Finnish military administration in Eastern Karelia

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Military Administration in Eastern Karelia
Itä-Karjalan sotilashallinto
Military administration by Finland
1941–1944
Military Commander
 
• 1941–1942
Väinö Kotilainen
• 1942–1943
J. V. Arajuuri
• 1943–1944
Olli Paloheimo
Historical eraWorld War II
• Military occupation
1941
• Disestablished
1944
Preceded by		 Succeeded by
Karelo-Finnish Soviet Socialist Republic
Karelo-Finnish Soviet Socialist Republic

The Finnish military administration in Eastern Karelia was an interim administrative system established in those areas of the

Finnish army during the Continuation War
. The military administration was set up on 15 July 1941 and it ended during the summer of 1944. The goal of the administration was to prepare the region for eventual annexation by Finland.

The administration did not encompass the territories ceded to the Soviet Union in the

summer offensive
of 1941.

Background

Further information:
Finnish conquest of East Karelia (1941)

Finnish interest in Russian Karelia goes back to the 19th century.

Finnish civil war, several voluntary expeditions were launched with the intended goal of liberating the Karelian "kindred people", without success.[2]

The Continuation War and belief in a quick German victory over the Soviet Union once again gave rise to Finnish irredentism.[2] The legality of the Finnish claims on Eastern Karelia was justified by both ethno-cultural and military security factors.[2] During the spring of 1941, when the Finnish political leadership understood the full extent of the German plans concerning the Soviet Union, president Ryti commissioned professor of geography Väinö Auer and historian Eino Jutikkala to demonstrate "scholarly" that Eastern Karelia formed a natural part of the Finnish living space.[3] The resulting book Finnlands Lebensraum ("Finland's Living Space") was published in the autumn of 1941, and was intended to legitimize Finnish claims and actions to the international audience.[3] A similar book by historian Jalmari Jaakkola, Die Ostfrage Finnlands ("Finland's Eastern Question") was published in the summer of the same year.[4]

The Finnish expansionist aims are present in Finnish Commander-in-Chief

Order of the Day given on 10 July 1941, which was based on an earlier declaration given by him during the Finnish civil war.[5]

Organization

Administrative map of Finland in 1942-1944 (including East Karelia)

The military administration was established on the order of the Commander-in-Chief, and was mainly under the control of the Army, not the

Finnish government.[2][6]
It was originally divided into three districts ("piiri"), which were further divided into sub-regions ("alue"). The military administration used exclusively Finnish-Karelian place names (Russian names are given in parentheses).

List of the administrative divisions of East Karelia:[7]

  • Aunus (Olonets) district
    • City of Äänislinna/Onegaborg (Petrozavodsk)
    • Aunus
    • Vitele
    • Vieljärvji
    • Kontupohja (Kondopoga)
    • Munjärvi (Munozero)
    • Teru/Prääsä (Pryazha)
    • Soutjärvi (Shyoltozero)
    • Vaaseni (Važiny)
    • Äänisniemi (Zaonežje)
    • Äänisenranta (
      Prionezhsky
      )
  • Maaselkä (Maselga) district
  • Viena (Belomorye) district

The Maaselkä district was abolished in late 1942. The Karhumäki, Paatene and Porajärvi sub-regions were transferred to Aunus district and the Repola and Rukajärvi sub-regions were transferred to Viena district.

Headquarters

The military administration was originally stationed in

Äänislinna (Petrozavodsk), KFSSR.[8]

Military Commanders

Jukka Rangell (in the middle) also Major General of the Military Administration of East Karelia Johan Arajuuri (right) and lieutenant colonel Paloheimo
(left), east Karelian village in the summer of 1942.

The first commander of the military administration was

Lieutenant Colonel Väinö Kotilainen. Kotilainen was followed by Colonel J. V. Arajuuri from 15 June 1942 to 19 August 1943, and finally by Col Olli Paloheimo who held the position to the end of the war.[9]

On the staff of the military commander worked professor of administrative law Veli Merikoski, whose task was to ensure that the military administration functioned in accordance with international law.[10] After the end of the Continuation War, Merikoski wrote a booklet on the military administration, describing it in an overtly positive light.[10] This was done to help the Finnish cause in the coming peace negotiations.[10]

