Karelian wartime evacuees forced to leave home as children also want to tell their stories

First book published on experiences of children evacuated from Karelia

print this

By Kristiina Markkanen
     
      Nobody knows exactly how many children there were among the hundreds of thousands who were evacuated from Karelia in connection with the Second World War. Although there has been plenty of historical research on the war years, the history of child evacuees is yet to be written.
      On Monday, the book Evakkolapset  ("Evacuee Children") was published, containing stories compiled by journalist Anne Kuorsalo and Iiris Saloranta, the chair of the Association of Evacuee Children. It is the first work based on the experiences and stories of those who had to flee Karelia at a young age.
     
Possible reasons why the voices of child evacuees have not come out much in research and in public discussion include the political taboos in the postwar period concerning the plight of the displaced Karelians, whose land was ceded to the Soviet Union. Another plausible reason may be the psychological scars suffered by the children themselves. They were expected to be brave, and to take care of their younger siblings.
      "Perhaps the feeling was that it was not right to complain. Another possible reason is that the memories have been very painful", says Anne Kuorsalo, one of the editors of the book.
     
Much of the material for the book is the result of the work of the Association of Evacuee Children, which was founded three years ago.
      The association arranges workshops in which participants go through the emotions linked with losing a home and adapting to a new one. Participants often put their experiences in writing.
      The emotions have been kept dammed up for decades. This came out at the press conference marking the publication of the book, in which the eyes of many former child evacuees welled up, and their voices trembled as they related some of their experiences.
      There was also talk of fragments of memories, which people have been collecting during visits to their old home areas. Some have brought back sand to be placed on their graves. Someone else brought back a lilac bush to replant in the new home.
     
Many of the children still bristle at memories of having been called "Russians" by their new schoolmates. Cultural clashes were not always avoided, as hundreds of thousands of Karelian evacuees were settled among other Finns. Stories of school bullying and name-calling are coming out only now.
      The stories show that the longing for old Karelia extends to the second and third generations. The writers tell about how their children and grandchildren have expressed growing interest toward their Karelian roots.
      Karelia has become a lost home even for some who have never lived there.
      Lassi Rämö, an engineer who was evacuated with his family at a young age, originally wrote his recollections of his evacuation as something to leave behind for the coming generations of his family.
      His memories were not all bad. He adapted well to his new home in Häme. The "time in between" - the expression used by his family for the period during the Continuation War between 1942 and 1944 when his family was able to return to the areas lost during the Winter War - included his fondest memories of the period.
      "We did not think that it was temporary at the time. In the Karelian Isthmus we lived in the cowshed, but we had all kinds of guns and explosives there. For a small boy it was great. The fear and anxiety certainly left an impression, hearing the thunder of artillery that was so close."
      Rämö was one of the brave ones who returned secretly to their old home during the Soviet period.
      Seeing the remains of their old house, and reassembling the puzzle of the past over the years has felt good; Rämö’s personal history became more complete.
      What about today? What does an evacuee have that other Finns do not?
      "The dialect. Talk somehow flows better. It is more melodic and flies better than with some others."
     
The association does not have a stand on the return of Karelia, but members have plenty to say on the subject.
      Professor Emeritus Tatu Vanhanen, who was born in 1929, believes that the return of Karelia is quite a utopian idea. He has said that he nevertheless hopes that even though the ceded territories will remain a part of Russia, Finns might be able to return there.
     
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 30.8.2005

More on this subject:
 FACTFILE: Nearly 12 percent of population forced to leave homes

KRISTIINA MARKKANEN / Helsingin Sanomat
kristiina.markkanen@hs.fi