Выпуск: № 7 (2022)

The goal of the article is to analyze symbols and rhetoric in the interlocking fields of religion and politics at the time of Civil War. The author comes to conclusion that during the celebration of the first anniversary of the revolutionary October religious symbols are being used for legitimization of power, sacralization of politics.

This article studies the frequency and contexts of mentioning the city of Petrozavodsk in the British press of 1850-1884, which included publications of the English, Welsh, Scottish and Irish counties. The use of an interdisciplinary method of content analysis made it possible to identify six contextual groups and divide all identified references into those related to: first, the production of steel and weapons; second, visits to the city by members of the imperial family; third, the construction of the railway; travel memories and travel recommendations; sixth, diseases in the city. The largest number of mentions of the city in the 19th century. falls on the Middle Victorian period and is thematically connected with military-industrial technologies, supplying the army. The thematic representation in the British press of the city of Petrozavodsk reflected the goals that the public and news agencies set for the British special correspondents sent to the North. On the pages of the British press, Petrozavodsk was presented as a center of military-industrial production, the achievements of which formed an opinion about the technical potential of the entire Russian Empire of the period under review.

The policy of attracting leading foreign specialists to the development of industrial production in Russia in the XVIII century, made it possible to make a significant technological breakthrough. Domestic enterprises created by new citizens of the country successfully competed with leading European manufacturers. A significant contribution to the development of high-tech production was made by a talented design engineer, a successful entrepreneur Karl Nikolaevich (Charles) Byrd. The first domestic steam engines, steamships (pyroscafs), industrial railways, bridge and architectural metal structures, other mechanisms and structures were created with the participation of a native of Scotland, submitted to the Russian Empire by K. N. Byrd.

The article presents how, against the background of the devastating cholera epidemics that swept away in Russia in 1830-1831, according to incomplete data, almost 200,000 lives, and in 1848-1849 much more, sanitary and anti-epidemic measures were taken in the educational institutions of the Ministry of Public Education. A feature of St. Petersburg University and the Main Pedagogical Institute was the residence of a large number of state students in the building of the Twelve Colleges and other buildings. The usual sanitary measures developed by that time by the administration of educational institutions on the recommendations of physicians, as well as special anti-cholera measures, which included daily monitoring of students to identify sick people, prohibition of their contact with relatives, cleaning of premises, and announcement of extraordinary long vacations, turned out to be very effective. If among the professors of the university there were sick and died from cholera, then among the students in 1831, according to archival data, not a single death was recorded, and in 1849 only one student fell ill with cholera.

By the 1990s gender identity became one of the most interesting topics for writers, inter alia Hannu Mäkelä, whose writings have not been profoundly analysed yet. This paper aims at tracing changes in the gender identity concept in the Finnish literature at the turn of the 20th-21th centuries using as an example H. Mäkelä’s novel Pieni paikka Kerbihan (A small place Kerbihan) published in 1991. This novel illustrates shifts in the understanding of gender roles in the literature of early 1990s. The analysis focuses on a greater social freedom and independence of female characters (in family relations, jobs, finances, social mobility, and leisure activities). The representation of male characters highlights their ambiguity, uncertainty and incapacity to act or think independently. Having lost their traditional social dominance, they were merely adjusting to the new environment. The deadly disease of the main male character is a metaphor of his weakness, and his desperate attempts to cling to the outdated gender roles are ironically presented as pathetic.

The imperial government’s attacks on the autonomous rights of the Grand Duchy of Finland had a significant impact on the life and oeuvre of the national writers, including Kyösti Wilkuna (1879-1922). His literary works are valuable historical sources that contain information about some aspects of building the Finns’ cultural memory, but they have not yet been studied from this point of view. The purpose of the article is to analyse some denotative and connotative meanings of Kyösti Wilkuna’s historical adventure novels depicting the Finnish aspect of the wars between Sweden and Russia, especially the period of the Great Wrath, or Isoviha. The author concludes that these novels’ contemporary reader not only learned an interpretation of the past, but also discovered connotative meanings in the text that were constitutive of an element of the image of the Other for the Finnish identity.

This work briefly describes several aspects of how the Karelian language is represented in the linguistic landscape of Karelia based on visual materials and interviews collected in research trips to the region in 2019 - 2022. Which public places is written Karelian used in? Who promotes and organises its usage in the local environment? What are the main functions of the language in the linguistic landscape? Сan the increase of Karelian’s presence in public spaces be considered a revitalisation strategy? These are the questions we address in the text. We suggest that the use of Karelian in the linguistic landscape constructs ethnically marked social spaces closely tied to local identification. Besides, we discuss variability in Karelian inscriptions due to dialect diversity and the absence of unified spelling standards, as well as influence of other languages (primarily Russian and Finnish).

The article discusses the idea of creating a unified digital database Karelian Runes and its first implementation as a collection based on the open corpus of the Veps and Karelian languages VepKar. The concept of a database containing Karelian runes of various genres is based on foreign experience and corresponds in structure to the Old Poems of the Finnish People (SKVR) corpus. The presence of a digital corpus of runes will allow in the future, within the framework of international activities, to integrate the Karelian database with the databases of Finland and Estonia in order to use a single toolkit for comparative analysis of folklore material developed by foreign colleagues within the framework of the FILTERI project.

