21258_03_Pashkov.ps The presentation of Old Finland in the descriptions of Russian travellers and observers from the end of 18th to the beginning of the 20th century ALEXANDR M. PASHKOV Pashkov, Alexandr M. (2004). The presentation of Old Finland in the descrip- tions of Russian travellers and observers from the end of 18th to the beginning of the 20th century. Fennia 182: 1, pp. 13–22. Helsinki. ISSN 0015-0010. This paper deals with the origin and development of the Russian image of the Vyborg province or “Old Finland” (the Karelian Isthmus and Northern Ladoga region) from the end of the 18th to the beginning of the 20th century. This region aroused the interest of Russia from three viewpoints. Firstly, the area had a developed economy and it was located not far from St. Petersburg. That was why its economic potential attracted Russian scientists. Secondly, the Vy- borg province was of interest due to its military-strategic position. The territo- ry was the most important bridgehead close to St. Petersburg. That was why the territory was subjected to close scrutiny by the Russian military officers. Thirdly, from the middle of the 19th century the Russian middle class citizens considered its area to be the part of Europe located nearest to Russia. The Ladoga region became an attraction for Russian tourists. Accordingly, the im- age of Vyborg province in 19th-century Russia was not homogeneous. The area aroused interest and was of importance for Russia due to various reasons and aspects. The formation of the image underwent considerable deformation af- ter 1917. Nonetheless, it should still be stated that the variety of images of Vyborg province, which were formed during 19th century, did not disappear but continue to develop even at present. Alexandr M. Pashkov, Department of History, Petrozavodsk State University, Lenin Prospekt 33, 185640 Petrozavodsk, Karelia, Russia. E-mail: pashkov@ mainpgu.karelia.ru. Early travel descriptions The history of the Karelian Isthmus and the North- ern Ladoga region has passed through an excess of tragic upheavals. In 1617 right after the Treaty of Stolbovo was signed, the territory was detached from Russia to profit from the dominance of Swe- den. The local population – mainly Orthodox Karelians – moved back to Russia and the aban- doned lands were gradually populated by Finns and Swedes. The ancient Russian-moulded cen- tre of the Korela region was given the new name of Kexholm, which later turned into the Finnish Käkisalmi, present-day Priozersk. The year 1643, as well, saw the rise of the Swedish-minted set- tlement Sordwalla, which later became officially Sortavala in Finnish. In 1646 the settlement ac- quired an urban status. Sordwalla became the Northern Ladoga region’s Swedish centre. There appeared during the same period further Swed- ish settlements, Salmis (the present-day Salmi) and Kronoborg (the present-day Kurkijoki). After the Great Northern War (1700–1721), the Northern Ladoga region and Karelian Isthmus were brought back under the rule of Russia. However, part of the Finnish and Swedish population chose to re- main (Swedish people were scarce because they preferred to live in towns) and the Russian tsar, as a result, gained new subjects. The policy implemented by the Russian govern- ment in the newly won territories was quite gen- tle and resulted in the preservation of Swedish leg- islation, the Lutheran church and a system of lo- cal self-government. However, legislation could be changed in the case of a local inhabitant be- ing sentenced to death by hanging. Under the cir- 14 FENNIA 182: 1 (2004)Alexandr M. Pashkov cumstances, Russian laws would come into force and the criminal was first whipped and subse- quently sent to Siberia. The next war between Russia and Sweden took place during 1741–1743 and resulted in another three towns, Fredrikshamn (Hamina), Villman- strand (Lappeenranta) and Nyslott (Savonlinna) and their environs falling under the authority of Russia. The necessity of governing the newly won Finnish territories brought about the establishment of the Viborg (Vyborg, in Finnish Viipuri) province. The present article offers an attempt to restore the perception of the Viborg province as viewed by Russian public opinion. In doing this greater consideration will essentially be given in the arti- cle to the perception of the Northern Ladoga re- gion as inhabited by Finns and Karelians. The pro- file of Valamo (Valaam) Monastery as seen by Rus- sian people appears to be a separate and unique subject of research and for this reason it will not be treated in the present article. St. Petersburg and scholarly interest in Karelia The year of 1725 saw the rise the Academy of Sci- ences in St. Petersburg; since the middle of 18th century the era of the Enlightenment in Russia had come into being. The essence of the Enlighten- ment entailed the pre-eminent superiority of sci- entific knowledge, and for this reason government policy in Russia, beginning approximately from the middle of 18th century had been encourag- ing the development of science and education. In the second half of 