#northern karelia

[sivakkaphotos]

Birches

[anirobot]

The grave was dug near the settlement and painted with red ochre. The child's body was laid to rest on a feather bed. He took arrows with him and a dog on his leg as a resting companion.

The child was between the ages of 3 and 10 at the time of death.

This may have been the situation when the grave was dug in the Stone Age at the current day Majoonsuo in Outokumpu in Northern Karelia.

[suomeakinkohan]

Recovery of Lemminkäinen's head from the river of Tuonela (Hades).

Lemminkäinen was a worrior who met his death in a cruesome manner and his body was chopped into pieces and drowned in a river. His mother goes to look for the pieces by raking the river. She finds the pieces of his body and with the help of a bee who flies to heavens to get ointments that bring Lemminkäinen back to life.

Falling in love wiht Kalevala. It's a book of poems based on Karelian folklore.

[treasure-of-the-ancients]

Silver coin hoard consisting of 16th-17th century Russian kopeks, uncovered near Vieki in Northern Karelia (Finland) in 1898.

from The National Museum of Finland

[natalieironside]

If you haven't read In the Court of the Nameless Queen and related works, you should know that it's historically inspired low fantasy that answers the burning age-old question "What would happen if Karelia took over northern Europe using domesticated gigantic pangolins"

[immoren]

I think that arrow barely misses northern most part of Karelia

[usafphantom2]

Jets on highways: Why the European military is expanding "dispersed" road exercises

"Let's say that the enemy's attack plans are based on the entry and destruction of an entire air wing in an airfield in one morning. Well, that won't happen if they [friendly aircraft] are scattered all over the country and moving from A to B and from C to D all the time," said Gary Waterfall, former vice-marechal of the Royal Air Force of the United Kingdom.

Fernando Valduga By Fernando Valduga 10/23/2023 - 00:20am Military

In recent months, European nations have been intensifying the operational exercises of their fighters on temporary bases mounted on highways, dispersing their military air assets to show that they can operate anywhere with more agility. But what's the motivation?

On a cloudy day at the end of last month, two F-35A Lightning fighters belonging to the Norwegian military landed on a highway in central Finland - the first time that the conventional takeoff and landing variant of the jet managed to land on a normal road.

Baana is an annual road base exercise of the Finnish Air Force. The lead responsibility of the exercise rotates every year among the Air Force units and now it is the Karelia Air Command's turn. The Air Force trains regularly operations from other than a home base to be capable of a quick dispersal across the country, when necessary. Operation at road bases is part of the training of all Air Force pilots.

The Baana 23 exercise includes daily air operations at the Tervo road base and Rissala Air Base from Tuesday to Thursday 19-21 September between 10 am and midnight, and on Friday 22 September between 10 am and 3 pm. The exercise's operational aims are to conduct highway strip take-offs and landings based on the flight training syllabus in day and night-time conditions. The exercise will see participation by Air Force F/A-18 fighters and other Finnish Air Force aircraft.

Apart from the Finnish Air Force fleet, aircraft from allied countries will be involved in the exercise. For the first time, the Royal Norwegian Air Force F-35s and Royal Air Force Eurofighter Typhoons will participate in the exercise. The Eurofighters will operate out of Rissala Air Base.

The landing was purposeful, of course, part of an increase in recent weeks of European military training for landing and taking off fighters on highways, which analysts said represents a renewed interest in “dispersed” operations after Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The goal: to give air forces the ability to operate more independently and distantly from military bases and aviation fields that would be magnets for opposing attacks.

"The purpose of the concept is to make it more challenging for an enemy to shoot down our aircraft when it is on the ground," said the head of the Royal Norwegian Air Force, Major General Rolf Folland, in a statement from the Norwegian Armed Forces at the time of the landing of the F-35A. "For such a concept to work, we must map all the possibilities and practice them."

The Swedish and Finnish armed forces already practice jet hunting operations from roads, but lately other European air forces have shown their own interest.

The Norwegian road landings and takeoffs with the F-35 were part of the multinational Baana exercise, which also saw the British Eurofighter Typhoon jets land and take off from a single-track road, something that one pilot described to the BBC as "very crazy."

Last month we also witnessed the Polish Air Force successfully complete a series of takeoffs and landings on highways involving fighters, coaches and transport aircraft, during what is known as the training exercise of dispersed operations of Route 604 in the small town of Wielbark in northern Poland.

