Lake Ladoga: The Coastal History of the Greatest Lake in Europe
About this ebook
The focus of the study is on the central and northern parts of the shores of Lake Ladoga, which belonged to Finnish rule between 1812 and 1944. The multidisciplinary approach permits an unusually wide range of questions. What has the Great Lake meant to local residents in cultural and emotional terms? How should we conceptualize the extensive and diverse networks of activities that surrounded the lake? What kind of Ladoga beaches did the Finns have to cede to the Soviet Union at the end of the war in 1944? How have Finns reminisced about their lost homelands? How have the Russians transformed the profile of the region, and what is the state of Ladoga’s waters today?
The volume is the first overall presentation of Lake Ladoga, which today is entirely part of Russia, aimed at an international readership. The rich source material of cross-border research consists of both diverse archival material and chronicles, folklore, reminiscence, and modern satellite images. The history of Lake Ladoga helps readers to understand better the economic, political, and socio-cultural characteristics of the cross-border areas, and the dynamics of the vulnerable border regions.
About the author
Lähteenmäki, Maria, PhD, Professor of History at the University of Eastern Finland, and Adjunct Professor at the University of Helsinki. Her recent research topics concern the coastal and lake histories, the female Finnish refugees in the Soviet Karelia in the 1920s–1930s, and cultural interactions in the transnational sub-Arctic Lapland.
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-
Land, Isaac, Professor in History at the Indiana State University in the United States of America. His first book was War, Nationalism, and the British Sailor, 1750-1850. He developed the concept and methodology of the new coastal history, and for many years he wrote and hosted “The Coastal History Blog.” Currently, he co-edits the journal Coastal Studies & Society, published by Sage.
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-
