ИСТИНА

This article is devoted to famous and gifted but for some reasons unfairly forgotten Finnish poetess L.Onerva (1882 – 1972). She wrote several collections of poems, short stories and the novel “Mirdja”. The main theme of her creativity was the protest against the cruelty and the dehumanization of modern society. The poetess tried to overcome individualism and called for social actions. Continuing the traditions of the Finnish women’s literature Onerva were devoted to the problem of women's emancipation. War actions and revolutionary actions in the world confused the poetess and were the reason of her misunderstanding of socio-historical tendencies. Onerva belongs to the supporters of the Finnish idea and required decisive actions to implement the program of transition to official use of the Finnish language in Finnish society. She cooperated with many newspapers written in Finnish, thus improving and promoting the status of Finnish language. Onerva translated western literature to Finnish language.