When the film Nimed marmortahvlil (Names in Marble) was shown in Finland, it seemed to introduce a theme that was entirely new for many viewers. Even after ten years of Estonia's new independence, it was apparent that the Finns were not familiar with the facts of Estonian history. There was a widespread ignorance of how Estonia had first achieved its independence at the end of the First World War and how it had managed to stay independent until the Second World War.

There are several reasons why the history of the First Estonian Republic was forgotten in Finland.

Finland waged a war against the Soviet Union in 1939-1940 and in 1941-1944. In autumn 1944 the Allied Control Commission, in which the Soviet Union had the upper hand, arrived in Finland. The Control Commission ordered the withdrawal of politically questionable books from the bookshops and libraries. Approximately 300 titles were withdrawn from the shops and more than 1700 from the libraries. The banned books had a common attribute: they were detrimental to the Soviet-Finnish relationship.

The Soviet Union had annexed Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania in summer 1940. Therefore, it was obvious that books discussing the years of Baltic independence were included in the list of the newly banned publications. The novel of Kivikas, for instance, had been published in Finland in spring 1944, but it was swiftly removed from circulation in autumn.

In the late 1950s, some important books on the history of Estonia were published in Finland. Ants Oras's Viron kohtalonvuodet (1958) was perhaps the book that most influenced the Finnish opinion. Oras's book discussed the loss of Estonian independence in 1939-1944. It had originally been published in English under the title Baltic Eclipse in 1948. Vilho Niitemaa's groundbreaking study, Baltian historia (History of the Baltic Region, 1959), is also worth mentioning. In his book, Niitemaa examined both the achievement of Estonian independence and the loss of it.

The 1960s and, particularly, the 1970s were the time of self-censorship and "finlandization" and, consequently, the fate of the Baltic States was almost entirely forgotten. The older generation knew about the "real" history of the Baltic States, but the media and, for example, school textbooks ignored the matter. If the matter was discussed at all, the Soviet-style propaganda set the tone. Therefore, it was argued, for example, that the Baltic States had voluntarily joined the Soviet Union in 1940.

Because of the active loss of memory it was difficult to find information on the history of the Baltic States in the Finnish language. For that reason, it is understandable that many issues, such as the Estonian War of Independence, have come out as "new" topics for the Finnish public. It is revealing that a new edition of Kivikas's novel was published in Finland in autumn 2002.