Four islands in the Gulf of Finland

Farewell to the home islands

<p>The outbreak of the Second World War marked the end of the outer islands’ history as Finnish islands. The islands were of strategic importance to the Soviet Union, which, in March 1939, expressed its wish to Finland to lease them for 30 years. A barter trade was also proposed, but that did not happen either. The Soviet Union revisited the matter in October and November of the same year, but the negotiations fell through and war broke out between Finland and the Soviet Union on 30 November 1939. </p>

<p>Finland started to, however, evacuate the population of its border areas as early as October 1939. The evacuation was carried out in secret. The inhabitants of the island of Seiskari were evacuated on the Suursaari ship to Kotka on 10 October 1939. They were relocated to Kymi and Vehkalahti. In June 1940, the Seiskari inhabitants continued their journey to the archipelago of Turku in Western Finland. </p>

<p>On 11 October 1939, the Suursaari inhabitants set off on their yachts towards Loviisa, which had been assigned as their evacuation location. On the same day, the inhabitants of Tytärsaari were also evacuated, with Pyhtää and Loviisa as their temporary settlement locations. </p>

<p>Unlike the people evacuated from the mainland, the inhabitants of the outer islands were not able to return to their home islands during the Continuation War years. After losing the war, Finland ceded the islands to the Soviet Union. The evacuated inhabitants started new lives on the mainland in their new home regions: Kymenlaakso, Uusimaa and Western Finland.</p>

Property of Lavansaari evacuees on the fishing wharf in Kotka. Photo: Kymenlaakso Museum.

Suursaari

<p>Suursaari is the largest of the ceded outer islands, with an area of around 21 square kilometres. It is located 40 kilometres from Kotka. The island has four hills, three of which are visible all the way to the Finnish mainland. Suursaari was one of the most popular tourist destinations in Finland in the 1920s and 1930s. The island had 772 inhabitants at the time of the evacuation.</p>

Suursaari’s bathing beach. Suurkylä with its church towers and lighthouse are visible in the background. Photo: Kymenlaakso Museum.

Tytärsaari

<p>Tytärsaari covers an area of 8.3 square kilometres. It is located 75 kilometres from Kotka. Tytärsaari was an independent municipality since the year 1899, when it was separated from Suursaari. The eastern shore of the island has a 2.5-kilometre-long and in places more than half-a-kilometre-wide area of white eolian sand. The population of the island was concentrated in three villages on the southern shore. The island had 436 inhabitants at the time of the evacuation.</p>

Kaunismäki sandy beach on Tytärsaari in 1936. Photo: Kymenlaakso Museum.

Seiskari

<p>Seiskari is the smallest and easternmost of the ceded outer islands, located about 90 kilometres from Kotka. The island covers an area of 4.2 square kilometres. The Seiskari group of islands comprises 33 islands. Seiskari became an independent municipality in 1903, when it was separated from the rural municipality of Koivisto. The population of the island was concentrated in three villages on the western shore. Seiskari was once the most densely populated rural municipality in Finland. In 1939, the population of the island was 688.</p>

Seiskari lighthouse photographed in the 1930s. Photo: Kaarlon Valokuvaamo, Kymenlaakso Museum.

Lavansaari

<p>Lavansaari covers an area of 15.3 square kilometres. The distance from Kotka to the island is 70 kilometres. Lavansaari became an independent municipality in 1905. The island is divided into two parts. An isthmus connects the main island to Suisaari on the eastern side. Lavansaari had two villages. It was the most populous of the ceded outer islands. When the island was evacuated in 1939, the number of people who departed was 1,089. </p>

A village view from Lavansaari. Photo: Kymenlaakso Museum.

Earning a living from the sea

<p>The period from the early 20th century to the First World War was the heyday of seafaring for the outer islands. The sailing season for vessels owned by the islanders lasted from April to the end of October. The cargo included fish, seal blubber, cobblestones and potatoes. The main ports of destination were St. Petersburg, Tallinn, Vyborg and other coastal towns in the Gulf of Finland.</p>

Logs and village people at Seiskari’s lighthouse dock in the 1920s. Photo: Kymenlaakso Museum.

The sea provides its bounty

<p>Fishing was one of the main livelihoods of the outer islanders. The most important catch was the Baltic herring, which was fished with nets and seines. Of the outer islands, winter fishing was only practised on Lavansaari and Seiskari. Fishermen would stay on long fishing trips for weeks and spend the nights in seine huts or huts hauled on the ice. The huts were only a few square metres in size and equipped with bunk beds, a stove and a small table.</p>

Suursaari people hauling fishing nets at dawn. Photo: J.W. Mattila, Kymenlaakso Museum.

Searches and searches, but hopes not to find

<p>Many outer islanders used to think along the lines of the old riddle etsii, etsii vaan ei soisi löytävänsä ‘searches and searches, but hopes not to find’ when they were looking through their fishing nets and searching for holes in them. Mending nets was a never-ending task.</p>

Marja Halli mending a fishing net on Tytärsaari in 1931. Photo: Kymenlaakso Museum.

Benefit from the seals

<p>Seal hunting was an important secondary livelihood in the archipelago. The catch was divided between the hunting community. The meat of seal pups and mother seals was prepared for consumption, usually by boiling. Seal blubber was salted in barrels and usually taken to Loviisa, where it was bartered for salt and various goods. The hunters themselves boiled the blubber into oil and used it to impregnate their boats. The blubber was also used in shoe cream. Seal skins were prepared for personal use, but also sold. Seals were hunted with the help of dogs, which numbered in the hundreds on the islands.</p>

Seal hunters with their catch on a shore. Photo: Lauri Haapaniemi, Kymenlaakso Museum.

Holiday paradises

<p>Suursaari was one of the most popular tourist destinations in Finland in the 1920s and 1930s. Gradually, tourists also found their way to the other outer islands. Tourists were attracted by the islands’ nature, sea views, sandy beaches and idyllic fishing villages with their inhabitants. Regular boat traffic to the islands was established in the 1920s. The best-known ship was S/S Suursaari. Tourists stayed in island cottages as there were no hotels or other forms of accommodation except for a few rooms. </p>

<p>Since the cession, the islands have mainly been closed to tourists. In the early 1990s, a few home region trips were made to the islands but, since then, apart from a few exceptions, the islands have not really opened their ports to Finns.</p>

Tytärsaari inhabitants in front of the church of their native island in the summer of 1992. The visit to the island did not stir up emotions in the same way as the departure in childhood. The island had changed so much that it was no longer the same as the home island of memories. Photo: Kymenlaakso Museum.

Evacuated churches on the outer islands

<p>In connection with the evacuation of people, objects from the wooden churches on the islands were also salvaged from the war. The salvaged objects from the churches on the outer islands are now spread all over Finland and even abroad. </p>

<p>A total of four church ships were evacuated from the church of Seiskari. The three-masted, full-rigged Cezina resembles the merchant ships of the last heyday of large sailing ships. The votive ship was made by Jaakko Pulli in 1918 in gratitude for being rescued from a fire on a Norwegian ship laden with explosives.</p>