New study: Finland had a clear goal in East Karelia during the war years: Greater Finland and ethnic cleansing
The Finnish military leadership denied that it was seeking territorial expansion in the continuation war. According to a recent study, a policy was nevertheless implemented in occupied East Karelia, the purpose of which was to prepare Greater Finland.
Little boys in Kiimasjärvi, East Karelia, July 1941. The boys are wearing Russian military caps with Finnish cockades on them. Photo: SA Photo Archive
- Kai Byman
One thing about Finland's role in World War II has often been overlooked:
Finland was also an occupying power.
According to a recent study, the Finnish occupation administration in East Karelia in 1941–1944 had one clear goal: the creation of Greater Finland.
– Territorial expansion as a war goal was disputed, and public discussion on the subject was wanted to be curbed right from the very beginning of the war. Yet, almost until the end of the occupation, a policy was implemented in the occupied territory, the purpose of which was to prepare the region for annexation to Finland and the realization of Greater Finland, says historian Liisa Vuonokari-Bomström .
Finland and Adolf Hitler's Germany attacked the Soviet Union in the summer of 1941. For Finland, this marked the start of the Continuation War.
The rapidly advancing Finnish army captured a large part of Soviet Karelia. In October 1941, Finnish troops marched on the largest population center in the region, Petrozavodsk. The city was renamed Oänislinna. It would become the capital of Finnish East Karelia.
In mid-July 1941, CGE Mannerheim issued an order to establish a provisional military administration in East Karelia. He had written about the freedom of Karelia and the now shrinking presence of a greater Finland.
– The military administration had to ensure the launch and continuation of civilian life in East Karelia and at the same time prepare for the region to be as easy as possible to later be incorporated into Finland. The administration's activities were ideologically based on the idea of Greater Finland cherished by tribal activists.
This is what Vuonokari-Bomström says in her recently published doctoral dissertation “The East Karelian War Booty Archive as a Tool of the Occupation Administration and the Builder of Greater Finland 1941–1944” .
– The idea of the realization of Greater Finland was completely dependent on Germany's military success and the fact that the Third Reich was seeking living space in the East. In practice, the connection to Germany was visible, for example, in the plan to transfer all persons defined as non-nationals from the occupied territory to other parts of the Soviet Union conquered by the Germans, Vuonokari-Bomström says in a telephone interview with Yle.
Open image viewerAccording to historian Liisa Vuonokari-Bomström, the Finns did not intend to kill locals in the concentration camps in East Karelia. On the other hand, not enough was done to prevent this from happening. Photo: Studio Liikkuva
The plan could not be implemented because Germany's war fortunes turned around at the latest in the great Battle of Stalingrad, which ended in early February 1943.
“The intention was to carry out ethnic cleansing”
The idea of Greater Finland was based on the idea that there was an East Karelia that was historically, culturally and geographically part of the same entity as Finland.
The Finnish military administration strongly questioned the ideology and methods of the Soviet regime.
Open image viewerThe Finnish military flag in the former village council building of Akonlahti village, which has been converted into a residence and office for employees of the East Karelian Military Administration. Photo: SA Photo Archive
Finland divided the civilian population of East Karelia by nationality and isolated a large part of the Russians in camps, which were called concentration camps until 1943. The military administration's division into "national" and "non-national" local residents profoundly influenced all its activities. Presumed ancestry and ethnic purity became the most important determining factor.
– Even those who were released as non-citizens were kept separate from those who were defined as nationals. People defined as non-citizens were given smaller food rations, paid lower wages, and their children were not given the opportunity to attend school.
Only those defined as nationals were intended to remain in East Karelia after it was annexed to Finland.
– The intention was to carry out ethnic cleansing in East Karelia, which was occupied by Finland. It was not carried out, but it was planned, Vuonokari-Bomström says.
“Finland's strength is that we can also deal with the mistakes of the past”
In Finland, there has been little public discussion about Finland's role as an occupier, the researcher says. According to him, this was reflected in confusion when Russia used the occupation period as a tool for its historical politics and accused Finland of genocide.
– In order to address the propaganda use of history, researched information is needed as a basis for discussion. It is precisely the polyphonic, research-based exchange of views that distinguishes Finland from Russia today. The strength of Finnish historical discussion is that we can also address mistakes made in the past.
Russia last released a series of new archival documents in April 2020, concerning events in eastern Karelia during the Continuation War and conditions in camps run by the Finnish army. Shortly after, the country's Investigative Committee announced that it would begin investigating the alleged mass murder of civilians in Karelia by Finns.
Open image viewerThree Finnish officers photographed in the wilderness of East Karelia somewhere on Christmas Eve 1941. In the middle is Colonel Ilomäki, on the left is Captain Virmakoski, and on the right is Captain Paavilainen. Photo: SA Photo Archive
There were people in the occupation government who harbored racist anti-Russian hatred. It was specifically aimed at ethnic Russians, not so much at the structures of the government. The entire nation was to be hated based on its innate, inevitably emerging characteristics, the researcher says.
