2024/07/02 by Jesse Hirvelä · 1 voice
Social Sciences · #Historical Geopolitical and Social Dynamics #European history and politics #Polish Historical and Cultural Studies
paper · pdf · doi:10.1080/09546545.2024.2446121
This article explores characteristics of Soviet colonialism in Finnish-speaking Ingria, located around the city of St Petersburg/Petrograd/Leningrad from 1918, when the Red Finns immigrated to the region from Finland, until the turn of the Soviet nationality policy of korenizatsiia in 1932. By utilizing primary sources produced by the Finnish immigrant communists, whose role has not been studied in the Ingrian context, this article discusses the divisions between Ingrians and non-Ingrians in terms of institutions, political positions, and public discourse. This article also argues that the Bolsheviks colonized Ingria through their nationality policy by using the Finnish communists as mediators between Soviet power and the Finnish-speaking peasantry. The Finnish communists settled in Petrograd/Leningrad and Ingria and became political leaders, creating literary content with colonial imagery and became involved in a wider colonial project to assimilate minority nationalities into the Soviet empire.