IMPERIAL RHETORIC AND THE FINNISH OTHER IN RUSSIAN LITERATURE in selected works of Aleksandr Puškin and Fëdor Dostojevskij

Abstract

Inspired by the ongoing debate on Russia’s imperial revival, this paper is set to explore earlier manifestations of Russian imperial rhetoric in Russian literature of the 1800s. The second aim of this study is to analyse the imperial rhetoric with reference to one of Russia’s neighbouring countries, Finland. In these regards, this essay assumes that the Finns and Finland played a role in Russian nation building of the 1800s and, further, that Russian literature mediated this process. The questions asked are: How are the Finns depicted in Russian literature and what are the reosons behind it? As to the analytical considerations, this paper will primarily draw from conceptions uttered in studies of nationalism, colonial theory, and literature. In connection to Russian imperial rhetoric and the depiction of the Finns in Russian literature, the overarching practice of ‘othering’, i.e. the characterization of Finns as ‘Others’, is established. The theories and analytical devices form the base for the analysis of the material. The material of this study consists, firstly, of two poems by Russian national poet Aleksandr Puškin, Klevetnikam Rossij (To the Calumniators of Russia) and Mednyj vsadnik (The Bronze Horseman). Secondly, this study will draw from the fictional and non-fictional literary work of Fëdor Dostojevskij. The selection of Dostojevskijs’s writings will be limited to relevant thoughts expressed on the Russian nation and the depiction of Finns and Finland. The results of this study show that Puškin and Dostojevskij contributed to a ‘textual victory’ of the Russian colonizer over the colonized Finns. By applying possessing devices and devices of inferiorization the authors depicted the Finns as ‘Others’, against whom they defined the Russian imperial nation. Furthermore, it is essential to note that in colonizing the Finn, Puškin and Dostojevskij not only colonized an external other, but internal subjects of the Russian Empire as well. In this regard, the present paper can also be read as an addition to the study of Russian internal colonization.