The limits of tolerance: the Orthodox milieu as an element in the Finnish cultural landscape, 1917–1939

Abstract

This paper is concerned with the case of the pre-war (1917–1939) Finnish Orthodox Church, and places emphasis on the political, cultural and ideological representation and rhetoric of the religious landscapes and milieux of Orthodox culture. It studies how the political symbolism of the Orthodox religious culture was seen by the dominant Lutheran culture either as an alien intrusion, and thus inappropriate, or as an acceptable national value, depending on the location of the landscape in question. The examples of this variation in the political reading of religious landscapes are taken from pre-war newspapers dealing with the Russian military churches of southern Finland, the chapels of the border region of Karelia and the nationalist values attached to Valamo Monastery.