A Relapse of Karelian Fever

Abstrakti

In a series of recently published papers, Alexis Pogorelskin appears to be arguing that the attempt to establish the Karelian Workers Commune in Soviet Karelia, commonly understood as an experiment in utopian communism, is better understood as the product of a Finnish nationalism that has little if anything to do with Communism, Marxism, or socialism.1 This, or something like this, seems to be at the heart of the ”new perspective” Pogorelskin brings to the study of Karelia. In fact, Pogorelskin’s new perspective is not altogether clear. In its most extreme forms it seems to be denying any role to communist ideology. In its more reasonable form, it concedes the importance of ideology but insists on the greater importance of nationalism, of a sense of Finnish identity, in accounting for Karelian fever. In her most recent article ”Why Karelian ’Fever’?” (published in Siirtolaisuus-Migration 1/2000) for example, Pogorelskin concedes that ideological motives were necessary but not sufficient, with Finnish ethnic identity supplying the missing motivating condition.