Johan Vilhelm Snellman (1806–1881), who also possessed the professions of
philosopher,
journalist and
author, was one of the most influential Fennomans and perhaps one of the most internationally known Finnish statesmen. After the
Crimean War, Fennomans founded the
Finnish Party and intensified
the language strife, yearning to raise the
Finnish language and
Finnic culture from peasant status to the position of a national language and a national culture. The opposition, the
Svecomans, tried to defend the status of
Swedish and the ties to the
Germanic world. Although the notion of
Fennomans was not as common after the generation of
Juho Kusti Paasikivi (born 1870), their ideas have dominated the Finns' understanding of their nation. The mother tongue of many of the first generation of Fennomans, like
Johan Vilhelm Snellman, was Swedish. Some of the originally
Swedish-speaking Fennomans learned Finnish, and made a point of using it inside and outside the home. Several Fennomans were from Finnish or bilingual homes. Some originally had Swedish surnames, common in Finland at that time. Most of the Fennomans also
Finnicized their family names, particularly from the end of the 19th century. In the last years of the 19th century, and in the first years of the 20th, the Fennoman movement split into two political parties: the
Old Finnish Party and the
Young Finnish Party. == Motto ==