Academic Karelia Society

Further information: Academic Karelia Society

Members of the Academic Karelia Society (AKS), a Finno-Ugric activist organization, held a dominating role in the military administration.[11] During the Continuation War the "liberation" of Eastern Karelia had become the main focus point of AKS activities, and its members were highly influential in choosing the policies of the military administration in accordance with the organization's "Greater Finland" ideology.[11] In the summer of 1941, over half of the initial higher leadership of the military administration were AKS members.[11]

Policies

The long-term goal of the military administration was to make it possible for Eastern Karelia to be permanently integrated to the Finnish state after the ultimate German victory over the Soviet Union.[1] This was to be done by inspiring the native population's confidence towards the Finnish occupiers.[10]

Fennicization

As most place names in Eastern Karelia had a historical Finnish or Karelian alternatives which were still in use in the KFSSR, extensive renaming was not necessary.[12] The notable exception is Petroskoi (Petrozavodsk), which was deemed as sounding too "Russian", and was renamed Äänislinna, a literal Finnish translation of the name Onegaborg used in the Theatrum Orbis Terrarum of Abraham Ortelius.[12][13] Although Finnish troops never reached Kemi (Kem) on the shores of the White Sea, this town was also to be renamed, as a town with an identical name already stood in Finnish Lapland.[14] The new name was tentatively suggested to be Vienanlinna ("Castle of Viena"), a continuation of several Finnish cities and towns ending in suffix -linna (e.g. Hämeenlinna, Savonlinna).[14]

Streets were to be named after prominent Finns and patriots (such as Mannerheim, Elias Lönnrot, Elias Simojoki and Paavo Talvela), and also after names featured in the Kalevala and the Kanteletar.[15] The Karelian population was also discouraged from giving their children Slavic names.[15]

Ethnic policies

The remaining population of Eastern Karelia was estimated to be under 85,000 in 1941, and consisted mainly of women, children and the elderly, while the pre-war population was about 300,000.

anthropological theories), and thus monolingual Russian-speaking Karelians and children from multinational families were usually classified as "national".[16][17] The long-term goal of this pursued policy was to expel the "non-national" part of the population to German-occupied Russia after the war had reached a victorious conclusion.[16]

Education and propaganda

Finnish propaganda directed at the Karelian population focused on pan-Finnicism, presented the occupiers as liberators, and also tried to encourage antagonism between the Karelians and Russians.[18] The main propaganda tools of the military administration were the newspaper Vapaa Karjala ("Free Karelia") and Aunus Radio.[19]

School attendance was obligatory for 7- to 15-year-old children classified as "national" in ethnicity.[20] The language of instruction was Finnish and the teaching had a heavy focus on Finnish nationalistic and religious themes.[14][20] If the children were monolingual Russian or Veps speakers, with the latter language differing considerably from Finnish, Karelian-speaking children were used as translators.[14] By the end of 1942, 110 elementary schools were opened, with an attendance of over 10,000 children.[16]

One of the aims of the military administration was the revival of religious observation, which had been completely repressed under Soviet rule.

anti-communist feelings among the "nationals".[16]

Planned population transfers

In 1943, the Finnish Post Office issued its own stamp for the occupation administration of Eastern Karelia.

Suffering from severe underpopulation, especially after the planned expulsion of the "non-national" ethnic groups, the Finns theorized several possible ways to repopulate the region. Most suggestions revolved around the re-settlement of certain Finnic minorities of Russia.

River Svir
, which never happened during the war.

The other main group intended to be settled in Eastern Karelia was the Ingrian Finns of the

Stalin's purges tens of thousands of Ingrians had perished or were transferred to other parts of the Soviet Union,[24] and in 1941 the Ingrians of Leningrad probably numbered only c. 80,000–90,000. In the autumn of 1941, Western and Central Ingria were occupied by the advancing German forces and placed under German military administration. Because Ingria was to be reserved for German colonization according to the Generalplan Ost (Ingermanland), the German and Finnish authorities agreed on a treaty which stated that Ingria was to be totally emptied of Finns and other Finnic minorities, mainly Votes and Izhorians. This treaty was implemented during March 1943 to the summer of 1944, when over 64,000 people were transferred from Ingria to Finland.[25] The Ingrians remaining areas still under the control of the Red Army (c. 20,000–30,000) were deported to Siberia during the winter of 1942–1943. After the Moscow Armistice, some 55,000 Ingrians were repatriated to the Soviet Union, but were not allowed to return to their homes in the Leningrad Oblast before the 1950s.[26] Around 7,000 to 8,000 Ingrians moved from Finland to Sweden to escape the Soviet authorities.[26]