18th century, the St. Peters- burg Academy of Sciences, influenced by the ide- as of the Enlightenment, showed great enthusiasm in the study of Russian countryside. The first Russian scholar to visit the Northern Ladoga region was the academician N. Ozeret- skovskiy from the Academy of St. Petersburg. His visit took place in the summer of 1785 and its aim was to collect general information about the nu- merical strength and pursuits of the local popula- tion, their economy and their degree of produc- tivity. The natural resources of the region and that of the shoreline of Russia’s northern lakes were examined with a view to exporting on a wider scale products from the region to the city of St. Petersburg. Ozeretskovskiy visited and described the chukhon village of Taibola, the Konevitsa (Konevets) and Valamo monasteries, and the towns of Kexholm and Sortavala (Serdobol). Closely researched were the stone quarries of Ruskeala and those on the islands of Yven and Tulola, the village of Pitkäranta, and Varashev’s great stone which served as a border marker be- tween Russia and Sweden. Moreover, there were brief reports on the numerous villages and church- yards of the Northern Ladoga region. The description of his travels was published in the Russian language in 1792 (Ozeretskovskii 1792) and in 1796 the academician H. Storch published in German certain extracts from Oz- eretskovskiy’s book in his work Materialien zur Kenntniss des Russischen Reichs (Storch 1796). Ozeretskovskiy’s book appeared for the second time in an edition published in 1812. Ozeretsko- vskiy’s work contains such valuable general infor- mation about the nature, population and econo- my of the shoreline region of the Ladoga and On- ega lakes that it has been for many years a source of variegated knowledge on Karelia without hav- ing once lost its value for a host of researchers up to our own days because it emerges as a para- digm for all scientific descriptions of the region (see Ozeretskovskii 1989). The Enlightenment was marked by the emer- gence of local amateur historians. In the North- ern Ladoga region the most notable representa- tive of these local researchers was Samuel Alo- paeus, a pastor from Sortavala, who was a de- scendant of a Finnish bond farmhand, Thomas Kettunen by name. His descendants were given the name from the Greek “Alopaeus”, meaning “fox”. Samuel Alopaeus finished school in Turku and served as a preacher for the Finnish Luther- ans in St. Petersburg between 1751 and 1755. Later he was transferred to Sortavala where he was promoted to dean (prost). He lived in Sortavala until his death in 1794 (Bojarinskaja 1997). Samuel Alopaeus is primarily known for his re- search in geology and the mining industry. He is credited as a pioneer in uncovering the marble deposits at Ruskeala. His book A brief description of the marble deposits and the other stone quar- ries located in Russian Karelia (1787) which was published in German (see Alopaeus 1787) and Russian and enjoyed phenomenal popularity, still remains a well-known source for researchers. It is for the publication of this book that he was elected a member of the Free Economic Society in 1789. One of the Enlightenment’s manifestations in Russia was the encouragement of current and in- FENNIA 182: 1 (2004) 15The presentation of Old Finland in the descriptions of… cipient research institutions. The year 1765 saw the rise of the Free Economic Society (FES) that united researchers and specialists in their agricul- ture and peasant-related pursuits. The FES had a wide network of contributors in various parts of the country and was busy issuing its own period- ical The works of the FES. As soon as Samuel Alo- paeus was given membership in the FES he be- came deeply involved in it by publishing several profound works and a number of essays in The works of the FES (see Pashkov 1997) among which one can highlight the monograph A description of the location of Kexholm province, also known as Karelia (Trudy… 1792, 185–202) and Karelia’s waterways (Trudy… 1793, 268–286). In 1804 the academician V. Severgin made a trip to the Northern Ladoga region, including a visit to Sortavala. The results of this trip were summed up in his book A survey of Russian Fin- land (Severgin 1805). His primary interest was likewise connected with the minerals of the re- gion. He gave a detailed description of marble mining, alongside which he drew attention to oth- er natural resources of the region, i.e. to Karelian birch “used to produce a variety of refined arti- cles”. V. Severgin’s book also contains informa- tion about the local populations of the Northern Ladoga region. After visiting Jaakkimanvaara he wrote: “The settlement is located on the western shore of Lake Ladoga... The residents are Kareli- ans.” While in Sortavala he reported that “the ter- ritory is inhabited by Finns and Karelians”, at- tempting to make the distinction between the Finns and Karelians. It should be carefully point- ed out that Severgin paid special attention to the local population’s old songs “in which the quali- ties of iron, steel and their origin