A Dim Light of Dawn: Finnish Post-Cold War Experiences Between East and West, 1989–1995

The aim of the project is to analyse the history of experiences in early-1990s Finnish society during societal change that concerned the entire society. One of the defining characteristics of a social change is the uncertainty about the future, a liminal experience. The objective is to analyse how these uncertainties were manifested in the lives of the citizens and what means people adopted to share and cope with these experiences. We approach the topic from three perspectives, all of which are united by the experience of change. The themes are: economic depression, neo-patriotism and the European integration. Methodologically the project belongs to the history of experiences. The project uses archival sources, reminiscence collections and the media sources. The results on early-1990s experiences help the public to understand the present nationalistic populism in Europe and shed new light on how the liminal experiences of the early-1990s have been narrativised.