Karjalan evakot — the pre-emptive evacuation

In the wake of the Peace of Moscow, signed on 12 March 1940, Finland ceded to the USSR roughly 35,000 km²: the Karelian Isthmus, Vyborg and its environs, the northern shores of Lake Ladoga around Sortavala, and the lands of Salla and Kuusamo. The population concerned amounted to 422,000 people — 12% of Finland's total population.

As early as 27 February 1940 — even before the peace was signed — the Ryti government set up machinery for evacuating Karelian civilians. The future status of these inhabitants remained uncertain: would Moscow let them stay? would dual nationality be possible? or would Soviet citizenship be imposed? For each family the stakes were immediate: a people, a language, a culture, a Lutheran religion — and a home to leave or to defend.

The machinery, overseen by the Helsinki provincial authority under Kustaa Kemppainen, relied on special trains. An evacuated family would have two days to pack a single bundle of up to 80 kg before being shipped to the inland provinces designated to receive them: Häme, Ostrobothnia, Päijät-Häme. On arrival, nothing was ready: no housing awaited the evacuees, and local authorities would have to requisition rooms in private homes. To leave at once with the bare minimum, to stay and accept the new sovereignty, or to try to preserve one's possessions on the spot in the hope of return: the choice lay with each household.

Our Karelian family had to choose.