This study employs media sources and correspondence from newspaper readers to the Finnish Press during the tumultuous period of the Russian-Ottoman War in 1877–78 (referred to as the First World War) to evaluate Finnish wartime experiences. The paper analyzes news derived from the communications of regular individuals to the mass media. The objective is to examine and deliver a concise case study on the impact of the imperial war on Finnish society and wartime experiences in order to comprehend how conflict shaped or contributed to the Finnish concept of nationhood. This study utilizes previously unexamined data to demonstrate how historians engage digital tools to analyze the wartime experiences of countries and individuals within political, social, and cultural frameworks. The research investigates the Finnish viewpoint and societal war experiences, utilizing qualitative content analysis to analyze texts from a compilation of personal correspondence from Finns by examining distinctive letters from diverse places, cities, and villages, alongside numerous local newspapers that provide firsthand descriptions of the Imperial War. The study analyzed Finnish perceptions of their imperial and military involvement in the Russo-Ottoman War and its impact on their views of international conflict, particularly nationalism and imperialism, by analyzing the relationship between the local (e.g., hardships) and the public (e.g., the concept of nationalism). Do recollections and perspectives of war vary by geography or socioeconomic status, and do the letters convey a range of emotions, feelings, and experiences? Do personal interactions directly convey economic hardships, bereavement, or conflict? Which issues predominated in civilians' correspondence throughout the war, illustrating their daily experiences, political discourse, resource shortages, pricing, trade disruptions, nationalistic feelings, and hardships?