North Karelian region belong(ed) to the Barents Euro-Arctic Council until all cooperation with Russia was suspended in spring 2022. The articles of the volume focus on the border as known and experienced by the majority and minority populations, as represented in media, and from the perspective of areas situated close to the border.

In the special issue, the border area between Finland and Russia is understood as a borderscape produced by bunches of multi-layered co-constitutive processes, practices, narratives, and representations. 

The special issue of the journal was edited by professor Olga Davydova-Minguet from University of Eastern Finland.

– The images of Russia should be studied as existing in everyday consciousness, gained through own experience, produced, disseminated, and discussed in media, existing in historical memory – which were all envisioned to be diverse in different groups, Davydova-Minguet says. 

The everyday perceptions of Russia and Russians are discussed in contributions by Teemu Oivo, Henrik Dorf Nielsen, Olga Davydova-Minguet, and Pirjo Pöllänen from University of Eastern Finland. 

In contrast to the previous studies of Russia’s images in Finland, Russian-speakers in this special issue are taken as one of the population groups that need to be studied together with Finnish-speakers, who make up the majority of the population. 

The special issue of the Barents Studies journal Looking at Russia’s images from the Finnish border is available at barentsinfo.org/barentsstudies