According to the peace treaty between Soviet Russia and Finland, the Rebolskaya Volost became part of the Karelian Working Commune.

With the victory of the Red Army, Reboly, which had been under the terror of the infamous Finnish Butchers for three years, was finally liberated from those who, with the help of local kulaks, tried in every way to enslave the poor farmers of Rebolskaya.

These gentlemen, accustomed to living at the expense of others, sensed that under the Soviet system, they could no longer oppress the working people. They fled to their benefactors in Finland, taking with them the money earned from selling the forests, as well as all the papers of the former authorities.

The workers of Reboly finally breathed freely, freed from the power of the notorious card player Kyöttinen and the former member of the Zemstvo Board Netchajev. The work of building a new life was in full swing, with clubs and reading rooms being organized. The local youth, feeling genuine freedom, strove to use it for their benefit.

Debates, literature’s evenings, and plays were organized. We also made economic progress, starting with the drainage of swamps, the repair of roads and bridges, for which the Karelian Executive Committee allocated food supplies.

Schools and hospitals, which had been completely neglected under the previous government, were being repaired. Paid jobs appeared, and the population was not suffering from deprivation.

However, white provocateurs began to undermine the peaceful work. Already in the summer of 1921, agents of the Finnish bourgeoisie, with the help of local kulaks, began agitating among the peaceful population and undermining the authority of Soviet power. They claimed that it would soon collapse, and that Karelia did not have the autonomy prescribed in the peace treaty.

Seeing that this was not effective, they resorted to another tactic: advising peasants not to fulfill their transport duties and not to pay the food tax.

Local Soviet authorities took all possible measures to prevent provocations among the population, and the efforts of Finland and local white agents to incite an uprising failed.

Then they began to threaten. A few weeks before the bandit attack on the volost, a rumor was spread that they had already captured the Murmansk railway and that by December 1st, they would take Reboly, threatening to shoot all communists and Soviet employees upon arrival.

One of the villages, where white agitation found the best ground, turned into a nest of provocateurs. All summer long, it was a refuge for all the local kulaks who had fled Reboly. Their leader was Takkinen, a former assistant to the head of the local civil guard during the white regime, who, imagining himself as a Karelian national hero, took the name "Ilmarinen" from the "Kalevala".

Another gang of local refugees and Finnish white volunteers, which included former Zemstvo Board member Netchajev and Fomin, attacked a village and conducted a general mobilization there. Three peasants managed to escape. They reported that Netchajev had convened a meeting where he stated that everyone must join the whites, that the time had come to liberate Karelia from the Bolsheviks.

When asked by the peasants what the consequences might be, Netchajev replied, "The military actions started too early. We should have waited. If the Bolsheviks had stayed in power a little longer, they would have had more enemies, especially in the spring when food supplies run out."

This gang then began to advance and took over the warehouses of the Karelian People's Commissariat of Food, which were intended for logging operations in the Rebolskaya Volost. As soon as they entered a village, they immediately started distributing flour. They gave a sack to everyone who joined the bandits.

By this time, the detachment led by Takkinen had captured another village, where they tortured two Red Army soldiers to death. A third soldier managed to escape by pretending to be dead.

Given the situation, local authorities, in conjunction with military units, began evacuating the food supplies in Reboly to the rear. However, the bandits, who had their agents, learned of this evacuation and attacked, cutting off the Red Army units. Thus, the food that was already on its way fell into the hands of the bandits.

The remaining military unit in Reboly, cut off from the main forces, was forced to retreat. In the village of Reboly, before the Reds left, the local volost executive committee convened a general assembly of the people, which was attended by all the peasants of the village of Reboly and nearby villages. The assembly unanimously decided to assist the Red Army in fighting banditry. An appeal was also adopted to the Karelians in the bandit ranks. The appeal called on all residents of Reboly who were on the side of the bandits to lay down their arms and join the Reds.

A retreating Red Army detachment was ambushed by a bandit gang four kilometres from Reboly. This gang opened intense rifle fire on our convoy. But the Red Army soldiers bravely put the Butchers to flight and cleared their path. Then news came that the bandits had also cut the road in Lenders. Thus, not having enough forces to break through the enemy's blockade, we were forced to go into the forest and travelled through the wilderness for about 80 versts without any signs of a road before we could reach people.

V.Romanov
Newspaper "Punainen Karjala (Red Karelia)"
July 5, 1935

Translated by Margarita Matthew, 2024