Remembering the Ingrian Finns and Soviet Terror in the Novels by Anita and Juhani Konkka




Helle Anna

Samira Saramo and Ulla Savolainen

Abingdon, Oxon ja New York

2023

The Legacies of Soviet Repression and Displacement. The Multiple and Mobile Lives of Memories

Memory studies: global constellations

168

183

15

978-1-03-230525-7

978-1-00-089301-4

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.4324/9781003305569-13

https://www.routledge.com/The-Legacies-of-Soviet-Repression-and-Displacement-The-Multiple-and-Mobile/Saramo-Savolainen/p/book/9781032305257

https://research.utu.fi/converis/portal/detail/Publication/179282056



The Ingrian-Finnish Konkka family was a victim of Soviet terror. The dramatic past of the family has been chronicled by the two authors of the family, Anita and Juhani Konkka. This article focuses on the memories of terror as they are represented in their literary works. It also tackles the topics of the political activism and transnational identities of the Ingrian Finns. The material consists of three (auto)biographical novels: Kahden maailman rajalla (On the Border of Two Worlds, 1939) and Pietarin valot (The Lights of St. Petersburg, 1938) by Juhani Konkka, and Musta passi (“The Black Passport”, 2001) by Anita Konkka. The novels are studied from the viewpoint of cultural memory and family memories. The article focuses on what the family remembers about the terror and its consequences. Attention is paid to the ways in which the family members transmit their memories but also to the obstacles that hinder passing them on. The novels discussed in this article offer a micro-perspective of one family to large-scale historical, social and political turbulences by describing what the Soviet terror meant for individuals and families.  


Last updated on 2025-04-02 at 11:17