ABSTRACT
East and west have traditionally played a significant role in Finnish historical narratives and related identity politics. During the Cold War years, concepts of east and west were actively used for constructing, defining and shaping Finnish identity and for mapping its place among other European nations. The notion of Finnishness has been constructed to a high degree as a choice between – or a position on the border of – eastern and western cultural and political spheres. For Finns, Russia has been the significant ‘negative Other’ and conceptual affiliation with Europe and Norden has played mainly a role of a reference or target group. This chapter argues that this setting has changed during the so-called post-Cold War period and that Finnish public political debate has been seized by multiple territorial imaginations through which attempts have been made to remap Finland on the European scene. The chapter studies the key discussions on the position of Finland in regard to Europe and the west. Through the prism of discussions concerning the Finnish–Russian border this chapter evaluates how spatial imaginations of Finland and its place in ‘Europe’, ‘west’ and ‘east’ have been (re)conceptualised during the post-Cold War period.
