>>84215795Probably, yes. Around 1880 approx only 12% of Finns were able to read and write, for example. Around the year 1910 approx. 51% of kids went to school. Basic education only became compulsory in 1921, after Finland gained independence.
Essentially Finland was super poor until after WWII, And having a bloody civil war in 1918 and then fighting two wars against the Soviets (where eventually we had to lower the age of military duty to 16 in order to have enough people to defend the country, war eats up a lot of men) and ending up to have to pay rather heavy war reparations on top of getting through the recession of the 1930s didn't particularly help, people had to do stuff like mix ground up tree bark into the flour because there wasn't enough to eat. Also for example 70% of Finnish houses or apartments have been built after WWII. For example in 1966 only roughly half of Finnish homes had a refrigerator. In general proper drains, electricity, indoor toilets etc got really common only during the 50s and 60s and so forth.
So yeah. Most "3rd world" countries have more resources, a more favourable climate meaning that they can get fresh produce year round and don't have to struggle through 7-8 months of "nothing fresh growing anywhere"
