Elämän pakkoraossa vai matkalla vaurauteen. Savosta, Pohjois-Karjalasta ja Kainuusta 1918-1930 muuttaneiden siirtolaisten sopeutuminen Kanadaan by Eija Kettunen-Hujanen (review)

Abstract

544 SEER, 79, 3, 200I This volume contains many interesting details about non-Jewish matters. Maklakov, for instance, regards (pp. 399-400) the Soviet regime as an oligarchy. The dreaded term zakonomernost' is never used (thoughit does crop up in the Otechestvennaja istoriia discussion),and only a singleJewish Freemason is mentioned (p. 439). Despite some good editing there are a few inconsistencies . On page 372 Iudelevskiiwas born in I870; on page 221, in i868. On page 372 Burtsev was born in i86i; on page 2I6, in I862. The reviewer caught these and a few more 'fleas' because he found the tome so valuable that he read not only everyword, but every date and figureaswell. Department ofSlavonic Studies MARTIN DEWHIRST University ofGlasgow Kettunen-Hujanen, Eija. Eldmdnpakkoraossa vai matkallavaurauteen. Savosta, Pohjois-Karjalasta ja Kainuusta i918-I930 muuttaneiden siirtolaisten sopeutuminenKanadaan . Bibliotheca Historica, 58. Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura, Helsinki, 2000. 235 pp. Notes. Appendices. Bibliographical references.Englishsummary.FIM I6o.oo. THIS fineworkdealswith the emigrationof EasternFinnsto Canada fromthe areas of Savo, North Karelia, and Kainuu during the years I9 I8-1930. The subjecthashithertolackeddetailedtreatmentasthe Canadian-Finnishscholar Varpu Lindstrom-Bestpointed out some years ago. Even now only a part of the EasternFinns are included;those coming fromthe KarelianIsthmushave been largelyleft out, forunderstandablereasons The text is based not merely on printed sources, including family correspondence,but also on interviews,sometimes summed up by the author herselfrathercritically.Yet both the interviewsand letters have enabled her to paint a series of vignettes of the individuals who cleared out of their homeland only a briefhistoricalmoment afterit had gained its independence. Once again, the time-dimensionforindividualsdoes not necessarilysynchronize with the alleged achievements of political history,and especiallynot, if, as in these cases, you happen to come fromthe back-country. Largelybecause of the personal sources she has used, Kettunen-Hujanen's workhas the strongflavourof reality.Some partof thisflavourisalsoprovided by her excellent use of previously published studies, whether of a general naturelike that of Baines or the texts of the writerson Finnishemigrationlike those of Kero, Kostiainen, Virtanen and many other capable scholars. This combining of the macro with the micro in Kettunen-Hujanen's approach is exceedingly well done. Basically,the authoruses the core-peripherytheory as the explanatorytool and thus confrontssuch issuesaswhy to Canada and not to another part of Finland. Her title is really a question that contains within itself an either-orconclusion: did these migrantsget into a hole or were they on a tripto affluence? They hardly seem to have met with affluence. On the whole, the women fared better than the men since the domestic work they mainly did, while it meant long hours and living-in, also provided constant work even in periods of trade depression. Both women and men tended to do work that the REVIEWS 545 Canadiansthemselveswere alreadyscorning,but the workof the Finnishmen was clearly grimmer than that of the Finnish women migrants. The men laboured in the field, the forest and the mine, not merely tougherjobs but more dangerous ones. The jobs were non-urban and therefore in rather isolated places. Finnish males did indeed have Finnishworkmatesin Canada (the division of labour among the various immigrant nationalities is a fascinatingpart of this book), but Finnsworkingamong Finns did not readily learn English,in contrastto the Finnishdomestic servantsin English-speaking families. The females in domestic service might also be looked after by their familieswhen they fell ill. Finnishmales in the logging-camps, however, were often afraidto fall ill, for this could mean that they would end up in a charity ward and soon cost enough to the Canadian taxpayerto be markeddown, as a public charge, for deportation. Migrantseverywherehave plenty to put up with. But what do you think about the fate of the Finnish loggers in the Canadian camps, who, afterhumping the trees,were forbiddento talkduring theirmealtimes? The core-periphery theory furnishes the usual sad commentary on the development of capitalism.Not that communism turned out to be any better. Plenty of those thrown out of work in capitalist Canada tried yet another migration,thistime to communist EastKareliawhere Finnishwas, briefly,on itsway to becoming the dominant language. The socialistparadiseturnedout to be an even more depressingexperience than the delusive capitalistsystem and many came out of East Karelia back to Finland. These...