Echoes of Karelia from Now to Tomorrow - Course 23.-25.1.2026
Welcome to Valamo, to the Karelian culture and traditions of today and tomorrow! The weekend is intended for participants of all ages who want to be involved in creating and enlivening Karelian culture today and in the future. Join us on a journey where the valuable experiences of the past are combined with the vitality of today and open paths to future possibilities. The weekend offers an opportunity to reflect on your own place in this continuum, find new connections to your roots, or simply get to know the possibilities of Karelianism with new eyes. The weekend will be hosted by Karelian hipster Mika Saatsi.
Course program and registration
During the course, you will hear interesting presentations and I will also allow for discussion.
Glimpses into Border Karelianism, Mika Saatsi
Mika Saatsi's lecture will provide an overview of history to the present day and open up old Border Karelian culture from a Suistamo perspective. The lecture will introduce you to pruazniekka and burial traditions, as well as folk healing. Through the prospects for the revival of the Karelian language, we also end up examining what border Karelianism is today. This melodious lecture is punctuated by new Karelian folk music.
Mika "Levoin Miša" Saatsi is an entrepreneur and karjalane muzikanti[Karelian musician] living in Tuusula. Mika, who previously worked as a special education teacher and principal, founded the Karelian-language band Loimolan Voima with his brother Niko "Miikkula" Saatsi in 2018. Loimolan Voima has been selected as the Band of the Year 2025 by the Kaustinen Folk Music Festival, among other things.
Mika is also involved in the folk-rock band Tulenlendo, the duo Saatsi & Shemeikka, and the Pajojoukko group in Bratanoi. He performs solo gigs under the name Levoin Miša. In addition, Mika works as a supervisor, lecturer, podcaster, teacher of Karelian/Summer Karelian and a board member of the Suistamon Heritage Society.
10 questions about Hiloin Natoile, Natalia Giloeva
Reader kyzymyskzii Hiloin Natoile, e.g. Karelian guide, revivalist, Yle uudizien kiändämizes, my own taga-alas imi. Questions can be about what the local population is like. Questions can be Finnish or Karelian.
Ask Hiloin Natoile, e.g. about teaching and revitalizing the Karelian language, translating Yle news or her own background. You can think of questions in advance or ask a question that comes to mind on the spot. The questions can be in Finnish or Karelian. If you want to send a question in advance, I can send it by email to myyntipalvelu@valamo.fi.
Natalia Giloeva (Karelian Hiloin Natoi) is a Karelian journalist (Yle Uutizet karjalakse), a teacher of the Karelian language, and an expert and researcher at the University of Eastern Finland.
Karelian lament tradition and lament language, Eila Stepanova
Eila Stepanova is a Finnish folklorist who specializes in Karelian and, more broadly, Baltic Finnish and Baltic lament poetry. She defended her PhD at the University of Helsinki in 2014. Stepanova is a second-generation expert on the Karelian weeping tradition and Karelian culture more broadly, with extensive fieldwork experience. Stepanova currently serves as the executive director of the Karelian Society of Education.
Renewing and Changing Orthodox Karelianism, Katja Lösönen
Katja Lösönen is a communications expert, journalist and doctoral researcher with a background in Suimato. In her work, Katja specializes in strategic communications, and her doctoral research deals with the formation of information resilience in civil society. Katja, who lives in Vaasa, was born and raised in the Orthodox Karelian community in Lapinlahti. In her free time, Katja serves on the board of the Suistamo Heritage Society and works on the Ristikanza documentary project and online publication focusing on Orthodox Finnish Karelianism. Katja's hobbies also include choir singing and sewing sarafans. Katja is particularly inspired by the layered nature and multiculturalism of the Finnish Orthodox Karelian cultural heritage, as well as the history and ecumenism of the Finnish Orthodox Church.
Reason and Feelings - Memories and Experiences of Different Generations of Karelian-Speaking Karelians in Finnish Society, Anna Kanninen
Anna Kanninen is a researcher with Karelian roots, and the title of the topic is the preliminary title of her doctoral dissertation. Anna Kanninen's master's thesis in sociology at the University of Jyväskylä, "The invisible minority of Finland - The process of building the identity of the Karelian minority" received an honorary mention from the Karelian Cultural Society in 2025.
Karelian language teaching and research at the University of Eastern Finland - Karelian language teaching and research at the University of Eastern Finland, PhD Ilja Moshnikov
Ilia (Ilja) Moshnikov works as a postdoctoral researcher at the Karelian Research Institute. He defended his doctoral thesis at the University of Eastern Finland in 2021 on the topic NUT participle variation in border Karelian dialects, and his opponent was Professor Johanna Laakso from the University of Vienna. In his post-doctoral research, Moshnikov has examined the use and visibility of the Karelian language on the internet. He has studied, among other things, Karelian-language websites from the perspective of virtual language landscape research and language ideologies, the use of social media by Karelian speakers, and the use and visibility of the Karelian language on X (formerly Twitter).
In the spring of 2023, Moshnikov worked as a visiting researcher at the Department of Fenno-Ugric Studies at the University of Vienna and later as a lecturer in Finnish at the same department in 2023–2024. In autumn 2024, she worked as a university lecturer in Karelian and Finnish at the Department of Humanities at the University of Eastern Finland.
Paginperti, Olga Gokkoeva
Paginperti is a free-form discussion club, the purpose of which is to offer Karelian speakers and those interested in the Karelian language the opportunity to develop their practical language skills and get to know other Karelian speakers. The first Paginperti was founded by volunteers in Joensuu in 2016, and since 2022 the activities have been coordinated by the Karelian Language Revitalization Project. Since 2023, in addition to the original Kaikkien Paginperti, the Nuorien Paginperti, aimed specifically at young people, has been meeting in Joensuu, with discussion topics selected according to the interests of young people. In addition to Joensuu, Paginperts have gathered in at least Helsinki, Tampere, Turku, Oulu, Kuopio and Jyväskylä in 2022–2023.
There are no specific rules for organizing a Paginpert, and the leader does not need to have specific training or previous experience in leading discussion clubs.
Olga Gokkoeva will teach a Paginpert lesson at the course. Olga Gokkoeva founded the Karelian language home in Vieljärvi over ten years ago.