– However, anti-Russian sentiment was not an officially defined issue in the same way as, for example, the status of Jews in National Socialist Germany.
Squalor
In the future, in a Finnish East Karelia, Russianness would have been a thing left in the history of the region.
– People defined as national were instilled, both directly and indirectly, with the idea that they were inherently privileged because of their nationality. On the other hand, they were expected to detach themselves from anything that could be defined as Russian influence in local culture, Vuonokari-Bomström's doctoral dissertation states.
Open image viewerLieutenant Colonel Magnusson's fighter squadron is taking off for a flight in the skies of East Karelia. The squadron commander uses a map to explain the upcoming mission to the other pilots. It is March 1942. Photo: SA Photo Archive
Uniformed officers of the occupation administration guarded the concentration camps. There were six in Petrozavodsk during the Continuation War, and there were also camps in several villages elsewhere in Soviet Karelia. They were based on the fear that the Russian population might participate in guerrilla warfare and destruction behind the front lines.
Conditions in the concentration camps were “catastrophically bad” until the fall of 1942. In addition to the fact that prisoners were deprived of their right to self-determination and freedom of movement, the camps were extremely overcrowded, the hygiene situation was substandard, and the food supply was inadequate.
– At least 17 percent of the concentration camp prisoners in the occupied territory died, or more than 4,000 people, the historian says.
During the occupation, East Karelia had a maximum population of just over 88,000 people. At its peak, the camps contained approximately 24,000 women, children and the elderly. The majority of civilians had been evacuated from the path of the Finnish and Nazi German invasion, while the male population served in the Red Army at the front.
At the Tehran Conference in late 1943, Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin claimed that the behavior of the Finns in the territories they occupied was as brutal as that of the Germans.
Conditions in the concentration camps in East Karelia began to gradually improve from the autumn of 1942 onwards. When information began to emerge about the mass extermination of Jews, the more subtle term "deportation camp" was adopted in East Karelia.
Prisoners as labor for the war booty archive
One tool for the Finnization of the region was the East Karelian War Booty Archive, established by the Finns. Archives and literature were needed to gain as much insight as possible into the economic and social situation in the occupied region.
– Prisoners of war and concentration camps were used as labor.
Similar archives of war booty existed on almost all fronts during World War II. The archives were used as instruments of power.
Vuonokari-Bomström's research shows that the archive, taken as war booty, was an instrument of the occupation regime's policy of segregation and control of nationalities.
– Efforts were also made to use materials from the War Spoils Archive to identify and isolate people considered dangerous.
The small size of the population and efficient registration and control meant that unknown persons were usually noticed quickly.
Open image viewerPentti Renvall, director of the War Salvage Archive, in the library in the Petrozavodsk State University building during the Continuation War. Photo: SA-kuva-arquisto
When confiscating literature from the region, it was not enough to simply remove Soviet propaganda; material with a Russian stamp also had to be removed.
– It was about the same striving for ethnic purity, one of the manifestations of which was the concentration camps intended for the population defined as non-national, historian Liisa Vuonokari-Bomström points out.
However, no public book burnings were organized in the occupied territory.
– The starting point for the War Archives was the idea that the occupied territory would remain in Finnish hands. If the idea had been to protect books and archives until the Soviet Union returned to the region, the libraries could have been left mostly locked in place.
Separating communists from the rest of the population was especially important, as they had to be strictly confined to concentration camps.
Germany's defeat halted plans
When the Continuation War was ending with Finland's defeat, some of the materials from the War Spoils Archive were taken to Sweden for safety.
It shows how significant the archive was considered, the purpose of which was to show that Finland belonged to the group of European civilized nations.
Open image viewerFinnish soldiers carry confiscated literature onto the bed of a car at Äänislinna in October 1941. Photo: SA Photo Archive
Even in 1943, when the first evacuation plans for East Karelia had already been made, there were still enough people who held on to the goal of holding on to the occupied territory. For many tribal activists, giving up the occupied territory was simply a betrayal.
For some Finns, the defeat of the Soviet Union still seemed inevitable because it was the “right” solution. Or, as former President PE Svinhufvud put it: all of world history would lose its meaning if Germany did not win.
– The halting and eventual defeat of the German attack meant that many of the actions planned by the Finns also failed to materialize: the occupied territory was not officially annexed to Finland, and the planned ethnic cleansing was not carried out there.
The Soviet offensive on the Isthmus began on June 9, 1944. Work continued in the Petrozavodsk War Booty Archive for a few days after this. The last letter found in the materials related to normal routines is dated June 16, 1944.
The Finnish army withdrew from Petrozavodsk and elsewhere in East Karelia at the end of June 1944.
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