Mureen kirjeet: Evakkous ja elämäntavan muutos rajakarjalais-ortodoksisten sisarusten kirjeenvaihdoissa 1930-luvulta 1970-luvulle

Abstract

This doctoral dissertation examines the written experiences of displaced persons and changes in way of life in their private correspondence. This study concerns the fields of exploration of displaced people, social and cultural research on wars, postwar and peace transition crisis research and historical letter studies. The primary source for the research is an extensive collection of letters preserved by the Border Karelian and Orthodox Mure family. The research method applied is a context-oriented approach to the letters. The Mure family comprised five siblings and their widowed mother during World War II: farmer's widow Tatjana Mure (1876–1947), midwife Klaudia Mure (1900–1947), the mistress of the house Anni Mure (1902–1982), midwife Nasti (Asta Anastasia) Mure (1904–1981), cantor Johannes Mure (1907–1987) and farmer Yrjö Mure (1912–1982). Nowadays the resettlement plot of the Mure family is a museum, the Finnish Settlement Museum, exhibiting the history of the displaced Karelian population and settled veterans. The letters of the family are archived in the museum, which is located in Lapinlahti, northern Savo. The siblings’ status in the local community was tied to their professions and social awareness. The way of life of the siblings originated primarily in the traditions of Border Karelia and rusticity, combined with the ideals of Finnish identity and culture. This dissertation contends that the Mure siblings, on the one hand, had an epistolary way of life. Letters played a considerable part in family relations. Letter writing was a family strategy and the siblings cherished family traditions by means of letters. They had what is known as a ‘documentative life’ (tallettava elämä) that describes the siblings’ activity as letter collectors. For displaced people in general, World War II had an effect on the experience of home, and some of the displaced Karelians had nostalgic memories. Work and lived Orthodox religion were experienced as continuities. Both the resettlement of Karelians and the peace transition crisis of the Orthodox Church in Finland were tense. Significant structural changes in society and experiences of them gave rise to a political movement in which small farmers and resettled farmers participated from the end of 1950s to the 1970s.