FOREWORD 26-27 октября 2022 г. в г. Петрозаводске состоялась XIX научная конференция «Бубриховские чтения: языки и культуры в эпоху цифровизации». Чтения, история которых продолжается с 2000 г., были приурочены к Году культурного наследия народов России, а также началу Международного десятилетия языков коренных народов. В рамках конференции обсуждался широкий круг вопросов финно-угорского языкознания, фольклористики, литературоведения, истории и современных этносоциальных процессов, актуальных в период цифровизации научного знания. Данный ракурс хорошо прозвучал в первый день конференции, который был полностью посвящён цифровым технологиям и ресурсам в языковой сфере. Слушатели познакомились с новыми языковыми ресурсами, ходом пополнения и изменения уже существующих, с реализацией новых технологических идей в сфере распознавания карельской речи, развитием корпусной лингвистики на примере вепсского и карельского языков. В содержании докладов проявилась качественная переориентация научно-исследовательской работы сектора языкознания ИЯЛИ КарНЦ РАН на работу с «цифрой». Во второй день конференции фокус был смещён на социолингвистические и иные аспекты исследования прибалтийско-финских языков. Прозвучали доклады из разных областей научного знания, во многом основанные на полевых, экспедиционных материалах. В их числе были и результаты экспедиций, проведённых представителями научных и образовательных учреждений из-за пределов Карелии. Часть из них публикуется в данном выпуске. Совмещение этих взглядов снаружи и изнутри составило отдельную ценность дискуссионного блока конференции. Интересно звучали аналитические доклады по особенностям

A series of the photos from the collection of the Murmansk Regional Local History Museum illustrates the construction works of the hydroelectric power stations’ cascade on the Paz river in the Pechenga district of the Murmansk region in the 1950s-1970s.

concerning the 1906-1918 Norwegian-Russian relations in the Far North, including the 1906-1913 negotiations on exploiting the hydro resources of the Paz river and some aspects of the border relations during the WWI.

The article argues that Clári saga presents a rare example of plot, genre and style contamination. Its composition unites two plots: the bridal quest (involving the trials of the eponymous hero) and the taming of the shrew (involving the trials of the heroine). The latter appears unmotivated (because by the end of the bridal quest narrative the heroine is sufficiently tamed by the loss of her virginity) but can be accounted for by the influence of the canons of the fairy tale. In terms of genre, as is shown in the article, Clári saga combines themes and images of the fairy tale, chivalric romance and exemplum. The saga is permeated by characteristically folklore motifs and compositional features: its structure is determined by the use of the sacred number three (three trials of the hero, three trials of the heroine, three scenes of the hero’s flogging, three scenes of blows received by the heroine from the hero, three visits of the hero, three scenes of the construction of tents, three episodes of Perus’ reign etc), endowed in the narrative with an enhanced magic effect. The genre of romance is dominant in the first part of the saga through the following characteristic features: the action is set in a chivalric milieu; the characters belong to courtly society, with its luxurious way of living and sumptuous feasts; and canons of chivalrous behaviour and courtesy are observed by all characters except the main ones. The second part of the saga with its inherent misogyny and didacticism, focuses on the trials of the spirit and the body, the action takes place in an atmosphere of extreme poverty and is centered on sufferings, hardships and deprivations, aimed at testing the endurance and loyalty of the heroine and providing a model for other women, thus paying tribute to the genre of exemplum. Genre contamination is sustained by the stylistic features of the saga, characteristic of exempla (‘learned’ style, Latinised syntactic constructions, Latin borrowings), folklore (proverbs, repetitions, parallelisms, an emphasis on numerals) and chivalric romance (cf. the use of words: kurteiss ‘courteous, chivalrous’, kurteisi ‘chivalry, courtesy’, riddari ‘knight’). Borrowings from Middle Low German, which in the context of the saga in some cases acquire emotionally coloured pejorative connotations, are mostly given the function of a stylistic device and become an integral part of the speech characteristics of heroes. Whether the compiler of the saga was a translator or a creator, whether his name was Bishop Jón Halldórson or Bergr Sokkason, he perfectly mastered the art of narration: by creating the effect of the author’s presence through rhetorical questions, by enhancing the impact of the story with the help of references to collective wisdom, proverbs and sayings, by using multiple verbal games and by employing borrowings from Latin and Middle Low German in the speech characterisation of heroes. His literary gift and sense of style made Clári saga not only a model for numerous imitations in the Middle Ages but also a source of entertainment for today’s readers.

