Presentation of Russian translation of J.Kulomaa's book Finnish Occupation of Petrozavodsk in 1941-1944 took place in the reading-hall of the PetrSU scientific library.
The book appeared thanks to teamwork of people not indifferent to history of their hometown. The whole team of translators worked on the book, including students of the university. However, the main liability for its quality was incured by editor the PetrSU Professor Doctor of History Yu.M.Kilin.
In title of the Finnish edition of the book of 1989 on the first place there is a name - Äänislinna ('a fortress on Onego' in Finnish), the word which means nothing to the majority of today's citizens of Petrozavodsk. Indeed, few know that in history of the Karelian capital there were 3 terrible years when it had lost both its original appearance, and its name. The Finnish invaders tried to to make a reality of their plan of creating Great Finland, a "pure" from the racial point of view state in the North of Europe. Therefore, the town and its streets were renamed.
J.Kulomaa's to book discribes life in Petrozavodsk during the occupation quite impartially and in great detail. It is remarkable, that the author calls his compatriots invaders. It is very important, considering that this is a sight from the opposite side of the border. Basically only Finnish archives and very few Russian editions were used at creation of the book. However, pictures of interethnic collisions are very brightly and plausibly in the research. In fact, all the townspeople were divided at that time into three groups - aggressors, free inhabitants (representatives of the Finno-Ugric population) and prisoners locked behind barbed wires (this destiny was to be for representatives of slavic peoples, first of all Russian).
It is very important to collect particles of historical mosaic, and not to palter with facts, so that no page is missed. Even if this page is not the best of those our town lived through in 300 years.
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