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Paavo Rintala (1930-1999) |
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Prolific Finnish writer, who dealt with the experience of war and decline of moral values in modern society. In the 1960s, Paavo Rintala produced acclaimed documentary novels on the Continuation War (1941-44) between Finland and the Soviet Union. Rintala's most famous works include Pojat (1958), Jumala on kauneus (1959), the trilogy Mummoni ja Mannerheim (1960, My grandma and Mannerheim), Mummoni ja marsalkka (1961), Mummon ja marskin tarinat (1962), and the existential war novel Sissiluutnantti (1963). "And that's how it actually appeared on the morning of the ninth as well. The shells whistled over into the hinterland behind the support hill. After this had been going on for a while, I got up, pulled my trousers and tunic over pyjamas, and went out. Planes were already showing up forward-left. They were large bombers. I started counting them: nine, nine, nine, nine, wave after wave was coming over, more than you could reckon, escort-fighters buzzing around them and gleaming in the sunshine." (from Soldiers' Voices, 1966, translated by Herbert Lomas, in A Way to Measure Time, edited by Bo Carpelan, Veijo Meri and Matti Suurpää, 1992, pp. 189-90) Paavo Rintala was born in Viipuri, Karelia, the son of Otto Aadiel Rintala, an agrolog, and Aino (Nikula) Rintala, a nurse. Due to his father's itinerant work, the family moved from place to place in the Karelian Isthmus. At the age of ten, Rintala lost his father, who died in on March 12, 1940, the second last day of the Winter War. After being evacuated in the Central Finland and Northern Savo, the family – Rintala, his mother, grandmother, and uncle – settled in Oulu. Rintala graduated from the Oulu Lyceum in 1951. At school Rintala wrote poems, some of which were published in the school magazine Valon Terho in 1948. He also translated Edgar Allan Poe's short stories into Finnish, and attended the school's literary society. Tolstoy's War and Peace influenced deeply Rintala's vision of history. He read Hemingway's To Whom the Bells Toll, and the works of Dostoevsky, Jung, Stendhal, Balzac, and Camus. After
serving in the army, Rintala entered the University of
Helsinki, where he studied theology without graduting. In Helsinki
Rintala married Raili Pihkala; they had four children. Raili Pihkala
was the daughter of Lauri "Tahko" Pihkala, the inventor of Finnish
baseball, pesäpallo. At the time when Rintala's first book, Kuolleiden evankeliumi (1954), came out, published by Otava Publishing Company, he worked as an all-around handyman in Intimiteatteri, which had been established by Mauno Manninen, the son of Otto Manninen and Anni Swan. From 1955 Rintala devoted himself entirely to writing. In 1960 he moved with his family to Kirkkonummi, where he wrote most of his works. Erkki Reenpää, who made a long careet at Otava, became Rintala's life-long friend. Often, Rintala ja Reenpää were accompanied by the writer Veijo Meri. Together they saw at a movie theatre Luis Buñuel's film Nazarín (1959), but did not quite catch what the film tried to say. Rintala's breakthrough as a novelist was Rikas ja köyhä (1955), about the crisis and fall of a Laestadian entrepreneur, Aadolf Ruotaistenmäki. Rintala depicts realistically the post-war reconstruction period in Helsinki and Oulu, but at the same time the story has a strong religious basis. Before his redemption, Aadolf becomes a bootlegger. "What do you think of the immortality of the soul today," he asks challengingly in the toilet of Helsinki's finest restaurant, a limbo he visits on his way down. In his early novels,
Rintala opposed spiritual and material values, which he often examined
through the contrast between the city and countryside, money and work,
or art and the world. Jumala on kauneus (1959) was partly based
on the life of the
Ostrobothnian painter Vilho Lampi (1898-1936) – on the cover of the book was Lammi's self-portrait from 1934.
