Contributing, for instance, to the fields of nationality and borderland studies, this book offers a fascinating study of the process of writing a worthy past for the Russian Orthodox monastery of Valaam during the 18th and 19th centuries.

Kati Parppei, Ph. D. (2010) in History, University of Eastern Finland, is a researcher in the Department of Geographical and Historical Studies at University of Eastern Finland. She has recently published works on image studies and borderland issues.