Pogorelskin Revises the Past

Abstrakti

In our criticism of a series of articles on Karelian fever by Alexis Pogorelskin, we argued, ”Karelian fever cannot be understood without appreciating its Marxist roots.”1 In her reply to us, Pogorelskin frames her response in this way: ”I will argue that the phenomena known as Karelian fever are far more complex; grounded in history, culture, and ethnicity; and hence more comprehensible [sic] than the ideological motivation that Hudelson and Sevander insist upon.”2 With the claim that that there is more to Karelian fever than Marxist roots, we agree. This point is evident in all four books by M. Sevander as well as in our own earlier paper where we acknowledge that Finnish ethnicity was a significant factor in the emigration of Finnish-Americans to Karelia.3 Where then is the disagreement? The problem is that where Pogorelskin claims to present a more comprehensive picture, in fact she goes out of her way to excise a part of the picture. In particular, she wants to deny the role of a specifically Marxist ideology in the phenomenon of Karelian fever. This leads her to make a number of claims that are flagrantly at odds with the historical record.