

The men were sent to the GULAG or shot. Their wives and children were confined nearby in Khibinogorsk, which is now called Kirovsk and is an important tourist destination for skiers. Khaykara tells the story of one of them, Nelli Heikkinen who was confined to a children’s home and then, after she became 14, a Soviet prison because of her nationality. Labelled “an enemy of the people” at the time, Nelli suffered her entire life for this, Khaykara recounts. Finally, she appealed to the Finnish president for asylum saying that she “did not want to live in Russia since I do not believe anyone there.” He accepted and now, she is living in Tampere. Next year, she will be 90. Khaykara collected such stories about more than 200 Finns and Norwegians repressed by the Soviet authorities. She sees the confiscation of her printed book as a sign that once again her ancestors are being banned by having their stories blocked from reaching a wider audience. Indeed, as Britskaya puts it, she believes “her heroes are again under arrest.”The Soviets began repressing the Finns early on and in the late 1930s arrested and sent to the GULAG many of them. But in 1940, these actions were spread to the point of becoming an act of genocide.
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