Karelian Exodus

The bodies of hundreds of Canadian and America citizens of Finnish descent lie in unmarked graves in the Republic of Karelia, formerly a part of the Soviet Union. They were people who, in the early 1930s, dreamed of a brighter future than that offered by the Depression ravaged economies of North America. As many as 12,000 North American Finns participated in one of the largest waves of organized migration in the history of the New World. They were enthused with what was called "Karelian Fever", and they left their homes in Canada and the United States to build socialism. Some brought farm implements, automobiles, and saw mills, others brought much needed expertise in the lumber industry, mining and other fields, but most arrived with enthusiasm for a new life in a Finnish-speaking Socialist Republic. Within a few years, women and children watched as their husbands and fathers were taken by "the collectors" and everyone fell victim to the Stalinist terror of the late 1930s. Karelian Exodus: Finnish Communities in North America and Soviet Karelia during the Depression Era tells the story of the conditions in Canada and the United States that led to the mass migration to the Soviet Union and the story of how the Karelian dream became a nightmare. Experts from Canada, Russia, Finland, Sweden and the United States present diverse perspectives on the issues that confront academics in the wake of the collapse of the Soviet Union. For the first time, academics have been allowed unrestricted access to files in Karelian archives and their findings are astounding. This collection brings together the most recent and compelling research on a forgotten chapter in the history of the North American left.