Lists of prisoner of war camps in Finland. Every third Soviet prisoner of war died in Finnish captivity - work on farms saved the lives of many

30.08.2016 13:09

Young Finnish historians are actively working to eliminate the “blank spots” of Finnish history. As YLE writes, the topic of Soviet prisoners of war has been studied quite well, but a comprehensive academic study has not been written until recently - until the book “The Fates of Prisoners of War: Soviet Prisoners of War in Finland in 1941-1944” appeared. Author Mirkka Danielsbakka studies the reasons for the high mortality rate in Finnish prison camps.
During the war of 1941-1944, which in Finland is called the “Continuation War” (the name implies that the war of 41-44 is a logical continuation of the Winter War unleashed by the USSR in 1939), about 67 thousand Red Army soldiers were captured in Finland Army. About one in three of them, that is, over 20 thousand people, died in Finnish camps - a figure comparable to the mortality rate in German, Soviet and Japanese prisoner of war camps.
Information about relatives who were in Finnish captivity during the war can be requested by e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You must have JavaScript enabled to view it.. The POW file is currently in the National Archives. The majority of requests are carried out on a paid basis.
Information about Soviet prisoners of war who died in captivity during the Winter War and the Continuation War and about civilians who died in the camps of eastern Karelia can be found in the virtual database created by the National Archives “The Fates of Prisoners of War and Internees in Finland in 1935-1955 gg. " The information is compiled in Finnish, and guidance on finding information is provided on the Russian-language page of the database.
On the website of the photo archive of the Finnish Armed Forces

Both sides did not forget about those who did not return from combat missions. So, for example, on July 17, 1940, the Plenipotentiary Representative of the USSR in Finland asked the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Finland to inquire about the presence of pilot M.I among prisoners of war Maksimov, who made a “landing on the Gulf of Finland” on February 21, 1940. A similar request was contained in the appeal dated November 25, 1940 regarding the pilot N.A. Shalin, who made an emergency landing on the Finnish side on March 8, 1940. But it was apparently not possible to find out what happened to these pilots due to the passage of time or due to the lack of witnesses. Both requests from the Soviet side that we cited have a short and unambiguous note from the Finnish authorities: “There is no information about captivity.” This was passed on to the Soviet commissioner. One of the special issues to which Soviet investigators paid quite a lot of attention was the question of beatings and abuse of Red Army soldiers in captivity. Former prisoners said that they were abused not only by the Finnish guards, but also by some of their own fellow prisoners. According to investigators, “Karelian prisoners of war” were especially rampant. Political reports noted: “The former junior commander, now a prisoner, Orekhov, having been captured, was appointed foreman of the barracks, he mercilessly beat prisoners of war... Didyuk, a Karelian, was a translator, beat prisoners of war... Gvozdovich from the city of Kalinin, was the head of the ward, beat his own people, took Soviet money, lost it at cards, bought himself a commander’s tunic from a captured commander<...>". And there are a lot of such testimonies. But still, this was not a system. Not all Karelians were traitors. It is worth considering under what circumstances this information was received. We can say with confidence that they really enjoyed some privileges as a “friendly nation "(according to the Finnish classification). And since many understood the Finnish language, they were appointed barracks seniors, translators and assistant guards. Operational work continued in the South camp. By June 1940, there were 5,175 Red Army soldiers and 293 commanders and political workers transferred to Finns. In his report to Stalin, Beria noted: “... among the prisoners of war, 106 people were identified as spies and those suspected of espionage, 166 people were members of the anti-Soviet volunteer detachment, 54 provocateurs, 13 people who mocked our prisoners, 72 voluntarily surrendered. "For the security officers, all prisoners of war were a priori traitors to the Motherland. Senior lieutenant of the 18th Infantry Division Ivan Rusakov recalled these interrogations as follows:<... xx="" frets="" deutschland.="" i="" de="" jure="" facto="" sota="" imil="" ill="" lliiiji="" bjfy="">0-1". Died in the USSR 10443 MMNA Matias Uusi-Kakkuri. YCLALSTEN JA Talonoolkfen Veresti. The Soviet propaganda leaflet. Winter War. From the collection of D. Frolov Announcement of a lecture at the hospital for prisoners of war in Kokkola Camp UPVI NKVD USSR, Borovichi. RGVA Prisoner Juho Yaiuku. Died in captivity on 8/8/42 MMNA. Captured Finnish pilot Warrant Officer Teuvo Piiranen. Photo from the collection of Karl-Frederik Geust General Kirpichnikov during interrogation in Finland Announcement of a lecture at the hospital for prisoners of war in Kokkola. 1943 I.NKEDSSSR

In the book “The Fates of Prisoners of War - Soviet Prisoners of War in Finland in 1941-1944.” The reasons for the high mortality rate in Finnish prisoner of war camps are explored. Researcher Mirkka Danielsbakka argues that the Finnish authorities did not aim to exterminate prisoners of war, as happened, for example, in Nazi Germany, but, nevertheless, the starvation of the soldiers who surrendered was the result of the actions of those responsible for the conditions in the camps.

Basic information about Soviet prisoners of war in Finland 1941-1944.