are sung about and celebrated etc.” He might have heard Kare- lian and Finnish runes but gave them little con- sideration. All this research work by Russian scientists re- sulted in the publication of The geographical dic- tionary of the Russian state in 7 volumes edited by Professor A. Schekatov of Moscow University (Slovar… 1801–1809). The first volume of the dic- tionary contained articles such as “The Valamo Monastery”, “Valamo, an island in Lake Ladoga”, “Vyborg as the principal fortified town of Vyborg province”, “Vyborg province, also known as Rus- sian Finland”. The second volume contains the articles “Imatra as a worthy location for observa- tions on the Finland province in Karelia”, “The parish (pogost) of Imbilaksi in the Finnish prov- ince in northern Kexholm district”, and “The Joen- suu marble quarries in the Finnish province, northern Kexholm district on the Island of Ambar- saari on Lake Ladoga”. The fifth volume includes the article “Serdobol, a town newly established in the Finnish province” while in the sixth vol- ume are the articles “Finland, former Swedish lands”, “The Finnish province”, “Finns or Chukhons”, and “The Finnish people or ancient Russes”. Finally, the seventh volume includes the articles “Chukhons or Finns properly so-called”. It is evident from this short list of articles that by the beginning of the 19th century, the Viborg province had been investigated by Russian re- searchers at greater length. It was noted in the ar- ticles that the land in the Viborg province “is not adapted to arable farming” and the residents buy bread and live from bread mixed with pine bark. Their main economic pursuits were cutting tim- ber, cattle breeding, hunting and fishing. Among the industries Schekatov’s “Dictionary” mentions are the iron mines and the quarries in Ruskeala where “stone of the best colours” was extracted. The population of the Viborg province totalled 185,242. The article “Finns or Chukhons” contains a cu- rious description of a Finnish dwelling: Not only settlements but also the yards themselves may be located at a great distance from each other. Finnish yards are essentially spacious. The farm usu- ally consists of three houses, one of them is called a winter house, the other a summer one and the third a cooking house. Outside in the yard are located the storehouses, hay drying barns, stables, cattle sheds, barns, larders and bathhouses. All constructions are timber-built just as is the case in Russia and Swe- den. (Slovar… 1808, 6, 688) The reader’s curiosity may be aroused by de- scriptions of men’s and women’s clothing and of the religious rites and folk festivities of Finns. After the Viborg province had been joined to the Great Duchy of Finland in 1812 the trips of Russian researchers to the Northern Ladoga region quite simply came to a standstill. Military and statistical surveying of the Viborg province Around the middle of 19th century there appeared several civil and military-oriented statistical de- scriptions of various regions of Russia, including the Viborg province. In the summer of 1856 Cap- 16 FENNIA 182: 1 (2004)Alexandr M. Pashkov tain Axel Alfthan from the General Staff was ap- pointed chief of an echelon of officers to be sent to study the communications of Finland, and to compile a map of the Grand Duchy. The group included a field officer called Nordenstreng, a Lieu- tenant Mozel from Army Headquarters and Cap- tain Björn from the School of Military Cartogra- phers. Axel Alfthan was chosen to head the group, which during the summer of 1856 crossed the country from Viborg to Torneå (Tornio). The mate- rials Axel Alfthan collected made up the contents of the book Materials for compiling the statistics of Finland which appeared in 1859 (Alfthan 1859). Part of the book was written in Helsinki by Axel Alfthan where, as he remarked, “one could ob- tain lots of good material”; another part was com- piled in St. Petersburg where in May 1857 he was dispatched on a service transfer. The entire work was finished in March 1858. Parallel to his labours on the manuscript he busily compiled a map of Finland. However, the compilation of the map dragged on too long, which is why his book came out in 1859 with a map supplement now drawn up by A. Eklund in 1840 with inscriptions in the Swedish language. Later in 1847 the map was subjected to certain alterations in the Military To- pography Depot where it was given inscriptions in the Russian language. The scale of the map was 45 versts to one inch or 1:1 890 000. A. Alfthan’s map completed by Eklund in 1860 was published solely as supplement to A. Zolotarev’s Military and historical essays of Finland (Zolotarev 1900). Its scale was 30 versts to one inch or 1:1 260 000. The scale of Alfthan’s map in the original was 12 versts to one inch or 1:504 000. Materials for compiling the statistics of Finland by Alfthan was based on various and numerous sources. First of all the work, contains the author’s personal observations as an officer who had served in Finland for three years. Secondly, the book includes the data collected during the of- ficers’ trip around