This article is taken from the BLOGGERS GUIDE TO ARCTIC FINLAND BOOK 2019.
The Petsamo area, which belonged to the Finnish state between 1921 and 1944, from Korvatunturi (Ear tundra) to the northern tip of the Port of Petsamo Fisherman’s Island. It was the result of the last joint area of Russia and Norway as their occupation of the land crossed between 1826 and 1849. As an indigenous population, the area was inhabited by the Skolt Sámi, who practiced a semi-nomadic lifestyle in the areas of their three villages. There was a Russian influence Orthodox monastery, which had been in Petsamo since the 1550s, and was rebuilt in the late 19th century.
The connection of the Port of Petsamo to independent Nation Finland was agreed in Tartu Peace agreement in 1920. The historical background of the Petsamo question was the traditional fishing rights of Finnish Lapland residents on the shores of the Arctic Ocean, Finnish migration to the region in the late 19th century, and the Imperial power politics of the First World War and Finnish plans to build a road from Ivalo to Petsamo.
BLOGGERS GUIDE TO ARCTIC FINLAND
Petsamo formed its own county in 1921. After that, Petsamo was a municipality and district in the province of Oulu and since 1938 in the province of Lapland. In 1936–1944, in addition to Petsamo, there were also Inari and Utsjoki. From 1922, Petsamo’s main government official was the crown of the district. He also served as a signatory until 1936 to assist the nominee with the help of the Petsamo Border Guard (since 1926, the Border Guard of Lapland), which for a long time had customs, post, and other duties. The Customs Chamber and Reserve were established in 1934.
The most important tasks of the Municipality of Petsamo were the care of the poor, the welfare of unemployed, and the health care. Regional society public schools, on the other hand, were administered by the state. The state also owned half of Oy Petsamo Ab, which was founded in 1921 to organize Petsamo fishing and retail. The company’s operations were short and replaced by local communities established by the end of the decade, the primary industry of Petsamo the Fishing industry and the Petsamo Cooperative Society.
In the 1930s, the mining industry grew to become the most important livelihood of Petsamo. An English-Canadian company designed a nickel mine in Kolosjoki, but World War II interrupted the project. After the Winter War, the Finnish subsidiary Petsamon Nikkeli Oy concluded an ore supply agreement with the Germans. Production began at the beginning of 1943.
Before the Winter War, The State Police arrested dozens of Thomamians suspected of espionage for the Soviet Union. The series of events with interrogations, treason, and deaths are known as Petsamo’s great espionage, where many questions are still waiting to be answered.
At the very beginning of the aggressive war against peace, the Soviet Union military invaded the municipality of Petsamo and drove the Finns south. There were various military activities along the Arctic Ocean. Under the Soviet war against peace November 1939, the Petsamo population was evacuated West to Norway, and South West to Inari and Tervola, many escaped during the Soviet invasion into chaos, and others were killed or captured as prisoners of war.
In the Interim Peace Agreement, Finland was able to hold together the entire Petsamo municipality. Reconstruction began, and most of the evacuees returned. During the mid-term peace, the Port of Liinahamar served as an important maintenance route for Finland and Sweden and a lively transit point.
At the beginning of the Continuation War, the German Mountain Corps of Norway (36 Corps) was positioned in the Petsamo Municipality. Their objectives were to push back the Soviet positions to the Port of Murmansk and to stop the Allied forces material support supply line transportation by the Murmansk railway from Murmansk to Petersberg. The civilian administration of Petsamo remained in the hands of the Finnish government.
GERMAN ROLE IN LAPLAND 1941-1945
The German role in Lapland is often misinterpreted generally by too many people, that have not understood the larger world view of the Finland 500 year history. The conflict with the Nordic region and Russia, and the Bolsheviks movement that led to establishing the pseudo-socialism under the pretense of the Soviet Union.
German troops in Lapland were brothers in arms to the Finland State. They served Finland best interest in keeping back the Bolsheviks during 1917-18 Russian revolution that attempted to continue the same spirit of the Bolsheviks into people of Finland territory. With the help of the German military, the Bolsheviks were stopped and driven back to Russia. The Bolsheviks morally were way out of line, they reveled in lawlessness and anarchy against all established rational, the civil rule of law.
The second reason why the people of Finland were grateful for the German support and empathy for people of Finland was the German officers military training schools. Finland had a back of the Nordic woods culture, with very little creative education and training compared to central Europe and America. Finland was a rural environment, peace-loving people that lived close to the land. They had no interest to be consumed by the Imperial mega maniacs, such as the Swedish imperialist glutton or the Russian imperialist wild bear. Early 1914 university students from Finland went to Germany for the military officer training. Finland was under Russian rule until 1917. All military officer training by the independent-minded nationalistic Finns was done secretly in Germany.
The people of Finland over the 600 years have often found themselves between a rock and a hard place. The imperialist power lust covets to exploit small soft targets, that is how they grow, by eating up the indigenous people’s territory, and any weak, mindless divided States. Imperialist do not grow by creative, intelligent, altruistic means, they grow themselves bigger by stupid exploitation of peace-loving humanity. This is another reason why small States need to be so much more in tune with the creator of life, they need to petition the Creator of Life to destroy the aggressors that make war against peace, such as the Soviet failed state did during 1922-1991. The Soviet era leaders were dead wrong morally.
The poor and the indigenous people do have the advantage to approach the Creator of
Some people in Finland and Lapland will criticize the German military role along the East border of Lapland during 1941-1945, for one specific episode. That episode is called the scorched earth policy. The German military indeed used the scorched earth policy when they were hounded out of Lapland by the political backflip Finn leaders, back to German y in 1945.
There is a background to that scorched earth policy.
“The Moscow Armistice demanded Finland break diplomatic ties with Germany and expel or disarm any German soldiers remaining in Finland after 15 September 1944. “
“Although Finns and Germans had been fighting the Soviet Union (USSR) together since 1941 during the Continuation War, the Soviet Vyborg–Petrozavodsk Offensive in the summer of 1944 forced Finnish leadership to negotiate a separate peace agreement. The Moscow Armistice demanded Finland break diplomatic ties with Germany and expel or disarm any German soldiers remaining in Finland after 15 September 1944.”
“The Finnish Army was required by the USSR to demobilize while at the same time pursuing German troops out of Finnish soil. After a series of minor battles, the war came to an effective end in November 1944 when German troops had reached Norway or its vicinity and took fortified positions. The last German soldiers left Finland on 27 April 1945, and the end of World War II in Europe came soon after.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lapland_War
The narrative of many people goes something like this, the German soldiers burn down the wooden structures as they left Lapland. Therefore the Germans were vandals, pyre maniacs and arsons. The above logic presumes that the Germans came to Lapland for a holiday. They stayed for 3 years and then got bored and started burning the building down. That kind of interpretation of the crises events mainly causes by external forces, is oversimplified and naive. There is another way to look at the past history, from the German military forces point of view. What were they doing in Lapland between 1941 and 1945? It is also important to consider how their 3-year presence was considered by the Finnish people living in Finland? The German military was warmly welcomed after the cold 1939 Winter War by most people for a very good reason. The Soviet Union leader was a ruthless dictator that could not be trusted. War against peace in 1939 Finland lost too many people lives during the unprovoked war against peace by the Soviet Union military machine.
WAR AGAINST PEACE CASUALTIES:
- 25,904 dead or missing
- 43,557 wounded
- 800–1,100 captured
- 20–30 tanks
- 62 aircraft