By analysing the experience of Finland, Risto Alapuro shows how upheavals in powerful countries shape the internal politics of smaller countries. This linkage, a highly topical subject in the twenty-first century world, is concretely studied by putting the abortive Finnish revolution of 1917-18 into a long historical and a broad comparative perspective. In the former respect the revolution appears as a tragic culmination in the unfolding of a small European state. In the latter respect it appears as one of those crises that new states experienced when they emerged from the turmoils of the First World War.
This second edition includes a new Postscript.
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“Alapuro offers an adept, lucid, and original analysis of class struggle and political change in small countries. His analysis is rich with implications for the contemporary world. Theoretically alert without resort to pomp or jargon, his book provides a remarkable synthesis of recent efforts to understand the connections between domestic politics and the international system."
—Charles Tilly, New School for Social Research
“I very strongly recommend this fine book to all comparative social scientists interested in European political development, revolutions, state building, or nationalism.”
—John D. Stephens, American Journal of Sociology
“The merit of Alapuro’s book lies (…) in his use of familiar material to produce an explanatory model that can both give a coherent explanation of the pattern of Finland’s development and be used to generate generalizations, on a comparative basis, about the politics of small nation states.”
—Anthony F. Upton, The American Historical Review
“Alapuro demonstrates so beautifully the rich context which sets Finnish political development apart from the other small countries and for that the reader should be truly grateful.”
—Francis G. Castles, Acta Sociologica
”Alapuro presents a richly documented and analytically sophisticated case study of a unique nation-state, Western in its class structure but similar to Eastern European states in terms of its dependency.”
—Peter Kivisto, Contemporary Sociology
“It is a marvelous book.”
—Jorunn Bjórgum, Journal of Social History