Tulenkantajat was a literature group in Finland

Finland

Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...

 during the 1920s. Tulenkantajat's main task was to find a way to take Finland from the so called backwood culture to the new, modern European level of literature. They did not consider their manifestos to form a program of any sort, but instead stated that their group is the "new feeling of life", building on humility, courage, and the sense of community. The group published their own magazine. The editorial of the magazine's first issue emphasized the group's unconnectedness to any of the political parties, if not even apolitical

Apolitical

The state or quality of being apolitical can be the apathy and/or the antipathy towards all political affiliations. Being apolitical can also refer to situations in which people take an unbiased position in regard to political matters.-References:...

ity, but less than a decade lather the group disbanded partly due to political conflicts, as some members ended up being strictly on the left while some openly promoted the values of Academic Karelia Society

Academic Karelia Society

The Academic Karelia Society was a Finnish elitist nationalist and Finno-Ugric activist organization aiming at the growth and improvement of newly independent Finland, founded by academics and students of the University of Finland in 1922...

.

Their main motto was Ikkunat auki Eurooppaan in English Windows open to Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

. Tulenkantajat members travelled in Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

's big cities such as Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

, Rome

Rome

Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...

, London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

, Berlin

Berlin

Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...

. The young people who started Tulenkantajat in their early 20s ended up being important cultural characters in Finnish society.

Tulenkantajat's poetry and prose got inspired by oriental themes, jazz, city and industry life and hedonism.

People are tired of viewing the world from hazy castles in the air like romantics, or from the grey surface of the earth like realists. That is why people want to see the world during a giddy, heart-rending leap of death high from above, through a strange perspective lasting only a wink of a moment - despite the risk that the salto mortale might not succeed, the head of the daring jumper being crushed against the paved street.
A leap from the fifth floor is a fully conscious trick. It is not an accident or a whim of a madman, as is often believed. It has been performed by individuals who have wanted to expand the kingdom of art to include unmapped areas of the world of beauty. This area they have found, surprising with its richness, is called modern times.
- Olavi Paavolainen (1929)

Some of the most known members of Tulenkantajat were Olavi Paavolainen

Olavi Paavolainen

Olavi Paavolainen was a Finnish essayist, journalist, travel book writer, and poet. He often went under the pseudonym of Olavi Lauri. Paavolainen was the central figure of the literary group Tulenkantajat and one of the most influential literary opinion leaders between the two World wars in...

, Mika Waltari

Mika Waltari

Mika Toimi Waltari was a Finnish writer, best known for his best-selling novel The Egyptian .- Early life :...

, Katri Vala

Katri Vala

Katri Vala was a Finnish poet, critic, school teacher, and central member of the literary group Tulenkantajat with Olavi Paavolainen, Elina Vaara, Lauri Viljanen, Ilmari Pimiä, Viljo Kajava, and Yrjö Jylhä. As a modernizer of the Finnish poetry, she has been generally compared to Edith Södergran...

, Elina Vaara, Erkki Vala, Yrjö Jylhä, P. Mustapää

Martti Haavio

Martti Haavio was a Finnish poet, folklorist and mythologist, writing poetry under the name "P. Mustapää". He was born on 22 January 1899 in Temmes, and died 4 February 1973. He was also a professor of folklore and an influential researcher of Finnish mythology. In 1960, Haavio married Aale Tynni,...

, Uuno Kailas

Uuno Kailas

Uuno Kailas, born Frans Uno Salonen was a Finnish poet, author, and translator.Kailas was born in Hartola. After his mother's death, the boy received a strict religious upbringing from his grandmother. He studied in Heinola and occasionally in the University of Helsinki...

, Ilmari Pimiä and Arvi Kivimaa.