Finnish occupation of Karelia in 19411944: discussions between Russian and Finnish historians

The relevance of addressing the issue of the Finnish occupation of Karelia in 1941-1944 is caused by the intensification of discussions between Russian and Finnish historians about the essence of the Finnish occupation regime, its impact on the civilian population of the part of the Karelo-Finnish Soviet Socialist Republic occupied by the enemy. The main dispute among the historians unfolds over the issue of the Finnish administration’s genocide policy against civilians in Karelia. While admitting the facts of crimes against the civilian population, most Finnish researchers deny the very term “genocide”, believing that the Finnish occupation regime in Karelia differed significantly from the Nazi regime established by Germany in the occupied territories of the Soviet Union during the Great Patriotic War. The article highlights other debatable issues between Russian and Finnish researchers: concentration camps and labor camps, the number of deaths in places of detention, facts of collaborationism among the local population, etc. The paper draws on the Russian and Finnish studies of this issue and memoirs. The novelty of the study is that it introduces declassified archival documents from the Russian state and departmental archives.