Kuhmo

Kuhmo is a municipality in Finland and is located in the province of Oulu and is part of the Kainuu region. The municipality has a population of 10,449 (2004) and covers an area of 5,457.58 km² of which 636.65 km² is water. The population density is 2.2 inhabitants per km². It has a borderline of 120 km with Russia.

The municipality is unilingually Finnish.

1 History
2 Culture
3 Sights
4 External links

[edit] History

In the beginning of 17th century people of Kuhmo were part of parishes of Kajaani and Oulujärvi. Kuhmo became a municipality in 1865 and was known by the name Kuhmoniemi until 1937 when the name was shortened to Kuhmo. Kuhmo gained city rights in 1986.

During 19th century tar burning and burn-beating were economically essential to Kuhmo. In the year 1900 tar production in Kuhmo was highest in Finland, at 1.6 million litres.

The Winter War is an important event in the history of Kuhmo. During the war Kuhmo was bombarded 48 times and ground battles took place as near as ten kilometers from the center of the town. After the war Kuhmo kept its eastern borderline unchanged in accordance with the Moscow Peace Treaty, thus having an unchanged borderline for 400 years straight since the Täyssinä Peace Treaty in 1595.

[edit] Culture

Kuhmo is well known for its Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival which is held annually. The festival was founded in 1970 by cellist Seppo Kimanen and a small group of friends. A book on this subject was published in 2006: "Listen, there's music from the forest: a short presentation of the Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival", in English and French, by Jean-Jacques Subrenat, ISBN 978-952-92-0564-6.