Aimo Pärssinen

who was actively involved in the circles of Heinola Karelians Aimo Pärssinen has made around twenty visits to the Karelian region since 1990, most of them to Priozersk. In addition to this, numerous trips to St Petersburg have accumulated.

The first trip to Käkisalmi happened at a turning point in world history in 1990, as the following year the Soviet Union collapsed.

–         The trip was unusual, as I had not been to the Soviet Union before that. So I managed to experience the atmosphere of that country too before the birth of modern Russia.

Brisk tourism to Kexholm had been made possible as early as 1989.

–         It was during Gorbazov's time, glasnost, when conditions suddenly liberalised and cultural exchange with Finland gained a new lease of life.

A group left Heinolan Myllykylä, which included several of Pärssinen's neighbours, among others. They were accommodated in local families.

–         My flatmate was a man of German descent. His father had once come to work at Waldhof.

According to Pärssinen, the reception was warm, right down to the food.

–         Satisfactorily good borscht soup.

There was also a separate eatery nearby.

–         I must say that it certainly wasn't of the same standard. And so, foster care brilliantly made up for the shortages of food.

Visits to the excursionists' birthplaces were handled by local taxi rides.

–         For me, the most moving moment came when the taxi reached my mother's childhood home in Ylä-Puusti. I saw it with my own eyes for the first time.

The place was Pärssinen's childhood home.

–         I looked at the stone ruins, like many others who had found their family's ancestral home. As in many Karelian songs, this place too was overgrown with bird cherry and rowan.

The party gathered to be photographed on the cottage steps.

–         We took some commemorative photos there. It was an emotional moment that I still look back on. I was only four months old when I last left that place in my mother's arms.

He had been longing for memories of his own for a long time.

–         Mother and my older sister had indeed told me about the home, but now I got to see the place with my own eyes. That was what moved me.

Mother's stories about the evacuation journey also came to mind.

–         The evacuation started in 1944 from Näpinlahti station. The loading of evacuees took place there because it would have been too risky to load them at Käkisalmi station due to the threat of bombings.

The evacuee train had just reached Savonlinna when Elisenvaara was subjected to heavy bombing.

–         The bombing claimed the lives of over a hundred civilians. You always think about how many times we've survived and how things could have turned out really badly back then.

On the first trip, Pärssinen also got to see his father's home place in Norsjö.

–         It's great that the house was still standing, and lived in.

Pärssinen made his last trip to his home village of Käkisalmi in 2018.

–         It was managed to be done before the corona pandemic and later the war interrupted tourism to Karelia. This last trip was organised by the Käkisalmi Foundation.

Back in 2018, they also visited the Konevets Monastery, which – compared to the first trip in 1989 – had undergone considerable improvement.

–         During this visit, the place was being furiously spruced up. The foreman gave a stern dressing-down to the workmen toiling in the courtyard. The reason became clear, too. We were told that three days later, President Putin himself was coming to visit the monastery.

From the last trip, the memory that remained was the beautiful pine-covered hill above the family home.

–         A side branch of Lake Norsjø runs through that hollow. I thought it would be easy to build something like an artificial pond there. It would still be beautiful and nice to live in the scenery of my childhood home.

From a farmer's perspective, Karelia would still be Finland's ”breadbasket” and therefore a major loss in terms of security of supply.

–         In Karelia, the climate is unusually favourable for cultivation. The vast Lake Ladoga exerts a moderating effect on the weather and balances the impact of winter better than, for example, in southern Finland. Finnish wheat cultivation is therefore believed to have originated specifically on the Karelian Isthmus.

In 1994, Pärssinen faced the trip for the 700th anniversary of Kexholm Castle, which was preceded by a celebration on the same theme by the Käki Foundation in Heinola.

Otherwise the celebration was prestigious, with the leadership of present-day Kexholm, i.e. the city of Priozersk, among others in attendance.

–         We heard a lot of singing and playing. There was also a separate celebration at the culture house, where we saw performances from both us visitors and the local residents. It was cultural exchange in the deepest sense of the word.

Composer-lyricist Oiva Mättö wrote the poem Memories of Kakhisalmi for the celebration.

–         I still have it in a folder and I read it sometimes.

During the celebrations, there were also ups and downs.

–         We were accommodated in the Waldhof club building at the time. As it happened, a house next door caught fire and we got to watch the firefighting operation from the front row.

The house burned merrily, even though the fire brigade was present.

–         The reason for the slowness of the firefighting operations became clear when we saw a knocked-over fire hydrant, from which water was flowing away along the gutter. Could the fire brigade have knocked the hydrant over when they arrived?

