A 3,500-metre peak in the Caucasus mountain range in Russia might be named “Helsinki” after the Finnish capital

Former Finland-Soviet trade expert Yuri Piskulov began the naming project 23 years ago, following the death of Nokia CEO Kari Kairamo

Yuri Piskulov

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By Jussi Niemeläinen in Moscow
     
      Finland comes up notoriously short in the Alps department, as successive failed attempts to lure the Winter Olympics in this direction have proved beyond doubt, and the capital region is particularly poorly furnished with anything much larger than an ambitious molehill, but there might just be a "Mount Helsinki" on the map if one dogged Russian has his way.
      The project has been in the making already for more than 23 years, but eastern trade veteran Yuri Piskulov, 78, is not giving up.
      A mountain peak in the Northern Caucasus region in Russia has to be officially named after the Finnish capital Helsinki, he claims.
     
The 3,552-metre peak in question, on the border between the Russian republics of Kabardino-Balkar and Karachay-Cherkess, is currently suffering without an official name.
      To name the peak after Helsinki would be a feather in the cap of the Finnish capital, but for Piskulov there is another, more personal reason as well.
      For him the whole project is a matter of honour.
      In his time, Piskulov worked with the Soviet Ministry of Foreign Trade, the Soviet commercial representation in Helsinki, and also with Konela, a Finnish company that imported Lada cars.
      Piskulov’s commercial career dwindled in the perestroika and glasnost turmoil of 1987, and he relocated to the Russian Foreign Trade Academy, where he is still a professor.
      During his career, which centred around Finland’s eastern trade, Piskulov nevertheless created contacts and made friends, such as Nokia’s then influential CEO Kari Kairamo.
     
Kairamo was part of the expedition with which Piskulov conquered the nameless peak in August 1988.
      The decision to call the peak “Helsinki” was made there and then by the exultant climbers, leaning on the right of the first conquerors of the mountain.
      It was all good fun. The matter was reported back to Finland, where it even crossed the news threshold in some papers.
      But more serious news made the headlines, bigtime, in December of that same year.
      Kairamo, who had become the Nokia CEO in 1977 and had overseen an ambitious expansion programme, had suddenly burned out and committed suicide at his home.
      “When I heard of the news of Kairamo's death, I decided that the peak should receive the name that we agreed on”, Piskulov says.
     
Piskulov is an old mountaineer, and because of his merits in the field he was awarded the “Master of Sports” title by the Soviet Union.
      Piskulov has scaled 80 peaks in the Caucasus, the Pamirs, the Himalayas, and the Alps.
      “Back in August 1988 it was really foggy up there”, Piskulov reminisces, and he shows off a photograph of the expedition sitting in the snow.
      So far the name “Helsinki” has appeared on a recently-published tourist map of the region, thanks to efforts by Vladimir Šatajev, the head of the Edelweiss Alpine Club.
      “I only just received this new map. It was a great New Year’s gift”, Piskulov says.
     
But the name is not yet official. The ultimate gift is yet to be received and the debt of honour yet to be paid.
      ”I asked Šatajev for help to make the Helsinki name official. He said that naturally he would help, but a map has to be drawn up first and the relevant coordinates have to be established.”
      It must be proved that it is a separate, independent peak.
     
The effort requires money. Permits have to be acquired for the expedition that will do the work. Also, the expedition has to be provided with a base camp, vehicles, provisioning, and so on.
      “The expedition will take EUR 5,000 to organise.”
      Organising the funding is still in progress. At least based on a reply letter from the City of Helsinki, the Finnish capital is not going to sponsor the project.
      But the money will come from somewhere.
      Piskulov remains optimistic, and hopes that even the city fathers might still change their mind.
      “Then we will finally get this name on the Russian map.”
     
     
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 28.1.2012


Links:
  Kari Kairamo (Wikipedia)

JUSSI NIEMELÄINEN / Helsingin Sanomat
jussi.niemelainen@hs.fi