the region in the summer of 1856. Finally, the author made use of the materi- als available in the archives of the Senate of Fin- land and institutions subordinated to it. Alfthan also availed himself of published works by F. Knorring (1833), S. Galden, the mining engi- neer Kh. Holmberg, S. Baranovskiy and many oth- ers. He also made use of articles from the period- icals Suomi, Saima, Litteraturbladet, Wiborg, Fin- lands Allmänna Tidning and similar sources. Alfthan’s work contains a great deal of informa- tion on the Northern Ladoga region, which at that time formed part of the Viborg province. It offers detailed information about the administrative di- visions of the territory, including the following dis- tricts and parishes: the Salmi district (the parish of Impilahti with the parish of Kitele, the parishes of Suistamo and Salmi, Suojärvi with the parish of Korpiselkä), the Sortavala district (the parishes of Sortavala, Uukuniemi and Ruskeala with the parish of Leppälahti), the core district of Kexholm (with the parishes of Parikkala, Jaakkimanvaara and Kurkijoki). Thus, in the middle of 19th the century the Northern Ladoga region (stretching from Salmi and Suojärvi to the present-day Kurk- ijoki) was part of three districts (uyezds) and 10 parishes. Alfthan also remarked that besides the modern administrative division of Finland there existed also in “colloquial language a wide use of the old division of Finland into regions and provinces (landskap) which nowadays would only have his- torical or ethnographic meaning.” Among the re- gions he pointed out Karelia (in Finnish Karjala), which, in his words, bore the title of Dukedom including “the eastern parts of the Kuopio and Vyborg provinces”. He added that the lands joined to Russia in 1721, 1743 and later in 1744, constituting Viborg province, are also called “Old Finland” (in Swedish Gamla Finland, in Finnish Vanha voittomaa or Vanha Suomi). As to the minerals of the Northern Ladoga re- gions Alfthan names the marble extracted in the parish of Ruskeala and in the vicinities of Sortav- ala, near the Läskelänjoki river by the village of Joensuu, as well as the copper and tin mines near Pitkäranta producing a yearly tin extraction of 9000 puds (144 tonnes) and copper extraction to the yearly rate of 1000 puds (16 tonnes) of cop- per. It is quite natural that Alfthan gave so much space to the description of the northern shore of the Lake Ladoga. He stated that from the Kexholm vicinity to the church of Kitele, the shore is “ex- tremely hilly and indented with lots of bays and creeks yet here in the valleys between the hills there are quite broad arable fields in the parishes of Kronoborg; Jakimvaara and Serdoboll... The northern part of the lake is quite rich in islands which share the same characteristics with the ad- joining countryside.” Alfthan pointed out the most significant places in the Northern Ladoga region: The northern side of the lake is the place where the towns of Kexholm and Serdoboll are situated of FENNIA 182: 1 (2004) 17The presentation of Old Finland in the descriptions of… which the latter enjoys the advantage on account of its industrial output. Aside from the above-men- tioned towns comment should be made on the fol- lowing places along the shore region: the settlement near the church of Jakimvaara with a landing pier, the marble quarries near the village of Joensuu, the mouth of Luskellä-joki river as well as the copper mine near Pitkäranta. It was also Alfthan who pointed out a singular peculiarity of Lake Ladoga, the instability of the water level of the lake: “It is remarkable that the water level of Lake Ladoga is rising only at regu- lar intervals of seven years to be going down for another seven years with a periodic difference of six feet.” The information about land use in the Viborg province that the book offers arouses considera- ble interest. According to the data presented in the book, arable land in the province is made up of 2%, meadows 5.1%, forest 51.8%, swampy soil 11.2%, water 27% and rocky soil 2.9%. The cul- tivated areas (arable land and meadows) making up 7.1% exceeded the average index in Finland which was 5.3%. As to the absolute indices of cultivated land (55.7 square miles), the Viborg province was rated third in Finland after the prov- inces of Åbo (Turku; 68.8 square miles) and Ul- eåborg (Oulu; 70.5 square miles). In connection with the expansion of arable lands Alfthan mentions the extensive development of slash and burn clearing methods in Karelia re- sulting in “a universal destruction of forests” along the shores of Lake Ladoga. Still, he admits that there was a “vast forest space” situated to the northeast of Lake Ladoga in the parishes of Impi- lahti, Suistamo, and Suojärvi and further as far as Nurmes. Furthermore, in the parishes of Suista- mo and Suojärvi half the territory consisted of swampy soil, besides which, as Alfthan wrote, “excellent iron ore was extracted” from the bogs at Suojärvi. Of arable lands Alfthan wrote, refer- ring to Knorring’s work, The description of old Fin- land (Knorring 1833) that “the most