Helsinki (Helsingfors) in the mirror of imperial St. Petersburg

This essay discusses three aspects related to the likeness between Helsinki and St Petersburg. Firstly, the centre of early 19th-century Helsinki became to look like miniature St Petersburg because its architect C.L. Engel admired the neoclassical architecture in St Petersburg. Secondly, Helsinki (Helsingfors in Swedish) suited the role Bely gave it in ‘Petersburg’ novel (1916) as it had the name familiar to his readers, and in 1905 the name was more modern that St. Petersburg. Thirdly, Cold War films with Helsinki as Petrograd/Leningrad and Moscow show that the line between the factual and fictional may get lost.

    1. Alapuro R. State and Revolution in Finland. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988. 315 p.
    2. Åström  S-E. Samhällsplanering och regionsbildning i kejsartidens Helsingfors. Helsingfors, 1957. 375 s.
    3. Åström S-E. From Stockholm to St. Petersburg: Commercial Factors in the Political Relations between England and Sweden 1675–1700. Helsinki: Finnish Historical Society, 1962. 146 p.
    4. Baschmakoff N. and Leinonen M. Russian life in Finland: A local and oral history. Studia Slavica Finlandensia. Vol. XVIII. Helsinki: Institute for Russian and East European Studies, 2001. 485 p.
    5. Bater J.H. St Petersburg: Industrialization and Change. London: Edward Arnold, 1976. 469 p.
    6. Becker S. Nobility and Privilege in Late Imperial Russia. Dekalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 1985. 259 p.
    7. Blum J. Russia in European Landed Elites in the 19th Century, ed. D. Spring. Baltimore & London: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1977, pp. 68–97.
    8. Buckler J.A. Mapping St. Petersburg: Imperial Text and Cityscape. Princeton & Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2005. 384 p.
    9. Busch M. Deutsche in St. Petersburg 1865–1914: Identität und Integration. Düsseldorf: Institut für Kultur und Geschichte der Deutschen im östlichen Europa, 1995. 288 s.
    10. Ekholm L.K. Boundaries of An Urban Minority: The Helsinki Jewish Community from the end of imperial Russia until the 1970s. Publications of the Department of Political and Economic Studies 11. Helsinki: University of Helsinki, 2013. 115 p.
    11. Engman M. Migration from Finland to Russia during the 19th Century. Scandinavian Journal of History, 1978, vol. 3, pp. 155–177.
    12. Engman M. Officers and Artisans: Finns in Russia. Finland and Poland in the Russian Empire: A Comparative Study, eds. M. Branch, J.M. Hartley and A. Mączak. London: School of Slavonic and East European Studies, 1995, pp. 241–258.
    13. Engman M. Finliandtsy v Peterburge; perevod so shvedskogo A.I. Rupasova [The Finns in St. Petersburg. Translation from Swedish by A.I. Rupasov]. St. Petersburg: Yevropeisky Dom, 2008, pp. 136–285. (In Russian)
    14. Grönfors M. Minorities and the common culture. Austerity and Prosperity: Perspectives on Finnish Society, ed. M. Rahikainen. Helsinki: University of Helsinki, Lahti Research and Training Centre, 1993, pp. 159–176.
    15. Heikkinen S. Labour and the Market: Workers, Wages and Living Standards in Finland, 1850–1913. Helsinki: Finnish Society of Sciences and Letters, 1997. 269 p.
    16. Hellberg-Hirn E. Dacha album Chukokkala as a cultural game in culture. The Dacha Kingdom: Summer Dwellers and Dwellings in the Baltic Area, eds. N. Baschmakoff and M. Ristolainen. Aleksanteri Series 3/2009. Helsinki: Aleksanterin instituutti, 2009. Pp. 99-108.
    17. Ilmakunnas J. Career at Court: Noblewomen in service of Swedish and Russian royals, p. 1750–1850.  Women’s History Magazine, 2013, vol. 72, no. 2, pp. 4–11.
    18. Kalleinen Kristina. Sviashchennye uzy biurokratii – vysshee chinovnichestvo Finliandii I Rossiia 1809–1898 gg [Holy ties of beaurocracy – senior officialism of Finland and Russia 1809–1898]. Two images of Russia: Collection of articles. Ed. Prof. Timo Vihavainev. St. Petersburg: European house& Institute of Finland in St. Petersburg, 2007, pp. 27–45. (In Russian)
    19. Katajala K. Eastern Finland and St. Petersburg 1809–1917: Restructuring of infrastructure and rural economy in the concentric circles around a metropolis’. The East-West Interface in the European North, eds. M. Dahlström, H. Eskelinen and U. Wiberg. Uppsala: Nordisk Samhällsgeografisk Tidskrift, 1995, pp. 11–27.
