That seemed funny, but became understandable when I learned that she was from Ukraine, with her family left in a war zone.

One translator happened to say that Swedes and Finns in Finland were at war. On the first day all translation between Russian and English was given after the speeches, which meant that everything took longer than planned. That it could take place was mainly thanks to funding from the faculty of philosophy and many committed people. I guess the grand title of the conference was a way of counteracting prejudice. The other was contempt for “fairy tales”. One obstacle was the Ukrainian delegation. It seemed like a miracle that it happened at all. In a friendly atmosphere we were told that there had been official resistance to the conference for more than one reason. In this very “Nordic” environment the conference program was presented: clear, informative, and promising. The first venue of the conference was the Finnish Institute, right off the Nevsky Prospekt. Neither had we expected to be taken care of, from our arrival at the airport onwards, by Mariana, Valeria, and Nikita, three Swedish-speaking Russians students-but we were. The conference language was Russian, which we hadn’t expected. All the other participants were Russian speakers. We were part of a small Nordic group, together with a few people from Finland. When I say “we” I include my colleague at Södertörn University, Bengt Lundgren, and well-known Moomin researcher Agneta Rehal-Johansson, formerly of Södertörn, now of the University of Gothenburg. The conference was a Tower of Babel and an eye-opener to things we had taken for granted.

Petersburg in October of 2014.Īnd, though everything around the conference seemed shaky at first-Would it happen at all? Where, exactly? Was it actually one of those infamous Potemkin villages that we read about in school?-we needn’t have worried, for this conference, more friendly and easygoing than its spectacular name promised, actually took place, to our great pleasure.Īnd nothing was quite as we had expected. ”Don’t worry!” That was the repeated message from our Russian contact, Sergei, regarding the “International Scientific-Theoretical Conference” “Philosophical Experience of Children’s Literature: The Moomins and the Others” (in honor of Tove Jansson’s 100th anniversary) to be held in St.

Moomin tales