Finnish novelist, a masterful short story writer, whose anti-militarism and Marxists leanings in the 1920s and 1930s were not received with enthusiasm by leading right wing critics. Pentti Haanpää's first works gained wide notice, but his most impressive books waited for publication over twenty years, among them Noitaympyrä (1956), in which the protagonist chooses Communism instead of Western democracy, and Vääpeli Sadon tapaus (1956), a bitter criticism of the army life and brutality. Haanpää created his literary reputation chiefly with his short stories, of which he published twelve collections.

"Sitten tuli Pekkanen tuoden mukanaan Iris Uurron, jonka tuotteita minä en kyllä muista lukeneeni riviäkään. Hentoinen leski, joka kertoi hänellä olevan pikkulapsen. Tuli myöskim Vala ja sitten marssittiin "Kotka"-kapakkaan. Täysi sali, tanssia, soittoa, sorinaa, viskigrogeja ja punssia. Kajava halusi ilahduttaa mieltäni kertomalla Tarkiaisen luennoista ja joistakin tovereistaan, jotka olivat innostuneita kirjoituksiini. Pekkanen ehdotti, että kirjoittaisin helsinkiläisromaanin ja Uurto halusi kaikin mokomin, että kävisin hänen luonaan. . . . Kello oli jo sangen paljon, kun maksoimme laskumme. Tämä toimitus sai minut päättämään, että kapakoissa istuminen minulta kerta kaikkiaan on poikki." ('Kahvila ja kapakka,' Helsinki, 2.X.1932, in Muistiinmerkintöjä vuosilta 1925-1939 by Pentti Haanpää, Helsingissä: Otava, 1989, pp. 216-217))

Pentti Haanpää was born at Pulkkila, approximately sixty miles southeast of Oulu, near the birthplace of Ilmari Kianto. His father, Mikko Haanpää, and grandfather, Juho Haanpää, who was a senator, were published writers. They both also were socially and politically active in their home region. Maria Susanna (Keckman) Haanpää, his mother, was born in Haapavesi; she came from a farmer family. The writer's relationship to his mother was very close, but she was sometimes offended with her son because he did not talk to her much about his creative work.

At school in Leskelä Haanpää was a good student, and the leader of his schoolmates. After finishing the elementary school, he began to contribute writings in 1921 to the magazine Pääskynen, At the same time, he was also very active in sports. In 1923 Haanpää joined the literary association Nuoren Voiman Liitto and continued to write for its magazine Nuori Voima.

Haanpää's first book, Maantietä pitkin (1925, Down the highway), appeared when he was 20. It was well received by critics, who especially noted Haanpää's skillful use of language. A few years later the story was translated into Swedish under the title Hemfolk och strykare. After this successful debut, Haanpää decided to devote himself entirely to writing. Before that, he served in the army in 1925-26, stationed at Kiviniemi, about 70 kilometres east of Vyborg.

Tuuli käy heidän ylitseen, a collection of short stories, and Kolmen Töräpään tarina, a novella, came out in 1927. Haanpää got good reviews by Hugo Jalkanen: "Mutta nykyiselläänkin hän, kun ottaa huomioon hänen nuoruutensa ja kehitysuransa, on harvinainen, elinvoimainen, ilahduttava ilmiö kirjaillisuudessamme, riemastuttava sanaseppo ja kertoilija, synnynnäinen proosarunoilija, jollaisia ei ilmaannu kuin aika ajoin." ('Pentti Haanpää: Komen Töräpään tarina. – Tuuli kåy heidän ylitseen' by Hugo Jalkanen, Valvoja-Aika, N:o10, Lokakuu 1927. p. 443)

These works were followed by Kenttä ja kasarmi (1928, The parade ground and the barracks), which portrayed the army as a closed system, working under its own rules. Because Haanpää could not accept the deletions his publisher WSOY had demanded, the work was issed by a small social democratic publisher Kansanvalta. It was a success, selling 6 500 copies, although many book shops did not place it on display.