“If you look at the Swedish or Finnish model of how they fly, they have a base area and within it they will have a series of runways, roads and airfields, where they can disperse and operate,” said Gary Waterfall, a retired lieutenant of the Royal Air Force (RAF) from the United Kingdom. "They can take off from these places, land in a different place, turn the plane, download, upload data, rearm, take off and leave again."

He emphasized that in "an era of ultra-precision attacks", dispersed operations provide agility if the bases are under threat or if entry into the airspace around the bases is denied by an enemy.

"Let's say that the enemy's attack plans are based on the entry and destruction of an entire air wing in an airfield in one morning. Well, that won't happen if they [friendly aircraft] are scattered all over the country and moving from A to B, from C to D all the time," he said.

And in addition to solving the practical problems in road operations, analyst Justin Bronk said that the exercises also send a message to a target audience in the east.

“The motivation behind operations is, in part, to gather data on the opportunities and pitfalls of road operations for air forces that have not done so for a long time, and in part, to signal to Russia that they are taking serious measures to make it more difficult for their forces to reach a base in a major war,” said Bronk, a senior researcher of air power and technology at the Royal United Services Institute, a UK defense think tank.

Similarly, Douglas Barrie, a senior member of the military aerospace area of the International Institute of Strategic Studies, based in the United Kingdom, added that there is "an element of message" aligned with the wave of new training operations on highways, which is equivalent to the NATO air forces telling Russia: "Do not assume that just because you have destroyed our main operational bases, you will make my Air Force ineffective. It's about aggravating the challenge of selecting targets for the other side."

He added that Russia discovered in Ukraine that "disabling" an enemy airfield, or the aircraft on it, is not a "simple task".

Ultimately, Waterfall said, scattered operations do not necessarily mean that air forces can prevent opponents from attacking them, but will “change their calculation” on whether or not an attack is launched.

Training of dispersed operations from Poland

For the Polish Air Force inspector, Major General Ireneusz Nowak, the fighting in Ukraine has already proven the need to be able to operate aircraft far from their usual base.

Poland's Exercise 604 specifically evaluated the ability of the air and ground crews of F-16, Su-22, MiG-29, M-346, M28, C295M and C-130 to fly to from an alternative temporary facility, based on a scenario in which a base is inaccessible. The exercise took place on Route 604, a public road used daily by car traffic, but temporarily closed to the event.

“Ukraine's findings show that permanent air bases will be the first target of the attacks,” Nowak said. “By conducting a defensive operation, as is now the case in Ukraine, our air forces must be able to survive. And this can be achieved by dispersing our aircraft, and that's what the DOLs [Drogowy Odcinek Lotniskowy, stretches of public roads designated as potential airstrips] are for. A concept of Agile Combat Employment (ACE) requires the preparation of several dozen locations [such as DOL Wielbark] across the country."

For the exercise, the highest-ranking Polish fighter pilots were the first to conduct takeoffs and landings on public roads.

“For several reasons, the commanders landed first... [mainly] to demonstrate good leadership,” said Polish Air Force Inspector Major General Ireneusz Nowak. "I don't want, and I say this very clearly and decisively, in the Polish Air Force, commanders behind tables. In aviation, you quickly lose touch with what is happening in combat units and it is difficult to make the right decisions when you are just a Power Point expert sitting at your desk in Warsaw."

More than 40 pilots were trained in operations on public highways during the exercise of Route 604.

While the pilots learned their functions, the air defenses also trained to "protect" the assets against simulated attacks by the enemy. Air defenders operating a Pilica VSHORAD missile and artillery system were trained, facing MiG-29 Fulcrums as "aggressors". The exercise was also protected against terrorist attacks, drones or enemy aircraft by Pilica systems, also having to fight a UCAV TB2 Bayraktar, as well as an S-70i Black Hawk helicopter.

Next year, the Polish Air Force expects to conduct night operations on public roads that may also involve the newly acquired KAI FA-50GF training jets.

Expect road landings to become more common

Nowak said there is a "desire" for similar exercises to be held annually in Poland, and other training exercises for dispersed operations in collaboration with NATO partner air forces.

In the long term, broad international cooperation is expected, including collaboration with Scandinavian countries, well versed in dispersed operations. Pilots from other allied countries will also be invited to Poland for joint training exercises and learning on how to operate in Polish conditions.

