Researcher: US Planned "New Finland" for Refugees in Alaska

[The Ripper]

Researcher: US Planned "New Finland" for Refugees in Alaska

published today 04:44 PM, updated today 05:00 PM

http://yle.fi/ecepic/archive/00358/sotalapset_pakolais_358259b.jpgFinnish children being evacuated during the Winter War.
Image: Museovirasto

In 1940, the United States considered the possibility of settling Finnish refugees from the Winter War in Alaska, according to Lecturer Henry Oinas-Kukkonen of the University of Oulu.

Speaking at a historical research conference in Jyväskylä on Friday, Oinas-Kukkonen said that the proposal was intended to be carried out if the Soviet Union had conquered Finland.

In early 1940, he says, US officials were preparing to set up an "American Finland" in the northernmost state. The US Department of the Interior drew up several proposals to allow Finnish refugees to settle in Alaska during the late winter and early spring of 1940.

The plan was presented to Former President Herbert Hoover, who chaired the Finnish Relief Fund.

"New Finland" would have been established in Central Alaska around the Tanana River, a tributary of the Yukon. US authorities considered conditions in the Alaskan wilderness to be suitable for the Finns. Central Alaska is at roughly the same latitude as central Finland.

Birches and Midnight Sun

"The area has a northern terrain of rolling hills, birch and spruce trees and midnight sun. It was considered the closest replica of their homeland that could be offered to the Finns," Oinas-Kukkonen says.

However the plan became bogged down because of opposition from Alaskans in Congress. The biggest obstacle was the idea of a large national group speaking a language that many considered completely incomprehensible.

"The Finnish language was seen as a factor that would have caused problems for the naturalisation of Finns living in Alaska," he explains. According to an analysis at the time, it would have 100 years for the Finnish settlement to become truly American.

While the proposal became deadlocked in Congress, Finland signed the Moscow Peace Treaty on March 12, 1940. The pact ended the three-and-a-half month long Winter War and forced Finland to hand over more than 10 percent of its territory. The evacuees, mostly from Karelia, were resettled in other parts of Finland.

http://yle.fi/uutiset/news/2010/10/researcher_us_planned_quotnew_finlandquot_for_refu gees_in_alaska_2083596.html

[kaliyuga]

What a country! The Finns kicked the Bolshevik bear's ass!:thumb001:

[Bloodeagle]

"New Finland" would have been established in Central Alaska around the Tanana River, a tributary of the Yukon.

I surely wouldn't want to live there. Talk about cold winters!
They could of at least given them plots on the Kenai Peninsula, where years later, Russian Old Believers were settled!

[Eldritch]

What possibilities !!

In an alternate universe, I could be strolling the streets of New Helsinki, speaking into a mobile phone called Borea. The topic of my call would be the upcoming meeting for the "Finglish as Alaska's official language" committee.

And of course my Borea smartphone could display the value of my investments in Finlaskan gold and oil in realtime.

What did I forget? ;)

http://oregonsunshine.files.wordpress.com/2008/10/alaska1.jpg

[Motörhead Remember Me]

What did I forget? ;)

http://oregonsunshine.files.wordpress.com/2008/10/alaska1.jpg

That mingling with local Eskimos would have created a new group of Finnuits?

[Motörhead Remember Me]

The idea was absurd and revealed Americans ignorance.

No Finn would volunterily have settled there since Finland is much warmer than central Alaska....

[Great Dane]

They should have considered the upper penisula of Michigan.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/13/Pct_finnish4.png

[Motörhead Remember Me]

Also colder than Finland in winter...

For me, American Samoa would have been a serious choice.

[Eldritch]

They should have considered the upper penisula of Michigan.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/13/Pct_finnish4.png

I've always thought that the Finnish-American community in Florida is fairly sizable, but that doesn't seem to show on that map at least.

[The Ripper]

I've always thought that the Finnish-American community in Florida is fairly sizable, but that doesn't seem to show on that map at least.

May be they don't have citizenship to the same degree, and perhaps their share of the total is lower than in sparsely populated Michigan.

[Bloodeagle]

The map does show that my borough contains 8-17% Finnish.
I know of 2 Finnish families, in my small circle of friends.

