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Elvi Sinervo (1912-1986) - wrote also as Aulikki Prinkki - full name Elvi Aulikki Sinervo-Ryömä |
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Finnish writer, prolific translator, humanist, one of the central figures in the postwar leftist literary movement Kiila with Arvo Turtiainen and Viljo Kajava. Elvi Sinervo published socially and politically orientated prose. Her most outstanding work, Viljami Vaihdokas (Viljami, the Changeling), appeared in 1946. Sinervo's work can be classified into the anti-fascist literature. Minun mummoni mainio kerrassaan Elvi Sinervo was born in Helsinki, the daughter of Edvard Sinervo, a
plate worker, and Alma Erika (Vallenius) Sinervo, who come from a
Swedish-speaking family. She was the sixth child of her parents. Sinervo's father was an active member of labor
union, who believed in socialism; Alma, a devout member of the church, did not share her husband's political opinions. Edvard Sinervo encouraged her children to spend time with world literature. In the evening read aloud to his family. Following the outbreak of the Finnish Civil war (1917-18), Edvard joined the Reds, although he was against the achievement of social change by violent means. When the White Guard seized Helsinki and began executions, he was forced to hide. To support his family, he worked at a stone carver's shop, and then moved with his family for some years in Laihia and Vaasa in Ostrobothnian. When Edvard Sinervo died of stroke at the age of 49, Alma Sinervo returned with her children to Helsinki. An avid reader since childhood, Sinervo began to borrow books from the Kallio library. After
graduating from secondary school, where her teacher's included Aaro Hellaakoski,
Sinervo studied at the Technical high
school (1933-34), and at the University of Helsinki (1934-35). In 1930,
Sinervo joined the Social Democratic Youth Organization and
participated in its cultural activities, especially theatre. Moreover,
she had
began to write in the 1920s and her first published text appeared in the
social democratic magazine Kevätmyrsky (1931). It was followed
by series of poems, published in the working-class papers. In 1933,
Sinervo married the politician, journalist and doctor Mauri Ryömä
(1911-1958), who served as a member of Parliament (1936-37, 1945-1958)
and a member of the Central Committee of the Finnish Communist Party.
Her sister Sylvi-Kyllikki Kilpi was a member of the Social Democratic
Party. She served as a member of the Parliament between 1934 and 1957.
Due to their different polititical views, the sisters did not talk with
each other in the 1930s. Later Sylvi-Kyllikki Kilpi joined the Finnish
People's Democratic League (SKDL). Through her political work, Sinervo became friends with such
writers, journalists and intellectuals as Viljo Kajava, Arvo
Turtiainen, Tapio Tapiovaara, Raoul Palmgren, Maija Savutie, and Jarno
Pennanen, with whom she had an affair that lasted about a year. In
1936 leftist writers founded the literary group Kiila, which took its
model from the Swedish 'Fem unga' group and from the Marxist group
writing for New Masses magazine in the United States. From 1934 to 1938 Sinervo contributed to the literary magazine Kirjallisuuslehti.
