Editing Mika Waltari (section)

===World War II and international break-through===
During the [[Winter War]] (1939–1940) and the [[Continuation War]] (1941–1944), Waltari worked in the government information center, now also placing his literary skills at the service of political [[propaganda]]. According to historian [[Eino Jutikkala]], through this experience as a propagandist Waltari became more cynical as he realised the prevalence of historical half-truths shaped by propaganda, later a recurrent theme in his historical novels. Although Waltari saw Soviet bolshevism as dangerous, he was attracted at first to the National Socialist theories about a new man. He visited Germany in 1939 and wrote a mostly favourable article titled ''Tuntematon Saksa'' ('Unknown Germany'). In 1942 he and 6 other Finnish writers visited Germany to attend the Congress of the European Writers' Union in Weimar and wrote yet more favourable coverage; a story goes however that he, being slightly drunk, refused the pocket money brought by their "patient and attentive German hosts" to their hotel by tearing it in half and throwing it away through the window.{{sfn|Hejkalová|2008|pp=84-86}}

1945 saw the publication of Waltari's first and most successful historical novel, ''[[The Egyptian]]''. Its theme of the corruption of humanist values in a materialist world seemed curiously topical in the aftermath of [[World War II]], and the book became an international bestseller, serving as the basis of the 1954 [[Cinema of the United States|Hollywood]] movie of the same name. Waltari wrote seven more historical novels, placed in various ancient cultures, among others ''[[The Dark Angel (Waltari)|The Dark Angel]]'', set during the [[Fall of Constantinople]] in 1453. In these novels, he gave powerful expression to his fundamental pessimism and also, in two novels set in the [[Roman Empire]], to his [[Christianity|Christian]] conviction. After the war, he also wrote several [[novella]]s. He became a member of the [[Finnish Academy]] in 1957 and received an honorary doctorate at the [[University of Turku]] in 1970.<ref name="KB">{{cite web |url=http://www.kansallisbiografia.fi/english/?id=702 |title=Waltari, Mika (1908–1979) |last1= Envall |first1= Markku |website=Kansallisbiografia |publisher=Biografiakeskus, Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura |access-date= 2015-10-25 }}</ref>