“In times of peace, the exercises on the motorways would imply the closure of important transport routes and, in times of war, the same motorways will be a very important element of the logistical supply of troops, which also excludes the interruption, even if only temporary, of such important supply arteries,” explained Lieutenant General Wieslaw Kukula, general commander of the Polish Armed Forces.

Poland's commitment to modernize roads and collaborate with other NATO partners in dispersed operations in the future once again points to increased deterrence in the face of Russian aggression.

“There is a certain degree of urgency throughout NATO to do this because Russia has given a warning sign,” Waterfall said. “I think it's very good to see why the day you don't want to do this is the day you'll have to do it.”

More generally, Barrie suggested that the increase in dispersed operations is a "sign of the times" due to Russia's "very abrasive relationship" with Europe.

“I don't think there's any reason why we don't see the Air Force's effort to improve resilience and survivability. In the context of NATO, people will analyze all the options,” he said.

Source: Breaking Defense

Tags: Military AviationIlmavoimat/Finland Air ForceNATO - North Atlantic Treaty OrganizationPAF - Polish Air Force / Polish Air Force

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Fernando Valduga

Fernando Valduga

Aviation photographer and pilot since 1992, has participated in several events and air operations, such as Cruzex, AirVenture, Dayton Airshow and FIDAE. He has work published in specialized aviation magazines in Brazil and abroad. Uses Canon equipment during his photographic work in the world of aviation.

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[ihmekukkavesi]

train window views // somewhere between northern savonia and north karelia, finland // 11/05/2023, between 9:30 p.m. and 10 p.m.

[ker4unos]

BALTIC & FINNIC RESOURCES

The Anthropological Masterlist is HERE.

The Baltic people are a European linguistic group that share the Baltic languages. They are native to Lithuania and Latvia.

BALTIC ─ “The Balts are a European linguistic group that share the Baltic languages. They are native to Lithuania, Latvia, and other nearby regions.” ─ Ancient Baltic Cosmology ─ Baltic Languages

LATVIA ─ “The Latvian, or Lett, people are a Baltic people. They are native to Latvia.” ─ Latvian Clothing ─ Latvian History ─ Latvian Dictionary

LITHUANIA ─ “The Lithuanians are a Baltic people. They are native to Lithuania.” ─ Lithuanian Culture ─ Lithuanian Dictionary (in Lithuanian)

PRUSSIA ─ “The Prussian, or Old Prussian, people were a Baltic people. They lived in the historical region of Prussia.” ─ Pre-Christian Baltic Mythology ─ Teutonic Order (in German) ─ Prussian Dictionary

The Finnic people, or Finns, are a European linguistic group that share the Finno-Permic languages. They are native to northern Scandinavian, Finland, and western Russia.

ESTONIA ─ “The Estonians are a Finnic people. They are native to Estonia.” ─ Estonian Mythology ─ Estonian History ─ Estonian Language

FINLAND ─ “The Finnish, or Finns, people are a Finnic people. They are native to Finland.” ─ Finnish History ─ Finnish Dictionaries

HUNGARY ─ “The Hungarian, or Magyar, people are a Finno-Ugric people. They are native to Hungary.” ─ Hungarian Information ─ Hungarian History ─ Hungarian Dictionaries KARELIA ─ “The Karelian people are a Finnic people. They are native to the historical region of Karelia.” ─ Karelian Information ─ Karelian Language ─ Karelian-Finnish Dictionary (in Finnish)

SÁMI ─ “The Sámi, or Saami, people are a Finno-Ugric people. They are native to the historical region of Sápmi.” ─ Sámi Information ─ Sámi Culture and History ─ Sámi Dictionary (in Finnish)

[black-arcana]

The top 20 best Nightwish songs ranked

By Catherine Morris

From Nemo and Élan to Greatest Show On Earth and Ghost Love Score, these are the best songs by symphonic metal icons Nightwish - as chosen by you

It’s simply not possible to talk about symphonic metal, or indeed Finland, without hearing the name Nightwish. From their humble beginnings playing acoustic songs around the campfire in their hometown of Kitee, Northern Karelia, to the stages of arenas and stadiums around the world, Nightwish have become the most successful Finnish band globally and one of their country’s best-selling acts. 

It’s been an eventful and at times, turbulent journey: in their nearly thirty year career, the band have endured less-than-cordial splits with two out of three singers, and all the backlash that went with the controversial decisions. More recently, they’ve undergone more lineup changes within the fold, but they’ve always come back, seemingly stronger than ever – and in their current incarnation, fronted by the insanely talented Floor Jansen, they continue to dominate.

