Project Gutenberg 2025-07-27 Public domain in the USA. 259 Välisalmi, Heikki 1886 1947 Valisalmi, Heikki Karttunen, Johan Henrik Hesekiel Maailman toinen puoli : $b Kuvauksia $aHelsinki :$bKustannusosakeyhtiö Kansanvalta, $c1929. Vapaus ja vapaus -- Lakkautuspalkalla -- Hullu nainen -- Maailman toinen puoli -- Ihmeelliset ovat kohtalon tiet -- Siperian joulu -- Kun sanoma vallankumouksesta saapui Siperiaan -- Ihminen: maailma -- Sydänsuvi: sydänten suvi -- Pormestarin Jorri -- Kohtalon suosikki -- Iso ryhmä -- Monni -- Ratkaiseva askel -- Runoilijan herääminen. Juhani Kärkkäinen and Tapio Riikonen Maailman toinen puoli: Kuvauksia by Heikki Välisalmi is a collection of short stories written in the early 20th century. The pieces trace human dignity and cruelty amid civil strife, poverty, madness, and exile, moving from Finland’s wartime fractures to Siberia’s bleak horizons. Themes of freedom, fate, and compassion recur as ordinary people—wounded youths, a disabled clerk, a fugitive madwoman, and exiles—are tested by history and by one another. The opening of the collection moves through stark vignettes: in a burning northern city’s hospital two young enemies, shot on opposite sides of the civil war, quietly discover they both fought for “freedom” and fade in fever. A frail, childlike clerk named Matti briefly wields petty authority during unrest, then slips into obscurity, finally writing passes for the dead before joining them. A madwoman flees a poorhouse to the forest’s safety while the village trembles behind locked doors. Ieri, a deformed ward whose weekly joy is scrounged tobacco, dies when a drunk playfully pours pipe dregs into his open mouth—an act tinged with bitter kinship. Fate’s loops tighten as a Finn robbed in Warsaw later shares a Siberian sled with the same cross‑dressing thief, now an exile heading toward an asylum, and a “Siberian Christmas” sets political prisoners beside a peasant whose lost father was a Finn. The section closes as news of revolution finally reaches the steppe, and two far‑off exiles erupt in disbelieving joy. (This is an automatically generated summary.) 20250703233526vlisalmi 1929 FI Reading ease score: 40.9 (College-level). Difficult to read. fi Short stories, Finnish Finnish fiction -- 20th century PH Text Category: Short Stories 186851 2025-07-30T08:46:52.611487 text/html 147208 2025-07-30T08:46:58.861450 application/epub+zip 148893 2025-07-30T08:46:55.630458 application/epub+zip 134013 2025-07-30T08:46:54.478428 application/epub+zip 301622 2025-07-30T08:47:01.321430 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 284159 2025-07-30T08:46:58.125454 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 164750 2025-07-30T08:46:52.324480 text/plain; charset=us-ascii 144973 2025-07-27T16:21:07 text/plain; charset=us-ascii 13615 2025-07-30T08:47:01.469425 application/rdf+xml 15493 2025-07-30T08:46:54.998438 image/jpeg 3867 2025-07-30T08:46:54.739430 image/jpeg 148321 2025-07-30T08:46:52.629493 application/octet-stream application/zip Archives containing the RDF files for *all* our books can be downloaded at https://book.klll.cc/wiki/Gutenberg:Feeds#The_Complete_Project_Gutenberg_Catalog fi.wikipedia