However, Rintala said in the beginning of the book: "Niille, jotka
seuraavasta tuntevat mielessäni olleen henkilön, huomautan, että tämä
teos ei ole elämäkerta eikä edes elämäkertaromaaniksi
tarkoitettu."The protagonist, "Ville", has
dedicated his life to Beauty and commits suicide after losing faith in
his art. Pojat (1958), set in Oulu, was about the schoolboys of Rintala's own generation, who grew up during the war. In the absence of fathers, the boys idolize German soldiers, and dream of heroic deeds. One of them, Immu, who studies at the lyceum, starts to develop a critical stand toward death and war. Mikko Niskanen's film version of Pojat was not especially faithful to the novel, but Rintala accepted the changes. The seventeen years old Vesa-Matti Loiri made an unforgettable performance as Jake, whose mother leaves him for a German soldier. In the novel Jake commits suicide, but at the end of the film Jake runs after a train, and dragged along by the last railroad car, cries for his mother. Rintala returned to the life of Immu, a disillusioned idealist, and Pate, a failed careerist, in Pikkuvirkamiehen kuolema (1959). Mikko Niskanen's intensive, existential film adaptation of Rintala's Sissiluutnantti (1963, The Long Distance Patrol), entitled Sissit (The Partisans), premiered before the book came out; it was based on the manuscript. Niskanen, Matti Kassila, and Jouni Apajalahti created a frame for the story: old veterans meet again, and enter a restaurant. The note on the cabinet door reads, "The partisans of 20th D are drinking here. All disturbers will be shot, except the waiters." At the end, after a heavy drinking, they leave the place and waiters clean the tables. Upon seeing the film, Rintala felt that Niskanen had rubbed the edge off his text and decided to take a more critical perspective on the war. Rintala's eleventh novel was an immediate bestseller. Unfortunately, Sissiluutnantti defined Rintala's public image as a writer for a long period. It created a storm of controversy with its portrayal of affairs between officers and members of women's auxiliary services. The narrator and central character, Lieutenant Erkki Takala,
is a former theology student. His experiences have made him a hard
leader and a perfect killer, who expresses his contempt
toward the common crowd. When peace is declared, he says to his
men: "There'll be another war. One day . . . somewhere . . . that's
quite certain . . . Let them make their peace. We can wait . . .
twenty years, at the very most. But never mind about the years . . . we
shall be needed . . . " (The Long Distance Patrol, translated by Maurice Michael, 1967, p.183) During the heated public debate, Rintala was accused of
smearing the reputation
of women, who had served their country with honor. Although the history
of the corps did
not confirm Rintala's vision, he seemed to argue that when life becomes
meaningless, sex is reduced to the most primitive level. The novel
launched the first of the great "literary wars" of the 1960s, in which
the younger generation of writers, Paavo Haavikko, Veijo Meri, Hannu
Salama etc., challenged established literary conventions as well as
ideological and national taboos. My grandma and
Mannerheim caused
much debate when it was published, mainly because its image of Marshal
Mannerheim did not correspond to the myth created around him. The
trilogy contrasted the experiences of
the
upper and lower classes through its two protagonists, a poor peasant
woman, Eeva Maria Kustaava Kynsilehto, and Carl Gustaf
Emil Mannerheim,
an aristocratic, general in the Russian Imperial Army, and President of
Finland from 1944 to 1946. Rintala's view on Mannerheim is critical;
his thoughts often contradict the way he acts. During the story the
central characters approach from their own point of view the true
values of life. Eventually Mannerheim grows into a Jungian "wise old
man," who admits his weaknesses and realizes that he do not have a real
home in the modern world. Eeva Maria dies in the third part and leaves
behind almost nothing. Mummon ja Marskin tarinat received in 1963 the State's Literature Prize. Mainos-TV produced in 1971 a six-part
television series based on Rintala's work. It was directed by Pauli Virtanen, starring Saara
Pakkasvirta as the wise old woman and Helge Herala as Mannerheim. Rintala's oral history novels from the 1960s were based on
tape-recorded interviews. Sotilaiden äänet (1966, Soldiers' voices), Sodan ja
rauhan äänet (1967), Leningradin kohtalosinfonia (1968; often spelled wrong as Leningradin kohtalonsinfonia),
and Napapiirin äänet
(1969) focused especially on the Continuation War. Juha Seppäle
characterized the first two books as ducumentary novels, and the latter
two as half documentaries – these also could be regarded as collage
novels. (Rintalaa lukiessa by Juha Seppälä, 2024, pp. 41-44) Markku Eskelinen considers Sotilainen äänet
the best of all, but spoiled by Rintala's world of religious delusions.
