Soviet Periphery vis-avis Post-War Crises: Discrepant Historiographical Discourses on Karelia
Soviet Periphery vis-a vis Post-War Crises: Discrepant Historiographical Discourses on Karelia

Summary/Abstract: The article seeks to scrutinise dominating Russian historiographical patterns for Karelia as a specific border region in the North-West Russia, the political status and socio-economic developments on wich were determined predominantly by "greater" policy, both on national and international levels. Throughout the entire Soviet era, the formal status of Karelia as a statehood formation was changed for several times. It might be argued that every change was determined mainly by external factors, such as geopolitical shifts, military and security-based strategy, and changes in Soviet-Finnish relations. An attempt is made to analyse main historiographical paradigms in describing "local" history and framing it into "wider" narative(s) of the Soviet history. Finally, the article addresses cases of political, or politicised, exploitation of historical knowledge, introducing the notion of an "outpost syndrome" in history writing and political rhetoric.

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