Performing Memory in Conflicting Settings: Russian Immigrants and the Remembrance of World War II in Finland

Olga Davydova-Minguet

doi:10.1177/0888325420956697

Olga Davydova-Minguet

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1177/0888325420956697

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Abstract

This article discusses public and mediatized memory politics concerning Word War II in Finland, particularly its transnational dimensions brought about by post-Soviet immigration from the former Soviet Union. Despite the ongoing multiculturalization of Finnish society, where Russian speakers have become the largest immigrant group, Finnish national identity is still constructed around the idea of national independence and its heroic defence. Finnish collective and public memory with its monuments and celebrations concentrates on the sacrifice the nation made for Finnish independence in the wars against the Soviet Union during 1939–1944. In turn, these (re)produce performative membership in the Finnish nation. Likewise, recent Russian memory politics that celebrate Russia’s “great victory” in World War II have become visible in the Finnish public and media space owing to the Immortal Regiment marches held in Helsinki since 2017. This event is embedded within a series of complex connections between Russian speakers, Russian mediascapes, and pro-Russian activists in Finland, and represents an instance of the mediatization of transnational memory politics.

Highlights

Developments in media and communication technologies today enable a growing connectedness between people despite geographical borders
The entrance of the Russian-speaking minority into the Finnish public space could be evaluated as a positive development: it ostensibly signals the empowerment of a group that has been repeatedly evaluated in the research as being invisible and discriminated against
The Immortal Regiment march has evolved within Russian national mediatized identity politics and is embedded in the media involvement of Russian speakers in Finland, which preferentially ties Russian speakers to the Russian state rather than promoting their integration into Finnish society

Summary

Remembrance of World War II in Finland

Olga Davydova-Minguet Karelian Institute, University of Eastern Finland, Joensuu, Finland. Finnish collective and public memory with its monuments and celebrations concentrates on the sacrifice the nation made for Finnish independence in the wars against the Soviet Union during 1939–1944. Recent Russian memory politics that celebrate Russia’s “great victory” in World War II have become visible in the Finnish public and media space owing to the Immortal Regiment marches held in Helsinki since 2017. This event is embedded within a series of complex connections between Russian speakers, Russian mediascapes, and pro-Russian activists in Finland, and represents an instance of the mediatization of transnational memory politics

Introduction

Conflicting Memory Setting

Findings

Discussion