• About 67 thousand Soviet soldiers were captured, most of them in the first months of the war
• More than 20 thousand Red Army soldiers died in Finnish captivity
• The mortality rate in Finnish camps was about 31%
• For comparison, 30-60% of Soviet prisoners of war died in German camps, 35-45% of German prisoners of war died in Soviet camps, the mortality rate of Finnish soldiers in Soviet camps was 32%, 0.15% of German prisoners of war died in American camps, and in British camps, the mortality rate of German prisoners was 0.03%
• In Finland there were 2 organizational camps (in Nastola near Lahti and in Naarajärvi near Pieksämäki) and camps numbered 1-24
• There were special camps for officers, political peoples related to the Finns and for prisoners considered dangerous
• The camps were located in all regions of the country, as well as in the occupied territories of Karelia, with the exception of Lapland, where the Germans had their camps
• Over 10 thousand prisoners worked on farms in October 1942
• Beginning in 1943, most prisoners worked on farms, first in the summer, then year-round.

Young Finnish historians are actively working to eliminate the “blank spots” of Finnish history. The topic of Soviet prisoners of war has been studied quite well, but a comprehensive academic study on this topic has not been written until recently.

During the war of 1941-1944, which in Finland is called the “Continuation War” (the name implies that the war of 41-44 is a logical continuation of the Winter War unleashed by the USSR in 1939), about 67 thousand Red Army soldiers were captured in Finland Army. About one in three of them, that is, over 20 thousand people, died in Finnish camps - a figure comparable to the mortality rate in German, Soviet and Japanese prisoner of war camps.

But Finland during the war years was not a totalitarian country, like Nazi Germany or the communist USSR, but a Western democracy. How then did it happen that the losses among prisoners were so great?

The young Finnish historian Mirkka Danielsbakka is looking for the answer to this question. In her recent book, The Fates of Prisoners of War - Soviet Prisoners of War 1941-1944, (Tammi 2016), she states that Finland tried to comply with international legal standards regarding the treatment of prisoners of war, and prisoners who ended up on Finnish farms generally survived , and many even recalled with warmth and gratitude the time spent on Finnish peasant farms. Nevertheless, starvation became the fate of many Soviet soldiers who surrendered.

The obvious contradiction between the memories of contemporaries about the good treatment of prisoners of war and the irrefutable fact of high mortality was the main impetus for Danielsbakk to write first his doctoral dissertation, and then a popular science book.

“I was very interested in the phenomenon that could be called “evil that happens without anyone’s intention” or “unintentional evil,” as opposed to the evil that took place in Hitler’s Germany or the Soviet Union,” says Danielsbacka.

As she writes in her book, in Finland no one denies the fact of high mortality among Soviet prisoners of war, but there is still no consensus on the reasons for this phenomenon. Debate continues as to whether this was a tragic coincidence or the result of deliberate policy.

According to Danielsbakk, there is no simple and unambiguous answer to this question. She argues that the Finnish authorities did not set out to exterminate prisoners of war, as was the case, for example, in Nazi Germany, but, nevertheless, the starvation deaths of soldiers who surrendered were the result of the actions of those responsible for the conditions in the camps.

The central research question could be formulated as follows: “What was the “path to evil” for those who caused such a large number of deaths in prisoner of war camps?

Psychosocial factor influenced high mortality

Danielsbacka does not deny this, but she also draws attention to such factors of human existence that are difficult to measure and specify, such as psychology, biology and sociology of man, his tendency to self-deception and categorization. All this contributed to the fact that the attitude towards the prisoners became inhumane, and they began to be viewed not as unfortunate neighbors deserving compassion, but as a dehumanized mass.

Prisoners of war, Rautjärvi station, August 4, 1941. Photo: SA-kuva

According to Danielsbakk, it is war that is the environment that removes from a person the usual restrictions of generally accepted moral norms and pushes him to actions that he did not plan. It is war that turns an ordinary “normal person” into a cruel punisher who is capable of contemplating the suffering of another with indifference and even with gloating.

Why then was there not such a high mortality rate among prisoners of war in the camps in the UK and the USA, where those responsible for the conditions in the camps were also operating in war conditions?

– The way prisoners were treated on Finnish farms is comparable to the treatment of prisoners in similar conditions, for example, in the UK. There is no big difference here. But in Finland, unlike Britain, there was an extremely negative attitude towards Russians, the so-called hatred of Russians, “ryssäviha”. In this regard, Russia was an “enemy of convenience” for Finland, and it was easy for military propaganda to create an enemy image. The fact that the prisoners were viewed as a mass reduced the degree of empathy for them, and this is where the impact of the environment is clearly visible, says Danielsbacka.

The strongly negative attitude towards the Soviet Union and the Russians, which occurred in the 20-30s, as well as during the war years in Finland, had deep roots in the history of complex relations between Finland and Russia. It reflected mistrust and fear of the eastern neighbor who invaded Finland in 1939, as well as the bloody events of the civil war of 1918, negative memories of the policy of Russification within the Russian Empire, and so on. All this contributed to the formation of a negative image of the “Russian”, which was partially identified with the image of the terrible and vile “Bolshevik” (for the few Finnish fascists - “Jewish Bolshevik”).

At the same time, Danielsbacka recalls that harsh nationalist, xenophobic and racist ideology was not uncommon in those years. Of course, the National Socialists in Germany “succeeded” most in this matter, but such Western democracies as Great Britain and the USA also had their “pain points.” As Danielsbakka writes, for example, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill watched indifferently as the “hapless people of Bengal” died of hunger.

The food shortage argument doesn't quite hold up

Mirkka Danielbakka believes that this explanation for the high mortality rate among Soviet prisoners of war is only partly correct. In many ways, the high mortality rate was caused by hard work, to which prisoners were forced to perform with meager food.