Eskelinen refers to the epilogue, where Rintala shows understanding to
the collective prayer campaign launched by Gerda Ryti, President's
wife, and to some headlines which contain words such as "passio" and
"recitative". (Raukoilla rajoilla: Suomenkielisen proosakirjallisuuden historiaa by Markku Eskelinen, 2016, pp. 471-472) Soldiers'
accounts were transposed into standard language: "They were often
taking a bead on Aleksandrovka church. First they overshot, then they
undershot, and so they went on till they got a hit on the church; then
this gun's firing subsided, and a new gun took over and began to adjust
its sights." ('Soldiers' Voices,' translated by Herbert Lomas, in A Way to Measure Time, edited by Bo Carpelan, Veijo Meri, Matti Suurpää, 1992, p. 187) Soviet authorities allowed Rintala to visit Leningrad and interview its inhabitants. In his research work, Rintala had great help from his exceptionally good memory. His approach connected him with the New Journalism movement and Norman Mailer, Truman Capote, Jan Myrdal, Per Olov Enquist, Aleksander Kluge, who all produced "documentary-style" fiction. Rintala's documentary project continued with the novels Vietnamin kurjet (1970), Viapori 1906 (1971), Kesäkuu 44 (1974), and Nahkapeitturien linjalla I-II (1976-79). Some of Rintala's novels originated from film scripts. Paavalin
matkat (1972) was produced as a screenplay for Erkko Kivikoski's
film Laukaus tehtaalla (1973),
about a crisis and shot at a metal factory. After artistic disputes,
Kivikoski and Juho Gartz revised the script together. Viapori 1906,
about a rebellion in the maritime fortress of Viapori, was born after
Mosfilm, the largest Soviet film and television production company,
offered cooperation. The film, directed by Sergey Kolosov, was
eventually made without Rintala's screenplay, which was rewritten first
as a book (1971) and then as a radioplay (1976). The radio play Lenin
pakenee Suomen halki joulukuussa 1907
(Lenin takes flight across Finland in December 1907) was originally
written as a film script. The director Juli Karasik and Rintala left
the project, when it took a completely different direction, a film
about Lenin and Finnish independence, set in the last days of 1917.
This coproduction, Luottamus
(1976, Tust), was directed by Rauni Mollberg. Many of his radio plays,
beginning from Elokuun ääniä
(1966) Rintala wrote for the director Väinö Vainio. When the play was
performed in Prague, a couple of words dealing with the Continuation
War between Finland and the Soviet Union in 1941-1944 were censored. During the the time of President Kekkonen, Rintala was one of
the
writers who accompanied Kekkonen on his trips to the Soviet Union.
