42 volunteers from Kouvola participated in the Olonets expedition, most of them were schoolboys from the Kouvola co-educational school.

On June 13, 1919 five young men from Kouvola fallen in the hard battle of Polovina Village, near Petrozavodsk. One of them – Tauno Sovio – was 14 years old. They were the first buried in the New Kouvola Cemetery.

The local branch of Suojeluskunta (Finnish army assisting organization) erected to the cemetery a monument designed by gardener Yrjö Kotonen, which was unveiled on July 3, 1921.