Thank you for your comment. First of all, what might be even needless to say, what I wrote and you labeled as “arrogant”, is by no means meant to be arrogant.

I am fully aware of the bad crop years due to cold and rainy weather in the 1860s and the last famine Finland saw between 1866 and 1868. However, I fail to see your connection between this grave situation and the reasons for enforcing the ban on home distilling. Or to ask you in your words, why would starvation be the main reason for the ban? I think the two are not related.

And even if starvation and prohibition are connected, it would be interesting to know why was total prohibition in force for a full 13 years between 1919 and 1932. My answer to such question is that just as prohibitions in many other protestant countries, prohibition in Finland stemmed from the Protestant’s weariness of alcohol.

Argument in favor of such explanation becomes even more evident when put into perspective that many Finns in the 1860s actually believed the famines were God’s punishment. Consumption of alcohol has a socially lax effect on people, to say the least, and as such it definitely does not go well with strict religious life. Hence, I believe it was this weariness of alcohol, godliness and the fact that in Finland the state and the church are not separated, and not the fact that 15% of Finnish population died from the famine that brought about first the ban and later prohibition.

Mladen

The ban was not for fun. Reason was starvation. Between 1866-68 crop was destroyed by the frost. During those years almost 1/3 of the finnish population were killed by hunger. Lack of food killed over 100 000 people alone in 1868.
You should read more finnish history before you write something as arrogant as above.