Why a Booktrail?
1902: A fictional yet poignant account of how Russian rule affected the ordinary people of Finland. A landscape of icy stillness amidst the Russian chaos
House of Orphans
What you need to know before your trail
Finland, 1902
Eeva is the orphaned daughter of a failed revolutionary. At the time the Russian Empire are making headway in their brutal attempts to destroy Finland’s freedom and control it from the inside and its people.
Eeva is one of those affected as she not only looses her father but she is then sent away to an orphanage, and later works a servant. It’s whilst working for doctor Thomas Eklund that she finds some kind of hope for the two of them fall in love.
But Eeva has promised herself to Lauri who is now caught up in Helsinki’s fight for Russian resistance….
Travel Guide
Set against the backdrop of the Finish uprising against Russian rule, this story paints a vivid picture of the political and social effects of the war. Seen through the eyes of a poor orphan whose only experience of the fighting is to have lost her father and possibly her childhood sweetheart, she tries to make a life for herself in Finland.
We were surprised to find out just how dominated Finland was during the early 1900s – rather like the mouse in bed with the Russian bear next door. Heavy political drama you might think but seen through the eyes of an orphan, this makes for a human side to the trauma which in turn makes it more understandable and accessible.
“The orphans wrapped rags around their feet like Russian soldiers”
The upheaval going on at the time really affected everyone – and people like Eeva were trapped in the class they were in. No chance of escaping either the Russian upheaval or the restrictions in everyday Finland. Eeva for example, when she moves to the country finds that the life of servitude is the only chance of ‘escape’ she will be able to find.
A nice touch was the way in which Eeva had learnt from her father’s Pushkin novel –
He had brought it back to Finland and kept it with him wherever he went. He had taught Eeva from this book. Every page of it they had turned together at some time.
The story of The House of Orphans is told in several parts – one based in Eeva’s early life and her move to the countryside to serve the doctor. The second when she returns to Helsinki so a picture of urban and rural life are evoked with the rumbles of the Russian influence all around.
It’s not all war and doom however as there are many comments made on the Finnish psyche such as their love of spas!
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