1. How geopolitics have been implemented in the North: historical perspective Ilya Solomeshch PetrSU 7 th International Summer School in Karelia 2010 11.05.2010

2. ‘Does history matter?’ Ontological, cognitive and pedagogical interrelations between political sciences, IR studies and history Several regionally oriented and chronologically scattered cases Not a word about geopolitical theories…

3. Two basic ways of approaching history knowledge in political discourse: Ignoring history and ‘inventing a bike’ Using historical facts as a facultative illustration

4. Cases TRADE, STATE and POWER: – Hansa – Pomor trade – Karelian peddler trade History based (geo)political discourse and speculative practices in the North “The Greater Finland” project(s): geopolitics in practice?

5. Trade, State and Power politics: Hanseatic League

6. Hansa: basic facts Where: along the coastal line of Northern Europe, from the Baltic to the North Sea, and also inland When: ca. 13 th – 17 th centuries, i.e. the Late Middle Ages and Early Modern Time What: A. Economic and political alliance of trading cities and their guilds that established and maintained a trade monopoly What: B. Own law system established, own protection and mutual aid system furnished -- a sort of a political autonomy and, in some cases, political entities of their own created

7. Hansa: Common features of the Hanseatic cities’ structure Despite of generally fluid structure… Most of the Hansa cities either started as independent, or gained independence through joining the League Strategic locations along trade routes Economic power combined with military might… Used not only against pirates, but also against states (war against Denmark, 1361- 1370)

8. Hansa: reasons for decline (by the end of the 16 th cent.) Internal contradictions New (and renewed) territorial states as an eventual rival New financial and credit mechanisms in Europe

9. HANSA in the 21th century? Hanseatic rhetorics in the Baltic Sea region Instrument of building new bridges between East and West? Involvement of supraregional actors

10. Pomor trade: basic facts When: 18 th – beginning of the 20 th centuries What: Grain for Fish, usually barter-based exchange, compensatory function prevailing Where: Sea-based logistics – the Barens Sea, the White Sea Controversively perceived and approached by the States Dying away by (but not necessarily because of) 1917

11. Karelian Peddler Trade What: Broad spectrum of goods, from grain and textile till coffee and sewing-machines Where: Karelia and Finland, waterways-based logistics Seasonal, compensatory function prevailing Low average earnings Few most successful peddlers settled in Finland Controversively perceived by the State Dying away by (but not necessarily because of) 1917 Random border-crossings even in the 1930s

12. Case: the Greater Finland project The White Greater Finland and Karelian irredenta – Natural borders – Ethnic community of the Finns Implementation attempts – Panfennism, late 19 th – early 20 th cent. – ‘Tribal’ wars, 1918-22 – Äänislinna 1941-44... – Euregio Karelia?????

13. Case: the Greater Finland project (2) The Red Greater Finland and Karelian statehood (1920-) – The Red Finns’ ideas and practice in Karelia – Clear references to the ideas of Kjellen and Ratzell Blamed for bourgeois nationalism… Karelian real autonomy ended up with the start of centralisation of the Soviet Union by the late 1920s.

14. Cultural interaction through contacts Language Habits and everyday life Transfer of skills

15. Perceptions, images, stereotypes The neighbour is often identified with its State, not with ethnicity, and is the Other in any case… Laukkuryssä for [Russian] Karelians in Finland Ruočči for the Finns, … and Ruoččiheinä for the thisle in [Russian] Karelia

16. Contacts in the shadow of the State policies (1) Contact zone including vast borderlands of neigbouring states, from the Arctic Ocean till Karelian Isthmus and the Baltic Sea basine Dynamic, Multiethnic, Multiconfessional Within each state, Centre-Periphery links emphasised, [cross-border] Periphery- Periphery links neglected / limited Security based policy / discourse prevailing

17. Contacts in the shadow of the State policies (2) Transborder East-West contacts despite, but not owing to the State policy Compensatory function prevailing, both in material and in cultural spheres