When her husband was imprisoned for his political activity in
1940, she took a hiatus from writing fiction, and began translating
Friedrich Engels' The Origin of the Family, Private Property, and the State (1884) into Finnish. With her husband Sinervo visited the Soviet Union in 1936, and witnessed the other face of socialism with long queues of people waiting in front of the shops. As a writer Sinervo made her debut with Runo Söörnäisistä: novelleja (1937), published by Gummerus. Although the work was titled Poem about Sörnäinen, it was a collection of short stories about one of Helsinki's most (in)famous working-class districts. In the leftist papers the reviews were mostly positive, but sales were meagre. Two years later came out Sinervo's first novel, Palavankylän seppä. The story centers on Hermanni Rintaluoma and Rintaluoma family, who returns to the country after the Civil War. Hermanni dreams of his own smithy, but is unable to understand the great change in society and the class struggle. He is finally forced to move to town and abandon his dream. The book was translated into Swedish in 1945 under the title Smeden i Palava by. "Do but judge me, O, ye blind men. / I know the law well. / What I
did, life tasked me with it, / To my lot it fell. (from 'Cell Song'
(Koppilaulu), 1944, translated by Cid Erik Tallqvist, in Voices from
Finland: An Anthology of Finlands Verse and Prose in English, Finnish
and Swedish, edited by Elli Tompuri, Helsinki: Sanoma Osakeyhtiö, 1947,
p. 209) During World War II Sinervo was imprisoned on political grounds
from
1941 to 1944; she was prisoner nr 412/41. The Kilpis took care of her
son. Sinervo was worried that he would adopt right-wing political
views. Political prisoner were kept
strictly apart from common-law convicts, but they had some privileges;
they wore their own clothes and were allowed to receive parcels and to
write letters. Sinervo's husband had been arrested earlier, when the
Winter War broke out between Finland and the Soviet Union. Her
experiences Sinervo recalled in Pilvet (1944, The
Clouds), a collection of poems, which was published by the Tammi
Publishing Company. It had been established in 1943 by Väinö Tanner, leader of the
Social Democratic Party. Originally, the poems had circulated from hand
to hand at the Hämeenlinna Central Prison. They had been written on
toilet paper and then bound together. The title piece.'Pilvet,' tells how she ended up in
confinement: "Elin, rakastin, / ja kolmikymmenvuotinaana / minut
puettiin vanginpukuun." "I
lived, loved / and as I turned thirty / I was dressed in prison
clothes." (Runot 1931-56. Kirjailijan vastuusta by Elvi Sinervo, Helsinki: Ntamo, 2021, p. 32) Noteworthy,
instead of being bitter or succumbing to pessimism, Sinervo turned
during this period into her inner
word. Through the window, she could only see the sky and the clouds,
symbols of longing. By mid-December 1941, before being moved from Turku
County Prison to Hämeenlinna prison for women, located in Häme castle,
Sinervo had translated one book, knitted twelve pairs of socks, a
pullover, and a neck warmer, and read a lot of books. (from a letter to Alma Sinervo, 14.12.1941, in 'Omapäisesti valtaa vastaan: Elvi
Sinervon arkipäivän politiikka vankilassa 1941-1944' by Jaana
Tornioja-Latola, in Vallan teoriat historiantutkimuksessa, edited by Ilana Aalto et al., 2011, p. 68) Sinervo's poem of her cellmate Natalia Tusula-Vereschjagin (she was condemned for espionage) was set to music by Kaj Chydenius in the 1970s; it became a very popular agit-prop song. "Maa vieras on ja vieras kansa sen / Natalia, / sua tunne en. / Jaan osas vain ja sellin kivisen, / ja unes: kerran tuoksuu sullekin / akaasia." (Pilvet by Elvi Sinervo, Helsinki: Tammi, pp. 39-40) Her first work for the stage, Onnenmaan kuninkaantytär ja ihmislapset, a children's play, Sinervo wrote during her prison sentence. Desantti, a short play, was performed in the prison in 1944. ('Siskoni kohtasin varjossa yön: Alistamisen ja vastarinnan keinot poliittisten naisvankien muistitiedon valossa' by Kirsti Salmi-Niklander, Naistutkimus-Kvinnoforskning, Vol. 2, Nro 1, 1989, p. 50) In the poem 'Lähtöpäivä' she described her political development from social democrat to communist: "Ei ollut helppoa tulla yhdeksi teistä. / En nähnyt avattua syliä: tule sellaisena kuin olet. / Monet silmät katsoivat minuun: mikä sinä olet / ja tahdotko todella / samaa kuin me?" (Runot 1931-56. Kirjailijan vastuusta, p. 90) Viljami Vaihdokas, Sinervo's second novel, combined social realism with fairy tales and fantasy. The story told