“ALL QUIET ON THE RUSSIAN FRONT”:RUSSIAN PEOPLE AND PLACES IN SWEDISH NEWSPAPER МАTERIALS, 1700-1721 (SOCIOLINGUISTIC STUDIES)

Abstract

During wartime, people far away from theatres of operation are anxious to receive news from the front. The present article deals with Swedish newspaper reports on the Great Northern War (1700-1721), a conflict in which an alliance consisting of Russia, Denmark, and Saxony-Poland faced Sweden and her allies, the Duchy of Holstein-Gottorp and, between 1710 and 1713, the Ottoman Empire. The article’s main focus rests on the reproduction of Russian personal names and toponyms in what was effectively Sweden’s sole existing newspaper during the period Ordinarie Stockholmiske Post-Tijdender. The publication was closely monitored by the state. The present investigation, which is based on an analysis of the entire body of preserved newspaper texts, offers new insights into onomastic aspects of the studied materials. These findings constitute important indicators of Russo-Swedish contacts during wartime and show the knowledge of Russian outside Russia during the eighteenth century.

Keywords

• Great Northern War
• Peter the Great
• Charles XII
• Russo-Swedish relations
• history of mass media
• personal names