The Hidden Minority

The Russian minority in Finland is imbued with ’being hidden‘ or ’hiding oneself‘. The book explores informants’ reflections, together with the author, on the mental and physical crossing of national borders. Perceptions of belonging and/or Otherness and lived experience reveal a complex relationship of embodied memory, history, time and a multi-national social space.

Helena Jerman is affiliated to the Faculty of Social Sciences, Global Development Studies at the University of Helsinki, where she has taught and worked as a university researcher and later as an experienced researcher of the Kone Foundation. She was a member of the board of the Finnish Oral History Network (FOHN) for several years and is a founding member of the Finnish Anthropological Society and the Society for the Study of Ethnic Relations and International Migration.

Helena Jerman is affiliated to the Faculty of Social Sciences, Global Development Studies at the University of Helsinki, where she has taught and worked as a university researcher and later as an experienced researcher of the Kone Foundation. She was a member of the board of the Finnish Oral History Network (FOHN) for several years and is a founding member of the Finnish Anthropological Society and the Society for the Study of Ethnic Relations and International Migration.

“This is an impressive and important book. It makes the hidden minority of Russians in Finland visible in terms of perceptions of self and lived experience.” • Helena Wulff, Stockholm University

“The language of The Hidden Minority is very appropriate – easy to read and easy to understand, but at the same time also explanatory and reasoned.” • Ieva Garda-Rozenberga, University of Latvia