Prisoners of war building dugouts, Nurmolitsy, Olonets, 26.9.41 Photo: SA-kuva

– The food shortage argument is a good argument, that’s right. Prisoners of war were the last in the food supply chain. Food shortages also affected other closed institutions, such as mental hospitals, where mortality also increased. But the Finnish authorities could influence the mortality rate, whether 10 or 30 percent of prisoners died. Malnutrition was a cause of death, but an even greater cause was hard work. The Finns generally understood this in the winter of 41-42, when prisoners began to die from complete exhaustion. For this reason, I believe that food shortage is not the only or main cause of high mortality. Yes, this was part of the reason, but if it had been the real reason, then we would have had an increase in mortality among the civilian population.

In his book, the author cites the following figures for comparison: during the war, at least 27 people (those imprisoned under criminal charges) died of hunger in Finnish prisons, and in the Nikkilä mental hospital in Sipoo alone, 739 people died, many of them from hunger. Overall, the mortality rate in municipal mental homes reached 10% during the war years.

The decision to return prisoners from farms to camps proved fatal for many during the first winter of the war.

– At the end of 1941, they began to think that the presence of prisoners of war on farms had a demoralizing effect on the mood of Finnish soldiers at the front. They were afraid of the emergence of relations between prisoners and Finnish women, and they said with condemnation that the prisoners were treated too softly. Similar things were written, for example, in Finnish newspapers. But there was no real reason for such fear. There was no evidence of danger posed by the prisoners. Overall, it was a strange period. Already in the spring of 1942, prisoners began to be sent to farms again to help peasants with spring field work, and after that many prisoners lived on farms all year round.

Prisoners of war work on a farm, near Helsinki, October 3, 1941. Photo: SA-kuva

Already during 1942, mortality in Finnish camps began to decline sharply and never returned to its previous levels. The turn for the better was the result of several circumstances, says Mirkka Danielsbacka.

– The first is that the war has dragged on. When we went to war in the summer of 1941, we thought that it would end quickly, by the fall, but this did not happen. By the beginning of 1942, thoughts began to arise that the war would not end with the final defeat of the Soviet Union, and in Finland they began to prepare for a long war. The defeat of the Germans in Stalingrad was the final confirmation of this. After this, the Finns began to prepare for the future and for the fact that the Soviet Union would always be nearby. International pressure also played a role. In Finland, they began to think about how negative news would affect the country's reputation. The threat of a typhus epidemic in the spring of 1942 also played a role in improving the situation of prisoners of war. This led to the Finns refusing to move prisoners from one camp to another. After all, it was in such situations that the condition of the prisoners deteriorated sharply. Also, the change in the situation at the front, namely the transition from the offensive phase to trench warfare, and the associated sharp reduction in losses among Finnish soldiers, led to the fact that the Finns no longer thought that the enemy deserved harsh treatment, says the researcher.

A prisoner of war and a Finnish soldier play on the roof of a booth for disinfection against lice to prevent a typhus epidemic, the village of Koneva Gora, Olonets, April 19, 1942. Photo: SA-kuva

The International Red Cross also intervened in the situation in the camps in 1942. Marshal Mannerheim personally wrote a letter to the organization in early March 1942 asking for help. Even before the letter, in January 1942, prisoners received parcels from the Red Cross, which contained, in particular, food and vitamins. In the spring of that year, assistance began to flow through the organization, but it must be admitted that its volume was never significant.

It is noteworthy that since the Soviet Union did not provide information about Finnish prisoners in its camps through the International Red Cross and did not allow representatives of the organization to visit them, Finland decided that there was no need to do the same on the basis of reciprocity. In general, the Soviet authorities showed no interest in helping their prisoners through the Red Cross, since under the then Soviet wartime laws it was generally considered a crime to be captured.

Secret executions of prisoners? Unlikely, say Finnish historians

– It is very difficult to find reliable, accurate information about this. Researcher Antti Kujala studied illegal executions of prisoners of war and concluded that approximately 5% of the deaths of prisoners of war were the result of such actions. This, of course, is also a lot, but much less than, for example, in Nazi Germany. There is a possibility that there were more unreported deaths than the 2-3 thousand reported in the Finnish studies, but post-war events, such as the Supreme Court verdicts and the actions of the Allied Forces Control Commission, do not suggest that there were many more violent deaths . For this reason, I consider the version of secret executions of Soviet prisoners of war in Karelia unlikely. Theoretically this is possible, but in practice it is unlikely.

Where can I find information about relatives who were captured in Finland during the war?

The majority of requests are carried out on a paid basis.

Information about Soviet prisoners of war who died in captivity during the Winter War and the Continuation War and about civilians who died in the camps of eastern Karelia can be found in the virtual database created by the National Archives “The fate of prisoners of war and internees in Finland in 1935-1955”. " The information is compiled in Finnish, and guidance on finding information is provided on the Russian-language page of the database.

On the website of the Photo Archive of the Finnish Armed Forces SA-kuva-arkisto you can see photographs of the war years. Among them are many photos of prisoners of war. When searching, use the word sotavanki or plural sotavangit.

