Adolf Ivar Arwidsson (Padasjoki 1791 – Vyborg 1858) experienced the Finnish War (1808-09) in his late teens, after his family moved to Laukaa in western Finland, where his father had been appointed vicar of a local parish. Contrary to both his dream of becoming an army officer and his father’s wish of becoming a priest, Arwidsson decided to study history at the Royal Academy of Åbo/Turku, where he wrote his doctoral thesis Ingeni romantici, aevo medio orti, expositio historica, published in 1817. During his years as student and, later, lecturer at the university, where he was a leading personality among the Turku Romantics, he became increasingly interested in the historical period of the Swedish Empire. After his doctorate he travelled to Sweden to visit the National Library, and made the acquaintance of Swedish Romantic poets and exiled Finns in Stockholm and Uppsala; a connection to King Charles XIV John was established through the publisher, writer, librarian and politician Peter Adam Wallmark. In 1820, Arwidsson, drawing on his Swedish experiences, started writing nationalist texts: he published the first political journal of Finland, Åbo Morgonblad, in 1821, together with Gustaf Idman-Idestam. His publications, influenced by Romantic thinkers like Arndt, Fichte, and Molbech, often dealt with the state of Finland, connecting nationality and language with political identity. He even demanded the creation of a professorship for the Finnish language at the university. The often-repeated maxim which is generally credited to him, while true to the spirit of the Fennomans, may be a Romantic-Nationalist post-hoc projection: “Swedes we are no longer, Russians we can never become; let us be Finns.”

Åbo Morgonblad’s radical tone ran afoul of the traditionalist turn of Tsar Alexander I’s later reign, when he adopted the conservative policy of the Holy Alliance. Arwidsson’s writings attracted notice in Russia’s capital, St Petersburg, and as a consequence he lost his teaching position at the Academy in 1822, moving to Stockholm in 1823. There he obtained Swedish citizenship and a position in the Royal Library in 1825. He remained politically active, especially during a dispute that occurred between 1838 and 1841. It was started by a political pamphlet in which an Uppsala medical professor argued that Finland had emancipated itself from Sweden and had found its own identity in the Russian Empire. Arwidsson responded with pamphlets and articles under the pseudonyms Pekka Kuoharinen and Olli Kekäläinen (Finland or Framtid, “Finland and its Future”; Finlands nuvarande Stats-Författning, “Today’s Constitution of Finland”). Arwidsson was appointed director of the Swedish National Library in 1843. He published a textbook on Finnish history and geography, and biographical sketches of the Swedish kings. One of his most extensive works is the 10-volume source-edition Handlingar till upplysningar af Finlands häfder (1846-58). After his death in Vyborg, Arwidsson was buried in Laukaa, Finland.