excellent ar- able lands lie in the parishes near Lake Ladoga: Serdoboll, Jakimvaara, Kronoborg, Hiitola and Pyhäjärvi”. The final part of Alfthan’s composition is enti- tled “Population”, dedicated to the problems of ethnography and demography. In this section he made an attempt to describe the typical physical features of residents from various regions of Fin- land: Savolax and Karelians are tall calm and quiet, yet light-hearted, inert and wasteful; that is why their sense of well-being as well as their education is low- er in comparison with all other Finns, although there is no denying the fact that they possess a healthy morality – heavy drinking, particularly in the Kare- lia district, is foreign to them. Karelians compared with Savolax distinguish themselves by having a higher degree of liveliness, which possibly may be ascribed to the influence from neighbouring Rus- sians... Morals in their original purity have been pre- served only in the inland parts of the region, that is in Tavastland, Savolax and particularly in Karelia. The notable simplicity of clothing, primarily home-made, unpretentious even rather frugal food, sobriety and hospitality distinguish the residents of inland Finland from their lake-shore countrymen revealing a con- trast in prosperity, love of luxury and tainted mor- als. In his work A. Alfthan gives detailed informa- tion about the population of the Northern Ladoga region in the districts in 1855: Middle Kexholm district 22,860, Sortavala district (including the town of Sortavala) 22,068 and Salmi district 24,956 peoples. Thus the entire population of the three Ladoga districts of the Viborg province in 1855 made up 69,884 people, including the towns of Kexholm (1449 people), and Sortavala (573 people). In the same lines Alfthan gives in- formation on the density of population in the dis- tricts (per square mile): Middle Kexholm district 558, Sortavala district (including the town of Sor- tavala) 479, Salmi district 139 peoples and the whole density of population of the three districts was 405. When commenting on the data, Alfthan states that the districts of Sortavala and Kexholm are populated “quite densely” while the district of Salmi is populated “rather sparsely”. When describing the residents of the Northern Ladoga region with reference to religion, Alfthan presented data stating that in 1855 of 37,352 Or- thodox residents of Finland, 28,175 of them lived in the Viborg province. Besides, the Orthodox believers inhabited the northeast part of the prov- ince, i.e. the Ladoga region. In Alfthan’s words “a great many pagan superstitions” survived in the provinces of Savo and Karelia provinces. Alfthan noted a gradual growth of Orthodox residents in the province during 1830–1850 from 25,212 to 47,144 people, and a sudden fall in 1855 to 37,352 people. Thus, Alfthan’s work, written with scientific thoroughness and sincere curiosity about subject matter, gives a relatively complete picture of the state of affairs in the Northern Ladoga region in the 19th century. 18 FENNIA 182: 1 (2004)Alexandr M. Pashkov The second half of the 19th century saw the appearance of quite a large number of works de- voted to Finland. They contained various materi- als on the Northern Ladoga region. In 1882 one volume came out in the series Picturesque Rus- sia, devoted to the Great Duchy of Finland ( VZivopisnaja Rossija 1882). The main bulk of the text was compiled by S. Baranovskiy, a professor at the Alexander University in Helsinki. Concern- ing the population of the two largest towns of the Northern Ladoga region, he gave the following in- formation in 1875: Kexholm was inhabited by 1150 people and Sortavala by 655 people, and he insisted on calling them “insignificant towns”. Yet in addition it was underscored that Sortavala owned a 60-horsepower steamboat, besides which there was an established steamship com- munication route between Sortavala and St. Pe- tersburg maintained by two ships. During this time, the Finnish economy had been on the rise, resulting in Russia lagging be- hind Finland remarkably in economic develop- ment and living standards. Such new phenome- na were given space as well in Baron N. Kaulbars’ book A short survey of the Great Duchy of Fin- land (Kaulbars 1900). The author was a lieuten- ant general of the General Staff of the Russian Army. Prior to this, he had been Chief of Staff in the Finnish military district for eight years, often paying official and private visits to Finland. On the basis of his personal experience, which he regularly entered in his log supplemented by sta- tistics, he made up his mind to describe the typi- cal features of the “surface, people and state struc- ture” of Finland. It was quite natural that Kaulbars’ book revealed information about the Northern Ladoga region. Kaulbars calls Sortavala the “most significant settlement” in the Finnish lake shore area of the Northern Ladoga for the reason that the town was connected by steamship communication with Pähkinäsaari, Salmi, Pitkäranta, Kexholm, Valamo, Konevets and other shore settlements. Besides, by that time there had been