Hundred years of independence in Hossa

“We had attended meetings before, but not like this.”

Finland’s eastern border was drawn to its current position at the latitude of Hossa in the Treaty of Teusina in 1595. When the idea of Finnish independence began to take root, people still crossed the border frequently – travelling merchants, relatives, and acquaintances on both sides.

Inspired by Elias Lönnrot’s work, folklore researchers explored these frontier areas. They roamed lands where folk poetry was born and “where mind and thought grow, the seeds from which all feelings arise”. (Preface to Finnish folk poetry collection Kanteletar.)

During these times, a prehistory and national past began to form for Finnish-speaking Finland – a cultural foundation for building a future.

In early spring 1917, news of the Russian Revolution reached Suomussalmi. In Helsinki, red ribbon sold out as people proudly wore the colour of revolution on their chests.

But who held power now that the Tsar had fallen?

On 7 April 1917, snow and sleet fell on the village of Suomussalmi. It was Holy Saturday. A citizens’ assembly, called by a joint revolutionary committee of workers and bourgeois, filled the local church. A red flag spread across the altar symbolised revolution and freedom.

The meeting unanimously decided to demand Finnish independence and for Viena Karelia to be joined to Finland. This was the first public meeting to officially call for Finnish independence.

In Helsinki, the idea was still considered wildly bold—until the Bolsheviks came to power in Russia and December 1917 arrived.

In Suomussalmi too, tensions between the bourgeois and the working class escalated in the lead-up to the Finnish Civil War. However, the battles of 1918 took place far from this remote parish in Kainuu. The local White Guard arrested the commander of the Suomussalmi Red Guard.

Hundreds of people fled east across the border from Suomussalmi—some were Red Guard members, others escaped the White Army’s conscription in spring 1918.

The war claimed three lives in Suomussalmi: one Red and two who fought on the White side.

When the war ended, the divide between citizens did not disappear. Both local White Guard units and workers' associations remained active. Underground communist activity kept the idea of revolution alive.

The escape route into Soviet Russia remained in use even after the Treaty of Tartu, which closed the eastern border. In Finland, the newly founded Border Guard (established in early 1919) took on the task of patrolling the frontier.

“The children ran to the adults working in the field, shouting, ‘Now she’s here!’ I was expected.”

Hossa was inhabited by tenant farmers fighting poverty. Many families were large, with small holdings. A typical homestead might have two cows, a few sheep, and around one hectare of cultivated land—growing potatoes, barley, and rye.

Nature provided additional food: fish, game, and berries were staples. Logging and log driving offered extra income. In some homes, tar was still produced, though demand had fallen with the decline of wooden ships.

The 1918 Tenant Act and the 1922 Lex Kallio law helped tenant farmers become landowners. They were allowed to redeem small parcels of land as their own. Land reform continued in Suomussalmi into the 1950s.

The estate named Hossa was a large parent farm of nearly 1,000 hectares, where both agriculture and reindeer herding were practised. Eventually, it was divided into 11 separate farms.

In the early decades of independent Finland, reindeer herding offered protection against hunger in the remote wilds of Hossa.

The compulsory education law came into force in 1921, but rural municipalities had 16 years to implement it. Children in Suomussalmi’s remote villages often learned to read and count in itinerant schools.

In Juntusranta, a primary school had been operating for over 30 years by the time Selkoskylä opened its own in 1928.

In Hossa, school began in a log cabin in 1946, but a dedicated school building was never constructed. For many children in wartime Hossa, their first encounter with formal education came during their evacuation in the Winter War.

Political tensions came to a head by the summer of 1930. The spirit of the Lapua Movement was alive, and the Suomussalmi municipal council was “whitened” in the summer of that year. A local communist activist was forcibly deported to the border. Threats cast a shadow over daily life. The communists maintained underground routes across the border to Soviet Russia. Gradually, news of Stalin’s purges and the fate of imprisoned Finns and Karelians dampened the migration eastward.

The far-right radicalism of the 1930s also reached Suomussalmi. Two labour movement activists were taken to the border, while in other cases, deportation remained at the level of threats or failed attempts.

“We were ordered to set their houses on fire as we left. If the Red Army comes across the border again, they shall find no shelter.”

The last day of November 1939 abruptly changed life in the border villages.

When the Red Army attacked, civilians in the borderlands were going about an ordinary Thursday morning. Men of conscription age had already been summoned to extraordinary refresher training in October.

The first to bring word of war to Hossa were civilians fleeing from the Red Army. Finnish soldiers arriving in the village guided the civilians to evacuate, but more remote farms received no warning.

During the Winter War, many men from Suomussalmi defended their homeland in their own municipality. The battles on the Raate Road left a lasting mark on the national memory.

The last civilians left Hossa in January 1940, once the fiercest battles in the area were over. Finnish military patrols were ordered to burn down residential buildings in the borderlands to deny shelter to future invaders.

Those returning from evacuation in spring 1940 were met with a stark sight: their homes reduced to ruins.