With nine studio albums, a feature film and around 117 total recorded songs in their back catalogue (some of which have never been played live, we put it to you, the fans, to definitively rank the best musical offerings from the band’s varied and illustrious career. Three distinctive voices have all made their mark on the Nightwish sound during her ‘era’, and each one has had her moment of glory, as evidenced by the below list.

Which one came out as the definitive fan favourite? Keep scrolling, and you’ll see… 

And if you want to read more about Nighwish, be sure to pick up this month's issue of Metal Hammerwhere Finland's finest symphonic export are once again gracing our cover. From getting Tuomas Holopainen to talk us through every Nightwish album to date, to an in-depth chat with Floor Jansen about her upcoming solo record and recent breast cancer diagnosis, there's plenty to get into for Nightwish fanatics and newcomers alike. 

20. Wishmaster (2000)

From the album of the same name, the lyrics of this Lord of the Rings-inspired track might initially be hard to decipher for some (some pretty spectacularly misheard versions exist online), but the punchiness of the chorus and Tarja Turunen’s haunting siren-call in the verses make Wishmaster a firm fan favourite.

19. I Want My Tears Back (2011)

This sweet uptempo jig from the band’s conceptual Imaginaerum album takes listeners into the Disney esque dreamscape of Tuomas Holopainen’s lost childhood, with its charmingly nostalgic lyrics and Troy Donockley’s uilleann pipe riff as the song’s focal point. It quickly became a staple on tour setlists and has remained so ever since.

18. The Islander (2007)

One of the few occasions former bassist Marko Hietala provided lead vocals, with then-singer Anette only a ghostly echo in the chorus, was on this folky acoustic ditty from Dark Passion Play, which provides a soothing respite from the overall heaviness of the record and was the first Nightwish to feature Troy prominently.

17. Bless the Child (2002)

The second single from Century Child is a sparkling, operatic mid-tempo lament that’s 2000s- Nightwish through and through: spoken word, lyrics lifted from Walter Raleigh’s poetry and plenty of navel-gazing. Century Child is the band’s first album to feature an orchestra, and they certainly got their money’s worth on Bless The Child.

16. Amaranth (2007)

After Dark Passion Play ballad Eva leaked online, the world’s first visual introduction to Anette Olzon came in the form of the album’s first music video for the catchy and upbeat Amaranth. Showcasing a dramatically different singing style to Tarja, her impressively high belting won over many sceptical fans.

15. Élan (2015)

Similarly, the band’s first single that introduced singer Floor Jansen made a spectacular impression – a tribute to Tuomas’ hero Walt Whitman, the Endless Forms Most Beautiful track is a rousing ode to the beauty and mystery of life that gently introduces the listener to the album’s themes of evolution and natural history.

14. Dead Boy's Poem (2000)

One of Tuomas’ most personal compositions, the penultimate track on Wishmaster has a slow, hymnlike pace and deeply melancholic lyrics; introducing the ‘Dead Boy’ motif to represent the songwriter and employing a child narrator, the song climaxes in a stunning vocal delivery by Tarja that never fails to induce goosebumps.

13. 7 Days to the Wolves (2007)

“The wolves, my love, will come,” purrs Anette at the beginning of this Dark Passion Play track that sits firmly at the heavier end of the Nightwish oeuvre. Ostensibly inspired by Stephen King’s Dark Tower series, the build into its middle 8 section is one of the most thrilling moments on the album.

12. Song of Myself (2011)

The last proper song on Imaginaerum is a thirteen-minute-long epic in four parts. Taking direct inspiration from the Whitman poem of the same name, it’s a grandiose, sprawling track that ties together all the themes of the record and ends in a lengthy spoken-word section narrated with Troy’s soothing Northern lilt.

11. Shoemaker (2020)

Human. :||: Nature’s only entry on this list is Shoemaker, the band’s tribute to Dr Eugene Shoemaker, a planetary scientist who became the first man to be buried on the Moon per his wishes after dying in an accident. The song’s repeated outro of “Ad Astra!” sees Floor go fully operatic and it is simply, heartbreakingly beautiful.

10. Last Ride Of The Day (2011)

A rollercoaster of a song, this is the track from Imaginaerum that flips the power switch at the abandoned theme park that forms the album’s richly-imagined backdrop, turning all the rides back on for one last hurrah. The dynamics in Anette’s voice from the whisper-soft verse to the dizzyingly high final note make it a thrilling sonic journey.