PART X11. CHAPTER 2

Early in the morning they again read out the list of those mobilized, lined up, and we moved to the Gorky Station. There was already a train with freight cars there for us. I said goodbye to my wife; it was a separation from my family for 14 years. In the wagons where we were placed, they had previously carried livestock; the garbage was not removed, only two-story bunks were built. I got the top bunk, next to me was a young man, 3rd year student at the Gorky Pedagogical Institute Gennady Knyazev. An artist from the Gorky Drama Theater was lying nearby, and along the window was a teacher from the Gorky Pedagogical Institute. Swaying rhythmically to the sound of the wheels, I tried to assess the situation. I was confident that in the long and difficult war with Germany, the Soviet Union would win. The sacrifices will be enormous: for the tyrant sitting in the Kremlin, people’s lives had no value. German fascism will be crushed, but there will be no strength to get rid of the Stalinist fascists.

Our train stopped in an open field near the town of Segezha. We were brought here to evacuate the Segezha paper mill, but it turned out that the mill had already been evacuated. We had nothing to do, we walked around the empty city, the population was evacuated along with the plant. We saw a lot of bomb craters. On the other side of the railway track there was a large Karelian-Russian village, in which there were also old men and women who refused to leave their homes. They said: “We want to die here, where our grandfathers and great-grandfathers died.” Cows, chickens and ducks roamed the streets of the village; chicken could be bought for pennies. We bought several chickens, immediately plucked them and roasted them over the fire. The train stood still for several days; no one needed us. The echelon commissar, a Gorky railway worker, tried to find our owner, Gorky refused to send us back. In the end, we found an owner, it became the 20th field construction of the Karelo-Finnish Front. It was located on the shore of Segozero. We were unloaded from the cars and driven to the location of the 20th field construction. The authorities ordered an overnight stay in the open air. Everyone was dressed for summer, I was wearing a light gray mackintosh. A cold wind blew from the lake, and I felt very cold. Knyazev also shivered in his cloak, his face turned blue. Everyone settled in for the night as best they could. Not far from the lake we found stacks of boards from which we built sun loungers.

We were driven from the village to Maselskaya. We were moving along a difficult road, a lot of rubble, large and small boulders. These are traces of glaciers. Thoroughly exhausted, we reached the regional center of Maselskaya. This town is located south of Segezha and southeast of Segozero. By this time, units of the Finnish army had already captured the city of Sortavala in the north of Lake Ladoga and the city of Suoyarvi in ​​the northeast and were moving in the direction of Maselskaya. In this way, the Finns bypassed Petrozavodsk from the north. This is probably why the 20th Field Construction, using our detachment of Gorky militias, decided to strengthen this strategically important point. This was another stupidity of our “strategists”: the motley mass of Gorkyites, completely untrained, did not constitute a combat unit. All this testified to the complete confusion not only of the 20th field construction, but also of the entire Karelo-Finnish Front in the fall of 1941. We were put in charge of digging trenches and trenches; there weren’t enough shovels, so we dug in turns. When the construction work was completed, a three-inch cannon was brought from somewhere, and we were given rifles. I was appointed squad commander. They brought a field kitchen to our trenches and fed us hot cabbage soup with meat. The secret of such generous feeding was simple. At Maselskaya station there was an ownerless food warehouse, abandoned by panicked business executives. A lot of flour, pasta, and butter were stored in the warehouse. Units of the Red Army, mostly untrained youth, passed through Maselskaya. The fighters were dressed poorly: old overcoats, torn boots, and Budennovkas on their heads. Many had chafed feet and could barely move. These are the units that were thrown against the Finnish army.

Suddenly a Karelian scout appeared and reported that the Finns were 10 kilometers from Segozero. Panic set in, from that moment on the doctor did not show up, although Knyazev had a second attack of appendicitis, and my temperature remained at 39-39.5. Early in the morning we heard noise, the stomping of people running, hysterical screams of women and children. Despite our serious condition, Knyazev and I got out into the street. We saw how a large group of people, among whom was our doctor, along with children and things, got into trucks. Two loaded cars drove off, the last car remained. Knyazev and I asked to be taken in, but they told us that they imprison people only according to the list. Then we moved to Segozero, but we were late there too - the tug with the barge had already moved away from the shore, taking away children, women and a group of military men. Knyazev and I felt rejected. But something had to be done. We wandered to Maselskaya station. We walked along the shore, where did the strength come from? With great difficulty we walked about 5 kilometers and suddenly saw a line of soldiers dressed in gray overcoats and boots. We took them for our Karelian units. They soon realized that they were mistaken, they were Finns. Knyazev and I rushed into the forest and lay down in a hole half filled with water. They didn’t notice us; at that time the Finns were engaged in tugboat work on Segozero. Finnish officers looked at the tug and barge with binoculars, one of them shouted: “Moor to the shore, nothing will happen to you, you will stay in your place.” But the tug continued to move away. The Finnish officer shouted: “If you don’t stop, we will shoot.” The tug was moving away. Then the Finns began shooting at the tug with a small cannon and immediately hit the target. We heard the heartbreaking screams of women and children. Many threw themselves into the water. The Finns stopped shelling, the officer, who spoke Russian, said: “It’s your own fault.” Knyazev and I continued to lie in the hole, we even forgot about our illnesses. Looking out of the hole, I saw someone swimming up to the shore, but waving his arms in a strange way; he was drowning. I whispered to Knyazev that we needed to save the drowning man. Knyazev tried to hold me back, saying that the Finns would notice us. But I still crawled to the shore and pulled out a completely exhausted boy of 12-13 years old by his hair. We both lay down on the ground and crawled to the hole. Knyazev was right, the Finns noticed us. Several people approached the pit and, laughing, began shouting: “hu”ve paive (hello).” We stood up, water dripping from our clothes, our faces and hands covered in dirt. We were led out onto a wide asphalt road. Here I saw for the first time a regular part of the Finnish army. Several officers, dressed rather lightly, walked ahead, followed slowly by motorcyclists, and then a column of cars and trucks with officers and soldiers. On the road they gathered about 100 prisoners. We witnessed a funny scene. Among the prisoners was a Karelian coachman with a horse and carriage. The carriage was loaded with boxes of oil. The coachman, in a language understandable to the Finns, asked them to take the butter and let him go home. One of the officers ordered the oil to be distributed to the prisoners. The prisoners, among whom were officers, rushed to the cart, grabbed the boxes, angrily tore off the lids from them, began to greedily eat the butter and stuff their pockets with it. The Finns, seeing this scene, laughed. Gennady and I did not approach the cart. It was sickening to see all this. One Finnish officer came up to us, pointed his finger towards the stroller and said: “olka hu”ve (please take it).” I shook my head. Then one of the prisoners in a military overcoat ran up to us and tried to put oil in our pockets. I abruptly removed the hand of this helpful man. After this, the Finns began to look at me with interest.

