Paper short abstract:

This paper focuses on the Finnish South Karelia. How do people born in the 1970s remember their previous home region? Which connections do they still have to the place? Has the Covid-19 pandemic had any influence on their possibly multilocal life between the current permanent home and South-Karelia?

Paper long abstract:

The topic of my paper is Multilocal Karelians in the 2020s. After the Second World War a new border crossed the Karelian areas in south-eastern Finland. The Karelian Isthmus and the Ladoga Karelia passed to the Soviet Union, and approximately 400 000 refugees had to be resettled elsewhere in Finland.

My research questions concern, however, Karelians from the region South Karelia, which remained on the Finnish side of the new border. While the lost part of Karelia stayed in memories, this part continued its development together with the rest of Finland, going through the manifold transformations of society.

I am interested in memories and experiences of people born in the 1970s, who spent their childhood and youth years in South Karelia in the 1970s and the 1980s, and who as adults are now living somewhere else, in Finland or abroad. How do they remember the region? Do they as adults identify themselves nowadays as Karelians and how does it manifest?

Additionally, I am interested which connections do the interviewees still have to South Karelia at present. Parents or a summerhouse, for example? Has the Covid-19 pandemic had any influence on they possibly multilocal life between the permanent home and South Karelia? When thinking about the future, could they imagine moving back to South Karelia, and if, under which conditions?

Perhaps the potential returnees, multilocal lifestyle, multiple residences and remote working could bring something positive to the development of South Karelia and the modern Karelian culture in the 2020s.