The Terror

Gylling's position in Karelia began to deteriorate in 1935. In October he was forced to sign a denunciation of Finnish nationalism in Karelia, the very policy that he had earlier maintained with Moscow's support. The following month he was recalled to Moscow where he joined Rovio, who had been sent there in August. Both men were replaced by Russians. Some of the Finnish Americans believed that Gylling had been promoted not understanding that their own security was now as precarious as his.

1938 saw a dramatic turn in the fortunes of Gylling and the North American Finns whom he had recruited to Karelia. Gylling was arrested and shot in June. As of July 1 the Finnish language was outlawed. In Karelia Finnish newspapers and the Finnish radio station were shut down. Finnish books were burned.

Finnish Americans were now caught up in the holocaust that had begun in late 1936 in the rest of the Soviet Union. Those Finnish Americans who had joined the Communist Party of the Soviet Union were arrested and executed.

Most of the children were spared, that is anyone in the Finnish American community under age 21 by 1938. There were, however, tragic exceptions. A 16 year old Finnish American studying in the Petrozavodsk Conservatory was arrested and shot.

The secret police as elsewhere had a quota of victims to meet. But in Karelia another element figured in the Terror. Circumstance had given those who envied the work ethic, prosperity, and higher standard of living of the Finnish Americans the opportunity to exact revenge. The newly appointed Russian administrators of Karelia now exacted a terrible toll on the North American Finns, who had worked so hard under Gyllings leadership.

This structure was constructed by Finnish Americans shortly after their arrival in Petrozavodsk. It was there that many arrests took place. As the secret police led their victims away the other residents would launch into loud verses of the International. Ruth Niskanen and her close friend Mildred Rossi hid in a region north of Petrozavodsk for a month, taken in by a Russian woman. Both were members of the Karelian Philharmonic, founded by Finnish Americans in 1932. In one night half the members of the orchestra were arrested.

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This article entitled "Extirpating the Roots of Nationalism" was signed by Gylling, but most certainly not written by him. Agreeing to attach his name to a piece which denounced the Finns in Karelia for their chauvinism and exclusiveness bought Gylling and his wife two and a half years.

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This is Gylling's letter resigning his position as Chairman of Council of People's Commissars of the Karelian Republic, a position he had held since 1923. His resignation should not be considered voluntary.

In early 1935 Gylling presented his production goals for Karelia in Moscow. He faced a hostile audience. Moscow was about to withdraw Karelia's budgetary independence negotiated by Gylling in the early 1920's. Important members of the Soviet government had begun to question the presence of so many North American Finns in Karelia, a border region next door to Finland, known to be hostile to the Soviet Union.