The damage was compounded for the travellers later.

–         Our accommodation was changed to the Vapaa-aika hotel. To our annoyance, the toilets didn't work as there was no water coming to them. We concluded that this, too, was due to the fire brigade's unfortunate firefighting operation.

On the same trip, Kuoppalampi on the Pyhäjärvi side was checked out, where the Pärssinen brothers' father said he used to go fishing.

–         We went swimming there now. We also went swimming at Koppalammi, which brought to mind a taxi driver, a Russian, who had been a prisoner of war in Finland.

In 2000, Pärssinen travelled to the 10th anniversary celebrations of Karelian tourism.

–         At that time, both the Käkisalmi Foundation and the Pyhäjärvi Society were heavily involved with the town of Priozersk. On behalf of the Käkisalmi Foundation, I was given the opportunity to speak at the celebration.

The leadership of the city of Priozersk was also present once again, although the leaders had changed since the previous castle celebration.

–         Regarding my own speech, I can mention that at that time there was a lot of discussion about strengthening the cultural bond, and even about Finnish-Russian business activity in the Kakhovka region. Among other things, Luhta from Lahti had started operations in Kakhovka, and likewise there was a Swedish furniture store, Ikea, on the premises of Waldhof.

In the early 2000s, there followed a trip to the unveiling ceremony of the Tali-Ihantala monument.

– This trip was part of Sirkka Sigrid Nenonen-Virtanen trips organised by them.

The mother happened to be there at the same time as the inauguration ceremony of the memorial for the Battle of Tali-Ihantala.

–         In my estimation, there were a couple of thousand people there. I was struck by the former Commander of the Defence Forces Lauri Sutela a speech in which he recalled the battle as one of the most significant during the recent wars.

In the 2000s, Pärssinen participated in Koskelainen's expedition to Karelia, which explored the battle sites of the Isthmus region.

–         We travelled from Vyborg towards Kanneljärvi. The destinations were the battle sites of Summa and the part of the Mannerheim Line that extended onto the Karelian Isthmus.

The hikers also managed to skirt fairly close to Russia's rather large Kamenka garrison.

–         It felt strange that they let us drive through that road.

From Kannelmäki the journey continued to Siiranmäki. Visits were also made to Rautu and Äyräpää.

–         The church hill of Äyräpää remained in my mind as a shocking place, because it had been so completely blasted by artillery bombardments. At that point, one inevitably fell silent to reflect and comprehend what war had meant in its time.

–          

Many trips were made to my family's ancestral home, Ylä-Puusti in Käkisalmi rural municipality.

–         I managed to be born there, but I left with my mother and older sister as an evacuee when I was 4 months old.

In 2008, a trip organised by the Käkisalmi Foundation via Sortavala to Valaam took place.

– The trip to Valamo was impressive. Progress was swift on the hydrofoil, taking only about 40 minutes from Sortavala to Valamo. After that, the same vessel was used for a journey of just under an hour to Käkisalmi. The hydrofoils had already seen better days by that stage. The seats were torn and rust was here and there.

Also worth mentioning were the Pärssinen family association's ice-fishing trips to Lake Pyhäjärvi and Lake Ladoga.

–         The first was held in 2012. The chairman of the club Antero Pärssinen, retired colonel, was an active organiser and convener here. In total, three trips were made.

During one of the excursions, Antero's 75th birthday was celebrated, which was attended by, among others, the director of the Käkisalmi Museum and the museum curator.

–         This and other similar contacts developed into a warm relationship, which led to the director of the Kexholm museum visiting Finland as the guest speaker at the Kexholm festival. There is not much to tell about the fishing, for we didn't end up bringing home any great catches, unless warm cultural relations can be called such.

Pärssinen has cherished Karelian culture not only by going on excursions, but also by actively participating in Karelian organisational work and event organisation in her home region of Heinola.

–         I have been involved in the Karelia Society since 1969, currently as chairman.

Pärssinen has held positions of trust in the Käkisalmi Foundation since 1969, and has been on the board from 1984 right up until last year.

• Aimo Pärssinen
  Born in Käkisalmi rural municipality on 8 February 1944.
  Carried out his main life's work as a farmer on his farm in Myllykylä, Heinola.
  Involved in the activities of the Heinola Karelia Society since 1969, currently serving as chairperson.
  Board member of the Päijät-Häme district of the Karelia League, also serving as vice-chair for several years.
  Member of the Council of the Karelia League 2017-2023.
  Member of the board of the Käkisalmi Foundation until 2022.