PART X11. CHAPTER 3

Ever since the first war with Finland, provoked by Hitler, Soviet newspapers have been full of articles about the brutal treatment of Russian prisoners by the Finns, allegedly having their ears cut off and their eyes gouged out. I didn’t believe the Soviet press for a long time, but still, in some brain cells, suspicion was deposited towards the people who call themselves Suomi, that is, the people of the swamps. I knew well that Finland gave shelter to many Russian revolutionaries who fled from Russia. Lenin returned from exile through Finland. During the struggle against the tsarist autocracy in Finland, a strong Social Democratic Labor Party was formed and was active. Lenin repeatedly found refuge in Finland.

In the previous chapter, I wrote that a group of prisoners ended up on the highway. A small convoy led us north from Segozero. Knyazev and I decided to run away, hide in the forest, and then get to Maselskaya or Medvezhyegorsk. They gradually began to fall behind the column, but the convoy did not react to this. We quickly lay down on the ground and began to crawl towards the forest. We walked through the forest for about two kilometers and unexpectedly came across Finnish soldiers. They surrounded us, we decided that this was the end. But two soldiers calmly led us onto the highway, caught up with the column of prisoners and handed us over to the convoy. The guards just shouted: - pargele, satana (damn, devil) - this is a common curse word among Finns. No one even laid a finger on us, only Knyazev and I were placed in the first row of the column. One of the guards pulled photographs out of his pocket and, pointing his finger at them, said in broken Russian: “This is my mother, this is my fiancée,” and at the same time smiled broadly. Such a scene could be mistaken for the fraternization of soldiers of enemy armies. We were brought to a village abandoned by its inhabitants. Not a soul on the street. They placed 5 people in each hut and strictly punished us not to touch anything in the huts. Our hut was in complete order, there were neatly folded pillows on the bed, on the wall there was a wooden cabinet in which there were plates, cups, pots, an icon with the image of Christ hung in the corner, with a wick in oil still burning on a stand under it. There are curtains on the windows. The hut is warm and clean. The impression is that the owners went out somewhere. There were homemade rugs on the floor, on which we all lay down. Despite the fatigue, I did not sleep, I kept thinking about escape. My train of thoughts was disturbed by noise; a new batch of prisoners was brought in; these were passengers from the tug that had been fired upon. Dawn came, the door swung open, and 4 Finnish officers entered the hut. We all stood up. One of the officers said in Russian that we should leave the hut because its inhabitants were returning to the village, rescued by Finnish soldiers after the tugboat was fired upon. We were placed in a large barn, where there were already several people. In the middle, a bandaged girl lay on the straw, moaning loudly. During the shelling of the tugboat on Segozero, this girl stood near the steam boiler. The shell hit the boiler and she was scalded by steam. The girl's face was red and blistered. The boy we saved ended up in the same barn; he rushed to me and with tears in his eyes said that his mother and sister were not saved, they drowned in Segozero. A Finnish officer came in and brought a large pot of soup and biscuits. The bandaged girl refused to eat and asked for water. Before going to bed, they brought a tank of boiling water and gave everyone two lumps of sugar. Knyazev and I did not sleep, my young friend asked me what the Finns could do to us. Soviet newspapers wrote that the Finns brutally dealt with prisoners of war. But so far we have been treated quite humanely. In the morning, 5 Finnish officers entered the barn. One of them addressed us in broken Russian: “Get ready, now we will cut off your ears, noses and gouge out your eyes.” We prepared for the worst. And then all the officers and soldiers standing near the open doors began to laugh loudly. The same officer said: “Your newspapers are slandering us, portraying us as fanatics. We will not do anything bad to anyone, you are our prisoners, you will be treated as prisoners, you will work until the end of the war, and then we will send you to your homeland.” Everyone breathed a sigh of relief and began to smile. They brought breakfast: porridge, tea and two pieces of sugar. An ambulance arrived and took away the burned girl, two sick people and the boy we saved. He ran up to me and began to say goodbye with tears. I stroked his blond hair and turned away. It's always hard to see children suffering. Mental confusion and duality seized me in captivity, my thoughts were confused, I could not concentrate. I saw that the living conditions in Finnish captivity cannot be compared with the conditions in Soviet concentration camps. In Finland they did not mock or humiliate prisoners, but in their homeland they constantly make it clear to a political prisoner that he is not a person, but a slave who can be treated as you please. But one thing constantly bothered me, and that was the Jewish problem. No people on our planet have been persecuted like the Jews. Is it because they did not want to bow their heads to stupidity? Is it because, having given Christians a human god, the Jews did not want to kneel before him, turned into an idol? Never has the Jewish question been so acute, one might say fateful. as after the Nazis came to power in Germany. I was tormented by the question: does democratic Finland really take the same position towards Jews as fascist Germany? My heavy thoughts were interrupted. Everyone from our barn was put into cars, and two Finnish soldiers got in with us. We moved along a wide asphalt road. There are many oncoming vehicles with soldiers and supplies. The driver of one of the oncoming cars threw two large boxes of biscuits onto the road and shouted something in Finnish. Our driver stopped the car, shouted for us to get off, pick up the boxes and divide the biscuits among ourselves. A small episode, but very characteristic. By evening we arrived at the large Suoyarvi camp, where prisoners, military and civilian, were kept. Among the administration of this camp there was a small group of fascists who immediately showed themselves towards the prisoners. In the morning, all the prisoners were lined up in twos to receive breakfast. A group of fascists kept order, they shouted, demanded that we look at the back of each other’s heads and not talk. One prisoner, for unknown reasons, was out of action. One of the fascist officers shot and killed him. We all tensed up. But then something happened that was difficult for us to imagine. Let me explain something. In Finland, some citizens refused on principle to take part in the war. some for moral reasons, others for religious ones. They were called “refuseniks” and were punished in a very unique way: if he was a soldier, his shoulder straps and belt were removed and, together with the deserters, they were placed in a separate tent on the territory of the prisoner of war camp. There was such a tent in the Suoyarvi camp; there were 10 people in it, tall, strong guys with meaningful faces. When they saw that the officer had killed the prisoner, these guys jumped up to the shooting officer and began to beat him, snatched his pistol, which they threw over the camp fence. The commandant of the camp, an elderly sergeant major, calmly approached the beaten fascist lying on the ground, picked him up by the collar, led him to the gate of the camp and kicked him out of the gate with a strong blow to the backside and shouted: “poisch, pargele, satana (get away, devil, devil) ." Then the commandant approached our line and loudly declared in broken Russian: “People like this fascist who shot are a disgrace to our people, we will not allow anyone to mock you, you are not responsible for your rulers.” The behavior of the “refuseniks” and the camp commandant made a very strong impression on me.