In the paper I state, that in the 12th chapter Röyhkä raises narration about life and death to metaphysical level. I present the literary means, by which Röyhkä rejects subjectivity typical for previous chapters. To achieve generalisation Röyhkä changes the main character from the artist to an average Finnish soldier, provides shifts of voices within the same character, emphasises nature as the place of sublime experiencing and creates allusions to classics of national and world literature. I point out compositional elements promoting generalisation of concepts of life and death. I defend the statement concerning raise of concepts of life and death to metaphysical level by implementing methods of compositional, poetical, textual and intertextual analysis. I discover that the novel can be divided into two parts. On the one side, there are chapters 1-11 and the 13th chapter telling about existential experiences of the artist feeling himself an outsider. On the other side, there is the 12th chapter, which focuses on metaphysical experience of a person participating in a war. I make a conclusion that the character of a Finnish soldier is necessary to generalise intensive life experience. It also helps Röyhkä to place the novel into the national and worldwide tradition of humanistic war literature. The study is of a current interest, because it presents the analysis of a literary work typologically belonging to high modernism but being exceptionally created in the era of postmodernism in 1987, thus becoming an unordinary artistic phenomenon. Modern authors, who rejected the philosophy of postmodernism, find themselves outside the core of literary process also in the age of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, which effects in marginalisation of their art revealing as unwillingness of big publishing houses to publish and literary agencies to sell literature of such authors. Marginalisation of non posthumanistic art deprives readers of access to literary works of this kind and decreases research demand among the academic community. This tendency endangers high modernistic literature in modern conditions, resulting in the fact, that highlighting and studying literary pieces, created as continuation of high modernistic tradition and thus presenting high, fundamental art, are currently needed. Along with the said above the conclusion in this paper is preceded by the chapter dealing with reception of Röyhkä’s literary work in Finland in the 21st century. I explain Röyhkä’s boundary location in the modern system of Finnish literature by the fact of hypothetical change of formation types of writers in the 2010s. The study is new, because the literary work by Röyhkä has been studied a little in Finland, and in Russia it is not studied at all, especially in the light of coexistence of modernistic and postpostmodernistic art traditions.

In the 1950s-1970s, a cascade of hydroelectric power stations was built on the Paz river in the Pechenga district of the Murmansk region. Construction had a special feature - for almost twenty years on the border area it was carried out by Norwegian and Finnish firms and workers. Based on the materials of the regional newspapers Sovetskaia Pechenga and Poliarnaia Pravda, an analysis is made of the coverage of this process in the local press.

This article discusses the first negotiations between the two neighbouring states of Norway and Russia concerning exploitation of the hydropower in the border river in Pasvik. Based on in-depth research in Norwegian and Russian archives, the article traces the different interests and initiatives on both sides of the border, on the local and regional levels as well as on the national level. The article concludes that despite efforts from Norwegian entrepreneurs and state actors to reach an agreement, the issue remained unsolved before the start of WWI.

The article based on the material of the Old Icelandic Brennu-Njáls saga deals with identification of medieval Icelanders in the society with the help of personal names, patronymics and nicknames. And if, as the analysis of the saga shows, personal names were a means of individual identification of a person, the generic names, on the contrary, connected a person with his family and especially with his namesake ancestors. The goals of the latter were also fulfilled by patronymics, toponymic and generic nicknames, while all other types of nicknames contributed to the individualization of a person. It can be argued that the generic identification of a person in medieval Icelandic society was based on the genealogical principle, and the individual identification complemented it, still relying on it, despite the fact that they were outwardly opposed.

The article deals with the activities of Scandinavians who came to Byzantium directly from the North during the Viking Age. The main stimulus for their travels to the Empire was acquisition of riches and fame. Both goals were best achieved by military service in the Byzantine army and fleet from the beginning of the tenth century and in the emperor’s guard since the end of the tenth century. The trade expeditions from Scandinavia to Byzantium which started probably in the ninth century were suppressed in the tenth century by the Rus’ (Scandinavians who took roots in Eastern Europe) that seized Kiev and settled there. The trade with Byzantium was a vital necessity for the Rus’ and they strived to monopolize it. After the adoption of Christianity in the eleventh century the earliest information about the pilgrimages to Constantinople or the Holy Land appears. Such travels were not numerous though the sacral objects and places in Constantinople attracted attention of Scandinavian mercenaries who served or passed the one of the capitals of the Christian world.

The article deals with several placenames that occur in Old Norse texts denoting waters and territories outside the inhabited lands north of Norway. The combination of real knowledge and geographical discoveries with the idea of the North that seemed to be the abode of hostile forces and mythological creatures, led to the fact that the North Atlantic and the Arctic Ocean appear in a wide range of Old Norse sources of different genres and written down at different times in the form of a large sea bay that consisted of separate seas and was surrounded by lands stretching from the European North through Greenland and North America all the way to Africa, where both real and marvelous peoples lived.

On the basis of archaeological data, toponymy, and written sources the cultural zones of medieval villages that constituted the centre of the Kiryazh (Kurkijoki) Pogost are localised in today’s Kurkijoki village of the Republic of Karelia. A historical and archaeological study made it possible to identify the main stages in the development of this important ethno-cultural center of medieval Karelia and show the continuity of the 10th-14th centuries settlements, known from archeology and toponymy, with the 15th-17th centuries settlements.