WW2 Ceded Areas

After the Finland vs. Soviet Unions wars of World War II ended, Soviet Union strong-armed Finland into massive land cedings as part of the new peace treaty. Finland remained independent but around 400.000 people were evacuated from the ceded areas into other regions of Finland. I've included mail from all the ceded areas here and detail the area within the individual items included.

Inari

Jäniskosken voimalaitos

This area had Finnish postal functions but not many permanent residents. It was a construction site of a hydro-electric power plant that was needed to provide power to nearby mining industry.

While strictly not ceded after the WW2, I've included this item here. Soviet Union "bought" the area from Finland in 1947 after demanding unreasonable monetary and goods compensations. The area itself was part of Inari municipality and for some reason was not demanded by Soviet Union in the aftermath of the WW2. Some sources would also maintain that this area was indeed part of the Petsamo municipality. A British-Canadian power consortium started building a hydro-electric power plant in 1938 with a good chunk of Finnish builders. However, the work stopped for the duration of the Winter War between Soviet Union and Finland (1939-1940). After that war the construction work continued and during the Continuation War between Soviet Union and Finland (1941-1944) the plant was finished and started producing electricity in 1942. However, during the Lapland War between Germany and Finland (1944-1945) Germans completely destroyed the power plant.

In 1947 Finnish government agreed to sell the ruined power plant and it's neighbouring lands to Soviet Union as Finnish government simply did not have the money to rebuild the power plant and Soviet Union agreed to rebuilding it. The area was (officially Niskakoski-Jäniskoski region, 176 square kilometres) inhabited by only two households so relocating Finnish people was easy. However, the Soviets then hired Finnish workers to rebuild the power plant. All this resulted in a peculiar postal arrangement: a Finnish post office meant for Finnish construction workers completely within the Soviet Union. The construction workers and post were transferred between the power plant and Finland by a single bus line. After the construction work was finished, the post office was discontinued and the FInnish workers returned to their homes in Finland.

Mail stop was established 1.6.1938. Post office established 1.7.1947. All postal functions ceased 1.6.1951.

A Google Maps link to the power plant.

Below is a registered letter from Jäniskosken voimalaitos to Helsinki dated 18.9.1950.

Terijoki

Terijoki was a municipality in ceded Karelian Ishtmus. It was separated from the Kivennapa municipality in 1911. The area was ceded to Soviet Union in 1940 after the short-lived Peace of Moscow peace treaty.

Kivennapa

A former Finnish municipality in today's Russia in ceded Karelian Ishtmus.

Raivola

Today's Raivola is a small municipality of around 15.000-20.000 inhabitants in current day's Russia some 75 kilometers South-East from the bigger city of Viipuri in ceded Karelia. The area belonged to Finland until the end of the 2nd World War when Soviet Union's peace stipulations forced the lands to be handed over to Soviet Union and was part of the Grand Principality of Finland from the early 19th century.

Before the 2nd World War Raivola was part of the Finnish Kivennapa municipality. Raivola has been inhabited continuously from at least the 1500's. In the turn of the 19th and 20th century there were at most a couple of thousand people living in the larger Raivola area. The town received it's own post office in 1.10.1873 and it continued it's operation until it was evacuated in 1940 when Soviet Union's forces occupied Karelia. During the Continuation War Finnish military forces captured the town from Soviet troops and re-established it's Finnish postal functions for a short period between 1.7.1942 and 10.6.1944. It was then ceded to Soviet Union according to the peace agreement between Finland and Soviet Union.

Below is a Grand Principality of Finland postal stationery card from Raivola to Terijoki 1909. This postal stationery card has a rather beautiful postmark of this small town dated 26.6.1909. This particular type of postmark was in use between 20.8.1908 and 13.6.1918. This postal stationery (with a postal value of 3 kopecs as opposed to 10 penniä that was in use in Finland) appears to be an Imperial Russia-originating postal stationery. These were supposed not to be either sold or used within Finland. However, Raivola's location so close to the Russian border makes it rather common that these kinds of "mistakes" took place and obviously postal authorities have let this one slip (not an uncommon occurrence, mind you). The target location, Terijoki was close by. Terijoki was at the time of this postal stationery was posted structurally within the same municipality (Kivennapa).