American Finns in Karelia - Новости - The National Library of the Republic of Karelia

News

13/03/2013. American Finns in Karelia

The history of American Finns in Karelia is tragic and important for many generations of Soviet people. In 1920-1930s more than 6000 Finns from USA and Canada have arrived in Karelia with the first wave of migration based on communist principles in order to build the new communist society. As a result, many immigrants who have come to the Soviet Karelia were subjected to repressions, shot and sent to prison camps.

The contribution of American Finns to the economical, cultural and social development of Karelia in 1930s and tragic fate of American Finns were discussed during the seminar “American Finns in prewar Karelia”. The seminar was held on the 27^th of September 2012 and initiated by the National Library of the Republic of Karelia, the Department of the History of the Nordic Countries of the Petrozavodsk State University, the National Museum and the National Archive of Karelia.

The idea of holding a public seminar on American Finns emerged in 2006 during the visit of the Consul for Political and Economic affairs at the US consulate in St.-Petersburg Benjamin Wolaver.

The meeting was held in the National Library of Karelia and was very friendly and informal. Specialists of the National Library have found the descendants of American Finns and invited them to the seminar. Each of the guests told about fates of their parents and about themselves.

At the seminar Karelian and American historians presented reports on topics:

American immigrants and the local population: culture, way of life, the problems of mutual perception; The Great Terror and fates of the American Finns (I. Takala, PSU)
The Finnish Diaspora in the USA and causes of the “Karelian Fever” (A. Pogorelskin, the University of Minnesota, Duluth)
The contribution of the North American Finns to the economic development of Karelia (I. Takala, PSU)

A historical and documentary exhibition «CHOICE? VALINTA! ?????. The North American Finns in the Soviet Karelia» was presented to the participants of the seminar. This exhibition has already been demonstrated in Joensuu in the frameworks of the XIII Finnish and Russian Cultural Forum in October 2012.

At the end the participants of the seminar “American Finns in prewar Karelia” visited Sandarmokh. In Sandarmokh more than 7 thousands prisoners were executed in 1937-1938. Now in Sandarmokh there are an orthodox chapel and a monument by the Petrozavodsk sculptor Grigory Saltup. The monument is a granite clod with sculptural bas-reliefs and writing: "People, do not kill each other".

On the 28th of September 2012 in the National Library the presentation of the book Papanin's expedition by Arvi Perttu was successfully held.

The book was translated into Russian by Jaana Zhamoitelite.

The novel Papanin's expedition immerses the reader in the times of Stalin's repressions and tells about fates of American Finns, who have come to Karelia. The main theme of this book is a behavior of a person in conditions of dictatorship, when everyone could be a traitor and a victim at the same time.

This book was first published in Finnish in 2006.

« Back to the previous page