After this event, something became clear to me. It became clear to me that Finland is a country where compliance with laws is mandatory for everyone, that the Finnish people do not have roots for the widespread spread of the ideology of fascism and anti-Semitism. I realized that shameless lies were published in Soviet newspapers about Finland. A day after these events, the prisoners were taken to a neighboring village to wash in a bathhouse. At the bathhouse we were given fresh linen. After the bathhouse, we did not return to the previous barracks; we were placed in a large barracks, where there was not much crowding, although the bunks were double. I found myself on the upper bunk between Gennady Knyazev and Vasily Ivanovich Polyakov, a native of the city of Tambov. He was captured near Sortavala and said that the Finnish army occupied Petrozavodsk without a fight, but did not advance further, although the Germans demanded that the Finnish command move its units to Leningrad, which was surrounded by German troops. Somewhat later, I learned from the Finns that the deputies of the Finnish Sejm from the Social Democratic Party categorically demanded that the government be guided by the strategic interests of Finland, and not Germany. It turns out that the commander-in-chief of the Finnish army, Mannerheim, and the President of Finland, Rutti, were members of the “progressive” party, which arose during the years when Finland was part of the Russian Empire. And what surprised and pleased me very much was the position of the Finnish government on the Jewish issue. Despite great pressure from Nazi Germany, Finland did not allow Jews to be persecuted or discriminated against in any way on its territory. Moreover, Jews served in the Finnish army. In a situation where Finland was an ally of Germany in the war and when German fascism proclaimed the genocide of the Jews as the main direction of its activities, Finland's position required very great courage from its leaders.

In the book “The Fates of Prisoners of War - Soviet Prisoners of War in Finland in 1941-1944.” The reasons for the high mortality rate in Finnish prisoner of war camps are explored. Researcher Mirkka Danielsbakka argues that the Finnish authorities did not aim to exterminate prisoners of war, as happened, for example, in Nazi Germany, but, nevertheless, the starvation of the soldiers who surrendered was the result of the actions of those responsible for the conditions in the camps.

• About 67 thousand Soviet soldiers were captured, most of them in the first months of the war
• More than 20 thousand Red Army soldiers died in Finnish captivity
• The mortality rate in Finnish camps was about 31%
• For comparison, 30-60% of Soviet prisoners of war died in German camps, 35-45% of German prisoners of war died in Soviet camps, the mortality rate of Finnish soldiers in Soviet camps was 32%, 0.15% of German prisoners of war died in American camps, and in British camps, the mortality rate of German prisoners was 0.03%
• In Finland there were 2 organizational camps (in Nastola near Lahti and in Naarajärvi near Pieksämäki) and camps numbered 1-24
• There were special camps for officers, political peoples related to the Finns and for prisoners considered dangerous
• The camps were located in all regions of the country, as well as in the occupied territories of Karelia, with the exception of Lapland, where the Germans had their camps
• Over 10 thousand prisoners worked on farms in October 1942
• Beginning in 1943, most prisoners worked on farms, first in the summer, then year-round.

Young Finnish historians are actively working to eliminate the “blank spots” of Finnish history. The topic of Soviet prisoners of war has been studied quite well, but a comprehensive academic study on this topic has not been written until recently.