In the promilitary atmosphere of the time, the book generated a heated discussion. One of the most prominent critics was Olavi Paavolainen, who had reviewed Haanpää's debut work earlier positively. Paavolainen knew Haanpää well, and had drunk with him a couple of days in 1926. He argued, that this collection of stories had not been written by the writer and artist Pentti Haanpää, but the soldier Haanpää, Pentti, a lumberjack in civilian life. "Kirjailija ei kertaakaan ole jaksanut kohota siltä samalta matalalta ja epäintellektuellilta, etten sanoisi epäintelligentiltä ajatus- ja tunnetasolta, jossa hänen kuvailemansa ihmistyypit elävät. "Kenttää ja kasarmia" ei ole kirjoittanut kirjailija ja taiteilija Pentti Haanpää, vaan sotamies Haanpää, Pentti, siviiliammatiltaan tukkijätkä." ('"Kirja, Josta Puhutaan"' by Olavi Paavolainen, Tulenkantajat: näytenumero, 1928, p. 33) Paavolainen acknowledged Haanpää's literary talent, but – "we have already enough dirty naturalism and ricketsy romanticism". (Ibid., p. 35)

The choir of critics was not unanimous. Some reviewers did not outright reject Haanpää's rather dark picture of the service conditions in the army and that there is no comradery between the enlisted and officers: "Vad Haanpääs bok beträffar så vilar nog dess berömmelse mest på illitterära skäl. Den ger i några, för det mesta rätt bagatellartade skisser en svart-, eller ganske rättare sag gråmålning av förhållandena i republikens armé. Livsgemenskap mellan menige och deras finska befäl ser man inte så mycket som röken av, och det är väl detta som upprört nationalister och militarister på finsk håll." ('Ny finska prosa' by E. K—n. [Erik Kihlman], Nya Argus, Nr 7, April 1929, p. 85)

Kenttä ja kasarmi was the first work, in which Haanpää drew from his own unpleasant experiences as a draftee. Unable to adjust himself to military life, he felt that he had wasted a year in his life in "the straitjacket of a soldier." Haanpää's description of the brutal training methods disturbed the establishment so much that for the next seven years no publisher would touch his manuscripts. And as a countermove, Mika Waltari published his positive reportage on the army in 1931 under the title Siellä missä miehiä tehdään. (There where men are made).

During this enforced silence in the 1930s, Haanpää finished two controversial books, which did not appear until 1956. The socialistically orientated Noitaympyrä (Witch's circle), written in the early 1930s, examined the conflict between a misfit and his unbearable surroundings. At the end the protagonist, Pate Teikka, leaves Finland for an unknown future – he walks over the border to the Soviet Union: whatever hardships there would be, they would be new. A Russian language edition of 15,000 copies was published in the Soviet Union in 1961.

The anti-militarist Vääpeli Sadon tapaus (The case of sergeant-major Sato), following Noitaympyrä, dealt with the sadism of petty authority. The central characters are Simo Kärnä, a recruit and later corporal, and the psychopathic sergeant-major Sato, the embodiment of militarism. His name obviously refers to sadism. After a series of humiliations, Kärnä uses his intelligence and Sato's wife for his revenge, only to realize that he has been as brutal as his enemy.

Haanpää's other works from the 1930s include Isännät ja isäntien varjot (1935), Taivalvaaran näyttelijä (1938), and Ihmiselon karvas ihanuus (1939). Isännät ja isäntien varjot (Masters and masters' shadows) was published by Kirjailijain Kustannusliike, founded by Erkki Vala. The company was closely associated with the literary group Kiila (Wedge), whose members favored radical free verse and were more or less Marxists. Haanpää was among Kiila's best-known writers, along with such names as Arvo Turtiainen, Katri Vala, Viljo Kajava, and Elvi Sinervo.

Haanpää was never taught English at school, but he later took correspondence courses in English. At home he read the Observer and followed international trends in literature. Two of his short stories from the 1930s, 'Toverukset' and 'Juoppous,' were adaptions from James Joyce's Dubliners, 'Two Gallants' and 'Counterparts' respectively.

During the Winter War (1939-40) between Finland and the Soviet Union Haanpää served in the army. He saw action in the front line in Lapland, and once lost contact to his company and wandered alone in the wilderness, without sense of time or place. In 1940, on his leave, Haanpää married Aili Karjalainen, a dairymaid.

His war experiences Haanpää utilized in the story 'Sallimuksen sormi' (1940), in which a tired company, quartered in a church, is attacked by enemy airplanes. In was published in the Freethinkers' magazine Vapaa-ajattelija.

Originally Haanpää wrote Korpisotaa (1940, War in the wilderness) for a competitrion of a best Winter War novel arranged by Prentice-Hall together with Otava. The novel won third place; the winner was Viljo Saraja's Lunastettu maa: sotakuvaus (1940), now a totally forgotten. War in the wilderness was translated into French under the title Guerre dans le désert blanc by M. Aurelien Sauvageot. The Austrian publishing company Karl H. Bischoff Verlag planned to translate it; one of Haanpää's short stories, 'Siipirikko' had already appeared in the German magazine Das Reich. However, German publishers did not consider Haanpää's book encouraging enough for the war effort.

