| Summary: | Abstract Water is a scarce resource, and therefore struggles for its governance exist and more can be expected in the future. Questions pertaining to the governance of nature and natural resources are very complex and demanding, because the varied interests of several actors must be considered in the problem-solving process. This study seeks to explain the multiplicity of the human-environment interaction in the Vuoksi River valley from 1800 to the present. The Vuoksi River runs 150 kilometres from Lake Saimaa (Finland) to Lake Ladoga (Russia). In this study, the Vuoksi is analysed as a field of political struggles, social construction and as a part of everyday practices. The picture of the Vuoksi is drawn from local and spatial contexts, from wider historical causes and effects and social processes. The Vuoksi is seen as a place where ecological, economical, socio-cultural and political aspects are entwined and they form a diverse entity. This study discusses the changes of the Vuoksi River, the causes of these changes and the altering values of the water. Further, it deals with the place of the Vuoksi River in people’s lives. The discussed changes have taken place in (1) the physical Vuoksi (2) the governance of the Vuoksi and (3) the significance of the Vuoksi. Physically, the Vuoksi as a currant has changed because of the construction of hydropower plants. The most dramatic changes in the governance of the Vuoksi took place when Finland ceded the area of Karelian Isthmus to the Soviet Union first after the Winter War 1940, and finally in 1944, after the Continuation War. The Vuoksi became a transnational resource of the Finland and the Soviet Union. The significance of the Vuoksi is strongly connected to the memories that the locals have from their everyday relationship with it. This study demonstrates that the long-term changes in both the governance and the physical river have had their effects on people’s relationship with the Vuoksi. However, these changes have not altered the fact that the Vuoksi is ...
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