“Северная любовь” (вместо предисловия от составителя)

This paper is devoted to one of the semantic elements of “Finnish discourse” in Russian literature, so-called “Northern love”. This notion includes the paradoxical love for austere Northern nature and for the unfriendly but attractive Northern (Finnish) girl as well. Both components were prepared and well elaborated within the poetry of Russian Romanticism but kept their actuality during the Modernist era. After Vladimir Solovʼevʼs linking of the love for Lake Saimaa with his permanent seeking for the Eternal Feminine, Russian Symbolists of different sorts and generations made the “Northern love” an essential part of the image of Finland.