At a time of social and political change, when Finland was still under Russian rule and national identity needed to be strengthened, Juhani Aho was one of the first authors to embed Finnish literature in European realism. Born Johan Carl Ludvig Arvidsson in Lapinlahti on 11 September 1861, he grew up in a pastor's family where reading secular literature was not tolerated. After studying in Helsinki, which brought him into contact with the intellectual currents of his time, he turned to writing and achieved his first literary recognition with the novel Rautatie (1884). Influenced by French and Russian writers such as Émile Zola and Leo Tolstoy, he combined precise social studies with psychological depth and developed a narrative style that ranged from the sober realism of his early works to impressionist and symbolist forms of expression. In addition to his work as a writer, he was a committed journalist and campaigned for the strengthening of the Finnish language and the independence of his country. Aho remained a central figure in Finnish literature until his death on 8 August 1921.