Little Finland marks Finnish centennial with history talk

KIMBALL, Wis. - A crowd gathered at Little Finland Sunday to hear Ernie Korpela's presentation on Finnish history, just one of the events Little Finland is holding to mark the centennial celebration of Finnish independence.

Korpela, who was born and raised in Wakefield and now lives in Cornucopia, Wis., began by going over his family's history - including his father in law, who managed a Finnish bread co-op in Superior Wis., that supplied many of Gogebic Range's co-op stores.

He said that like people; countries are a result of a combination of what they were given by geography or genetics, and the sum of their experiences.

Discussing the county's geography; Korpela recounted how Finland is part of a peninsula - surrounded by the Barents and Baltic seas - in close proximity to the Russian and Swedish empires.

He then discussed the country's history of being ruled by these empires, first being controlled by the Swedes and later the Russians.

Korpela said the Finns retained varying degree of autonomy under both empires, until it declared independence in 1917 following the Russian Revolution and the overthrow of Czar Nicholas II.

Independence led to a conflict between the White Finns and Red Finns, according to Korpela, similar to the war seen in Russia between the old regime and the Bolsheviks and other revolutionary groups - with the White Finns ultimately winning the conflict.

He also referenced the book "Finn" several times - which was written by his brother, Waino Korpela, prior to his death in 1999.

Ernie Korpela edited the book and had it published in 2012.

A large part of the book is a poem Waino Korpela wrote about Finland's history, with footnotes to source the poem.

"It's a poem about Finland's history. But what's unique about it is, every stanza or verse is backed up by (footnotes about) actual happenings in Finnish history," Ernie Korpela told the Daily Globe after the event. "If you just read the footnotes that accompany it, you can get a pretty good idea of the history of Finland."

The book also compiles Waino's other writing and poems about their lives growing up, Korpela said, joking that many are humorous despite the Finnish reputation for not having a sense of humor.

Ernie Korpela also talked about the history of Finnish immigration to America, saying Finns came here as early as the 1600s as part of a Swedish-Finnish "New Sweden" colony in the New Jersey-Delaware-Pennsylvania region.

One of the more famous descendants of these early Finnish immigrants, Korpela said, was John Morton - one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence and writers of the Articles of Confederation.

After Korpela's presentation, Mirva Johnson - a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison - spoke about her research into the Finnish-American experience.

Johnson said she is looking to interview anyone who grew up in the upper Midwest speaking, hearing or understanding Finnish.

Those who would like to talk to her can contact Johnson at [email protected], or 703-623-5493.