Finnish war reparations to the Soviet Union

War reparations of Finland to the Soviet Union were originally worth US$300,000,000 at 1938 prices. Finland agreed to pay the reparations in the Moscow Armistice signed on 19 September 1944. Armistice had started already 5 September 1944. The actual protocol to determine more precisely the war reparations to the Soviet union was signed in December 1944, by the prime minister Juho Kusti Paasikivi and the chairman of the Allied Control Commission for controlling the Moscow Armistice in Helsinki, Andrei Zhdanov.

Finland was originally obliged to pay $300,000,000 in gold to be paid in the form of ships and machinery, over six years.^[1][2] The Soviet Union agreed to prolong the paying period from six to eight years in late 1945. In summer 1948 the sum was cut to $226,500,000. The last dispatched train of the deliveries paying the war reparations crossed the border between Finland and the Soviet Union on 18 September 1952, in Vainikkala railway border station. Approximately 340,000 railroad carloads were needed to deliver all reparations.^[3]

The authority responsible for deliveries, and also organising production agreements with the manufacturers according to the protocols, was Sotakorvausteollisuuden valtuuskunta, the delegation of the war reparations industry. The preliminary committee was established already on 9 October 1944. It was chaired by the mining counselor Walter Gräsbeck. The other members were Gunnar Jaatinen, Juho Jännes, Johan Nykopp, Arno Solin, Wilhelm Wahlforss. The secretary of committee was Jaakko Rautanen.

Some deliveries

Electrical

• 52,500 electric engines, 1,140 transformational stations, and 30 mills with power stations

Locomotives

Lokomo together with Tampella produced 525 narrow gauge locomotives, PT-4 series.

Valmet

• Move 21, a railway engine for narrow 750 mm gauge, 76 units produced, 66 units delivered to the Soviet Union, the remaining 10 units, Valmet sold those to Saalasti Engineering, which sold them to the private narrow gauge railways, five of them were converted to 5-feet-gauge (1 524 mm) ^[4] museum exhibit, Jokioinen Museum Railway

Vessels

Finland delivered to the Soviet union 619 vessels of which 119 were used.^[5] 104 vessels were commercial ones.^[6]

Icebreakers

• SS Turso,^[7] a harbour icebreaker originally built for Finnish use, 8 February 1945 to the Soviet Union in Leningrad, bought back to Finland 2004 by Satamajäänsärkijä S/S Turso registered society, 2006 in Hietalahti harbour, Helsinki

The delivery was followed by a class of similar icebreakers.

• State-owned steam-powered icebreakers Jääkarhu and Voima

Schooners

All the schooners were mainly 300-dead-weight-tonne schooners, of which 91 were delivered to the Soviet Union.^[8]

Laivateollisuus

• 300-dead-weight-tonnes ocean three mast schooners with a 225 hp-Jane Munktel- engine or Valmet Linnavuori licence production, 45 units, in Turku ^[9]
• non-magnetic research schooner Zarya
• one of the schooners, Vega, is a museum in Jakobstad.^[8] Vega was written off in 1979 and it was moved to a dry docks in 1986. Eesti Meremuseum had a project for its restoration, but the work did not start. The schooner was not well protected and its condition started to worsen. The Finns planned saving Vega, but the plans did not succeed. Pietarsaaren Vanha Satama Oy decided to establish a Vega foundation, which was registered on 3 June 1996.

F. W. Hollming docks

• 300-dead-weight-tonnes ocean three mast schoners with 225 hp engine, 34 units, in Rauma,^[9] 1st keel laying, 15 June 1946

August Eklöf docks

• 300-dead-weight-tonnes ocean three mast schoners with 225 hp engine, 7 units, in Porvoo ^[9]

Wood house

Puutalo

For delivering the needed amount of the wood houses to the Soviet Union a joint venture Puutalo Oy was established. The last delivery of the wood houses took place in 28 January 1948. The deliveries started on 22 December 1944. Altogether the floor area of the delivered wood houses was 840,000 m². The war reparation itself added with 177,000 m² as the compensation of the German property, which Finland did not hand to the Soviet Union, 37,208 railway wagons, which would have been as a one train 335 km long.^[10]

• 522 wooden houses, Oulu company Pateniemi saw mill ^[10]

See also

• Finnish maritime cluster

References