‘The biographical turn’ that occurred in historical scholarship at the turn of
the twenty-first century transformed the possibilities and scope of historical biography,
refining the historian’s toolkit, proposing new principles for selecting personalities,
expanding the range of questions, directing the researcher's focus towards
the identification and understanding of ‘individuality,’ introducing interpretative methods
into research practice, identifying models and types of biographical studies, etc.
This article examines the Finnish Social Democrat Eero Haapalainen, who emigrated
to Soviet Russia in 1918 and left a significant mark on the histories of both Russia and
Finland. However, his name remained erased from our history and memory for a long
time. The author of this article wrote a concise biography of him almost 30 years ago,
which remains the only detailed account of his life. In revisiting her old text, the author is
motivated by the possibilities offered by the ‘new biographical history.’ This is also an
opportunity to draw attention to the challenges faced by historians when studying
previously unpopular topics that have since been reactualized, such as the biographies of
immigrants like the Red Finns in Russia or those who fell victim to Stalinist terror —
topics on which Soviet historical scholarship either remained silent or disseminated
inaccurate information.
The article utilizes new methodologies and sources to reconstruct the biography
of Eero Haapalainen while charting paths for its further exploration. Interpretative
directions in his life story involve juxtaposing his personal history with his political and
academic biography, analyzing the nuances of his behavior, life choices and searches,
and psychological details of his portrait. All of this not only broadens the horizons of
studying the so-called ‘secondary figure’ but also brings to the forefront the phenomenon
of the figure of the Other.
The biographies of Finnish immigrants are not just the life stories of ordinary
individuals in a transformative era of wars and revolutions. They are also the life accounts
of individuals with cultural traditions, perceptions, and customs that differentiated them
from the surrounding society. History, as portrayed through the persona of an immigrant,
can become an effective means of understanding the society in which they involuntarily
found themselves.