The climate between Southcentral Alaska (http://www.worldclimate.com/cgi-bin/data.pl?ref=N61W149+1302+502820C) and Central Finland (http://www.worldclimate.com/cgi-bin/data.pl?ref=N63E027+1102+02917W)appear to be very similar.

The Anchorage Suomi-Finland Club is one of the oldest ethnic organizations in the State of Alaska. Established in 1920 as a social and dance club for Finnish people to gather dance and have the opportunity to speak their native language (http://www.finnclub.com/), Finnish (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finnish_language).


1794-1867
Possibly the first Finn to have reached Alaska was a carpenter, Aleksanteri Kuparinen, who accompanied a group of Russian Orthodox monks locating on Kodiak Island in 1794.
After Finland came under Russian rule in 1809, a number of Finnish sailors and craftsmen found employment in Alaska, at the other geographic extreme of the Russian empire from Finland. Of the approximately 500 Europeans living in Sitka in mid-nineteenth century, the majority were Russians, Finns and Balts. Many took Aleut wives. A number of Finnish professionals, including clergymen, academics and prospecting engineers, visited Alaska for periods of time, while those in more menial occupations lacked the means to return and remained in Alaska even after it was sold to the United States in 1867.
Two Finns in particular left their mark on the North American continent as chief managers of the Russian-American Company: Arvid Adolf Etholén and Johan Hampus Furuhjelm. Etholén first reached Sitka in the service of the Russian-American Company in 1818, rising to chief manager of the Company 1840-1845. The name Etolin, based on the Russian version of Etholén's name, "Adolf Karlovich Etolin," can be found in several places on the map of Alaska. The Etholén collection in the National Museum of Finland contains a number of remarkable Alaskan ethnographic items.
Johan Hampus Furuhjelm served as Governor of the Russian-American Company from 1859 to 1864 and retired with the rank of vice admiral. In 1935 the United States Forest Service named Mount Furuhjelm after him.

[ikki]

Not really any colder when you look at the southern part. Maybe a degree at max colder.
http://www.weather.gov/forecasts/graphical/sectors/aktrimmed.php?element=MaxT

As for the rest: http://sled.alaska.edu/akfaq/aksuper.html

Fish would be the biggest business. Even silver bigger than the gold. Gold is so far just panning.. no real mines even yet!!! Zinc too.

The real goldmine however i suspect will be geothermal power, icelands hotsprings are like comparing a leaky toilet to a waterfall.

So much wood, the biggest challenge would be building the rails to get them cut and transported.

As for farming, even that would be doable. The yukon delta delivers water and creates a delta that makes missisippi look tiny. Combined with greenhouse farming, im sure california could be made second. Added in flow-powergenerators ala tesla, and there would be more energy than one knows what to do with!

As for the population, finland was about 3,5 million at the time, alaska had 50.000. So the eskimos and whatnot would have about the same cultural impact as lapps today.

One of the real problems would be the earthquakes however. But as japan is kinda close and about to be subjected to us economic power, any developments in eartquakeproof buildings should be spreading without any own effort. With some actual effort.. well, guess the problem is gone.
Same for access to robots, esp for picking those huge harvests ;)

[ikki]

Fishing is btw a very intresting business. It creates demand for a very wide range of products like fishing boats (and ths ships industry) aswell as transportation means and the barrels/boxes. Salt too.
Salt in turn, well, theres a sea and geothermal power. Thus the need to create this energy source eventually, along with desalination technology.

Anyways, screw internal alaska. No need to live there. more than enough lebensraum on the 50.000km+ coasts. Never mind actually using a few km inlands aswell. (do check out that weatherforecast map)

[Great Dane]

I've always thought that the Finnish-American community in Florida is fairly sizable, but that doesn't seem to show on that map at least.

May be they don't have citizenship to the same degree, and perhaps their share of the total is lower than in sparsely populated Michigan.

The upper penisula of Michigan is sparcely populated. The area from the UP through northern Wisconsin and northeastern Minnesota is mostly timber and mineral land. It is popular as a hunting, fishing and recreational vacation area. There might actually be more Finns in Florida but there are also a lot more people in Florida.