The novel, told from the viewpoint of ordinary Finnish soldiers, presents almost a documentary picture of the Winter War. Much of the story is narrated from omniscient perspective, and lacks a detectable main character. There are only two fully formed characters, who are given more than a brief passing mention in the text, private Puumi and a young second lieutenant, who dies. The degratory name for a Russian, 'ryssä,' was used several times in the original manuscript, but all of them were removed from the second printing of the book. ('Location and Dislocation in Pentti Haanpää’s Novel Korpisotaa: Notes on the Landscape of War' by Kimmo Kettunen and Hanne Juntunen, in Literary Georgraphies, Vol. 10, No. 1, 2024, p. 25)

In the Continuation War (1941-44) Haanpää was in the service troops in the Kiestinki and Untua area. Nykyaikaa (1942, Modern times), a collection of short stories, reflected Haanpää's bitterness and disillusionment.

After the wars Haanpää produced some of his best works, among them Yhdeksän miehen saappaat (1945, The boots of the nine), in which the same pair of army boots passes from one trooper to another, and Jauhot (1949, Flour), based on a historical event, when peasants seized a government granary during the great famine of 1867-68.

The journey in 1953 to China with a delegation of Finnish writers inspired Kiinalaiset jutut (1954, Chinese tales). Although Haanpää had earlier condemned restrictions on free speech in the Soviet Union, he didn't say anything about this matter in the book, but admired the spirit of change, which had seized the country. A highlight of the journey was when he saw, from a long distance, Mao Zedong waving to the crowd in Beijing, at the May Day parade in Tiananmen Square. "Mao Tse-tung lähti kulkien korokkeensa reunaa pysähdellen ja tervehtian lakillaan huutavaa ja taputtavaa kansaa. Kookas, tukeva, rauhallinen mies. Moni näki ensimmäisen ja viimeisen kerran elämässään tämän nykyhetken ihmiskunnan ehkä huomattavimman henkilön." (Kiinalaiset jutut: ja Kiinan-matkan päiväkirja, toimittanut ja esipuheen kirjoittanut Esko Viirret, Helsingissä: Otava, 2001, pp. 41-42)

Atomintutkija (1950, Atom researcher) received good reviews by the right-wing columnist and critic Kauko Kare in the journal Suomalainen Suomi. In the paranoid short story 'Atomintutkija Fulmarin tapaus' a scientist loses his grip of reality, and ends up in mental institute. The question whether he is mad or a victim of conspiracy, is left open. Atom bomb tests worried Haanpää a great deal. In 1955 he participated in the assembly of the World Peace Council in Helsinki. 

Pentti Haanpää drowned on a fishing trip on September 30, 1955, two weeks before his 50th birthday. His last novel, Puut, about a socialist who becomes a non-socialist, was left unfinished. Kauneuden kirous (The curse of the beauty), reflecting postwar disillusionment, came out 2015. Some parts of the novel had appeared as short stories. The protagonist, Anna Ansala, is an ambitious, beautiful woman who won't stop until she has all that she dreams of. At the end, her beauty has vanished and she dies penniless and alone. The story was suggested by Haanpää's father.

Haanpää's collected works in ten volumes appeared in 1956-58. He never kept a proper diary but his notes from 1925 to 1939 were published in 1976. Taivalvaaran näyttelijä (The actor from Taivalvaara) was reprinted in 1997. 'Haanpää monument' (1996), made by the sculptor Tapio Junno, is situated in Leskelä, Piippola.

" Nykyinen Haanpää on kylläkin syventynyt ihmisten ja heidän elämänasenteidensa y m m ä r t ä j ä n ä. Mutta tuohon aitouden ja epäaitouden kritiikkiin, tuohon olojen arviointiin, jota hänen uudet romaaninsa tarjoilevat liittyy silti tuskallisen "vieras" sivumaku . . . Onko niin, että tämä luomistahtoinen kuvaaja ei ole vielä täysin vapautunut henkisestä lähtökohdastaan, vaan ajattelee niin sanoakseni korven ja kaupungin välimailla? Haanpään yhteiskunnallinen ajattelu on kaikeassa kirpeässä radikaalisuudessaan hieman puolitiehen pysähtynyttä — hyökkäävästä tendenssistä sitä ei nykyisiellään tosiaankaan sovi syyttää!" ('Joulukirjallisuuden jälkisatoa' by T. Vaaskivi, in the journal Suomalainen Suomi, No 1, Tammikuu 1939, p. 56)

It has been said, that Haanpää had the largest vocabulary of any Finnish writer (if Kalle Päätalo is not counted). The archetypal Finnish folk hero, "tukkijätkä" (the lumberjack), was a recurrent character in his fiction. Disillusion and pessimism dominate many stories, occasionally sprinkled with harsh humor. Although Haanpää recognized totalitarian tendencies in socialism, he did not change his political beliefs even after the Continuation War. 

