Sirkeinen

The following name was taken from a list of victims, as described below:

Kundozerov Leonti Mefodjevitš s.1902 Sokolozero (Soukelo) Kiestingin piiri karjalainen metsänkaataja Sokolozero ammuttu 10.02.1938 .

In August 1937, the NKVD ordered prison camp wardens to submit lists of prisoners they thought were still conducting anti-state agitation. Tens of thousands of names were processed by the secret police and a three-man panel, called the Osobaya Troika or "special three," signed the death sentences and dispatched them back to thousands of Gulags across Soviet Russia. The warrants ordered the executions of 4,500 slave laborers from the White Sea canal, 1,116 inmates of the Solovetskiye camps, and nearly 3,500 other Karelian political prisoners. The victims were lawyers, school teachers, scholars, professors, ethnic minorities, religious leaders, university students, and common workers.

A list of the names, biographical data, and dates of execution of 141 Finnish Americans executed and buried in a secret KGB mass grave at Sandarmokh in the Karelian Republic of the Russian Federation. Fourteen victims were American citizens by birth. It is unknown how many of the others, who immigrated to the United States early in the twentieth century, were naturalized American citizens at the time of their move from the United States to the Soviet Union in the early 1930s.

The list of victims is based on the late Mayme Sevander’s research in archives in Petrozavodsk, Russia. This victims of Karelia list was translated into English by Jukka Pietilainen and Carl Ross from a similar list found in the the Finnish language journal Carelia (issues 2-9, 1998) published in Petrozavodsk.

The names in KGB archives are in Russian and follow Russian naming conventions which include patronymics. The latter, however, were not customary among North American Finns. To preserve the authenticity of KGB documents the Russian patronymics have been preserved, while the Finnish/English spelling is given in parentheses. Russian patronymics have double markers: OVA/EVA, indicating the possessive case; and ICH/vitš -- masculine, NA -- feminine. Thus, Ivanovich -- son of Ivan; Ivanovna -- daughter of Ivan.

In addition to KGB and other archival records, Sevander made use of Yuri Dmitriev, Mesto Rasstrela Sandarmokh [Sandarmokh Is Where They Were Executed] (Petrozavodsk [Russia], 1999); Eila Lahti-Argutina, Olimme Joukko Vieras Vaan [We Were Just a Bunch of Strangers] (Turku [Finland]: Siirtolaisuusinstituutti, 2001); and Mayme Sevander, Vaeltajat [Wanderers].

Victims of Karelia List (All Nationalities)