steamship communica- tion between Värtsilä and Suistamo. Another transport communication in Kaulbars’ opinion was the railway connecting Viipuri, Sortavala and Joensuu. He also noted that by the end of 19th century Viipuri province had profited from 17 tel- egraph stations and the first telephone switch- boards had begun to appear. Thus, in Sortavala there were 97 telephone subscribers and Kexholm had 56 telephone subscribers. A considerable of military-statistical works are evidence of the importance of the Karelian Isth- mus and Northern Ladoga for the High Command of the Russian Army on account of the territory immediately adjacent to St. Petersburg, capital of Imperial Russia. Apart from books of essay-type content there had begun to appear by the end of 19th century the earliest Russian statistical reports on Finland. In the series Statistics of the Russian Empire the volume A collection of data on the Finnish prov- inces came out in 1892 (Statistika…1892) with A collection of data on Finland that was coming out in 1900 (Statistika… 1900). Both collections con- tain information on the Ladoga region. Thus, A collection of data on the Finnish provinces points out that by January 1st 1890, there were 340,680 inhabitants residing in the Viborg province. Con- siderable interest is aroused by the data on the dynamics of town residents in the Ladoga region (see Table 1). Such data allow us to trace the proc- ess of gradual decline of Kexholm and the rise of Sortavala. The statistics represent the Viborg province as a multiethnic and multi-confessional region. Of the parishes, 44 were Lutheran, 16 Orthodox (of 23 in general in Finland) and one Catholic. Lu- therans were the majority (272,499) and Ortho- dox worshippers constituted 29,317 out of the 38,725 living in Finland. It should be added that the majority of Orthodox worshippers were resi- dents of rural areas. The data of 1890 give evi- dence of 836 Lutherans and 348 Orthodox wor- shippers living in Kexholm whereas in Sortavala the figures are accordingly 742 and 148. According to ethnic grouping of the residents of Viborg province, the year 1880 data testify to the majority being Finns (291,490), apart from whom there were Russians (2219), Swedes (7382) and Germans (842). The Finnish statistics in all probability did not take into account Karelians considering themselves to be Finns. A collection Table 1. The dynamics of urban population in Kexholm and Sortavala in 1840–1890. Source: Statistika… 1892, 6–7. Town Year 1840 1850 1860 1870 1880 1890 Kexholm 1473 1435 1181 1153 1184 1258 Sortavala 460 665 589 669 890 1247 FENNIA 182: 1 (2004) 19The presentation of Old Finland in the descriptions of… of data on the Finnish provinces contains infor- mation on the numerical ratio of population in certain rural communities of the Viborg province (see Table 2). Guidebooks for Russian middle class Since the second half of 19th century Finland, in- cluding the Northern Ladoga area, had become a place of attraction for well-to-do Russian visitors. Various guidebooks were published with a view to giving a boost to tourism. One of the guide- books, entitled A guidebook to Finland compiled by V. Mainov, is worth considering (Mainov 1887). The choice of the guidebook is justified by the personality of the compiler. Mainov (1845–1888) graduated from the Aleksander Lyceum in St. Pe- tersburg. He taught French at the Aleksander gym- nasium and the University of Helsinki for some years. It is known that he knew Finnish and even made attempts to translate the Kanteletar collec- tion of poems into Russian. He spent the last years of his life in St. Petersburg where he actively co- operated with the Russian Geographical Society working as a secretary in the Ethnography Depart- ment. For these reasons, Mainov can be consid- ered a consummate expert on Finland and his guidebook has acquired a special significance. It is worth noting that the first guidebook A guide- book to Finland for Finns did not appear until 1895 (Lintunen et al. 1998). Mainov’s guidebook offers several tourist routes along with a presentation of various sights along the route. One of the routes, namely, “From Imatra to Käkisalmi and Sortavala” includes information about the history, population and sights of the Northern Ladoga region. When describing Kex- holm, Mainov drew attention to the ethnic and religious symbiosis of its residents: The town boasts that clean look typical of all Finn- ish towns, although its population does not exceed 1400 living souls, including the Orthodox residents who represent a substantial figure because it is namely from here that the orthodox Karelian popu- lation takes its origin, thus revealing sharp distinc- tions in their culture and well-being from Lutheran residents... only a few local [Orthodox] priests have learned the folk dialect well enough to be able to attend divine service and teach the people; recently the endeavours of the Viipuri Orthodox Archdeacon and of the local Orthodox merchants and inhabit- ants resulted in the founding of a particular fraterni- ty whose members set themselves the goal of