For further reading: 'Pentti Haanpää,' in Uuno Kailaasta Aila Meriluotoon: suomalaisten kirjailijain elämäkertoja, edited by Toivo Pekkanen and Reino Rauanheimo (1947); Pentti Haanpää I. Nuori Pentti Haanpää 1905-1930 by Eino Kauppinen (1966); A History of Finnish Literature by Jaakko Ahokas (1973); Haanpään pitkät varjot: Pentti Haanpään kertomataiteesta by Aarne Kinnunen (1982); Haanpään elämä by Vesa Karonen (1985); Kaksisuuntaiset silmät: esseitä Pentti Haanpäästä by Kari Sallamaa (1996); A History of Finland's Literature, edited by George C. Schoolfield (1998); Leipää huudamme ja kiviä annetaan: Pentti Haanpään 30-luvun teosten kytkentöjä aikansa diskursseihin, todellisuuteen ja Raamattuun by Juhani Koivisto (1999); Inescapable Horizon: Culture and Context, edited by Sirpa Leppänen and Joel Kuortti (2000); Haanpään siivellä: kirjoituksia by Esko Viirret (2005); Pentti Haanpään tarina by Matti Salminen (2013); Sota Kentästä ja kasarmista by Anssi Sinnemäki (2014); Eikä hän ehkä ole kohta mitään, ei parempi kuin tyveys, latvus, joka heitetään metsään. – Primitivismi ja luonto Pentti Haanpään novellikokoelmassa Lauma by Elisa Paljakka (pro gradu -tutkielma, 2022) 

Selected works:

