Julius Sundblom (1865–1945) grew up in a cantor's home in Jomala, Åland. As a young man he trained to be a schoolteacher at the seminary for male teachers in Nykarleby, where he absorbed the patriotic, Swedish-Finnish spirit of the age — reading Runeberg and Topelius, and forming a lifelong attachment to Runeberg's The Tales of Ensign Stål. He graduated with top marks in 1887, aged 22, and took his first teaching post at a private school in Dalkarby, in his home parish.
In 1891, Sundblom switched paths. He helped recruit shareholders for the launch of a new newspaper, Åland, and sat on its first board — the paper's first issue appeared on 1 April 1891. Though trained as a teacher, he turned out to be a natural journalist: curious, engaged, quick with words (though he never gave up handwriting his articles, to the printers' frustration). From 1895–1901 he also worked as an editor in Åbo (Turku) for the paper Västra Finland, earning a steady salary that mattered to a young family man. He returned to Åland as editor-in-chief in 1901, by which point the paper was profitable and its printing house modernized; by 1898 he was already its largest shareholder.
The early 1900s brought escalating Russian "Russification" policies and press censorship. Sundblom clashed loudly and often with government censors, and in 1903 he was exiled to Sweden, where he scraped by on odd jobs, including sending newspaper clippings back to Helsinki. He returned to Åland — and to the editor's chair — in 1905.
From 1918–1922, Åland became the direct mouthpiece of the Åland Movement (see below), reporting on Russian and Finnish abuses and championing reunification with Sweden — which made the paper (and Sundblom personally, nicknamed "the King of Åland") a target of hostility from Finnish and Finland-Swedish newspapers. A short-lived rival paper, Ålandsposten, tried to counter this narrative in 1919 but folded within months. Sundblom lived and worked in the same building where the paper was printed, often writing late into the night. Even as an elderly statesman — at 73, facing a hostile crowd at a Helsinki train station in 1938 — his instinct was that of a reporter: "Let me watch. I am a newspaperman, after all."
Sundblom's political engagement grew alongside his journalism, driven above all by two causes: defending the Swedish language on Åland against Finnish and Russian pressure, and (later) reunification with Sweden.
He was elected to the Finnish Parliament in 1907 — Finland's first democratic election, held after the 1905 general strike forced the Tsar to restore the legislature's powers and introduce universal suffrage (Sundblom was an active supporter of women's suffrage, which likely won him many female voters). He represented Åland almost single-handedly in Parliament until 1917, pushing issues like fishing rights, pilotage, and education.
World War I brought Russian occupation of demilitarized Åland (up to 8,000 soldiers) and near-total isolation. After the Tsar's fall in 1917 and Finland's declaration of independence that December, a movement emerged — with Sundblom eventually at its head — calling for Åland to reunite with Sweden instead of remaining with a chaotic, revolution-torn Finland. Nearly 8,000 Ålanders (a clear majority of adults) signed a petition to that effect over Christmas 1917, giving birth to the organized Åland Movement.
During Finland's 1918 civil war, Sundblom had to go into hiding in Helsinki to avoid capture by the Reds. After the war, he traveled to the 1919 Paris Peace Conference with two colleagues to plead Åland's case for reunification with Sweden — he spoke no foreign languages but was renowned for winning people over regardless. A second petition produced 9,735 signatures for reunification versus 461 against.
In 1920, defying Finland's new self-government law for Åland (which he said nobody had asked for), Sundblom was arrested along with fellow leader Carl Björkman on charges of treason, imprisoned for over a month, and sentenced to 18 months' hard labor — though both were pardoned before serving time. They returned home to a hero's welcome.
In 1921, the League of Nations ruled that Åland would remain part of Finland but with strengthened autonomy, and that the islands would be demilitarized and neutralized. It was a bitter blow, but Sundblom rejected calls for an uprising and instead threw himself into building self-government from the ground up. He became the first Speaker of Åland's Parliament (Landstinget), a post he held by re-election until his death — known for his political skill, popular touch, and persuasive speaking and writing, working alongside lantråd Carl Björkman, who handled the legal battles with Finnish authorities.
The two leaders eventually fell out, and matters came to a head in 1934 when a disturbed young man shot and wounded Björkman amid the political tension — Björkman partly blamed Sundblom for stoking the hostility. Later that decade, Sundblom firmly opposed the "Stockholm Plan," which would have fortified and remilitarized Åland with Finnish soldiers and conscription in the face of a darkening European situation; over 3,000 Ålanders marched in protest, and Björkman (who supported the plan) was ousted as lantråd in 1938. The plan ultimately collapsed after the Soviet Union objected.
During the 1939–40 Winter War, Sundblom approved a wartime, defense-only home guard of Ålanders (1,800 men volunteered), but he opposed turning it into a permanent force after the war. During the 1941–44 Continuation War, alongside Nazi Germany, he kept his distance from the more militarized "protection corps," seeing them as an extension of the Finnish army.
Even near the war's end, at almost 80, Sundblom made a final personal appeal to Sweden's prime minister for reunification — without success. He never saw his dream fulfilled, but by the time of his death Åland was democratic, self-governing, Swedish-speaking, and demilitarized — largely his life's work. Ålanders honored him with nearly 7,000 signatures on his 80th birthday, and mourning bells rang in all sixteen of Åland's churches after his death.
Sundblom was also a devoted lover of music and song, especially the large outdoor song festivals of the era, and he liked to sail traditional wooden boats with his family — a nod to his family roots in Föglö.