During the war of 1941-1944, which in Finland is called the “Continuation War” (the name implies that the war of 41-44 is a logical continuation of the Winter War unleashed by the USSR in 1939), about 67 thousand Red Army soldiers were captured in Finland Army. About one in three of them, that is, over 20 thousand people, died in Finnish camps - a figure comparable to the mortality rate in German, Soviet and Japanese prisoner of war camps.

But Finland during the war years was not a totalitarian country, like Nazi Germany or the communist USSR, but a Western democracy. How then did it happen that the losses among prisoners were so great?

The young Finnish historian Mirkka Danielsbakka is looking for the answer to this question. In his recently published book " The fate of prisoners of war – Soviet prisoners of war 1941-1944" (Tammi 2016) she states that Finland tried to comply with international legal standards regarding the treatment of prisoners of war, and prisoners who ended up on Finnish farms generally survived, and many even recalled their time spent in Finnish farms with warmth and gratitude. peasant farms. Nevertheless, starvation became the fate of many Soviet soldiers who surrendered.

The obvious contradiction between the memories of contemporaries about the good treatment of prisoners of war and the irrefutable fact of high mortality was the main impetus for Danielsbakk to write first his doctoral dissertation, and then a popular science book.

“I was very interested in the phenomenon that could be called “evil that happens without anyone’s intention” or “unintentional evil,” as opposed to the evil that took place in Hitler’s Germany or the Soviet Union,” says Danielsbacka.

As she writes in her book, in Finland no one denies the fact of high mortality among Soviet prisoners of war, but there is still no consensus on the reasons for this phenomenon. Debate continues as to whether this was a tragic coincidence or the result of deliberate policy.

According to Danielsbakk, there is no simple and unambiguous answer to this question. She argues that the Finnish authorities did not set out to exterminate prisoners of war, as was the case, for example, in Nazi Germany, but, nevertheless, the starvation deaths of soldiers who surrendered were the result of the actions of those responsible for the conditions in the camps.

The central research question could be formulated as follows: “What was the “path to evil” for those who caused such a large number of deaths in prisoner of war camps?

Psychosocial factor influenced high mortality

Traditionally, when discussing the high mortality rate in Finnish camps, factors such as food shortages during the first war winter of 1941-1942, as well as the unpreparedness of the Finnish authorities for such a large number of prisoners, are mentioned.

Danielsbacka does not deny this, but she also draws attention to such factors of human existence that are difficult to measure and specify, such as psychology, biology and sociology of man, his tendency to self-deception and categorization. All this contributed to the fact that the attitude towards the prisoners became inhumane, and they began to be viewed not as unfortunate neighbors deserving compassion, but as a dehumanized mass.

According to Danielsbakk, it is war that is the environment that removes from a person the usual restrictions of generally accepted moral norms and pushes him to actions that he did not plan. It is war that turns an ordinary “normal person” into a cruel punisher who is capable of contemplating the suffering of another with indifference and even with gloating.

Why then was there not such a high mortality rate among prisoners of war in the camps in the UK and the USA, where those responsible for the conditions in the camps were also operating in war conditions?

– The way prisoners were treated on Finnish farms is comparable to the treatment of prisoners in similar conditions, for example, in the UK. There is no big difference here. But in Finland, unlike Britain, there was an extremely negative attitude towards Russians, the so-called hatred of Russians, “ryssäviha”. In this regard, Russia was an “enemy of convenience” for Finland, and it was easy for military propaganda to create an enemy image. The fact that the prisoners were viewed as a mass reduced the degree of empathy for them, and this is where the impact of the environment is clearly visible, says Danielsbacka.

The strongly negative attitude towards the Soviet Union and the Russians, which occurred in the 20-30s, as well as during the war years in Finland, had deep roots in the history of complex relations between Finland and Russia. It reflected mistrust and fear of the eastern neighbor who invaded Finland in 1939, as well as the bloody events of the civil war of 1918, negative memories of the policy of Russification within the Russian Empire, and so on. All this contributed to the formation of a negative image of the “Russian”, which was partially identified with the image of the terrible and vile “Bolshevik” (for the few Finnish fascists - “Jewish Bolshevik”).

At the same time, Danielsbacka recalls that harsh nationalist, xenophobic and racist ideology was not uncommon in those years. Of course, the National Socialists in Germany “succeeded” most in this matter, but such Western democracies as Great Britain and the USA also had their “pain points.” As Danielsbakka writes, for example, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill watched indifferently as the “hapless people of Bengal” died of hunger.

The food shortage argument doesn't quite hold up

Traditionally, food shortages have been cited as the main reason for the high mortality rate in Finnish camps. The dependence of Finland on grain and food supplies from Germany is pointed out, which used them as a tool of pressure on the Finnish authorities. Proponents of this theory will not fail to recall that the civilian population did not eat enough that winter.

Mirkka Danielbakka believes that this explanation for the high mortality rate among Soviet prisoners of war is only partly correct. In many ways, the high mortality rate was caused by hard work, to which prisoners were forced to perform with meager food.

– The food shortage argument is a good argument, that’s right. Prisoners of war were the last in the food supply chain. Food shortages also affected other closed institutions, such as mental hospitals, where mortality also increased. But the Finnish authorities could influence the mortality rate, whether 10 or 30 percent of prisoners died. Malnutrition was a cause of death, but an even greater cause was hard work. The Finns generally understood this in the winter of 41-42, when prisoners began to die from complete exhaustion. For this reason, I believe that food shortage is not the only or main cause of high mortality. Yes, this was part of the reason, but if it had been the real reason, then we would have had an increase in mortality among the civilian population.