In the Moscow Peace Treaty of 1940, the eastern border remained in place at the latitude of Hossa, but Kuusamo lost its eastern part—home to around 2,100 people and spanning more than 1,600 km².

During the Continuation War, civilians in Hossa remained in their homes, though the most remote farms were abandoned at night due to the threat of partisans.

A major supply centre was established in Ruhtinansalmi. Soon the village had a laundry, a field hospital, a repair workshop, a cinema, and its own power station. The Germans even built a sausage factory there.

During the Winter and Continuation Wars, the reindeer herds in Hossa deteriorated due to neglect, as the men were away at the front. The number of reindeer was also reduced by hunger—soldiers, regardless of uniform colour, appreciated reindeer meat.

Military convoys became a familiar sight in Hossa, as the area had the region’s oldest road leading from Juntusranta. The military quickly connected the village road to the highway leading to Kuusamo.

Although the front line had moved east of the border, the prolonged years of war had a tangible effect on everyday life. Partisan attacks and rumours of spies caused fear. Night-time tracks, missing food supplies, and a watchdog silenced with a bayonet hinted that someone had passed through—on paths well known.

War touched even the world of children.

After the fighting against the Red Army ended, the borderland population could not yet rejoice in peace. In September 1944, a second evacuation began. Ahead of the Lapland War, all residents of Suomussalmi’s border villages were evacuated.

As they retreated, German troops burned the village of Juntusranta, but Hossa and Selkoskylä were spared destruction. The Germans did, however, blow up the bridges on the local roads.

The Red Army occupied eastern Suomussalmi from 17 September to 21 November 1944. Some border villagers were allowed to return home with special permits to harvest their crops.

Some Hossa residents returned already in early winter 1944, others during the following year. The landmines left behind by retreating German troops continued to cause destruction in the area even into the spring of 1945.

Following the Winter and Continuation Wars, 312 fallen soldiers were laid to rest in the war graves of Suomussalmi. The municipality counted nearly 300 war orphans and over 100 war widows.

“They’re such eager fish eaters here that deworming treatments are still needed. You know that if you consider burbot roe a delicacy, you’d better prepare for a deworming soon.”

A budding hope for a better tomorrow and the power of work carried life forward after the war years.

In Hossa, the village community began to adapt to peacetime life. Courses organised by the agricultural society provided new knowledge on farming, and dances were so popular that the floor in the village barracks soon needed replacing.

The population grew rapidly. Mothers still bore the main responsibility for homes, as many fathers returning from the front worked long weeks in the logging camps.

In Juntusranta, the Red Cross operated a first aid station. In the remote border villages, help often came from a nurse or midwife travelling by boat, bicycle, on foot, by horse-drawn cart or skis across the wilderness.

The road from Juntusranta to Hossa village was completed as early as 1923.

In the 1930s, the 30-kilometre stretch was travelled by the village’s first car, but no further road connection existed. During ice-free seasons, the boat Alku ran between Juntusranta and the parish village of Suomussalmi twice a week.

As late as the 1950s, much of the Hossa area still relied on winter roads, waterways, forest trails and boardwalks. The situation was especially difficult in neighbouring Selkoskylä. Prime Minister Urho Kekkonen was aware of this and made a hiking trip to the village, after which he received letters detailing the road issues along the eastern border.

In the 1950s, two so-called "Kekkonen roads" were built using prison labour: Kekkonen Road II to Juntusranta was completed in 1956 and Kekkonen Road V from main road 5 to Hossa in 1959.

Bus connections opened access to population centres. State-funded winter snow ploughing of roads began in the 1950s. Postal buses began carrying passengers from the early 1960s.

“My friend and I were skiing through deep snow on Valkeinen Hill and it was beginning to look like we might actually catch the wolf. But I thought, once we reach the top, the hill will settle the score.”

In the early 1960s, Hossa’s reindeer husbandry faced a major crisis. Reindeer were being killed by wolves at an unprecedented rate.

In the winter of 1960–1961, the Hossa reindeer herding cooperative recorded 1,336 marked reindeer. By the winter of 1965–1966, only 311 remained. The devastation was hard on the livelihoods of herders, especially since no compensation for predator damage was available at the time. Many herders considered abandoning the profession, and some farms gave up their entire herds.

The decades lived had made the people of Hossa self-sufficient. From the nearby village shops, they mainly needed salt, sugar, and, if necessary, flour and coffee. Help could also be found next door: someone knew how to forge, another could make shoes. The skills of local healers were also well known.

The village never had its own shop, but as roads and car ownership developed, a new service emerged—mobile shops that brought goods almost to the doorstep.

Neighbouring Selkoskylä received its own telephone exchange in 1965, but in Hossa, the only phone was still at the border guard station. The electricity network reached Hossa in 1972.

On small farms, faith in the future was grounded in the land, livestock, and cleared fields. Roads enabled milk to be sold to dairies, and milk platforms appeared by the roadsides. However, increasing rural settlement and agricultural productivity led to overproduction. Between 1969 and 1974, the state entered into fallow agreements with farmers to curb surplus. While compensation was provided, the emotional cost of abandoning productive land was high.

