Finnish immigrants in the Gulag

What is it about?

When the economic depression hit Finland in the early 1930s, around 15,000 Finns emigrated to the Soviet Union in search of a better life. Soviet propaganda and Stalin’s industrialization plans made the unemployed Finns believe that work and proper income would await across the border, but they did not have an official permission to enter the Soviet Union. Instead, the unwelcomed Finns were sentenced to forced labour on the Soviet side for crossing the border illegally. Meanwhile, the Communist Party of Finland, operating in the Soviet Union, was responsible for the “cultural-political” work among the immigrants and produced propaganda trying to explain the reality of the situation. Many of the immigrants saw their sentence in the Gulag as a brief stop towards Soviet citizenship, while the Finnish communists treated them as a possible workforce for the coming Soviet Finland; the state police, however, had different ideas. This paper studies Finnish immigrants and Finnish communists who were both unusual groups within the Gulag system.

Featured Image

Photo by Ant Rozetsky on Unsplash

Photo by Ant Rozetsky on Unsplash

Why is it important?

The Gulag system was an essential part of Soviet society and its penal system, and these Soviet legacies are affecting many countries even today. This research increases the understanding of different agendas and motifs of the various actors within the Gulag and the Soviet penal system but also within the wider Soviet society. The experiences of the Finnish immigrants themselves represent a case study of national minorities in the Gulag. The power of propaganda, being also a contemporary issue, is analysed through the agency of Finnish communists. They produced propaganda that caused Finns to leave for to the Soviet Union, but also to justify the immigrants’ experience within the Gulag system. The case of Finnish communists shows how the Finns were not just victims of the system but also active members who had their own goals and conceptions within the larger Soviet framework. The history of the Finnish immigrants tackles modern phenomena of paperless immigration and questions of citizenship similar to today’s issues.