In his book, the author cites the following figures for comparison: during the war, at least 27 people (those imprisoned under criminal charges) died of hunger in Finnish prisons, and in the Nikkilä mental hospital in Sipoo alone, 739 people died, many of them from hunger. Overall, the mortality rate in municipal mental homes reached 10% during the war years.

The decision to return prisoners from farms to camps proved fatal for many during the first winter of the war.

The peak of mortality in the camps occurred at the end of 1941 - beginning of 1942. It was during this period that most prisoners were kept in camps, while before that, in the summer and autumn of 1941, and also after that, from the summer of 1942, most prisoners worked and lived on Finnish farms. The decision of the Finnish authorities in December 1941 to return prisoners from farms to camps turned out to be fatal for the prisoners. This decision was largely made due to fear of unwanted changes in the mood of front-line soldiers and the civilian population. It turns out that in the first autumn of war, the Finns began to treat prisoners of war too positively!

– At the end of 1941, they began to think that the presence of prisoners of war on farms had a demoralizing effect on the mood of Finnish soldiers at the front. They were afraid of the emergence of relations between prisoners and Finnish women, and they said with condemnation that the prisoners were treated too softly. Similar things were written, for example, in Finnish newspapers. But there was no real reason for such fear. There was no evidence of danger posed by the prisoners. Overall, it was a strange period. Already in the spring of 1942, prisoners began to be sent to farms again to help peasants with spring field work, and after that many prisoners lived on farms all year round.

Already during 1942, mortality in Finnish camps began to decline sharply and never returned to its previous levels. The turn for the better was the result of several circumstances, says Mirkka Danielsbacka.

– The first is that the war has dragged on. When we went to war in the summer of 1941, we thought that it would end quickly, by the fall, but this did not happen. By the beginning of 1942, thoughts began to arise that the war would not end with the final defeat of the Soviet Union, and in Finland they began to prepare for a long war. The defeat of the Germans in Stalingrad was the final confirmation of this. After this, the Finns began to prepare for the future and for the fact that the Soviet Union would always be nearby. International pressure also played a role. In Finland, they began to think about how negative news would affect the country's reputation. The threat of a typhus epidemic in the spring of 1942 also played a role in improving the situation of prisoners of war. This led to the Finns refusing to move prisoners from one camp to another. After all, it was in such situations that the condition of the prisoners deteriorated sharply. Also, the change in the situation at the front, namely the transition from the offensive phase to trench warfare, and the associated sharp reduction in losses among Finnish soldiers, led to the fact that the Finns no longer thought that the enemy deserved harsh treatment, says the researcher.

The International Red Cross also intervened in the situation in the camps in 1942. Marshal Mannerheim personally wrote a letter to the organization in early March 1942 asking for help. Even before the letter, in January 1942, prisoners received parcels from the Red Cross, which contained, in particular, food and vitamins. In the spring of that year, assistance began to flow through the organization, but it must be admitted that its volume was never significant.

It is noteworthy that since the Soviet Union did not provide information about Finnish prisoners in its camps through the International Red Cross and did not allow representatives of the organization to visit them, Finland decided that there was no need to do the same on the basis of reciprocity. In general, the Soviet authorities showed no interest in helping their prisoners through the Red Cross, since under the then Soviet wartime laws it was generally considered a crime to be captured.

Secret executions of prisoners? Unlikely, say Finnish historians

But were hunger and hard work the only reason for the high mortality rate in the Finnish camps? What role did violence and illegal shootings play in this? Recently in Russia the question of possible mass secret executions of Soviet prisoners of war in Finnish-occupied Karelia was raised. The media wrote, in particular, that in the Sandarmokh forest area near Medvezhyegorsk, where there are secret graves of victims of mass political repressions of 1937-38, there may also be mass graves of Soviet prisoners of war who were in Finnish captivity during the war. In Finland, this version is not considered plausible, and Mirkka Danielsbacka shares the same opinion.

– It is very difficult to find reliable, accurate information about this. Researcher Antti Kujala studied illegal executions of prisoners of war and concluded that approximately 5% of the deaths of prisoners of war were the result of such actions. This, of course, is also a lot, but much less than, for example, in Nazi Germany. There is a possibility that there were more unreported deaths than the 2-3 thousand reported in the Finnish studies, but post-war events, such as the Supreme Court verdicts and the actions of the Allied Forces Control Commission, do not suggest that there were many more violent deaths . For this reason, I consider the version of secret executions of Soviet prisoners of war in Karelia unlikely. Theoretically this is possible, but in practice it is unlikely.

Where can I find information about relatives who were captured in Finland during the war?

The POW file is currently in the National Archives. Information about relatives can be requested by email: [email protected]

The majority of requests are carried out on a paid basis.

Information about Soviet prisoners of war who died in captivity during the Winter War and the Continuation War and about civilians who died in the camps of eastern Karelia can be found in the virtual database created by the National Archives “The Fates of Prisoners of War and Internees in Finland in 1935-1955.” » . The information is compiled in Finnish, and guidance on finding information is provided on the Russian-language page of the database.

On the website of the Photo Archive of the Finnish Armed Forces SA-kuva-arkisto you can see photographs of the war years. Among them are many photos of prisoners of war. When searching, use the word sotavanki or plural sotavangit.