Kaukana Kainuussa, valtaväylän varrella : etnologinen tutkimus Kontiomäen rautatieläisyhteisön elinkaaresta 1950-1972

Abstract

FL Kimmo Lagerblomin etnologian väitöskirjan ”Kaukana Kainuussa, valtaväylän varrella. Etnologinen elinkaaritutkimus Kontiomäen rautatieläisyhteisöstä vuosina 1950-1973.” tarkastustilaisuus. Vastaväittäjänä professori Pekka Leimu (Turun yliopisto) ja kustoksena professori Bo Lönnqvist.Kimmo Lagerblomin tutkimus on ensimmäinen Suomessa tehty väitöskirja, jonka painopiste on rautatieläiskulttuurissa. Kontiomäen lisäksi tutkimuksessa tarkastellaan laajemminkin rautatien historiallista merkitystä sekä Suomessa että muualla.

This study is located on Kontiomäki railtown; witch is a small village some 600 kilometres north from Helsinki. Kontiomäki is a typical railtown. The Finnish State Railway Company, VR, was the sole employer there. Outside Kontiomäki lays a countryside where people lived most of the farming.In the beginning at 20th century the new railway from Kouvola to Iisalmi was ready. It was called ”Savo railway”, because the main part of it went through the Savo province. North from Iisalmi is Kainuu province, one of the poorest parts of Finland. During many years the crops failed there and Southern Finland was obliged to deliver relief there. When the line was ready to Iisalmi, people wanted to carry out the construction works of the line to Kajaani, capital of Kainuu. When that line was ready, at 1908, man saw that there was a necessity to build a new line from Kajaani to the Oulu, which was at that time a merchant centre of North Finland. This line was ready at the beginning of 1930’s. A little before that, 1923, Kontiomäki was connected with railway to the South Finland.Kontiomäki didn’t exist before that. There was no village, only two farms, located quite far away from the present-day centre. One of the farmers, Mr. Kalle Keränen, was a very powerful man, a member of the municipal council and he had also some relations to the top of the Finnish political élite. He was also the main force behind the Kontiomäki-railway project. Without him it is very likely that the new line would never been draw through Kontiomäki.By and by this new railtown grow bigger. The new lines, first to the Karelian Isthmus through Nurmes and later a northbound line to Taivalkoski and some 30 years ago eastward to Vartius made Kontiomäki a one of the biggest railway junctions in Finland.This dissertation studies the rise and fall of Kontiomäki. It is based on interviews. People, who have been working at Kontiomäki between 1950 – 1973 think back on that period. The points of view are: ”How it felts to work and live at Kontiomäki”, ”Which kind of social life did people have there”, “What differences there were working at the railway company VR or outside it”, “What did people do in their spare time in the middle of nowhere” and “how it felts to move away from Kontiomäki”.My study based a Canadian ”one-company-town” structure. It was presented by Rex A. Lucas in the beginning of 1970’s and his model was completed ten years later by John H. Bradbury and Isabelle St-Martin. Lucas’s study focused mainly on the Canadian mining towns and it presented a company life-span pattern. He found out those one-company towns always follows a certain structure. He didn’t include in his model the decease of the towns and it was first Bradbury and St-Martin, who introduced ”the winding-down” aspect as a one alternative of the end of a mining town.I have adapted this expanded model to my study and I prove that this structure can also adapt to Kontiomäki railtown. It has, however, some restrictions, but mainly this life-span pattern fits perfectly to Kontiomäki. This life-span theory is not wildy used in the Finnish academically thesis or studies. In fact, this is the very first paper, which consternate on this subject. This is, in fact, also the first Finnish thesis written on railway culture and history.The Kontiomäki rail town was born out of nothing; its golden age was quite a short, only 40 odd years. It lives still but on a pilot light. The engine depot is still there but the number of the engine drivers has got down drastic. The period of prosperity is over. Passenger traffic via Kontiomäki is slight and cargo is nowadays very significant for the future of Kontiomäki rail town. On the contrary of the mining towns, railtown can never be shut down immediately. Usually the number of traffic goes first down; its many different operations will be decreased and number of employees demising. Only it the whole line will be shut down, railtown can cease to exit in a short time. This is, however, not what is going on in Kontiomäki because it is a well-established freight centre and very important port-of-call for the trains running between Russia and Europe.