19th century, and whereverthese professional groups included men, it was they who committed suicide morefrequently. In Finland merchants and seafarers were an exception. The overallsuicide ratio of men to women was 4 : 1 , whereas in the 1860's it was 2 :1 .

The incidence of suicide among male and female servants was high both inurban and rural areas. If urban and rural servants' suicides are taken separately,using information published by the statistics offices themselves, the result obtainedis that in the latter half of the 19th century there were far more suicides amongwomen servants than among men in the rural areas. This, however, was evenmore pronounced in the urban areas.

The situation of maids, which was very difficult in many places, was not onlydependent on economic factors. There was above all the unfortunate position ofhousemaids in the family and in the household, and also the entire situation of ayoung woman who had left her own home often for a strange place, and theterrifying experiences and influences to which she was subjected in a completelystrange environment. Documentation of the post mortem examinations alsoreveals, although seldom, that a housemaid's pregnancy might be linked to thesuicide. This, for its part, was symptomatic of a very widespread feature in thesocial and even the legal position of women. This may also account for the factthat in the officials' class suicides among women were rare. In their world, too,power and responsibility were the prerogative of the men. Women were excludedfrom it, and did not even know of the difficulties the family encountered. Despite"emancipation" the division of labour in these circles, too, was very clear. Thewoman's place was at home with her children. The men's place was out in theworld with its joys and sorrows, successes and pressures.

27 Durkheim, op. cit. (1985), pp. 292-95; Westerlund, op. cit. (1898), p. 125.28 Westerlund, op. cit. (1898), pp. 123-25.

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4. The causes — a contemporary assessment of the reasons for suicide

The doctor who carried out the post mortem examination, the policeman whoconducted the enquiry and the official who made the report tried to determineand deduce why a certain individual had committed suicide. Official statistics arenot very helpful in this respect since on the basis of "reasons" it was only recordedhow many people had committed suicide in a state of intoxication or of unbal-anced mind. The report of the post mortem examination, on the other hand,included other "reasons" which have been ennumerated by Saelan, Westerlundand also others. However, even Saelan pointed out that the factors named in thepost mortem report as reasons for the most part superficial.

What is recorded in the source material as the "reason" is the impression of thecontemporary officials or doctor as to the motive. In history it is no more possiblethan necessary to get into a polemic over the medical practitioners and statisticsrecorders of the past. There is just as little point in accepting as a so-called modern"truth" the results of a forensic examination carried out in the 19th century, andsimilarly it must be seriously stressed that the doctors of the time had "more thanthe average experience and practice" at solving problems of their own time, in thiscase the motive for suicide. It is just that at that time there was no eternally valid"scientific", "objective" solution. Although after the event the historian may betempted to play judge and decision-maker, he really ought to refrain from suchactivity.

In the middle of the 19th century very many reasons are evinced in the postmortem reports, which may be taken as an indication that the officials did makean effort to establish the motives which led to suicide. In the years between 1851and 1880 a total of over 30 reasons were recorded for suicide. On the other handone third of all cases were classified as motive unknown.

The classification of the doctors who performed the post mortem examinationsshows that the romanticised and publicly accepted negative event is always rare.This is also true to suicides committed for love or as result of marital strife. Therewere very few of these in the 19th century. Everyday factors such as loss of mentalbalance or factors involving alcohol in one way or another were closely connectedto suicides among Finns. It is not possible here to answer the question as to whatthe underlying factors for such use of alcohol may have been. The doctors andofficials of the 19th century accepted alcohol alone as reason enough for suicide.Feelings of jealousy were generally relieved through aggression towards anotherperson, and the suspicion of infidelity very seldom caused thé inflicting of harm onself. Religious factors and feelings resulting from financial calamity were not heldto be very common motives, although they did play some part in the suicides ofthe 19th century. Situations of fear arising from various causes, however, wereseen to have led very often to suicide.

In its entirety the view taken by doctors, policemen and officials of the reasonsfor suicide may be said to reflect to a considerable extent the scientific and moralconception of the world view of the time as regards peoples' difficulties and theirtemporal consequences.

It was easy to separate cases of mental distress or some mental illness as therewas a fair amount of information available from reports or from treatmentreceived. Suicides involving alcohol or physical illness were also generally known

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Table 10. Reasons for suicide in Finland 1851-1860 and 1871-1880

Attributed reason Proportion of all suicides (%)1851-60 1871-80

Distress of mind 29.0 24.5(mental distress)Misuse of alcohol 7.0 10.0Illness in general 7.0 2.5Delirium — 1.5Extra-marital pregnancy 0.5 1.0

Childbirth — 0.5Unhappy love . 1.0 —Fear of poverty or hunger 1.0 —Economic setbacks 5.0 1.5Wickedness 0.5 0.5

Unhappy marriage 0.5 0.5Problems at schoolor at confirmation classes 0.5 0.5Bigamy 0.5 —Bestiality . 0.5 —Fear of punishment 2.5 1.5

Other fear situations 1.0 . 0.5Religious problems 3.0 —Other, or reason unknown 40.5 55.5

100 100(N = 784) (N = 649)

Source: State archives, Archivers of the National Medical Board, Administrational Archives -reports of post mortem examinations

about. An illness diagnosed by a doctor or prolonged drinking could easily beestablished from police investigations. It was also easy for the officials to find outabout a suicide's financial position. It could well prove impossible to establish theexistence of religious reasons and love-related problems. Some factors contributingto these last two problem areas could possibly be connected to motives of mentalillness. At the end of the 19th century and at the beginning of the 20th centurythere was at least officially a clear decrease in the number of suicides committedwhile the balance of the mind was disturbed.

The number of suicides while under the influence of alcohol remained the samein the latter half of the 19th century and at the beginning of the new century.However, during the 1920's, a period in Finland when there was prohibition ofalcohol for all but medical purpose, the number of suicides committed in a stateof intoxication more than doubled. Women did not commit suicide in a state ofintoxication in the latter half of the 19th century nor yet at the beginning of thenext century. Of those suicides attributed to mental illness the number of womeninvolved at the turn of the century surpassed that of men by 5-10%.

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