From Soviet Locality to Multivoiced Borderland: Literature and Identity in the Finnish-Russian National Borderlands*

This article examines the construction of Soviet and post-Soviet identities in Finnish-language literature in the Finnish-Russian national borderlands of Karelia. The article argues that the Finnish-Russian national border has been the most significant force in the construction of Karelian regional identities in the national borderland. During the Soviet era, the national border was primarily used to create separation between Finland and the Soviet Union after the Second World War, and this came to symbolize the fissure between the political East and West. In the post-Soviet era, identities have been constructed not only in relation to physical borders but also in relation to various symbolic borders. These symbolic borders were mainly constructed after the collapse of the Soviet Union when the physical border between Finland and Russia was opened after being closed for nearly 70 years.