Arctic Norway in the Russian fin-de-siècle imagination: Evgeni Lvov-Kochetov’s travelogue Out in the Arctic Sea (1895)

Dans cet article, j’analyse la perception de la Norvège arctique dans l’imaginaire russe au tournant du siècle dans un cas exemplaire, le récit de voyage Po Studenomu moriu. Poezdka na sever (Autour de la mer glaciale. Voyage dans le Nord, 1895) publié par l’écrivain-journaliste Evgeni Lvov-Kotchetov. Le livre relate l’expédition dans la Russie et la Norvège septentrionales dirigée par le ministre des Finances Serge Witte. Il montre à quel point l’entourage de Witte perçoit la Norvège arctique et le Finnmark en particulier comme une partie intégrale de l’Europe en termes culturels et sociétaux. Pour eux, il s’agit un trait distinctif par rapport à la région de Murman que le récit de voyage représente telle l’arrière-cour de la Russie impériale. Dans la narration, la Norvège arctique est perçue la plupart du temps comme un modèle positif à suivre dans la modernisation du nord de la Russie, bien que certains aspects comme le tourisme de masse soient aussi considérés avec scepticisme.In this article, I discuss the ways in which Arctic Norway was perceived in the Russian imagination at the turn of the twentieth century in light of one representative example, the travelogue Po Studenomu moriu. Poezdka na sever (Out in the Arctic Sea. A Journey to the North, 1895), written by journalist-writer Evgeni Lvov-Kochetov. This travelogue describes Minister of Finance Sergei Witte’s expedition to the Russian Far North and Northern Norway in 1894. In Lvov-Kochetov’s description, the participants of Witte’s entourage view Arctic Norway, Finnmark in particular, as an integral part of Europe both in cultural and societal terms. In their view, this is what distinguishes Finnmark from the neighbouring Russian North, the Murman area, which in the travelogue is represented as the backyard of the Russian Empire. In the narration, Arctic Norway is in the main seen as a positive model for the future economic modernisation of the Russian North, even if some dimensions of modernisation, such as the development of mass tourism, are viewed sceptically

Venäläisen modernistisen runouden suomalainen käännöshistoria, 1918–1930

The Finland-Swedish and Finnish Translation History of Russian Modernist Poetry, 1918–1930 This article examines the arrival of Russian modernist and avant-garde poetry in Finland in the 1920s by mapping its translation history. The material employed in the article consists of translations into Swedish and Finnish that were published in anthologies or in journals (such as Ultra, Nuori Voima, Quosego, and Tulenkantajat), translation bibliographies, and translators’ personal archives. The article shows that Finland-Swedish translations are considerably earlier than the Finnish ones, which are also very few. Moreover, some of the Finland-Swedish translations are early also in comparison with translations into other European languages. This concerns the anthology Sånger i rött och svart (1924, “Songs in Red and Black”) in particular, which introduced poets that have never been translated into Finnish or that have been translated only decades later. The anthology also introduces poetry that has not been translated into European languages. The article further demonstrates the significance and influence of individual translators in mediating Russian literature into Finland and Scandinavia. The controversial translator Rafael Lindqvist’s position is particularly important, since his early translations of radical Russian avant-garde poetry were published also in Sweden. Furthermore, mostly due to Edith Södergran’s efforts, the ego-futurist Igor Severyanin was translated into Swedish earlier than Blok, Mayakovsky and Esenin, i.e. the poets who were usually the first ones to be translated elsewhere in Europe

Tutkimusmatkalla helvetissä: Tšehovin Sahalinin tieteellis-ideologinen diskurssi

Journey to Hell: Scientific-ideological discourse in Chekhov’s Sakhalin Island This article examines the relation of Anton Chekhov’s documentary travelogue Sakhalin Island (Ostrov Sakhalin, 1895) to the developments of Russian scientific culture in the latter part of the nineteenth century, particularly focusing on the ways in which Chekhov utilizes the ideas of Darwinism and positivism to argue his case for modernization and humanization of the Russian penal system. The article shows that in Sakhalin Island, originally natural scientific ideas such as mutual aid and gradual adaptation are transformed into means of ideological argumentation, very much in the spirit of the time. Moreover, it can be argued that the methodological assumptions of Chekhov’s documentary travelogue embody empi¬rical research during the time when positivistic methodologies and positivistic world-view widened to embrace subjective observation. Finally, this article explicates how the “objective” Chekhov indeed takes a political stand and even offers concrete solutions to social problems. For example, Chekhov suggests the replacement of communal cells with individual households, the enhancement of rational settlement politics and the Russification of the Sakhalian indigenous people according to their own needs. All these solutions are based on the ideas prevalent in the Russian scientific culture at the time

Literary St. Petersburg in Contemporary Russian Transnational Writing: Anya Ulinich, Gary Shteyngart, and Zinaida Lindén

This article elucidates the ways in which the Russian literary tradition and literature, associated with St. Petersburg in particular, are reflected in contemporary Russian transnational fiction written in English and Swedish. The article focuses on the work of three prominent writers: the American-Russian writers Gary Shteyngart and Anya Ulinich, and their respective novels Absurdistan (2006) and Petropolis (2007), and the Finnish-Swedish-Russian author Zinaida Lindén and her novels Waiting for an Earthquake (2004) and Takakirves–Tokyo (2007).The main argument of this article is that while the fourth wave of transnational writers are well-acquainted with the St. Petersburg myth, they do not, as a rule, develop the literary tradition of the peterburgskij tekst further in their own texts. Instead, St. Petersburg, as well as Russian literature associated with the city, is employed in the construction of a new hybrid identity, in which Russian heritage is complemented by the culture of the author’s new country of residence.</p

Arctic Norway in the Russian fin-de-siècle imagination : Evgeni Lvov-Kochetov’s travelogue Out in the Arctic Sea (1895)

Peer reviewe

Markku Lehmuskallio ja hengityksen voima

Non peer reviewe