Petsamo 1920–1940: Rhetoric of Colonialism and Finnishness

Abstract

In 1920, Finland obtained a corridor to the Arctic Ocean, a land area that, until then, had been part of Russia. Petsamo, as the corridor was named in Finnish, was part of Finland from 1920 to 1944. As a new territorial acquisition, Petsamo raised expectations and was projected as a potential space for national expansionist policy. To answer the question of how Petsamo was to be put in use for building a strong and vital Finland, and not to become a burden and failure of Finnish state agency, many experts published views regarding how Petsamo should be developed. A dominating feature in this body of texts is a colonial mindset and rhetoric, promoting a comprehensive Finnish majority culture policy. These plans, including concrete actions, paved the way for a change in the region's environment and ethnic balance. The dominating discourse was that of ethnic Finnish settlement, and local features contradicting this were articulated as problems. From a Finnish majority perspective, Petsamo was often conceptualized as almost empty space waiting for a civilized and modern nation to take it into its possession and to develop it. The local Skolt Sami population became subject to much incomprehension and were viewed as a group doomed to perish under the pressure of a modern Finnish state.