According to mediaeval ideals, members of the academic community who belonged to the clergy did not carry any weapons. However, the times were tumultuous and violent, and the state monopoly on violence had not yet reached its later level in Europe. In fact, scholars journeying on the roads were wise to either arm themselves or join armed convoys when travelling to university towns or back home. Even in these towns, life was marked by the threat of violence, as wars and political disputes between kings and city states spread easily among students from across Europe, resulting in lynchings, murders and street brawls between different nationalities, families or student associations. Consequently, students in university towns often carried arms in spite of prohibitions by chancellors, popes and kings.
For example, the Hundred Years’ War between France and England made Paris a dangerous place to study for Englishmen, and the martial unrest led to the establishment of new universities in German-speaking Europe, including Prague and Heidelberg. The University of Cambridge was born as a direct response to the murder of scholars by angry urban residents in Oxford, making the entire university pack their bags and move to Cambridge in protest. A new university was established when some of the scholars stayed in the new university town after the dispute ended, while the rest returned to Oxford.
The great power struggle of the 17th century in Europe, known as the Thirty Years’ War, ravaged regions in today’s Germany, brutalising academia as well. Students and professors alike had to carry weapons to protect themselves as, for example, one public examination got so out of hand that the opponent stabbed the custos to death on the lectern in the general tumult. In the 17th century, Swedish universities also introduced skills associated with the nobleman ideal of the time to their curriculum, for which dedicated practice masters were hired. These included modern languages (German, French, Italian, English and, to a degree, others), drawing, dancing and fencing. In the Sun King’s Versailles and Queen Christina’s court, the aim was to refine the nobility through diverse etiquette training and guidebooks, as demands for skills shifted to encompass, alongside warfare, sophisticated manners as well as the aptitude required of diplomats and officials. Swords became more symbols of social status than actual weapons of combat.
Light French-style smallswords evolved from the duels of high society. Later on, the dancing and fencing courses offered by touring multiprofessional instructors were replaced in the early 19th century by teaching provided by the Imperial Alexander University’s own practice masters. After Alexander I doubled the University’s annual budget, special positions were established for teachers of fencing and dance, which soon merged into a single post as the first fencing teacher, the Italian Gioacchino Otta, also carried out the duties of the dance master, drawing the salary for both.
By the 18th century, the smallsword had established itself as part of the European nobleman’s accoutrements. For example, a sword rental stand stood at the gate to the gardens of Versailles, as anyone entering had to carry a smallsword in accordance with the court etiquette. Consequently, swords were rented to visitors for the duration of their stay. The smallsword was also established as part of the festive attire of professors outside the clergy, especially after King Gustav III of Sweden decreed his national dress as the official outfit of noblemen and officials in Sweden in 1778. According to travelogues of the late 18th century from Uppsala University, many of the more affluent students carried a sword as part of their attire in accordance with the contemporary fashion of the noblemen.
In 1809, when the Treaty of Hamina made Finland part of the Russian Empire as a new Grand Duchy, it became topical to provide Finnish officials with their uniforms and positions in the Russian table of ranks. During the reign of Alexander I, a statute was enacted on the uniform of professors and lecturers, in addition to which the University’s statutes stipulated that all doctoral graduates had the right to wear the uniform even if they had no academic position. At the beginning of the 19th century, attaining a doctoral degree through public examination was rare, as most of such degrees were awarded by the Faculty of Theology as distinctions granted by the Emperor. The Faculty of Law did not confer doctoral degrees until the 200th anniversary of the University in 1840, at which point the Faculty of Philosophy also conferred doctoral degrees for the first time in accordance with the 1828 statutes. The Faculty of Medicine had already began conferring doctoral degrees on the basis of public defences in 1781, but it also held on, for a long time, to the honorary titles of doctor of medicine and doctor of surgery awarded by decision of the chancellor or the University Senate.