From the 1960s onward, forestry work became increasingly mechanised and professionalised. Local jobs in farming and forestry declined, and with no local industry, people had to look elsewhere. Youth from Hossa spent weekdays in dormitories in population centres during their school years. After graduation, many moved to study or work in towns and cities.

The number of farms in Suomussalmi declined. In the early 1970s, the municipality recorded 242 abandoned farms. Settlement increasingly concentrated in towns, and many moved from Suomussalmi to urban areas or to Sweden.

“Many trails follow reindeer tracks. They know best where to walk.”

Although the number of permanent residents in Hossa declines, the village finds a new path forward. The first holiday cottages are built by the wilderness lakes in the 1960s, and soon tourism provides the first local jobs: a café-restaurant offering cabin accommodation opens its doors, later growing into a hotel. More small tourism businesses emerge.

Recreational fishers discover the clear waters of Hossa. Metsähallitus begins to consider the future of the area, and a recreational fishing zone is established in the 1960s.

Fishing has been a way of life in the Hossa region since ancient times. As early as the 15th century, dried pike from Hossa may have been eaten in Oulu. Before the area was permanently settled, people from the Oulujoki region had usage rights to these wilderness waters.

President Urho Kekkonen is known to be fond of Hossa.

Locals are familiar with the red rock paintings of Värikallio, but their full significance begins to unfold after a student skiing trip in spring 1977.

A major step in the development of tourism is the founding of the Hossa Hiking Area in 1979. The park ranger’s office opens at the Jatkonsalmi camp complex, in the former logging camp storehouse.

Many hiking trails are established along traditional routes, often already chosen by reindeer. Blue, red, and yellow blazes appear on trees to guide visitors.

Attention is also paid to Hossa’s cultural heritage. Old logging and timber floating huts are repurposed as accommodation for travellers. Värikallio becomes a popular skiing destination, and the hotel offers visitors ready-made activity packages.

The construction of the Kostamus (Kostomuksha) town and mine provides temporary work for many Suomussalmi residents from 1977 to 1985, but not all locals are swept along with the economic upswing of the 1980s.

Suomussalmi continues to seek vitality for its active but structurally struggling rural villages. In 1981, the municipality declares itself the world’s first “eco-municipality.” Supplementary livelihoods linked to agriculture are promoted as a foundation for rural sustainability.

The hiking area is developed and maintained with employment funding. Tourism entrepreneurs refine their collaboration and create new events.

President Mauno Koivisto visits shortly after his election to see the area once praised by his predecessor. The Jatkonsalmi sauna renovation is rushed to completion to ensure a proper presidential steam bath.

“Now I know the sounds of silence and what the colour white truly looks like.”

Predators continue to visit Hossa’s reindeer herds. As Finland joins the EU in 1995, its predator legislation is revised in line with the European Union’s nature directives.

The number of predator damages increases, and a fair compensation system is sought. Reindeer begin to find a new role within tourism.

During the early 2000s, more and more Central European visitors discover Hossa each winter. French tourism entrepreneurs settle in Hossa for the long term.

Suomussalmi seeks long-term development guidelines for Hossa. The area’s general land-use plan is completed in 2006, establishing rules for tourism, holiday housing, and service development.

A new addition to Hossa’s tourism offerings comes in 2006 with the opening of the Hossa Reindeer Park.

Hossa’s crystal-clear waters are central to its appeal. In 2007–2008, the village gains its own water supply and sewer system, complete with a treatment plant. Hossa becomes the first village in Suomussalmi to get a fibre-optic internet connection, in 2010. This modern connectivity enables remote working and enhances tourism service development.

The diverse nature destination wins praise: Hossa is chosen as Hiking Destination of the Year in 2011 and Nature Site of the Year in 2014. That same year, Kalevala Park is established, linking the hiking area with key nature sites on the Suomussalmi borderlands.

Almost every household in Hossa participates in tourism in one way or another. The village welcomes new, young tourism entrepreneurs. A master plan is drawn up in 2015 to chart the future of this tourism-oriented community.

Authenticity and pristine nature appeal to new types of visitors. Winter grows ever more popular as a tourism season. Guided treks are arranged along the Eastern Border Trail year-round.

Bus services to Hossa are discontinued. However, home healthcare and a mobile library bring services to the village. Reindeer wear collars that mark them as destined for compensation upon death. A significant share of income in the reindeer industry now comes from predator damage compensation.

In January 2016 comes the news that brings closure to occasional debates about logging in the hiking area: Hossa will become the National Park of Finland’s 100th Independence Anniversary.

During autumn and winter 2016, the silence of Hossa gives way briefly to the sound of hammers. Local tourism businesses invest in new accommodation, and Metsähallitus upgrades the national park’s service infrastructure.

In June 2017, Hossa celebrates the opening of Finland’s 40th national park.