• Maantietä pitkin, 1925 [Down the highway]
  - Hemfolk och strykare (translated into Swedish by Ragnar Ekelund, 1927)
• Rikas mies, 1925 (play, not printed)
• Tuuli käy heidän ylitseen: kertomuksia, 1927 [Wind blows over them]
• Kolmen Töräpään tarina, 1927
  - Lugu kolmest põikpääst (translated into Estonia by K. V., 1928) 
• Kenttä ja kasarmi: kertomuksia tasavallan armeijasta, 1928 [The parade ground and the barracks]
  - Kasarmus ja õppeväljal: jutustusi vabariigi kaitseväest (translated into Estonian by A. Aspel, 1929)
• Hota-Leenan poika: muutaman miehen onni, elämä ja sen tapahtumat, 1929
• Karavaani ja muita juttuja, 1930
• Ilmeitä isänmaan kasvoilla, 1933
• Väljän taivaan alla, 1934
• Isännät ja isäntien varjot: romaani talopojan sortumisesta, 1935 [Masters and masters' shadows]
  - TV film 1976, prod. Yleisradio (YLE), directed by Kari Franck, written by Hannu Kahakorpi, starring Heikki Tirkkonen, Paavo Pentikäinen, Eira Soriola, Hanna Riikonenm Monna Wallstedt, Hannu Kahakorpi, Vesa Mäkelä, Eeva Litmanen, Oiva Lohtander
  - Der Einfall des Gouverneurs: (Bauern und ihre Schatten): zwei Erzählungen (translated into German by Heinz Goldberg, 1965)
• Lauma: kertomuksia, 1937
• Syntykö uusi suku eli Kaaleppi Köyhkänän vanhuus: romaani, 1937
• Taivalvaaran näyttelijä: romaani, 1938 (reprinted in 1997) [The actor from Taivalvaara]
• Ihmiselon karvan ihanuus: novelleja, 1939
• Korpisotaa, 1940 [War in the wilderness]
  - Guerre dans le désert blanc (translated into French by Aurélien Sauvageot, 13. éd. 1943)
• Nykyaikaa: kertomuksia, 1942  [Modern times]
• Yhdeksän miehen saappaat, 1945 [The boots of the nine]
  - De vandrande stövlarna (övers. av Ole Torvalds, 1945) / Nio mans stövlar (translated into Swedish by Ole Torvalds, 1976)
  - Üheksa mehe saapad (translated into Estonian by Harald Lepik, 1972)
  - Devyniu kareiviu batai (translated into Russian by Stasys Skrodenis, 1973)
  - Devinu, viru zabaki (translated into Latvian by Anna Zigure, 1974)
  - Kilenc férfi csizmája (translated into Hungarian by Lajos Szopori Nagy, 1979)
  - Die Stiefel der neun (translated into German by Reinhard Bauer, 1983)
  - TV mini-series in 1969, prod. Yleisradio (YLE), directed by Veli-Matti Saikkonen, starring Uljas Kandolin, Tapio Hämäläinen, Heikki Kinnunen, Aarno Sulkanen, Arto Tuominen, Erkki Pajala, Alpo Kukkonen, Rolf Labbart, Veijo Paananen
• Jutut: valokoima tuotannosta, 1946
• Heta Rahko korkeassa iässä: uusia juttuja, 1947
• Jauhot: tarina pakkasen jäljiltä, 1949 [Flour]
  - Kronomjölet (translated into Swedish by Bertel Kihlman, 1964)
  - Der Einfall des Gouverneurs: (Bauern und ihre Schatten): zwei Erzählungen (translated into German by Heinz Goldberg, 1965)
  - Pomysl gubernatora (translated into Polish by Boleslaw Mrozewicz, 1987)
• Atomintutkija ja muita juttuja, 1950 [Atom researcher and other stories] 
• Jutut: uusittu valikoima, 1952
• Kiinalaiset jutut: muistikuvia, 1954 [Chinese tales]
• Iisakki Vähäpuheinen: muutamia muistelmia hänen elämästään, 1955
• Kolme mestarijuttua, 1955
• Valitut teokset, 1955 (introduction by Unto Kupiainen)
  - Jutud (translated into Estonia by S. Kõiv, E. Männik ja H. Nassar; illustrated by E. Okas, 1957)
• Noitaympyrä: romaani pohjoisesta, 1956 [Witch's circle]
  - Zakoldovannyj krug (translated into Russian by T. Summanen and E. Kiuru, 1961)
  - Der Teufelskreis: ein Roman über den Norden Finnlands (translated into German by Helga Thiele, 1981)
• Vääpeli Sadon tapaus, 1956 [The case of sergeant-major Sato]
• Kertomuksia ja tarinoita, 1956 (edited by Eino Cederberg)
• Pentti Haanpään (jälkeenjääneet teokset) 1-10, 1956-58 (introduction by Eino Kauppinen)
  - A megélhetés furfangjai (edited and translated into Hungarian by József Oláh, Gyözö Féhervári, Endre Gombár, 1976)
• Elu suurelt maanteelt ja teisi jutte, 1957 (translated into Estonian by V. Kabur)
• Maa- ja metsäkyliltä: Iltalehden alakertasarja 1927-28,1968 (edited by Eino Kauppinen)
• Juttuja, 1969 (edited by Helena Anhava)
• Valitut teokset, 1970 (illustrated by Erkki Tanttu)
• Kirveeniskuja, 1971 (edited by Veikko Huovinen, illustrated by Erkki Tanttu)
• Tretti historier, 1971 (edited and translated into Swedish by Th. Warburton)
• Teokset 1-7, 1976
• Muistiinmerkintöjä vuosilta 1925-1939, 1976
• Kirjeitä kahdesta sodasta: Pentti Haanpään kirjeet vaimolleen Aili Haanpäälle talvisodasta ja jatkosodasta, 1977 (foreword by Eino Kauppinen)
• Izbrannoe, 1981 (edited and translated by A. Ustuhin and  P. Raudsepp)
• Erzählungen, 1982 (translated into German by Manfred Peter Hein)
• Wedrujace buciory, 1984 (translated into Polish by Joanna Trzcinska-Mejor)
• Kairanmaa: valitut jutut, 1985 (edited by Erno Paasilinna)
• Kairanhiemen sota, 1986 (edited by Pentti Huovinen)
• Boty dzevaci saldat: ramany z finskaj, 1994 (translated into Ukrainian by Akuba Lapatki)
• Vanha voiman mies: novelleja ja kirjoituksia, 1995 (edited by Esa Karonen)
• Kiinalaiset jutut: ja Kiina-matkan päiväkirja, 2001 (edited by Esko Viirret)
• Kirjeet, 2005 (edited by Vesa Karonen and Esko Viirret)
• Ilmeitä isänmaan kasvoilla, 2013 (edited by Matti Salminen)
• Eräs avioliitto ja muita kadonneita juttuja, 2014 (edited by Matti Salminen)
• Kauneuden kirous, 2015 (edited by Matti Salminen) [The curse of the beauty]
  
• Hurja: Pentti Haanpään muistiinmerkinnät 1940-1954, 2016
  
• Pentti Haanpään parhaat, 2018 (edited by Petri Laukka and Matti Salminen)
  
• Korpisotaa, 2019 (Helsinki: Into Kustannus; first published in 1940)