From Silence to Recovery

Abstract

Paramilitary forces of Soviet partisans attacked villages and remote houses in the Finnish eastern borderlands during the Continuation War of 1941-1944. They burned houses, stole food and cattle, and killed women, children and elderly people. In post-war Finland these actions were not openly discussed before the late 1990s, and the long period of silence served to slow down or prevent recovery from these traumatic experiences. This article discusses the personal narratives of those who experienced the traumatic events of the Soviet Partisan War which took place in the Finnish borderlands, and the process of recovery that spanned the following 70 years. The research material consists of 16 narratives collected in 2017 using oral history interviews. The informants were Finnish civilians who had direct or indirect experience of the actions of Soviet partisans. The research is based on an oral history approach and the multidisciplinary research of trauma narration. It seeks to explore how traumatic experiences of the Soviet Partisan War are expressed in the personal oral history narratives, and how signals of trauma and recovery occur. Especially, the article points out the role of both remembering and narrating in the process of recovering from painful and traumatic experiences.