#10 AMONGST MY MOM'S PHOTOS

                                                         The Karelian Migration

A few months after my Mom passed in 2010, I was sorting through her photo box and came across some older photos. Two were taken at the Hendrickson’s homestead (Section 34, Township 25, Range 12) in Saskatchewan outside Wiseton.  The year was 1932 at the height of the Great Depression and the starkness of the land is obvious in these photos.

In July of that year, the Suomela’s home, outbuildings, and farm implement warehouse in Wiseton were completely destroyed in a fire. With the insurance money, Vaino bought a car and the three Suomelas (Vaino, Carrie and Viola) moved in with Carrie’s brother on the family homestead. It was a brief stay as Vaino had already decided to resettle his family in the Soviet Union.

The Suomelas were to be part of the Karelian Migration of the 1920s and 1930s when 6,000 to 10,000 North American Finns emigrated to the Karelian region of the Soviet Union to build the ideal communist society. These Finns had become disillusioned with North America as a land of opportunity, where they faced discrimination and economic failures and were fed all sorts of socialist propaganda. They felt their lives would be vastly improved in the Soviet Union.

The Suomelas drove their 6 cylinder, black 1930 Chevrolet to New York City. Driving near Chicago, Carrie was worried they might meet Al Capone and his cronies. The family sailed to Hamburg aboard the Manhattan, crossed to Finland and went to Vaino’s mother’s home. Vaino had not been home in almost 25 years and his mother did not recognize him. 

in Finland

The above  picture was taken in 1933 Finland at Grandmother Kirsti Wigren’s home. And the same Chevrolet is in both this and the Saskatchewan photos as Vaino had taken his car with him to Russia. Finns of the Karelian Migration brought everything they could—machines, tool, beds, bureaus, bicycles, typewriters, sewing machines, musical instruments, cameras and baseball bats, One family even brought a small airplane in pieces. Vaino’s car was one of fifty-six automobiles, mainly Fords and Chevrolets but also Studebakers, Nashes, Hudsons, Chryslers and Durants, brought from North America to Karelia in the 1930s. 

                                      x, Carrie, Viola, Vaino, x, x, Grandmother Kirsti Wigren, x

The family stayed in Finland for Christmas 1932 and then left for Leningrad and took an uncomfortable18 hour train ride to Petrozavodsk (which was only 100 miles away.) Initially they were put up in an army barrack, a room with rows of beds, no running water, no indoor plumbing, no central heating, and an abundance of roaches and bedbugs. Later they were given one room in a half-completed building. Ironically, in the midst of the rich forests of Karelia, there was a shortage of firewood so at night, Carrie would sneak out to steal some of the building's lumber or fences to burn for heat. Food--black bread, tea, flour, meat, fish--was rationed; fruits, vegetables and coffee (the Finnish beloved beverage!) were almost impossible to obtain. To supplement their rations, Vaino and Carrie sometimes took gold or silver items to a bartering store to trade for rare items like oranges, milk or eggs. Vaino said that during his six months in Russia, he had no meat, fish or potatoes and the black bread made him sick. He lost forty pounds and Carrie lost twenty-five pounds. Vaino was able to somehow talk his way out of questioning by the police who twice came to his home. Vaino was assigned to work as a garage mechanic and was paid 300 rubles a month when that amount would buy $5.25 worth of goods. He used his Chev to drive some of the "higher-ups' to and from work. 

After six months of awful living conditions and a complete disappointment in the Karelian experiment, Vaino and his family were able to get out of the Soviet Union. Vaino took his car with him; it was hauled on a flatcar and Vaino sat in the car to beat off anyone trying to steal parts. Viola was a small girl and less likely to be searched, so a gun and some money were hidden under her waistband  and she smuggled them out of the country. 

                            1923 ruble found amongst Mom's papers...most likely a bill she smuggled 

                                              

In 2017, I self-published The Suomela Story: SISU-Guts, Willpower, Persistence, Strength. I followed both of my maternal grandparents from Finland to Saskatchewan to Russia to Toronto. In his youth, Vaino was a seaman and a logger, then sold farm implements in a small Saskatchewan village. Vaino was a communist so I researched how and why he would have been attracted to this philosophy and then why he decided to take his family to Russia’s Karelia in 1933. His hope for a socialist paradise there was quickly shattered, life was very, very harsh and he was witness to much suffering and utter poverty.  Fortunately (because he had refused to turn over his passport), within a few months, he and Grandma and my Mom were able to leave Russia. Upon return to Canada and settling in Toronto, Vaino decided to write Six Months in Karelia –about what he saw and his thoughts about Russia's socialism. (His booklet has just recently been translated into English and featured in the Toronto Finnish newspaper.) Critics said he was being disloyal to the socialist cause. Vaino  was a columnist and early supporter of Vapaa Sana, the Finnish-Canadian newspaper and was very active in the Toronto Finnish community.

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Vaino (ne Wigrin) Suomela

b. May 6, 1893 in Hiitola, Kopsala, Finland

m. Kaarina Wilhelmina (Carrie) Hendrickson on Jul 12 1921 in Saskatoon, Sask

d. Jul 21 1963 in Scarborough, Ontario

 

Carrie Hendrickson

b. Apr. 5, 1902 in Turku, Finland

d. Apr 23, 1989 in Harriston, Ont

 

Helvi Viola Suomela

b. Sept 19, 1923 in Saskatchewan

m. Carol Edwin Homuth on June 6, 1947 in Toronto, Ont

d. Mar 5, 2010 in Palmerston, Ont