The University uniform was updated in 1839 during the reign of Nicholas I, and the smallsword included in it was redesigned to accord with the St Petersburg court. The emblem of the Russian Empire, the double-headed eagle, appeared on the hilt, while featured underneath this emblem was the coat of arms of the Grand Duchy of Finland, portraying a lion. The uniform included an embroidered tailcoat and a bicorne hat, which can be seen in portraits of 19th‑century professors and in Edelfelt’s sketches of the University’s 200th anniversary in 1840, which he drew for murals to be painted in the University’s Great Hall. Unfortunately, this work depicting the 200th anniversary was never completed in full size. During Nicholas I’s reign, uniformisation and militarisation spread to all sectors of society, and students were also specifically ordered to wear a uniform. In 1852, new statutes established the position of inspector, who would supervise the wearing of uniforms, assisted by beadles, alongside other disciplinary actions. Already from the beginning of Russian rule, a sword was part of the student uniform.
In 1873, the uniform requirement for students was lifted when Emperor Alexander I approved the amended disciplinary code for the University. Professors and other staff nevertheless wore the uniform in accordance with the Russian model until the end of the Russian Empire, although the tailcoat had become increasingly popular at official events and during the emperor’s visits.
After the fall of the Russian Empire in 1917 and Finland’s independence in December of the same year, many of the practices of the imperial period persisted. The Civil War in 1918 was followed by a strong German trend in Finnish politics, which also led to a struggle for the form of government to be established in Finland. As a continuation of the Grand Duchy, and shocked by the shattered feelings of security and trust brought about by the Civil War, the rump parliament of Finland overseen by non-socialist parties ended up declaring Finland a kingdom, and a decision was made to seek a German prince to serve as its sovereign. Vigorous planning for various furnishings and outfits for the future court commenced in Helsinki. In 1918, in the early stages of the Civil War, Carl Gustaf Mannerheim, who returned from Russia to head the White forces, had appointed artist Akseli Gallen-Kallela to design uniforms, emblems, flags and decorations for the Senate troops. Already in April of 1918, Gallen-Kallela was sent to Berlin to organise the ordering of uniforms and decorations for Finland. It is possible that the photographic plate depicting a doctoral sword, dated in 1918, held in the archives of the German WKC Solingen sword factory originates from this trip. Unfortunately, the rest of the archive was destroyed in Allied bombing raids during the Second World War.
In May, Gallen-Kallela, Eric O. Ehrström and a handful of other artistically talented White Guard officers were appointed to the recently and rapidly established uniform committee of the Finnish Army, which first convened at the Karjalainen Osakunta student nation facilities in the New Student House and, subsequently, at Hotel Fennia next to Helsinki’s Railway Square. In addition to designing uniforms for the units and branches of the army, the committee was burdened by requests from various civil guards and official bodies for uniforms, emblems and flags. In 1918 in June, the committee’s work ground to a halt, as the battle for the form of government ran high and it began to look like Finland would become a kingdom. Mannerheim, who opposed the German orientation, left Finland for England, and Pehr Evind Svinhufvud was appointed as regent. The work of the military uniform committee was relaunched, and its efforts were directed to designing uniforms and court attire for the future court and various administrative sectors. As part of the court outfits, the form of the smallsword was also updated by Gallen-Kallela and the committee members on the basis of international models. Still today you can admire the fancy uniforms of the court staff and, for example, the officials of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs at the archives of the National Archives of Finland and the Finnish Heritage Agency. On 7 July 1918, the Senate’s administrative department for military affairs published new uniform regulations, including an order for the cavalry to carry a new sidearm with a hilt designed by Lieutenant Gallen-Kallela. Consequently, the hilts can be assumed to have been completed by that time. The hilt model for the cavalry sabre is still in use today as the hilt of the officer sword in the Finnish Defence Forces.
