Actions of Soviet Russia in White Sea KareliaWe have received for publication the official report of the Provisional Government of Karelia on the crimes of the armed forces and official representatives of Soviet Russia in Karelia, forcibly occupied by the Bolsheviks, starting in March. The report, which, along with other documents, is being provided these days by the Government of Karelia, including to the delegation of Soviet Russia in Tartu, and which so vividly illustrates the methods and actions of Bolshevik imperialism. In the Uhta parish On March 19, 70 Bolshevik soldiers arrived in Uhta, declaring that they had come with peaceful intentions and would not cause any violence or damage. Despite this, when the Bolsheviks left on the last day of the month, they took with them almost all the Provisional Government's supplies. After this, on May 19, the Bolsheviks again captured Uhta. They committed horrific brutality. They slaughtered half of the resident’s cows, that is, about 60 heads, and several dozen sheep. In addition, several houses were looted, such as the houses of the representative of the Provisional Government in Finland, Antti Vierma, former representative Iivo Ranne, our representative at the Tartu peace talks Pekka Pankkonen, farmers Mikko Partola, Potafei Haapala, Stepan Afanasyev (Panteleila), Kolja Partanen, Maria Afanasyeva, Roope Ontroila, Pekka Koivikko, Huoti Jehunen, the heirs of Mikko Teronen, the heirs of Risto Pällinen, the heirs of Mikko Kaukovaara and the widow Anisja Andronova. Besides that, the Bolsheviks killed, at a minimum, the elderly parents of the aforementioned Vierma, the widow Anisya Andronova, as well the seminary student Harittana Siniaalto and the transporter Lukas Jokiranta, whom they had arrested. During the searches they behaved like barbarians: they broke tableware, tore bed linen and littered the rooms. They arrested former merchant Aleksi Pappinen from Juvalaksha in early June and apparently killed him by drowning him in Lake Kuito. The arrested people were tortured and starved. Even though the population of all of Karelia and especially Uhta depended on food grain coming from Finland, which by the end of the thaw period was already running out, the Bolsheviks took away seeds, potatoes and other food from the residents of Uhta, so that the population found itself on the brink of starvation, endless suffering and despair. In the Jushkozero parish Soviet troops, who arrived in Jushkozero in mid-May, took control of the food supplies, slaughtered livestock, stole clothing, shoes, and horse harnesses. They forced the population to transport them free of charge by boat and prevented any movement from the village to the Jushkozero islands, seizing rowboats and not giving them to anyone. In the Kestenga parish In the last days of March, the first Soviet units, about 150 people, entered Kestenga. When they left, in the first days of April, they emptied the Provisional Government warehouses in Kestenga, forcing the residents, as was their custom, to transport them for free over long distances. But in mid-April, 30 Soviet troops appeared again in Kestenga and, through their agitator Ermolaev, tried to organize councils in the volost, but without success. At the end of May, new units numbering 300 people arrived, and with them, on May 20, the volost authorities received a letter from the military commissar of the Kemsky district ordering the mobilization of all men aged 16 to 50 in the volost. However, the population unanimously opposed this. But as a result, the head of the volost, Nikolai Kotiranta, who had spoken out most energetically against the Bolsheviks' tyranny, was arrested on May 29 and taken away to an unknown location. The next day, the Bolsheviks staged an unprecedented farce, forcing several volost residents who had been summoned to a meeting, the number of whom is usually inflated in the minutes by at least ten times, to make decisions they wanted, including organizing a temporary volost council. But even though the building was surrounded by hundreds of armed soldiers and three machine guns were pointed threateningly at it, not even one of those present signed the protocol. A week later, a new order was received in the volost to recruit men fit for military service into the ranks of the Soviet troops, but they, to avoid mobilization, hid in the forests and beyond the Finnish border. During May and June, the Bolsheviks carried out several searches of houses, and according to information received in early June, also robberies. In the Olanga parish On March 24, an unknown Bolshevik agitator arrived in the village of Olanga accompanied by 12 soldiers, forcing the head of the volost to call a general regional meeting, which, however, was attended by residents of only four villages. The agitator explained that Russian units were closing the Finnish border, and therefore the import of food from there was becoming impossible, that the regional congress, which was then taking place in Uhta, was dissolved, and the country's government was overthrown. And since the population has no other means of subsistence except for grain supplies from Russia, the agitator called on the residents of the volost to form a temporary council, to which those present, having succumbed to temptation and coercion, eventually agreed. After the Bolsheviks left the next day, taking with them the Provisional Government's supplies, a new general volost meeting was immediately convened, at which the council was abolished, and it was unanimously decided to support both their own government and the regional congress. And the same thing happened everywhere in our volost with the formed councils, which existed only in Bolshevik papers. On June 5, the Bolsheviks again entered the Olanga’s volost. In the Tikhtozero parish The Bolsheviks did not penetrate this parish, but their actions are evidenced by the sending of a mobilization order to this volost. The papers were received on June 4. In the Rugozero parish Having invaded this parish at the end of March, the Bolsheviks, with the help of several locals, managed to organize a council. However, most of the residents of the volost objected to this. But they could do nothing against the armed Bolsheviks. In early March, the Bolsheviks arrested people's deputies Fyodor Vasilyev and Kirill Bogdanov who had returned from a regional congress in Uhta, and there is no information about where they were taken. In May, mobilization for military service and forced labor was carried out. In the Tunguda parish The Soviet troops, who passed through the parish to Rugozero at the end of March, took away food and forage. They forced the residents to transport them for free. The Bolsheviks tried to mobilize three times, but the population did not respond to the call and unanimously declared their full support for the government of the country. Houses were searched throughout the volost. On April 15, the Bolshevik agitator Timkin arrived in the volost, who, insisting that many Soviet troops would arrive in the volost if the residents did not form a council, convinced them to organize a council, but on May 24, the council was abolished at a general volost meeting. As can be seen from the above, parts of Soviet Russia appeared on our territory in an arbitrary order. The population, the poor and anything but "bourgeois", was burdened with free transportation and forced seizures. Their cattle are slaughtered, their houses are desecrated, their seeds are plundered, the soviets are created by force and lies, and the population in those areas where it is no longer possible to import grain from Finland is reduced to poverty and terrible suffering. Voknavolok, June 18, 1920 Provisional Government of Karelia: Huoti Hilippälä (Seal of the Provisional Government of Karelia) E.A.Aaltio
Members of the regional council under the Provisional Government of Karelia: Iivo Ranne (Afanasyev) M.Petrakoski J.Rajamaa Anton Kyntjeff Risto Homanen Dmitry Iivonen
Translated by Margarita Matthew, 2024 |
