North American Finns in Karelia After 1938

After 1938 the Soviet government made no acknowledgement of the presence in the Soviet Union of a significant North American Finnish population. The phenomenon of Karlian fever and its results were a taboo subject. The consequences of such silence could be seen at the time that Yurii Andropov became General Secretary, replacing Leonid Brezhnev as the leader of Soviet Union in Nov. 1982. Western commentators knew that Andropov had a taste for scotch and was a devotee of jazz. They also knew that more than any other Soviet leader Andropov seemed to be familiar with the West and Western methods, but no Western Kremlinologist could supply an adequate explanation as to why Andropov should have such tastes and knowledge. In fact Andropov had worked in the Komsomol in Karelia from 1938 to 1952. He worked with Finnish Americans on a daily basis. His driver in Karelia before the war was a Canadian Finn. Andropov had heard jazz played by some of the best musicians trained in the U.S. Not until 1988 was the presence of Finnish Americans in Karelia acknowledged in the Soviet press. Not until 1996 did the first exhibition open in Petrozavodsk commemorating the Finnish experience in Karelia. The exhibition was the work of Ruth Niskanen and Ernest Haapaniemi who both came with their families to Karelia in 1931 as children. The opening of the exhibition, Road Across the Ocean, on June 12, 1996 allowed the first public commemoration of the Finnish American contribution to Soviet life.

An organization called Karelian Technical Aid with offices in New York and Toronto arranged passage by ship to from New York to Stockholm and then on to Leningrad. The North American Finns spent a week to a month in Leningrad before making the overnight train trip to Petrozavodsk, the capital of Karelia. Here is the passenger list, departing Finnish Americans and their ship at the beginning of one such journey. The Gripsholm carried many groups of North American Finns from New York to Leningrad.

The Finnish Americans were almost immediately resented in Karelia because of the high standard of living that they brought with them. Documents in the Karelian State Archive reveal that their cars, typewriters, clothing, and access to special dollar stores, at least up to 1935, aroused the ire of Soviets who had never seen such tools and machinery and whose diet was often inadequate.

Click on the map for more detail and photos of life in the 1930s.

Many North American Finns were put to work in logging camps. Finnish Americans constructed three such camps north and west of Petrozovaodsk: Vilga, Lossosina, and Matrossa. Vilga and Lossosina are located near the town of Chalna. Matrossa is located 34 Km north of Petrozavodsk near Shuia. Many Canadian Finns also logged near Kondolpoga. In

Matrossa the new immigrants built dormitories and large buildings with single family units. The children spent weekends there with their families and week days at school in Petrozavodsk. Meetings, discussions, debates, and wall newspapers added to the initial liveliness and sense of purpose among the Finnish Americans. Some of them built their own homes with wood shingles of the sort popular in the upper midwest in the '20s and '30s. They stained the wood shingles a deep tone using engine oil.

The Finnish Americans made a significant contribution to the cultural life of the Soviet Union. They not only founded an orchestra in Petrozavodsk as well as other musical ensembles, Finnish Americans played in the Moscow and Leningrad philharmonics. Some played in jazz groups in Odessa, the center of Soviet jazz. Others formed jazz ensembles in Petrozavodsk where in the 1930's you could hear some of the best jazz in the world.

Ruth Niskanen and her elder brother in uniform, both having joined the Soviet army with the German invasion. Ruth's brother was a young man of great talent and promise in mathematics and science. Ruth remembers that in school in Minnesota he was teased with two nicknames: "Red" for his family's politics and "Genius" for his own abilities. The decision to go to Karelia for Ruth's family came from the conviction that only in the Soviet Union could he obtain the education to fulfill his talents. He was killed at the front early in the war.

The tools in this picture belonged to the Mattson family. The father and sons helped to build the Empire State Building. With the completion of that project in 1931, they came to Karelia and helped to construct the first sewage system in Petrozavodsk. The Haapaniemi family brought the radio also pictured.

Sports Day in Petrozavodsk, May 1932. The Finnish Americans introduced baseball and gymnastics. They made tournaments and athletic events a welcome addition to life in Petrozavodsk. Many of the athletes seen in May Day parades on Red Square from 1932 to 1937 were Finnish Americans. Among their innovations for those parades were the trampolines with jumping athletes pulled along the line of march.

Finnish Americans actually came to Karelia in the early and mid 1920's before the active recruitment of the 1930's. One such early example was the Sade Commune founded around 1925. The Canadian Finns who founded that agricultural commune in southern Karelia naturally employed mechanical implements in their work. Here depicted is the drawing for the tractor they introduced to Soviet agriculture several years before the First Five Year Plan oversaw the production of the first Soviet tractors. The photo shows the commune's leader. The portrait is by a local Karelian artist who was intrigued by the productive newcomers. She drew portraits of subsequent North American arrivals to Karelia. She herself died impoverished, and her grave is unknown. The Sade Commune ultimately suffered a terrible fate. Its members were arrested and the commune buildings and structures so carefully constructed and maintained were systematically destroyed by the secret police in 1937.