9. Wish I Had an Angel (2004)

The second single from the Once album is a back-and-forth duet between Tarja and Marko, with an intoxicating dance beat and lyrics positively oozing with lust. Consistently one of their most-performed songs with each of their three singers, it’s a perennial favourite that never fails to get the crowd moving – what’s more, it charted in ten countries including the UK and went gold in their home country of Finland. Kaching!

8. Dark Chest of Wonders (2004)

It comes as no surprise that multiple Once tracks made it into the top ten, as arguably the band’s most successful album to date in terms of sales, and the one that put them on the global map. Dark Chest of Wonders is a perfect album opener in many ways: the hushed tones of Tarja’s “Once, I had a dream…” straight into a guitar riff punctuated by dramatic orchestra hits and culminating in a triumphant final cadence.

7. Storytime (2011)

The chart-topping lead single from the Imaginaerum record is a song that perhaps best encapsulates the band’s sound of that era. A testament to the imagination of Tuomas Holopainen and his love for children’s fantasy tales, his lyrics reference literary icons such as Alice and Peter Pan, as well as the beloved titular character from The Snowman, and the track opens the gates to the album’s tumultuous carnival ride in signature Nightwish style.

6. Sleeping Sun (1999)

Being the only ballad to make the top ten just goes to show the impact of Sleeping Sun, from a standalone maxi single named 4 Ballads Of The Eclipse that was released to coincide with the total solar eclipse of August ’99. Introspective and reverential, this gorgeous ode to the beauty in darkness is powerfully evocative in a way only someone who has experienced Arctic polar nights could know. So good, they recorded it twice.

5. Nemo (2004)

Undeniably a breakthrough track for the band, earning them their first entry into the UK charts and hitting the top ten in multiple countries, the lead single from Once remains their most-performed live song to date. Accompanied by a big-budget music video set against a fittingly wintry backdrop, the sparse piano hook and infectiously catchy chorus melody set it apart as one of their more accessible songs that still packs a punch.

4. Ever Dream (2002)

Famously the song that got Anette Olzon the job of Nightwish lead singer when she chose to audition for the band with it, the band’s fourth studio album Century Child saw the inclusion of Marko Hietala on vocal duties alongside Tarja for the first time, adding a brand new dimension to the band’s evolving symphonic metal sound with his powerful power-metal screams. 

Ever Dream earned the band their first platinum record, and with good reason: full of light and shade, the dynamic contrasts between the verse, chorus and middle eight, as well as between Tarja and Marko’s voices, all serve to heighten the drama of the song.

3. The Poet and the Pendulum (2007)

Starting a record with an opening track just shy of the fourteen-minute mark was certainly a bold choice, and a fitting way to set the stage for Dark Passion Play. 

From the youthful voice of a boy treble in the introduction to Marko’s furious, blasphemous snarls and an astonishingly beautiful performance by Anette in the final movement, it’s a multi-part epic that encompasses seemingly every emotion that can be expressed with music, albeit at the darker end of the spectrum; all of the turbulence and personal strife experienced by its composer shrouds the song in a stormy cloak of angst.

2. The Greatest Show on Earth (2015)

Enter Floor – with eight years in the band already under her belt, it’s only fitting that one of the Dutch singer’s stunning contributions to the Nightwish canon should make it into the top ten; even more so that it’s the closing track from Endless Forms Most Beautiful. 

Another one of their signature multi-part compositions which, at twenty-four minutes long, is their longest, most ambitious and arguably most progressive to date, The Greatest Show On Earth is a celebration of life on our blue rock that draws inspiration heavily from Darwin’s On The Origin Of Species. A live favourite (in an abridged form) ever since Endless Forms… came out, the climactic chant of “We were here!” is its crowning moment.

1. Ghost Love Score (2004)

Of course, the number one spot on the list could only go to one song: Ghost Love Score. The ninth track on the double-platinum-selling Once unofficially sort of marks the beginning of an arc of ten-minute-plus songs composed of multiple distinct movements that have been present on every Nightwish album since. 

The Poet and the Pendulum, The Greatest Show on Earth, and Song of Myself all continued this pattern, but Ghost Love Score is still, for many, the blueprint, having taken on a life beyond its original form thanks to many now-legendary performances of the song by Floor Jansen, everywhere from Buenos Aires to Wacken Open Air. 

