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We suddenly see Finnish family portraits in the 1910s. We are not sure just why this was the case Our archive is still fairly small, so we are not sure this reflects a major change in the photograpic record, but it may. Finland is a country with vast forrests. We mostly see woodden houses. Many of these images look like the work of intenerant photographers, because of the ways the families are posed. Readers may have some thoughts posed. We see a lot of large families. They seem to be mostly summer photographs. Only a few boys wear suits. The boys wear a varierty of tops. They look like plain shirts and collar buttoning jackets. Notice what looks like a "T"-shirt here (fiure 1). The boys wear what look like short pants. They do not seen to be knee pants, but many are quite long, especially for the older boys. We see alot of boys with suspenders. We see a few sailor suits. Interestingly we do not see the Russian tunics originsted ass serg clothing, They were still common in Russia and were the basis for the tunics/Russian blouse suits popular in America at the time. Most of the boys are barefoot during the summer, but would be wearing shoes and long stockings when the weather gets colder. The girls wear plain dresses and also go barefoot. We see some sailor dreses. The boys have close-cropped hair. Many girls wear pig tails.
This Finnish family portrait was taken in 1910. They are the family of a pastor taken in front of his vicarage. The church was located in Piikkiö, western Finland. In the back row, left to right, we can see: the church organist Salmela, the family servant Edla, Mrs. Elina Kupila (that had some charge in the congregation), the Pastor's wife Augusta Laurilan, and the Pastor Juho Uoti. The ladies' hars seem to be a sratus symbol. The servant does not have one. In the front row: the organist's daughther Oiva Lahja, and the five children of the Pastor: Arvo Insar, Jalo Aarre, Kauko Johannes and Ensio Ilmari. The children look to be about 3-13 years old. The boys wear blouses and knee pants with hisiery and shoes. The older boy wears a sailor suit. The todler boy is dressed differently, wearing a tunic outfit. We are not sure why. Perhaps it is more protective such as warmer clothes and shoes. But we see other family images with toddlers dressed more like the older boys here. The girl here wears shoes, but Finnish girls also wnt barefoot like the boys. We think it was somewhat more common for girls to wear shoes when dressing up.
This photo was taken in 1913. It shows Aatto Koivunen with his wife and their children. They had four children, sons were Martin and Reino and their twin daughters Asta and Martha. The girls are wearing traditional clothing and all the children are barefoot. They lived in a small town. The father had a difficult youth, but built a prosperous inslation business. You can see their comfortable house in the backgrond. He and his wife were deeply involved in the workers movement. They thought they were on the cusp of building a wonderful new world. They had no idea what the Blosheviks they suppoted would do to Russian and neighboring countries. Koivunen became a Finnish Red Guard commander during the Finnish Civil War (1918).
Here we see an unidentified rural Finnish family in 1914 (figure 1). Given how they are dressed, it would have been probably taken just before World War I broke out. We are not sure how to view the family. Dad apparently built the home, albeit it is a solid struycture. Motice they have noy briught out any farm animals to include in the portrait. Thst may mean that they do not have a cow which may mean the family is not very properous. They lived in central Finland. We do not have the family name, but we see Olli, Hanna and their 10 children. Looking at their ages we can think that someone more will be born later. With the family lived Kalle, Olli's brother. The children are dressed simply, but look rather modern looking for 1914.
The photo on the previous page shows the Sievan Family in 1917. It was taken on their small farm near Helsinki. Notice how they vare proudly vshowing off the family cow. The children's bare feet and not very stylish clothing probably suggests poverty to the modern reader. Note the girl's braids. This family, however, was probably a reasonably prosperous farm family. The photographwas taken during World War I, but the fighting had not reached Finland. Note that at the beginning of 1917, Finland was still part of the Russian Empire, but because of the Russian Revolution and World War I was able to break away a achieve its independence. This was enormously important for families like the Sievans. They are just the kind of family that Stalin labeled kulaks and that the NKVD drove off their land, in many cases in the snow. The Ukranians were unble to resist. The Finns did resist in the Winter War (1939-40) to preserve their independence.
The photo was taken in 1910s in Rantasalmi a town in the Southern Savonia region of Finland. We see the local Pastor Peter Malinen with his family. The boys wear white shirts and kneepants anb=nd are barefoot, which was common during the summer. The girls wear dresses, omne with long braids--a sailor dress. The portrait is not dated, but would have been taken in the mid-1010s just before or during the Russian Revolition. We think all of the women and children are the pastors. Some are surely his grand children. We don't see any of his adult male children. It is likely that they are away in military service. The pastor Malinen died during the independence war. We do not know the circumstances, but pastor's were targeted by the Bolshhevik (Red Guards) who comsidere religion an element og governmental oppression. We have no details about fighting in Rantasalmi. We do know that nearby Mikkeli was the headquarters of the White Army during the Civil War in which the Bolsheviks tried to regain control of breakaway Finland (1918). Mikkeli was a conservative farming area and a White stronghold. A Russian (Bolshevik) garrison in the area supported the Red Guards. An impprtant engagement was fought around the railway station at Mäntyharju, 20 km (12 mi) south of Mikkeli. The Whites forced suceeded in blocked anorther Red thrust from Kouvola.
This family photo was taken in Säkkijärvi, South Karelia during, reportedly un the 1910s. This would have been while Finland was still part of Tsarist Territory. Karelia was the southern-most area of Finland with country's richest and most poductive farm land. Stalin moved against the Finnish population replscing gthem with more trusted Russians in the Soviet sector of Finlnd (1930s). Then after he and Hitler lunched World War II (September 1939), moved agasinst Finland ad the Baltic states. His explantion was they ne needed more land to improve the fefenses of Leningrd (St. Petersdburg.) It is unclear if his goal in Finland was annexation like the Baltics, bt invaded Finland and seized much of Karelia. The Finns living there, knowing wht he had dione to the Finns in the Soviet Zone during the 1930s, evcuate their homes and villages en mass. The Finns regined Karelia only temporarily in the Continuation war. After World War II most of the municipality became Russian territory. The photo depicts the Junnola family.
Related Chronolgy Pages in the Boys' Historical Web Site
[The 1880s]
[The 1890s]
[The 1900s]
[The 1910s]
[The 1920s]
[The 1930s]
[The 1940s]
[The 1930s]
[The 1940s]
[The 1950s]
[The 1960s]
[The 1970s]
[The 1980s]
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[Eton suits]
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