Journey From Karelia to Karelia

by Lisa Herrala daCunha-Koski

Rene Aukusti Herrala was born February 1, 1910 and had one brother, Edvard Aukusti Herrala, born August 28, 1911 and one sister, Wilma Maria A. Herrala, all born in Finland.

The father’s name was Akusti Johanpoika Herrala of Uusi Aho, Finland. It is also called Ylipää Aho, located near Haapajärvi in Oulu province.

Rene immigrated to the U.S.A. in the early 1930s, as did thousands of Finns in those decades. Rene visited his relatives in Bellefouche, South Dakota and later in Halsey Valley, N.Y. These relatives were Matti Herrala, his uncle, Matti's wife Emma Ericsson Herrala and their several children. (One child, Walter, is the author’s father.) Later, in the 1930s, Rene went to New York City, probably looking for work, during The Depression.

Rene did not become a citizen of the United States, as his uncle, Matti Herrala did and therefore could not avail himself of lands that the Homestead Act awarded to many immigrant citizens. Later, this lack of citizenship would prove troublesome for him.

The economic depression in the U.S.A. and in Europe made earning a living extremely difficult for millions of people, including Rene and his cousin Walter.

There was much propaganda in many places, including Finnish-American newspapers, saying Karelia was a new, workers’ paradise, a land of opportunity, and a chance to build a future. After many discussions with Walter and Elsie Sunsted Herrala, Rene and his brother Edvard, decided to go and make their fortunes in Soviet Karelia.

After some time, trying to live in Karelia without enough food, inadequate housing in extreme weather, and other hardships, Rene asked to have his confiscated passport and dollars returned. His brother had died of malnutrition there. The Soviet authorities labeled Rene Herrala a political dissident and refused his requests.

In letters Rene sent to his cousin, Walter, in Deposit, N.Y., where Walter, Elsie, and family lived on a farm, Rene asked to have shoes sent to him and to try to get him extracted from Karelia. Walter and Elsie lost their farm as thousands of others did, during the Depression. They were working on a farm for a lawyer, Stephen Lounsbury, in Lounsbury, N.Y., near Owego, in the year 1938. They enlisted his help in trying to secure the release of Rene. The three petitioned governor Thomas Dewey to help.

All their efforts proved fruitless. A nephew, Veikko Isoherranen, recently said the main problem was that Rene had not become a U.S. citizen before he left the U.S.A.

But what happened to Rene, in the 1930s in Karelia? As a labeled political dissident by the Stalinist government, he was sent to a prison work camp in Siberia. Once, he escaped, was caught, returned to the camp and told the fate of escapees is death.

Later, Rene escaped one more time and carefully made his journey of two thousand miles on foot, over a period of two years, often travelling by night and sleeping during the day to avoid detection. He ate what he could find, berries, fish, and plants. Finally, he reached his wife’s home in the part of Karelia which was still a part of Finland in the 1930s. Rene hadn’t notified anyone of his whereabouts since he was safer as “assumed dead”. When he arrived, walking up the path to the house, his wife saw a gaunt, long haired, tattered clothed figure and assumed it was Rene’s ghost, and fainted.

During the time when Rene and Martta began to live in Finnish Karelia, Finland lost control of this land to the Soviet government after the Winter War of 1939-40. Rene and his wife tried to reenter Finland, but since the Winter War times, he was classified as a Russian from Karelia.

They lived in Russian Karelia for many years, had a family, and often contacted their family members in Haapajärvi. Rene died and is buried near their home in Karelia. A few years ago, Martta, his wife, also passed away. The names of Rene’s and Martta’s children are: Sylvi, Airi, Eeva, Raija, and Etsa. A few years ago, one of the daughters married and the family was building a new home in Karelia.

My main regret is that my father, Walter, never learned of Rene’s escape from Siberia and the full life that Rene had managed to live.

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