Compositionally perhaps their most accomplished song, it’s always played in its entirety, unlike the aforementioned tracks; it flows beautifully from one movement into another, changing time signatures from 4/4 to a waltz seamlessly for its cinematic “seafaring” middle string section and returning to its original themes at the end to bring it home. 

Add to that the hopelessly romantic lyrics (“You were the one to cut me, so I’ll bleed forever!”) and the fantastic backing of the London Philharmonic Orchestra and there you have it: Nightwish’s best song, as chosen by the fans.

[sivakkaphotos]

Tänä aamuna ensimmäinen kunnon pakkanen -7°C. Kaunista!

[doitinanotherlanguage]

Non-Anglo Movies You Should Watch 23/∞: Oma maa (2018; Land of Hope), dir. Markku Pölönen

Country: Finland

Language: Finnish

Genre: Historical Romantic Drama

Summary: The daughter of a wealthy Finnish family falls in love with an orphaned war invalid, wounded at the end of World War II. Against her family’s wishes, they get married and leave their pasts behind to build a home in the wild forests of northern Karelia.

[tarjaturunenworldnews]

#Repost @tarjaofficial via Instagram

.

.

Northern Karelia will always have a special place in my heart. #finland🇫🇮 #northkarelia #home #goodbyefornow

#tarja #tarjaturunen

[okaima]

Karelian words - Seasons

Like many northern peoples, Karelians traditionally had not 2 or 4 but 8 seasons, divided roughly as such:

Sygyzy - autumn (september-november)

Syvystalvi - autumn-winter (november-december)

Talvi - winter (december-february)

Kevättalvi - spring-winter (february-march)

Kevät - spring (march-april)

Kevätkezä - spring-summer (april-may)

Kezä - summer (june-july)

Syvyskezä - autumn-summer (august-september)

The year “began” at the end of harvest season, when the ground was laid to rest and was not allowed to be disturbed by digging, turning, burning etc until the wake of spring.

Because the soil in Karelian areas is thin, bedrock near the surface, fire has always been big part of the agriculture: the fields were burned before seeding the grains, and fire was used to clear out new ones. Field- and crop rotation were also practiced regularly.

During the cold time while the fields are at rest, hunting and fishing were main sources of fresh food. Fishing especially was practiced all through year, as most parts of Karelia never yielded enough crops to be sole or even main source of food. Men also practiced traveling trade.

When the spring finally came, the family and village elders would decide what was sown where, when and how much. Rye especially was often sown late in the year, so that it would sprout next spring for the first time.

[xavierbautistagarcia]

A Dutchman at the court of Catherine the Great

Kyminlinna is a fortress on the shores of the Gulf of Finland built by Russia in the late 18th and early 19th centuries to defend St. Petersburg from a possible Swedish attack.

Sweden had become the great military power in northern Europe by the mid-17th century, after the end of the Thirty Years' War, and came to include Denmark, central Norway, some northern German states, areas of what are now the Baltic countries, Finland and Karelia, a territory that is now Russian but which by its proximity posed a threat to the then Russian capital.

Although Kyminlinna (Kymi castle, after a river that runs through the region of the nearby town of Kotka) was built in the late 18th century after the Swedish-Russian war, it was not until the beginning of the next century that a Dutch-born general, Jan Pieter van Suchtelen (Pyotr Kornilovich Suhtelen, in Russian), took charge of its construction.

Suchtelen travelled to St Petersburg in 1783 after a military career spent in the Dutch-English wars of the 1770s. There, Tsarina Catherine II appointed him an officer in the Corps of Engineers.

The reconstruction of Kyminlinna (Kymmeneborg, in Swedish) began in 1803 and was not completed by the time of the so-called Finnish War, a new confrontation between Sweden and Russia that took place between 1808 and 1809 at a time when the Napoleonic wars were raging in Europe. However, Finland's incorporation into Russia meant that the fortress lost its strategic value.

In 1917, Finland proclaimed its independence and in the following year a civil war broke out, patterned after the Bolshevik revolution, between white and red opponents. Kyminlinna then hosted a Finnish Red Guard training centre until it was bombed by the German navy.

During World War II, Finland resisted the Soviet onslaught with German help, but was also able to drive the Germans out of its territory during the Lapland War, forcing them to retreat to occupied Norway. Kyminlinna took in refugees of Finnish origin and Lutheran religion from Soviet-occupied Ingria, who faced death or deportation.

Kyminlinna lost its military character in 2005.

© Kotka-imagebank