Page 411 - Conflitti Militari e Popolazioni Civili - Tomo I

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property caused difficulties and was chaotic. The storage and distribution of the items con-
tinued until summer. Some of the property was tramped, burnt or left behind.
When the Winter War was over, half a million evacuees had to be settled. The inhabitants
of towns and those whose homes had been left west of the new border returned home. The
search for a place to those, whose homes were on the area ceded to the Soviet Union, was
8
started. This was eased by Swedish donation of wooden houses. With these västeråses
homes for war widows, invalids of war and city-evacuees were built around Finland.
The Winter War threw two different Finnish cultures face to face. The lodging of a Carel-
ian farmer population among a wealthy western-Finnish agricultural society caused conflicts.
A subject of contention was also the obligation to hand over land to the evacuees. The obliga-
tory life together didn’t always pass without incidents and the authorities had to settle down
disputes. The evacuees from the Carelian townships settled themselves easier, went to the
working life or founded workshops of their own as shoemakers, tailors or carpenters.
the Continuation War changed the situation. When the areas lost in the Winter War were
captured back, some 70 per cent of the evacuees returned back home. To them the years of
1942-1943 were a time of hope. This time came to its end on 9 of June 1944, when the Red
th
Army started its general offensive on Carelian Isthmus. The departure onto the evacuation
road and the first kilometres of the path demanded one’s own initiative, because the evacuation
plans fell completely. A small amount of movable property up onto a carriage, and on the road
with children, cows and sheep. Behind the travellers the Carelian isthmus changed to a battle-
field. Most of the Carelian evacuees hoped for decades that they could go back one day.
The evacuation problem caused by the Lapland War in September 1944 was eased when
Sweden promised to take refugees. Thereafter the civilians were evacuated with the help of
the Germans in Lapland. The trip of these evacuees was short: the inhabitants of the northern
villages of Oulu province stayed away for about two months and those from the southern
valley of River Tornio could return a little later. But the evacuees from Lapland could only
return after a year. Their return was problematic: because of many destroyed villages and
mines.
After the Continuation War Finland had to settle fewer evacuees than earlier. The amount
was smaller, because about 30 per cent of the evacuees of the Winter War stayed in their new
homes.
After the beginning of the Second World War, the rationing of food started slowly. Some
items, like coffee, were put on rationing already in October 1939 as well as sugar. Corn, but-
ter, milk and meat were rationed during summer and autumn 1940.
With the ration cards of the state the consumers got about a half of their calorie require-
ment. The rest had to be gained from non-rationed foodstuffs till the winter of famine in
1941-42. Society learned from this: the inhabitants of the cities were encouraged to produce
food themselves. In the spring, every spot of soil that was sufficient for farming was changed
to vegetable plots. inside the homes people grew pigs, lambs, rabbits and hens. in a small
town a headmaster could have a cow and the vicar a pig.
During the wars people learned how to queue up. They also learned to circulate goods on
exchange basis. So the circumstances forced people to follow ecological principles.

8 Hietanen 1989, p. 252.