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UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University College London, 7th Annual International Postgraduate Conference

Inclusion Exclusion

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Friday 17 February  2:30 – 4:00: Panel F4: Russia in the Media

Aleksander Izotov (University of Joensuu): ‘Borders dividing and connecting: rhetoric on the border issues in Soviet and post-Soviet Sortavala’

Processes of redefinition of borders and boundaries call for further study of the changing nature of borders. Anssi Passi (1999, p. 669) notes that boundaries are institutions and symbols that are produced and reproduced in social practices and discourses. In this respect, the Soviet experience of using state borders as an "iron curtain" is one of the possible practices. For many generations of Soviet people this meaning of borders seemed to be immovable and invariable. After collapse of the Soviet Union, however, role of the borders as non-transparent "curtains"/"walls" between two different political systems, two different ideologies, between East and West have been dramatically changed. The new social and political practices have led to reconstitution of the border meanings.

The Republic of Karelia is one of the federal units, located in the Northwest Russia, which is bordering with Finland, one of the EU members. Russian Karelia has 19 self-governed territories. The border town of Sortavala is one of these administrative units. The territory of Sortavala has a border with Finland which length is 127 km. A distance from the town to the border crossing point "Värtsilä-Niirala" makes up 64 km.

This paper attempts to examine those mentioned above changes of the border meanings as it is reflected in the local newspaper of Sortavala ("Krasnoe Znamja"/"Ladoga") as well as documentary material from the archives. For these purposes I have made analysis of these materials from both Soviet and Post-Soviet periods. An assumption, that after radical socio-economic reforms and political changes in Post-Soviet Russia the local identity has changed too, is based on that analysis. The changing public views on the border issues are an essential part of these transformations in the local consciousness. The working hypothesis for this research is statement that the Finnish-Russian border since late 1980-early 1990s in some respects connects local people on both its sides rather than divides them.

The newspaper and documental rhetoric in the Soviet era always emphasized ideological and political meanings of the border. In contrary, in the Post-Soviet period these great official narratives have been partly replaced by the local views, reflecting production of new meaning of the border, mentioned by Passi. A public opinion on the role of the border is not invariable, however. Some discourses in the newspaper rhetoric concerning these issues presents reproduction of the great Soviet political and ideological narratives. Therefore, analysis of interdependencies between these tendencies in the local public opinion is essential part of my research. In the other words, I attempt to trace how daily cultural exchange in the border area impact the relics of the Soviet era in the spatial identities of the residents of Sortavala.