of a boy who is born to a well-to-do family, but is given to wrong parents in the maternity hospital and grows up in poor surroundings. In his childhood, he molds a bird from clay and then brings it to life, like Jesus did. Instinctively, Viljami believes in higher ideals. After moving to Helsinki, he joins a leftist activist group. When the war breaks out, he is imprisoned and beaten during interrogations. At the end he dies, or steps into another realm, where he becomes one with the people he belongs to. This Bildungsroman in the tradition of London, Gorky, and Martinson gained an international success and was translated into Swedish, Russian, Estonian and China. Toveri, älä petä (1947, Comrade, Don't Betray Us) was about a woman, who is involved in political activities without a firm ideological base. By a mistake, she betrays one of her comrades. Desantti (1945) was published by Kansankulttuuri, which was established by the Finland-Soviet Union Society and organizations close to the Finnish People's Democratic League. After the war Sinervo travelled in the socialist countries,
made
speeches and participated in the leftist ideological and cultural
activities as a member of the Finnish Communist Party and
representantive of Kiila. Most of the selected writers and intellectuals she
met on her travels in the Socialist World supported the official
policy – at least when they were put together at the same table. It was not until the late 1950s, when she distanced herself
from the Finnish Communist Party. In the 1960s, Sinervo did not continue actively as a writer, although her books were reprinted and new collections of poems appeared. "Why would I spread my own pessimism," she later explained. "This is the reason why I cannot write." Sinervo's publisher, Tammi, celebrated her 50th birthday in 1962 by bringing out a collection of her old poems, Runoni. As a translator Sinervo introduced Finnish readers to the works of Howard Fast, Niko Kazantzakis, Anna Bondestam, Zaharia Stancu, and Ivo Andric, among others. Many of her translations appeared in Tammi's prestigious Yellow Library. Some of her poems were published in a French anthology, Poètes finnois (1951). From German Sinervo translated especially Brecht's plays; she also met him twice. Brecht's Im Dickicht der Städte Sinervo considered incomprehensible. Anna Seghers influenced Sinervo deeply. They met first time at the Warsaw Peace Conference in 1950. Sinervo translated Seghers's Der Aufstand der Fischer von St. Barbara, Das siebte Kreutz, and with Ilkka Ryömä Die Toten bleiben jung. Maailma on vasta nuori (1952, The World Is Yet Young), Sinervo's fourth and final play, was found again in the late 1960s and performed in several theatres in the 1970s. The work took its title from Nordahl Grieg's novel Ung må verden endnu være (1938). Her last years Sinervo spent with her daughter Liisa Ryömä and Ryömä's life-companion, the writer Daniel Katz, in Pernaja and then in Liljendahl. In 1979 the politician and poet Claes Anderson dedicated a suite in his collection Trädens sånger to Elvi Sinervo. She died of lung cancer on August 28, 1986. For further reading: "Kerran muistetaan niitä, jotka kirjoittivat historiaa verellään": poliittinen ideologisuus Elvi Sinervon runokokoelmassa Pilvet by Eetu Saarinen (2022); Toistemme viholliset?: kirjallisuus kohtaa sisällissodan, toimittaneet Kukku Melkas & Olli Löytty (2018); Yhä katselen pilviä: Elvi Sinervon elämä by Jaana Torninoja-Latola (2017); 'Omapäisesti valtaa vastaan: Elvi Sinervon arkipäivän politiikka vankilassa 1941-1944' by Jaana Tornioja-Latola, in Vallan teoriat historiantutkimuksessa, ed. by Ilana Aalto et al. (2011); Äiti ja aate by Rauni Paalanen (2011); 'Elvi Sinervon Viljami Vaihdokas - lapsellinen kirja aikuisille' by Maria Laakso, in Kirjallisia elämyksiä - Alkukivistä toiseen elämään, toim. Yrjö Hosialuoma et al. (2007); Kiila 1936-2006 by Matti Rinne (2006); A History of Finland's Literature, ed. by George C. Schoolfield (1998); Elvi Sinervo - vuorellenousija by Kalevi Kalemaa (1989) - Note: Sinervo's younger sister Aira Sinervo (Aira Brink, 1914-1968) published juvenile books and the novel Koskessa kolisten (1969). Sinervo's elder sister Sylvi-Kyllikki Kilpi (1899-1987), a politician, member of Parliament, wrote the autobiographical books Sörnäisten tyttö (1963), Sörnäisten tytön valellusvuodet (1965), Sörnäisten tyttö politiikan pyörteissä (1966) and a history of the Finnish working class women, Suomen työläisnaisliikkeen historia (1953). Selected works:
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