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Karelian Exodus: Finnish Communities in North America and Soviet Karelia during the Depression Era

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Karelian Exodus, by Ron Harpelle, Varpu Lindström, Alexis Pogorelskin, is a study of Finnish Communities in North America and Soviet Karelia during the Depression Era. The book is a collection of 13 articles on this topic by authors from Finland, Russia, Sweden Canada and the USA. The articles are based on papers delivered at a conference held at Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, Ontario in late March, 2004. The conference theme was "Finnish Communities in North America and the Soviet Union during the Depresssion Years 1929-1939."

The mass exodus of some 6500-7000 Finnish Canadians and Finnish Americans to Soviet Karelia in the early 1930s is explored from a variety of perspectives and attempts to explain the causes of this so-called "Karelia Fever" are offered. Karelian Exodus sheds a bit of light on this little know episode in Canadian and US history and shows the impact and consequences of Stalin's purges of Finns in Soviet Karelia between 1935-1938.

Like many such articles written by academics, it's dry, hard to read and really fit only for other academics rather than the non-academic reader with an interest in the subject. On the other hand, there's very little available on this unique piece of Finnish history. It's a case of which wins - interest in the subject or the sheer dryness of the typical academic writer. Personnally, I found the topic interesting, the content informative, but deadly boring to read......