Rintala voted for Kekkonen and was a presidential elector in 1962; he consided himself as Kekkonen's friend. Rintala, a Tolstoyan pacifist and myth breaker, was also one of the
leaders of the peace movement Suomen rauhanpuolustajat (Finnish Society
of the Defenders of Peace), which was labelled in the right-wing press
as a Marxist-Leninist cover organization, taking its orders from
Moscow. Officially Rintala did not criticize the U.S.S.R's role in the
nuclear arms race, but privately he was very concerned about the Soviet
military buildup in Central Europe. On his trips to the Soviet Union, Rintala took time to visit churches and monasteries. Disillusioned with the achievements of the peace movement, Rintala satirized in several books his idealistic political odyssey, which had undermined his reputation as an independent author. Eläinten rauhanliike (1984), full of insider humor, was inspired by Orwell's Animal Farm (in Finnish Eläinten vallankumous). Porvari Punaisella torilla (1984) told of a Finnish delegation in "the promised land of peace conferences", the Soviet Union. These works came out before the first wave of academic research on self-censorship and the code of silence which had guided Finnish foreign policy toward Russia. St. Petersburgin salakuljetus (1987) was about a cat-and-mouse game between the narrator, who tries to smuggle a manuscript out of Leningrad, and a KGB officer, who knows his every move. Rintala offers also an excursion into the history of the city and the social psychology of censorship. In the 1970s Rintala found the work of Marc Bloch (1886-1944) - Le société feodale, Apologie pour l'histoire and L'étrande défaite. "Bloch is my Virgil, on our century's journey from hell to hell," the writer once said. Rintala published several novels on the legacy of European cultural and moral values. With masterful narrative technique, these works combine history, real-life figures, myths, and personal recollections. "I have not changed since the 1950s," Rintala said in an interview in 1991. Minä, Grünewald (1990) portrayed
the German Renaissance painter Matthias Grünewald, whose Isenheim
Altarpiece reveals darkness in the heart of a whole civilization. Faustus
(1966) concluded Rintala's "attributes of beauty" trilogy, in which art
and life are the different sides of the same coin. The trilogy
began in Aika ja uni (1993) and continued in Marian
rakkaus (1994).
In the last volume Rintala identifies himself with the old Faustus, the
old Europe. His basic question is, why we sell our souls to the devil
in order to achieve good goals? "Learned text," the literary critic and professor of Finnish literature Kai Laitinen said of Aika ja uni in his collection of essays, Kirjojen virrassa (1999). In the mid-1990s, Rintala contracted Parkinson's disease. He felt himself tired and walking was difficult for him. Paavo Rintala died on August 8, 1999, in Kirkkonummi. Before his death, Rintala finished the opera libretto Aika ja uni (2000, The Age of Dreams), which was commissioned by the Savonlinna Opera Festival and composed in collaboration by Herman Rechberger, Olli Kortekangas, and Kalevi Aho. For further reading: Paavo Rintalan saarna ja seurakunta by Pekka Tarkka (1966); 'Paavo Rintala' by Pekka Tarkka, in Valitut teokset by Paavo Rintala (1970); 'Paavo Rintala', in Miten kirjani ovat syntyneet, edited by Ritva Rainio (1967); 'Paavo Rintala', in Suomalaisia nykykirjailijoita by Pekka Tarkka (1980); A History of Scandinavian Literature by Sven H. Rossel (1982); 'Paavo Rintala', in Miten kuunnelmani ovat syntyneet, edited by Matti Savolainen (1983); Paavo Rintala: dokumentaristi by Kai Ekholm (1988); 'Paavo Rintala', in Linnasta Saarikoskeen by Juhani Salokannel (1993); A History of Finland's Literature, edited by George C. Schoolfield (1998); '"Kun lottaharmaata häväistään". Näkäkulmia Sissiluutnantti-debattiin' by Tiina Kinnunen, in Historiallinen aikakauskirja 1 (2001); Minuuden liitupiiri: tutkimus Paavo Rintalan myöhäisvaiheen proosatuotannosta by Pirkko Alhoniemi (2007); 'Paavo Rintalan Jättiläinen,' in Toisinajattelijoiden Suomi: tarinoita yhden totuuden maasta by Matti Salminen (2016); 'Paavo Rintala: Sissiluutnantti (1963)' & 'Mikko Niskanen: Sissit (1963),' in 50 suomalaista kirjaa ja elokuvaa by Juri Nummelin (2017); Rintalaa lukiessa by Juha Seppälä (2024) Selected works:
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