    20. Kirby D. A Concise History of Finland. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006. 364 p.
    21. Kozovoi A. ‘This film is harmful’: Resizing America for the Soviet Screen. Winter Kept Us Warm: Cold War Interactions Reconsidered, eds. S. Autio-Sarasmo and B. Humphreys. Aleksanteri Cold War Series 1/2010. Helsinki: Aleksanteri Institute, 2010. Pp. 137-153.
    22. Löfving E. Finländska flickor i jungfrustiftet Smolna i Petersburg. Historiska och litteraturhistoriska studier, 1988, vol. 63, pp. 277–306.
    23. Lovell Steven Summerfolk: A History of the Dacha, 1710–2000. Ithaca & London: Cornell University Press, 2003. 260 p.
    24. Minard-Törmänen N. An ImperialIdyll: Finland in Russian Travelogues (1810–1860). Bidrag till kännedom av Finlands natur och folk 199. Helsingfors: Societas Scientarium Fennica, 2016. 350 s.
    25. Priymak Ninel I. Finliandiia 40–50-kh gg. XIX v. v zapiskakh russkikh puteshestvennikov [Finland in the 1840–1950s in the notes of Russian travellers]. Gel'singfors – Sankt-Peterburg: Stranitsy istorii: vtoraia polovina XIX – nachalo XX veka, pod redaktsiei T. Vikhavainena & S. G. Kashchenko [Helsingfors – St. Petersburg: Pages of History: Second Half of the 19th – Early 20th Century], Т. Vihavainen & S. G. Kashchenko (eds). St. Petersburg: Nestor-Istoriya, 2012. (In Russian)
    26. Peltonen M. A bourgeois bureaucracy? The new mentality of the Finnish aristocracy at the beginning of the period of autonomy. State, Culture and the Bourgeoisie, ed. M. Peltonen. Jyväskylä: University of Jyväskylä, 1989, pp. 33–53.
    27. Peterson C. Peter the Great’s Administrative and Judicial Reforms: Swedish Antecedents and the Process of Reception. Stockholm: Nordiska bokhandeln, 1979. 448 p.
    28. Rahikainen M. The fading of the ancien régime mentality: Young upper-class women in imperial St Petersburg and Helsinki (Helsingfors)’. Scandinavian Journal of History, 2015, vol. 40, no. 1, pp. 25–47.
    29. Rahikainen M. Historical and present-day child labour: Is there a gap or a bridge between them? Continuity and Change, 2001, vol. 16, no. 1, pp. 137–156.
    30. Ransel D. Mothers of Misery: Child Abandonment in Russia. Princeton University Press, Princeton, 1988. 344 p.
    31. Schweitzer R. Government in Finland: Russia’s Borderland Policy and Variants of Autonomy. Finland and Poland in the Russian Empire: A Comparative Study, eds. M. Branch, J.M. Hartley and A. Mączak. London: School of Slavonic and East European Studies, London 1995, pp. 91–109.
    32. Schleifman N.  A Russian daily newspaper and its readership: Severnaja pchela, 1825–1840. Cahiers du monde russe et sovietique, 1987, vol. 28, pp. 127–144.
    33. Schoolfield G.C. Helsinki of the Czars: Finland’s Capital: 1808–1918. Drawer, Columbia, SC: Camden House 1996. 485 p.
    34. Screen J.E.O. The Helsinki Yunker School, 1846–1879: A case study of the officer training in the Russian Army. Studia Historica 22. Helsinki: SHS, 1986. 320 p.
    35. Screen J.E.O. The military relationship between Finland and Russia, 1809–1917. Finland and Poland in the Russian Empire in the Russian Empire: A Comparative Study, eds. M. Branch, J.M. Hartley and A. Mączak. London: School of Slavonic and East European Studies, London, 1995, pp. 259–270.
    36. Söderberg J., Jonsson U. and Persson C. A Stagnating Metropolis: The Economy and Demography of Stockholm, 1750–1850. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991. 234 p.
    37. Upton A. Epilogue, Finland and Poland in the Russian Empire: A Comparative Study, eds. M. Branch, J.M. Hartley and A. Mączak. London: School of Slavonic and East European Studies, London, 1995, pp. 283–287.
    38. Whelan H.W. Adapting to Modernity: Family, Caste and Capitalism among the Baltic German Nobility. Köln, Weimar & Wien: Böhlau Verlag, 1999. 387 p.
    39. Wirilander K. Herrskapsfolk: Ståndspersoner i Finland 1721–1870. Stockholm: Nordiska museet, 1982. 465 s.