FACTFILE: Little documentation is available
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After the Finnish Civil War in 1918 a military court operated in Lappeenranta with Toivo Tapanainen as its presiding judge. It is on the basis of his documents that Antti O. Arponen and Marko Tikka wrote the book Koston kevät ("Spring of Revenge") about the executions of Finnish Reds in Lappeenranta.
During the retreat phase of the Continuation War in 1944 more than 10,000 men fled from the front lines, hiding in many places, including the islands of the Saimaa Waterway. When apprehended, they were sent to the Fortress of Lappeenranta, which had previously housed a POW camp for Soviet prisoners. Most of the runaways were sent back to the front after interrogation.
There is not a single document in the war archives, or anywhere else, about a military court that would have operated in the summer of 1944. However, it is known that Tapanainen, who was trusted by Marshal C.G.E. Mannerheim, presided over a military court in a building of the Finnish Civil Guard forces in Huhtiniemi, passing death sentences on about 200 deserters.
In the autumn of 1971 more than ten bodies were found during plumbing excavation at the Huhtiniemi campgrounds.Keijo Koistinen, a local researcher for the National Board of Antiquities, examined the remains and submitted a report to the board. None of the documents are to be found at the board, or with the police, who sent the bones to a cemetery.
The matter received national attention in 1988 after an article was written in a local Lappeenranta newspaper. Since then Antti O. Arponen has written about it in the Lappeenranta newspaper Etelä Saimaa, where the topic had previously been taboo. An article he wrote for Karjalainen was not published.
The city’s working group is currently examining what action might need to be taken for the excavations planned for next summer.
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 5.3.2005
More on this subject:
 Wartime mass grave of executed deserters could be unearthed in summer at Lappeenranta campsite
JAAKKO PIHLAJA / Helsingin Sanomat
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