Finnish Diaspora in Russia and Estonia: Population and Settlement Changes in the 20th Century

Abstract

The formation of the Finnish settlement in Russia began in the 17^th century, when a large group of Finnish peasants from East Finland moved to Ingria in Northwest Russia. The Finnish settlement was well‑established in Russia by the end of the 19^th century and the population numbered 143,000. Yet, the economic and political changes in the Soviet Union in the 1930s and WWII struck a severe blow to the Finnish settlement and traditions. As a result, the number of Finns in the Soviet Union decreased by more than half during the postwar period. The size of the Finnish‑speaking population diminished even more. The changes leading to the linguistic and ethnic assimilation of Finns have taken place by generations. The older generations are mainly Finnish­ speakers and carry Finnish traditions, but the younger generations are Rus­sian‑ (or Estonian‑) speakers and are weakly tied to Finnish traditions. Behind the generational differences was the socialization environment shaped by the Soviet nationality policy. The Finnish‑speaking schools that were supported in the 1920s and early 1930s strengthened the Finnish identity of Soviet Finns grown up at that time. The prohibition of the Finnish‑speaking educational and cultural life since the late 1930s, in turn, weakened the Finnish identity of those born later. Thus, the changes in the vitality of the Finnish diaspora in the Soviet Union during the post‑WWII period mostly followed the changes in the number of Finns born and grown up before the war.