Figure 1.--This is the primary school of Polvijärvi, a municipality of Finland located in North Karelia (eastern Finland). The portrait was taken in 1919, immediately after independence. |
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The collapse of the Tsarist Army in World war I aznd thde Russian Revolution have the Finn's the opportunity to declare independepedence. The Finns were faced with disarming a substantial Russian Army and subsequently Red Guards that attempted to seize power. A 3-month civil war followed. Gustaf Mannerheim's White Army emerged victorious, establishing an independent country (May 1918).
Kansakoulu became mandatory (1921). Municipalities were required to provide schooling.
After independence we are not sure what steps were taken, if any, concerning school uniform. We have very limited informstion at this time, mostly photogrsphs from rural primary schools where the children did not wear uniforms. We re less sure about city secondary dschools. We have some images of primaary schools as there is no indication of any uniform. We do not have any information concerning secondary schools. Finland was devestated in World War II. The resultung poverty is clearly obseveable in the clothoing children wore during the 1940s. Modern Finnish students do not wrear uniforms. An increasing prosperity is clearly observeable by the mid-1950s. Finnish children by the 1970s were wearing the new pan-European fashions.
Related Chronolgy Pages in the Boys' Historical Web Site
[Main Chronology Page]
[The 1880s]
[The 1930s]
[The 1940s]
[The 1950s]
[The 1960s]
[The 1970s]
[The 1980s]
