Finnish Guard in the Balkans

iThe Finnish Guard in the Balkans, 1877–1878/i links together a Russo-Turkish war and the Balkans, the not unambiguous loyalty of Finns to their then master, the Russian emperor, and the growing Finnish nationalism. The work shows how the latter two affected the interpretation of the first, with the effect that officers and the more educated NCOs saw the war as a civilisation-project of the barbarian enemy and despised all Turkish in favour of pre-Ottoman antiquity, while rankers felt satisfaction of a well-done job, but, newertheless, grundged against the hardships they had to endure.