On Independence Day, 6 December 1920, a monument to the heroes of the Finnish War of Independence was unveiled in Hiitola. On the pedestal was placed a bronze figure of the "Girl playing the kantele" or "Kantele of Peace", made by Finnish sculptor Eemil Halonen. The inscription on the base of the monument reads: "Sing, kantele for the dead, for the fallen on the road of war".

The other sides of the pedestal are engraved with the names of heroes who died in the Finnish War of Liberation. Among them is 14-year-old volunteer Antti Viinanen (17.03.1905 – 13.06.1919), who took part in the Olonets expedition as a soldier of the 2nd regiment of the Olonets Volunteer Army. He fell on 13 June 1919 in a fierce battle for the village of Polovina, near Petrozavodsk.

The bronze figure of the "Kantele of Peace" was evacuated in the summer of 1944. Since 1989, the sculpture has been located in the Nurmarkku cemetery in Pori, on the pedestal of the monument to the dead whose graves stayed in lost Karelia.

The renewed monument to the heroes was unveiled in Hiitola on 26 July 1996. Instead of a girl playing the kantele, a granite cross designed by Aarno Kiuru was installed. A plaque depicting the mourning Cross of Freedom is fixed at the top of the pedestal.