Agnessa Haikara
Agnessa Haikara[a], also Agnessa Haykara (Russian: Агнесса Рикхартовна Хайкара, romanized: Agnessa Rikhartovna Khaykara) (born September 1979[1]) is a Russian lawyer and sociologist, public and political activist, and writer, best known for her documentary book about Murmansk Finns and Kola Norwegians repressed in the Soviet Union.[2]
Early life and education
[edit]She was born in Murmansk to a family of Finnish origin.[3]
In 2007, she graduated from Murmansk State Technical University.[1]
Career
[edit]For 17 years she worked as a civil servant as Murmansk regional duma.[4]
She wrote a nonfiction book "Неизвестная северная история О трагических судьбах кольских финнов и норвежцев, подвергшихся политическим репрессиям" (Unknown Northern History. About the tragic fates of the Kola Finns and Norwegians who were subjected to political repression) about the persecution of 210 Murmansk Finns and Kola Norwegians (printed in Finnish as Kuka koputtaa ovellesi?, Who is Knocking at Your Door?, translated by Pekka Iivari, in 2023[5]).
The 2020 Russian print of the book was confiscated by the Federal Security Service right from the printing house[3] and Haikara was accused of "incitement of ethnic hatred". Her advocate insisted that the experts on whose opinion accusation was based were lacking competence, and the second expertise performed in 2022 refuted their findings.[6] According to Russian political scientist Aleksandr Kynev, Haikara's case follows the trend in Putin's Russia to suppress information about persecutions under Stalin.[7]
Haikara traveled to Finland in August 2020 for research purposes before the FSS raided her publisher. She was informed of the raid in December of that same year. FSS denied the seizure of the books, and because Haikara had a contract to deliver 25 copies to the Ministry of Culture of the Murmansk region, the ministry accused her of the breach of contract.[7] Fearing prosecution, she did not return to Russia and continued to work on her book while staying in Lahti.[8][4]
As of 2024[update] she lives in Rovaniemi and is doing her Ph.D. as a junior researcher at the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Lapland. [2][9]
Notes
[edit]- ^ see wikt:haikara for the meaning of the surname
References
[edit]- ^ a b Хайкара Агнесса Рикхартовна, election candidate information
- ^ a b В Финляндии вышла запрещенная в РФ книга Агнессы Хайкара о репрессированных кольских финнах
- ^ a b Tatyana Britskaya, Чекисты увлеклись чтением. ФСБ изъяла из типографии книгу о репрессированных финнах
- ^ a b Emma-Roosa Saareks ”Päätin jäädä Suomeen, sillä minut olisi voitu pidättää” – kirjaprojekti ajoi Agnessa Haikaran jättämään kotimaansa, teos valmistui Lahdessa ["I decided to stay in Finland, because I could have been arrested" - the book project drove Agnessa Haikara to leave her home country, the work was completed in Lahti], August 18, 2023
- ^ Kuka koputtaa ovellesi?, book review
- ^ Запрещалка сломалась. Суд отказался признать экстремистской книгу о репрессированных. ФСБ два года пыталась ее запретить, а автора — посадить
- ^ a b Timo Sipola, Agnessa Haikara tutki sukunsa vainoa Venäjällä ja kirjoitti siitä kirjan – sitten kirjapainosta kerrottiin, että turvallisuuspalvelu kiinnostui niistä
- ^ Опять по заказу ФСБ. Эксперты по делу «Мемориала»* занялись историей. В новом исследовании они оправдали депортацию по национальному признаку
- ^ Yhteystietojen haku (Search for contact information; key: "Yhteiskuntatieteiden" (Social Sciences)) (retrieved April 9, 2024)
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