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A unique expanse of boreal forest, or taiga, in what used to be a closed-off, military zone running for about 900 km along Russia's western border with Finland, from the Arctic Ocean to the Gulf of Finland, has become a zone of political confusion, criminality and colonialist exploitation. Before the political changes of 1991, the area was peripheral to the Soviet Union and more or less unknown beyond it. Since then, however, there has been an eruption of conflicting agendas for the future of the region among the foreign paper and pulp companies (mostly from Finland and Sweden), the governments of Finland, Karelia and Russia, NGOs both from the West and from Russia, and Finnish defenders of the area's cultural heritage. The debate hinges largely on the date of the forest which includes magnificent areas of old growth unlike any to be found further west., To establish a new political environment and civic culture in the former soviet socialist republic of Karelia is no trivial challenge. The sparsely populated region is effectively a colonial frontier [...]

The way in which identity formation is entangled in material transformations that transcend FinlandEs boundaries and colonizes future lives is presented. It is seen that in a resource dependent regions like Kainuu culture, nature, technology and innovation are unproblematic elements of social reproduction.