The period known as the royal adventure in Finnish political history ended in the autumn of 1918, when the German Empire ran out of resources and collapsed. After the defeat of Germany, Prince Friedrich Karl of Hesse, who was elected to the throne of Finland, announced that he would not accept the crown. Svinhufvud’s Senate relinquished power at the request of the Allied powers, and Mannerheim returned to Finland as the new regent. He immediately appointed Gallen-Kallela as an aide-de-camp, who was now commissioned to continue designing the uniforms of the Finnish army. In March of 1919, parliamentary elections were held in Finland, bringing the Social Democrats back to Parliament. In the spring of 1919, the Parliament chose, on the basis of a committee report drawn up in Anjala already in the summer of 1917, a republic in the vein of Ståhlberg instead of a monarchy. As the legacy of the royal adventure, the new constitution included broad powers for the President of the Republic of Finland. As a compromise, the Parliament chose as the first president K.J. Ståhlberg, President of the Supreme Administrative Court, who had contributed to drafting the republican constitution. Before the transfer of power, Regent Mannerheim confirmed the uniform code of the Finnish military at a presentation held at the Ministry of War on 30 June 1919. The patterns, most famously the curved hilt of the officer sword by Gallen-Kallela, were drawn by Gallen-Kallela and other members of the uniform committee. Alongside the officer sword on the same page is the hilt of the civilian sword, which is the current doctoral sword.
Among the many uniforms and related accoutrements included in the official dress code is the smallsword for military officials and for the officers’ civilian dress. After the fall of the monarchy, the planned court with royal attire never came about, and the new parliament of a country recently ravaged by war strove to prevent all unnecessary spending, leaving the uniforms for ministries and other administrative branches unrealised as well. The old official bodies, namely the post office, the police, the customs, the border guard and the prison administration, received new uniforms in the 1920s. No smallsword was granted to these officials, as it had not been part of their uniforms previously either. Therefore the police, for example, were assigned a sword conforming to the cavalry sabre in accordance with the new model.
As state administration relinquished the smallsword, the University remained its sole user, continuing the traditions of the Grand Duchy without separate regulations. While the professorial uniform was consigned to history, the doctoral sword retained its place alongside the doctoral hat. President Ståhlberg confirmed the updated uniform code on 23 April 1922, at which point the smallsword was still included as part of the civilian dress of military officials and officers. Over the course of the 1920s, the military nevertheless switched to using the officer sword only, leaving universities as the sole institutions to use the civilian sword of the officers’ civilian attire.
The sword designed by Gallen-Kallela was first handed out to doctoral graduands in the conferment ceremony of the Faculty of Philosophy as late as 1923, since during the first years following World War I, the shortage of metal in Europe hindered the import of swords. In 1919, the Finnish army itself resorted to requesting swords in newspaper announcements as donations from citizens to officers. The first swords were obtained in 1922 from WKC Solingen, a swordmaker active in Germany since the 16th century. Fittingly, one of the honorary doctors of the 1923 conferment ceremony was the artist Akseli Gallen-Kallela, to whom Mannerheim had granted the title of professor at the end of his regency.
Emma Irene Åström, the first woman to be conferred a master’s degree in Finland, was also the first woman to receive the doctoral sword when she was conferred an honorary doctorate at the 1929 ceremony. Previously, women doctoral graduands had either been conferred in absentia or did not acquire a doctoral sword. For this first occasion, a carrying belt suited to women’s outfits had to be designed in 1927 for the doctoral sword. In the tailcoat worn by men, the doctoral sword was attached to the belt for the trousers, making this the first time that the sword was carried as part of another outfit.
The doctoral sword designed by Gallen-Kallela and forged by WKC Solingen has remained in use throughout the history of Finnish independence. The sword is a Finnish specialty that attracts those pursuing doctoral degrees to Finland, as here they have the opportunity to obtain an actual and impressive sword as evidence of their doctoral degree alongside a hat and a diploma. The emblematic value of the sword has grown with the increasing importance of defending truth and knowledge – the sword is a fitting symbol in this context. In Poland and Ukraine, the equivalent of the Finnish doctoral sword is the buława, a ceremonial mace used as an insignia of rank similarly to the marshal’s baton. The holders of doctoral degrees use their swords to defend the knowledge and truth they have discovered against falsehood and misconduct.
Pasi Pykälistö, MA
(Text last updated on 13 May 2024)