‘Agitprop Pidgin’: New Political Language at the Intersection of Linguistic and Political Communities in Soviet Ingria, 1918–20

Encounters between members of movements or populations who speak different languages and who are accustomed to different political cultures may produce a political contact language. Red Finns exiled in Soviet Russia after their defeat in Finland's 1918 civil war served as language intermediaries. Using sources produced by Finnish communists, this article shows the clash of political and linguistic cultures of Finland, Soviet Russia and Ingria, the Finnish-speaking Russian countryside. The political vocabulary of the Finnish language changed to translate the realities of the Bolshevik-led country into Finnish. A new political language, designed to designate the enemies and to mobilize for violence, emerged at the intersection of Russian and Finnish language communities. The article shows that language contact became one of the cultural technologies of rule used by Soviet Russia.