rais- ing the education level of Finland’s orthodox resi- dents, thus, books, textbooks and grammar books be- gan to be translated. Two chapels were built near the mouth of Vuoksi river and in one of them thanksgiv- ing service was held each time the ship “Valamo” arrived from St. Petersburg giving the sign of a hap- py voyage. Mainov took interest in the economic life of Kexholm: Folk earn their living mainly by fishing; trade on the whole is carried out by Russians, whereas Karelians are the good travelling salesmen wandering around central Finland with their baskets full of goods... There are also porcelain and glazed pottery facto- ries, their production mainly going to Russia. Finn- ish folk are engaged in active trade relations with Russia, selling timber, willow bark, butter, fish, wild game and furs. Mainov, when compiling his guidebook for tourists, could not but make mention of the plac- es of interest in Kexholm: There are two sites of ancient settlements with the remainders of fortress about a hundred sazhens [1 sazhen = 2.134 m] from the town, located on the two islands of the Vuoksi river which by now has become shallow after joining Lake Suvanto... the for- tresses had constantly been changing hands through- out five centuries until Peter the Great finally made Kexholm part of Russia. The walls all the way down Table 2. The population of rural communities of the Northern Ladoga area in 1890. Source: Statistika… 1892, 182. Name of community Population Name of community Population (number of residents) (number of residents) Hiitola 6,311 Suojärvi 4,269 Kurkijoki 6,364 Korpiselkä 1,807 Rural com. of Sortavala 14,599 Salmi 9,157 Ruskeala 4,598 Suistamo 5,884 Impilahti 7,318 Uukuniemi 5,754 Kitele 3,504 Jaakkimanvaara 9,471 20 FENNIA 182: 1 (2004)Alexandr M. Pashkov to the ground are made of natural quarry stone and flat cobble, while the upper part is turned and cov- ered with soil; some buildings have survived in the fortress nearest to the town, while the other can boast of only a round tower with seven casemates; the building is now occupied by convicts, their guards and the priest. The two gates of the fortress are bound with Swedish trophy armour. They say the tower was the place where Yemelyan Pugachev’s daughters lived as secret convicts until their death. The gates of so-called “New” fortress bound with Swedish trophy armour has survived up to the present time. Mainov deviates from the truth when stating that the members of Pugachev’s fam- ily, the leader of the best-known folk uprising of 18th-century Russia, were put in prison in Kex- holm. In one of the towers of the New fortress that later received the name of Pugachev, his two wives, two daughters and son from his first mar- riage languished in captivity. Taking into primary account the interests of Russian readers, Mainov tells of the past of Kexholm connected with the Russian side of its history, remaining silent about the sights and events from the Swedish-Finnish period. The last place that he recommends Russian tourists to visit en route from Viborg, passing Im- atra and Kexholm, is Sortavala. The guidebook contains many interesting concrete facts and fig- ures about the town in question. Mainov wrote: At present culture has attained great achievements here: there are many schools as well as a teacher’s seminary with Finnish as the language of instruction, there are also hotels, the best is Société... The town is beautifully located and numbers about 1000 in- habitants. One of the churches is Lutheran and the two others are Orthodox, of which one, made of tim- ber, is an ancient one devoted to the apostles Peter and Paul. Two versts away from the town on the is- land of Riekkala [“Greek”] there is the ancient Or- thodox Church of St. Nicholas built at the time of Swedish dominance. An interesting ethnographic museum is housed in the building of the new Town Hall. The quarries eight versts away from the town are famous for their excellent white and greenish marble, for granite of a wonderful grainy structure as well as serdobolit resembling coal, which is usu- ally used for decoration and to build cornices. Many of the memorials in St. Petersburg have been made of materials from the quarries. Mainov’s guidebook contains an explanation of the origin of the place-name Sortavala: “... the name of the town receives a curious explanation: they say the monks of Valamo drove all devils from the island and the latter founded their own state here” (sorta is Finnish transcription of the Russian word chort – devil and state is valta in Finnish). Mainov’s curious explanation is not an exception. The work Det gamla Finland of Franz von Knorring (1833) contains a similar explana- tion: “The name of Sortavala comes from Russian word tchort, devil and from Finnish walta, pow- er, state. In ancient times a place to build a mon- astery was cleared and thus in so doing Evil and the Devil were ousted. The Devil fled to the clos- est vicinity which turned out to be Sortavala.” Most likely this curious explanation is of Russian origin and can be accounted for by the desire to find