Comrades! You already know that numerous detachments of the White Guard bandits invaded Karelia from Finland. Karelia was not prepared for this attack. We hoped in vain that White Finland, at least initially, orserve the peace treaty which was in force for less than a year. Therefore we did not have armed detachments on the Karelian borders, especially in the Kemsky Uezd. Due to this, the bandit undetachmentsits, which, as the Finnish government knows, were armed in Finland and then transferred across the border, initially had some successes, becouse the White bandits attacked unarmed peaceful villages and Soviet institutions.

Nevertheless, we soon limited the territory of activity of these bandit detachments. But the fact is that the invasion of new White Guard detachments from Finland is still ongoing, and even in the South Karelia confirmed attempts by bandits to infiltrate across the border. So, at November 24, arrived from Finland an armed detachment attacked our border guards in the Kostomuksa Village (Porosozero Parish), however, after an hour-long battle, it were forced to return back across the border. In morning November 28, a large detachment with the machine guns crossed the Finnish border and attacked the Luzhmy Village, located in five miles from the border, expelled the border detachment and took control under the Village. On the next day only the bandits were pushed back to the territory of Finland. In the Finnish Parishes, bordering with the Olonets Uyezd, the Whites openly recruit bandit detachments and prepare for new attacks.

Now, when one parish after another is cleared of such detachments, results of their deeds are also being discovered. So, after the arrival to the Maslozero Village, the bandits destroyed the archive and documents of the Executive Committee and took away the Chairman of the Committee. In the Rugozero Village, they killed lot of communists, catching them by surprise unarmed in their house. They came to the Segozersky ironworks at night, plundered food, goods and equipment, and on the same night they lost their booty. The locals of the Padany Parish, who worked at the factory and received food from there, was so outraged by the vile attack that drove the bandits away by force of arms. In the Kontokki and Voknavolok Parishes the bandits plundered Karelian Commune’s granaries, the grain for which was delivered with great difficulty and expense, so that the population of these remote Parishes will not be able to get bread in this winter. On the Murmansk railway, the White Guards destroyed the railway bridge in order to obstruct the delivery of food to the locals and cause famine.

We can give a number of same examples, but these are enough to prove the true nature of the “popular revolt”, which the bandit White Finnish newspapers are now talking about. Initial successes of the bandit detachments, in a small proportion only corresponded to the successes, reported to the world by the bourgeois newspapers, paid for by Finland. But the damage and destruction caused by them is sensitive for the people of Karelia. The people's hatred against the miscreants rises fiercely. The perpetrators of these acts must be held accountable. The working people cannot let capitalists to recruit the bandit detachments for attack the people in which the workers' and peasants' government is in power.

Probably, part of the robber gangs will be lucky enough to return across the border back to Finland and to escape deserved punishment. But these hitmen are not the main culprits. They are more high-ranking, they are the rulers of White Finland, those bloodsuckers, who have proletarian blood of 1918 on their hands.

Comrades! Isn't it time to put them these villain s to justice? We appeal to you, the proletarians of Finland and Scandinavia! Prove in practice that our slogan “Proletarians of all countries, unite!” is not an empty phrase. This will put an end to the attacks of hired White bandits and crush the power of the oppressors.

Long live the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army!

Long live the III International and the proletarian revolution!

Petrozavodsk, December 5, 1921

Executive Committee of the Karelian Labor Commune
Chairman: Edward Gylling