Other discussed sources for East Karelian settlers included the Finnish immigrants of

jägers and soldiers distinguished in battle.[22]

Internment and labor camps

Main article: East Karelian concentration camps

At the beginning of the Finnish occupation of Karelia, over 20,000 of the local ethnic Russians (almost half of them) were placed in internment and labor camps. At the end of 1941 this number rose to 24,000. Later prisoners were gradually released and then transferred to empty villages. However, their movement was controlled as they had red clearance, while "national" people had green clearance. Furthermore, ethnic Russians did not have permission to travel to Finland.[27]

Living in the Finnish camps was harsh as 4,000–7,000 of the civil prisoners died, mostly from hunger during the spring and summer of 1942 due to the failed harvest of 1941.[28][29] Also segregation in education and medical care between Karelians and Russians created resentment among the Russian population. These actions made many local ethnic Russian people support the partisan attacks.[29]

Planned future expansion

In a conversation held on 27 November 1941 with the Finnish Foreign Minister

Arkangelsk.[32]

The Kola Peninsula was to be de jure a part of Finland, but the nickel deposits of the region were to be exploited jointly with Germany.

Samis and Karelians.[34]

References

Notes

  1. ^
    ISBN 978-0-333-80149-9
    .
  2. ^
    ISBN 978-0-7923-1611-4
    .
  3. ^
    University of Joensuu. p. 11. Archived from the original
    (PDF) on 20 July 2011. Retrieved 20 July 2010.
  4. ^ Trifonova, Anastassia (2005). Suur-Suomen aate ja Itä-Karjala (BA thesis) (in Finnish). University of Tartu. p. 61. Retrieved 20 July 2010.
  5. ^ ""I will not sheath my sword before law and order reigns in the land, before all fortresses are in our hands, before the last soldier of Lenin is driven not only from Finland, but from White Sea Karelia as well."
  6. ^ Mannerheim – Eastern Karelia
  7. ^ Osmo Hyytiä, "Helmi Suomen maakuntien joukossa". Suomalainen Itä-Karjala 1941-1944, pg. 356
  8. ^ Rautio (2002), p. 175
  9. ^ "Etusivu". kansallisbiografia.fi. Retrieved 21 September 2020.
  10. ^ a b c d Hannikainen et al. (1992), p. 88
  11. ^ a b c Trifonova (2005), p. 65
  12. ^ a b Rautiainen (2007), p. 73
  13. ^ Cartographica Neerlandica Topographical names for Ortelius Map No. 160
  14. ^ a b c d Trifonova (2005), p. 70
  15. ^ a b Trifonova (2005), pp. 70–71
  16. ^ a b c d e f Vehviläinen (2002), p. 105
  17. ^ a b c d Trifonova (2005), p. 66
  18. ^ Trifonova (2005), p. 67
  19. ^ Trifonova (2005), p. 68
  20. ^ a b Hannikainen et al. (1992), p. 90
  21. ^ Vehviläinen (2002), p. 106
  22. ^ a b c d e Rautiainen (2007), p. 131
  23. ISBN 978-0-313-30921-2
    .
  24. ^ Pohl (1999), pp. 22–24
  25. ^ Hannikainen et al. (1992), p. 97
  26. ^ a b Hannikainen et al. (1992), p. 98
  27. ^ Rautio (2002), p. 179
  28. ^ "The occupiers set in Karelia the network of concentration, transfer and labor camps where over 20 thousand of locals were placed. Thousands of them died"
    ""Равнение на Победу" (Eyes toward Victory), the Republic of Karelia" (in Russian). the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation, National Delphi Council of Russia. Archived from the original on 2 November 2005. Retrieved 10 August 2006.
  29. ^
    ISBN 951-1-06947-0
    , Otava
  30. ^ Rautiainen (2007), p. 9
  31. ^ Rautiainen (2007), p. 13
  32. ISBN 951-26-1735-8
  33. ^ Rautiainen (2007), p. 128
  34. ^ Rautiainen (2007), p. 129

Bibliography

  • Rautala, Ari (2002). Itä-Karjalan valtaus 1941. Jyväskylä: Gummerus.
    ISBN 951-20-6161-9
    .
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