Tourism and political change in Northern European borderlands: the Karelian Isthmus, c. 1870–1940

Abstract

The Karelian Isthmus is a historical border region between Finland and Russia/Soviet Union, not far from St. Petersburg. The main attractions were the Imatra rapids, the sunny beaches of Terijoki and the medieval city of Viipuri. This article analyses the role of political change in tourism development. Tourism actually began after the railway construction from Helsinki to St. Petersburg in the 1870s. After the Russian empire collapsed in 1917, Finland became independent, borders were tightly closed and tension continued between Finland and the expanding Soviet Union until the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939. Before 1917 tens of thousands of tourists had yearly arrived from St. Petersburg to the isthmus for holidays, but from 1917 to 1940 most tourists were Finns in their own country, plus a small number of Western tourists. After the Soviets annexed the isthmus in the Second World War, the clientele and tourism structures were reformulated: the isthmus became a minor element in the Soviet tourism organisation, while the Imatra Falls remained a part of Finland. It seems that in the case of the Karelian Isthmus and tourism, politics was the prime mover, and the role of tourism was to adapt to the changing circumstances.