After the Second world war Finland was facing an enormous task to adjust all 430 000 migrants from Karelia to other parts of Finland.
There was also an enormous need to arrange jobs for the people after the war. It was not only Finnish men who needed help to fi nd a place but also those Karelians, who had lost everything. The war had been
damaging a lot of city structures and houses for living and there was a big need for reconstruction.
The research material on this study was gathered by interviewing ten Karelians migrants who had lost their homes back in Karelia. At war time these people were small children and had lost a lot in their lives. They did not loose only their homes but also their closest family members or loved ones. Sallinen-Gimpl (2005) pronounces that these children of the war are a group of people who have been forgotten for a long time in Finnish history and also in academic research.
There was a time in history, when we did not know how hard-ships infl uenced a child’s mind. It was only recently found, that these kinds of harsh experiences are dramatic to children’s psyche. These children of Karelia had carried these memories throughout their lives.
In 1945 or even in 1950`s there was no possibility to get help for your traumas. The Government had a big need for reconstruction and resettling Karelians refugees from South East to elsewhere in Finland.
The children of Karelia were forgotten. Many of the children became orphans; there were also children who had been sent to Sweden during the war, because their parents did not have the possibility to take care of their children in Finland. All these things caused deep wounds in the minds of the Karelians.
How did these war children survive their lives? Many of them said in their biographies that they had a trauma. Some of them were still having nightmares or traumatic memories which were keeping them silent. There is a lot that they would not like to talk about. Those who learn to share these traumatic experiences are the ones who survived and managed the best in their lives.
Most of the ones that I interviewed, were crying when they spoke about those war times. Home seemed to be the place where they were longing for. At home the family was together and everything around was something they were used to. Moving to the West was for many an annoying and diffi cult time. Most of the people had to live with
the help of others. And often it happened that the place where they were settling was full of evil minded people, who were not happy that they came or who did not even try to be friendly.
I tried to fi gure it out, how these children managed to settle with their families to West Finland. In my research I found out that it was easier for those young ones to adjust themselves to new culture. They said in their biographies how hard it had been for their parents to settle in the West. By analysing the interviews I realized their bitter-ness. Many of the Karelians had never been able to speak about their experiences or it had been a forbidden subject to talk about.
In their narratives and life course stories women said, that when they found a husband for themselves it was easier to adjust to the local culture. But for most of the people, evacuation was a shocking experience. Some of the Karelians stated that they were moving from place to place so often that it was impossible to feel that they were even trying to settle and it was very diffi cult to get friends.
On the other hand it was easier for the children to settle down and start a new life. First of all, they were in contact with the major culture because they were put in schools. Secondly, there they made friends; learnt local Finnish and all about the culture. Unfortunately, even that experience was not so positive to every child because the teachers and the children did not always know how to get along with Karelian children or it was very diffi cult for the people in the West to acculturate with Karelians. And that is why the Karelian children were often called bad names and troubled at schools.
Conclusion
In this study the main actors are the wartime children who are now elderly people. This is a fact to be taken in account. It makes me sad to think that soon these people will not be here anymore and how
much more they could have to tell us. Of course when they were children, they saw the world from a child’s point of view. But that doesn’t make it less worthy.
Another thing is the question of memory. I noticed how well they remembered that time of the war. It made me wonder, how they could remember it so well and are they telling me the truth? But even of my suspects I cannot deny, what had happened and those are the ones who actually experienced it. This material that I gathered together is very important and special material telling something new about history. Migration was painless and the evacuation went well by the historian. Only recently it has been found out that it did not go so well. In my study I found out that there is other kind of truth about the reality which was experienced by those evacuated people.
People in Finland were all poor and suffering from the war, it was even harder for those who lost everything. Those local people, who were forced to give the Karelians a piece of their land, or a room to live, were bitter. They did not want to give up their land easily.
Even though it happened that only those who owned a lot had to give a place for Karelians. The acculturation was both sided. It was also diffi cult for the major culture to get along with the Karelians and to understand their cultural differences. Karelians were often called
`Russians´, which was not said in a good sense. Even the teachers at schools did not behave very well towards the Karelian children.
It means that both the adults and the children had a problem in understanding Karelians. Children were not treated well in general, because at that time they did not think about child’s psychological development. Many of the traumatic experiences for those children from the war time exist because of that. The education was authorised and children were taught to obey their parents. They had to behave themselves and honour their parents and their teachers without critic.
Children had to carry a burden of a responsibility which was too much for them. The reconstruction time and the time of normalization took most of the time and the energy from adults. Again the children were the ones to suffer.
With this study I wanted to make us realize how we arrived to this welfare state and how much these people have sacrifi ced to build this country. I also wanted to let these people tell their stories in order to let their voices be heard.
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