Figure 1.-- The photo was taken during a wedding celebration. It shows a farm family attending the party, almost certainly the parents and their five children. It was still not uncommon for Finnish children to go barefoot at that time, but a girl so properly dressed for a party looks a little unusual. The girl must have had shoes, she just preferred not to wear them. And mom did not object. Note how well the family is dressed with stylish clothes--so much better than farm families before World War II.

This photo here was taken in Varmo, a village in a rural area of the northern Karelia (1968). This was the small area of Karelia that Stalin did not manage to seize as part of the Winter War (1939-40). Karelia was a huge loss because it was a substabtial part of the valuable agricultural land in Finland. Mst of Finlad s locaed to he North, much of it unsuitable for agriculture because of the cold clmate. The Soviets had huge areas of agicultural land. Finland with its northerly location did not. Varmo is located on the shore of Lake Pyaharvi. This photo was taken during a wedding celebration. It shows a family attending the party, almost certainly the parents and their five children. It was still not uncommon for Finnish children to go barefoot at that time, but a girl so properly dressed for a party looks a little unusual. The girl must have had shoes, she just preferred not to wear them. And mom did not object. Note how well the family is dressed with stylish clothes--so much better than farm families before World War II. And this despite the desruction and losses during the War. This is astonishing for an gricultural which had lost a large part of its prime farm land. But because of a capitalist economy, Finland had thrived and prospered founding whole new industries. You can see that in the image here showing that Finland was on its way to becoming one of the most prosperous countries in Europe.

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Created: 2:10 PM 1/2/2025
Last updated: 2:10 PM 1/2/2025