Russian roots in any unusual Finnish name. The Finnish researcher Martti Jaatinen, a recog- nized expert in the history of Sortavala, explains the origin of the word by tracing it from the Finn- ish sorta (burning off after felling trees). Some episodes of Sortavala’s history in the guidebook receive a false interpretation: The town was founded in 1617, besides the district was as county donation given to Gustav Banér who was the son of the famous military leader Gustav Adolf Adam Banér. The town was very rich on account of its beneficial trade, but in 1705 it was destroyed by fire and since that time would not recover un- til the 1870s. It is known that Swedes founded the town in 1643 (some works give the wrong date of 1632). In 1651 the town was given as a pos- session to Cavalry General Count Gustav Adam Banér. Mainov does not inform us that the town was destroyed after it was taken on the 27 Janu- ary 1705 by P. Apraksin’s 2000-man force during the Great Northern War. It took three days for the Russians to burn down the town and the majority of its inhabitants (out of 600 all in all) were taken prisoner. According to Jaatinen (1997), these events substantially reduced the number of the town’s inhabitants so that the number of the town residents in 1704 was recovered only by 1857 while the number of town buildings took an even longer time to be restored. The chapter devoted to the Northern Ladoga region concludes with a description of the vicini- ty of Sortavala: If you go from Serdobol by road you cannot but pay attention to the settlement Impilaks due to its roman- tic location, Pitkäranta lies to the south and is known for its copper and tin mines. A little further away is Jakimvaara which may soon have a railway if one is built between Viipuri and Joensuu according to plan. Kronoborg, an estate of Count Kushelev-Bezborod- ko, raises a point of a certain interest, too. It is sur- FENNIA 182: 1 (2004) 21The presentation of Old Finland in the descriptions of… rounded by amazing landscapes, extremely pictur- esque and original wildlife, an excellent place for fishing and hunting elks and deer. At present it is an exemplary prison for women and soon a dairy school will be built. Mainov’s A guidebook to Finland is evident of the growing interest in the Northern Ladoga re- gion at the end of the 19th century insofar as Rus- sian “middle class citizens” chose the area as a popular area for travel and relaxation, actually as a tourist destination. Conclusion From the end of 18th up to the beginning of 20th centuries the Karelian Isthmus and the Northern Ladoga region aroused Russia’s interest from three points of view. Firstly, the area had a developed economy and it was located not far from St. Pe- tersburg, capital of the Russian Empire. That was why its economic potential attracted Russian sci- entists. At the turn of the 18th and 19th centu- ries, several expeditions were set up to study the economy of the Northern Ladoga region. After 1812, the interest of Russian scientists in the re- gion grew weaker and travel notes were replaced by statistic publications of various kinds. Secondly, the Viborg province inspired interest due to its military-strategic position. The territory was the most important bridgehead close to St. Petersburg. That was why the territory was sub- jected to close scrutiny by the officers of the Gen- eral Staff of the Russian Army and the St. Peters- burg military district. And, thirdly, well-to-do middle class citizenry began to come into being in Russia after the re- forms of Alexander the Second. Middle-class cit- izens considered the Karelian Isthmus and the Northern Ladoga region to be part of Europe lo- cated nearest to Russia. They were attracted by convenient means of communication, a Europe- an lifestyle, a high level of comfort and beautiful nature. Thus, the Ladoga region became an attrac- tion for Russian tourists. In this connection guide- books came to be published which gave much space to natural sights and the cultural achieve- ments of the region. Thus, the image of the Viborg province in 19th- century Russia was not a homogeneous one. The area aroused interest and was of importance in Russia for various reasons and various policies. The projection of this image underwent consider- able distortion after 1917. But it should still be insisted that the sheer variety of images of Viborg province which were formed during the 19th cen- tury should not disappear but should continue to develop even in our day. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The compilation of the article was sponsored by the Russian Fund for Humanities, project N 01-01- 49000 a/c. REFERENCES Alfthan A (1859). Materialy dlja statistiki Finlandii. Materialy dlja statistiki i geografii Rossii, sobran- nye ofitserami Generaljnogo shtaba. St. Peters- burg. Alopaeus O (1787). Kurze Beschreibung der in Rus- sisch-Kaiserlichen Carelien befindlichen Marmor- und anderen Steinbrüchen, Berg- und Steinarten. St. Petersburg. Bojarinskaja AF (1997). Udivitelnyi pastor. Sever 4, 157–160. 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