The Persecution of Finland’s Russian Peddlers
In the 19th century Russian peddlers became a scapegoat in Finland’s resistance against the tsar’s empire.
Around 1900 Juho Arhippainen, a Russian peddler who traded seasonally in the Grand Duchy of Finland, was forced to flee back to his home region. Throughout the 19th century Russian peddlers had played an important role in distributing consumer goods, mainly textiles and ready-made clothes, in Finland, particularly in rural areas. But Arhippainen and several other Russian peddlers reported that local attitudes towards them had abruptly deteriorated. They claimed that they ‘were now hated’, and one man reported being told that ‘it would even be right to kill him’. Together with fellow peddlers, Arhippainen submitted a complaint to the Russian Governor-General’s Office in Helsinki. It was one among numerous similar complaints in which Russian peddlers alleged that Finnish authorities were ‘persecuting’ them and that customers who had previously treated them amicably had suddenly turned hostile and begun boycotting their trade.
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