Karelian brothers in White Sea and Olonets Karelia.

It has been two years since the Rebolsky Volost was separated from the country, the sphere of influence, into which it was forcibly included for many hundreds of years. For two years now, it has been able to exist and act freely together with the country and the people to which it belongs. Linguistically, economically, and geographically, it has always belonged to Finland. For all the good that has come to us from our fellow Finns in this short time, we, the people of Reboly, want to express our sincerest gratitude.

Our humble backwater Karelia, over the past war-torn years, has gained significance and become a subject of contention between great powers. In our distress, we turned for help here and there, and even to foreigners. However, receiving this much-needed foreign aid, we also learned that this help always demanded compensation, not just in gratitude, but also materially, from which we understood that foreign aid is always self-interested. It is different with the help from our fellow Finns. With true generosity and selflessness, they have helped us, the population of Reboly, in military, cultural, and material respects. At our request, Finland, with armed volunteer detachments of the civil guard, protected our lives and property from the terror threatening us from Russia, while our own men could freely work in our fields, without the need to take up arms in times of hunger. Finland opened schools for our children and youth with instruction in their native language and organized worship services in our churches according to our wishes. Finland has borne all these costs in these difficult times for us. We received an abundance of food and supplies; we sowed our fields last autumn, this spring, and also this autumn with seeds provided by our fellow Finns. Finland has also helped us financially. We have already received funds for the development of agriculture, the purchase of essential goods, the repair and construction of roads, and the organization of medical services at a rate of about 1,000 rubles per year per resident of Reboly. The work on the development of cottage industries, agriculture, and forestry continues. Municipal institutions are operating on a regular basis, and economic life is beginning to recover and develop. Without this assistance from Finland, we would have completely perished from hunger and other hardships.

Now we, Karelians, are at a crossroads. If we manage to make the right choice, it will bring blessings and happiness for us and future generations, but if we choose wrongly, it will lead to a curse and the disappearance of our people. We, Karelians, are now being offered by the Provisional Government of Northern Russia to forcibly sacrifice our lives in military service to this government. But is this being done for our benefit? Have we not endured enough oppression from foreign rule? Have we not sacrificed our hearts enough for the benefit of another people? And what has this foreign people given us and promised to give us for our dearest sacrifice? At most, they promise us a semblance of civil rights under the future, possibly entirely imperial Russian rule and a little education in our native language in their foreign schools. But at the same time, they threaten us with obvious starvation if every man aged 19 to 39 does not go willingly and shed our blood for their unknown and detrimental purposes.

Brothers! We too must now have a say in our own affairs. In accordance with the internationally recognized right to self-determination of peoples, we have every right to do so.

Since this land was settled and cultivated by our ancestors more than a thousand years ago, we must have full rights to manage it and have a say in the vast national heritage of our country. We should have the right to organize land and forest use in a way that benefits all our citizens.

We also need our own higher and primary educational institutions. In our schools, our children should be taught in their native language. Then our young generation won't have to waste their precious school years learning a foreign language. We still need our own officials who understand and know our conditions and our life well. That is why we must guide our youth and help them on the path to knowledge. We must raise the level of public education and civic awareness through our own, suitable work for the enlightenment of the people.

But above all, we must ensure that our economic life grows and improves. We have good opportunities for this. We have immense wealth at our disposal. We just need to know how to use it wisely and preserve it for ourselves and for the benefit of future generations.

But we will achieve nothing if we do not set a clear goal for ourselves to strive for. Every thinking people has its highest ideal – independence. We Karelians also have our own ideal of independence, which we must now strive for. And we now have a good opportunity for this. Currently, the fates of even small nations are being decided at international peace conferences. Only those peoples who know how to defend their rights have a voice there.

We are confident that just as our fellow Finns provided us, the people of Reboly, with their help, they, inspired by fraternal feelings, will offer it to all of Karelia. Alone, we will achieve nothing. But if we join forces with our brothers, we can be sure that our political, economic, and spiritual affairs will be resolved in the right direction.

The greatest enemy of civilized peoples at the moment is Bolshevism. Let us take part in its overthrow, but not by joining foreign ranks, but knowing that our sacrifices will benefit our own independence. Our fellow Finns have made it possible that we, the people of Reboly, do not need to go fight in foreign ranks. Instead, inspired by our own national spirit, we are all here, young and old, ready to voluntarily stand against our oppressors as part of purely Karelian units. If this is also done in other Karelian volosts, and if we act in unison, then with the assistance of our fellow Finns, we will have our own purely Karelian troops, motivated to fight only for an independent Karelia, only on its side and for its benefit.

And let's finally remember that due to our small numbers, we Karelians must continue to go hand in hand with the Finns. And Finland, with the most liberal republican form of government in the world, can guarantee us Karelians the happiest future.

Residents of Reboly

Karjalaisten Sanomat -newspaper, no. 3-24, 1919

Translated by Margarita Matthew, 2024