Monday, August 20, 2018

Heroes of Finland – Pekka Vesainen – The ‘First Sissi’


In the summer of 1589 the town of Kandalaksha was burning, in the distance a column of rugged Finns were marching towards their next target, the town of Kem, at its head was the soon to be legand, Pekka Vesainen.

The lifesize statue of Pekka Vesainen outside Ii parish church. Source: Personal Collection

His life

Due to the times and area, little concrete information exists regarding Pekka Vesainen. It isn’t known when he was born but he does appear in Swedish documents (Finland was part of the Swedish empire at this time) in 1563 under the name Petr Vesa. There is conflicts as to where he is born, with some claiming he was born it Utajärvi, while the more popular theory is he was born in Vesala, in what was then part of Ii. His family is also a mystery, but the legends state he had a wife and 7 children. In the 1571 tax lists, he is known to have one horse, four cows, four bulls and four sheep, a modest holding for those in the same area but it is thought (due to Swedish Crown Accounts) that he was an assistant Lay Judge in the Municipality of Ii.

It is thought he died in 1627 in the same house that he had lived in his whole life.

Outside of this, not much else is known of his life, a lot is attributed to oral legend and isn’t confirmable.

The Long Wrath

The Kingdom of Sweden and the Tsardom of Russia, and as well as their predecessors and successors, found themselves in various conflicts over the territories than now make up Finland, Estonia, Latvia and Russia.

Between 1570 and 1595, a 25 year long conflict, known as Pitkä Viha (or Long Wrath) in Finnish, took place that heavily affected Finland. Johan III of Sweden and Ivan Vasilyevich of Russia (more commonly known as Ivan the Terrible) came to blows over demands between the two nations, after Swedish ambassadors were arrested in Novgorod, demands for Swedish silver mines to be handed over to Russia and the reveal that Ivan’s granddaughter was promised to Danish Prince Magnus av Ösel (Sweden was currently at war with Denmark) and who had been promised the crown of Livonia; Conflict broke out.

Russian and Danish troops marched on to Reval (Modern day Tallinn) and laid siege to the Swedish garrison there in August. After numerous assaults, two Swedish ships breaking through the blockade with much needed supplies in September, an outbreak of plague in 1571 and the conclusion of Peace with Denmark in February, the siege was lifted in March, and Prince Magnus was forced to retire his forces. The conflict ebbed and flowed throughout the two nations, with both sides gaining advances and loosing gains as is the normal way in war.

In Finland the war wasn’t some distant event. Russian forces, mainly paid Karelians, burnt and ravaged the areas of Ii and Kiiminki during the 1580s. It was in face of the destruction of his home area that Vesainen would raise up an armed militia to strike back. Leaving in early summer 1589, he led between 90-100 village men (Russian sources state as many as 900) to the White Sea, attacking several Russian and Karelian settlements along the way. They then attacked the town of Kandalaksha, burning down the monastery there and killing up to 450 people but before any Russian help could arrive the raiders had moved south. They advanced to Kem, a small fishing village, where they ransacked it before deciding to return home. The party returned by the coming of Fall with much loot. Vesainen returned to find his wife had been captured by Russian supported raiders and two of his children dead. It was this event that legend states inspired his second expedition into Russia.

Fuel by the anger of his dead children and missing wife, he led a force of a few hundred men from Ii, Tornio and Kemi areas to the Kola Peninsular. Here he led an attack against the Petsamo Monastery on Christmas Eve 1589. The raiders took out their revenge upon the monks and laymen present at the Christmas worship, putting over 100 to the sword and burning down the entire complex before heading to the important trading town of Kola. Here they attacked and conquered the town, plundering and burning the residents. The militia force, full of rage, then attempted to take the Fort in the area. However the Russia forces, under command of a Voivode (A warlord), held out against the more lightly equipped Finns and soon Vesainen was forced to call a retreat. He returned in early 1590, having freed his wife along the way (but the stories aren’t clear where or when), and settled back into a peaceful country life.

The Petsamo Monestry as it appeared in 1911. Source: Wikimedia

Later in 1590, legend says he was visited by King Johan III and presented with gifts for his services. However, Vesainen’s life wasn’t to remain peaceful for long, for another raid by Russians hit the Ii and Kiiminki areas. Vesainen’s family lost three more children to these raiders, breaking Pekka’s spirit.

The Growing of the Legend

Due to his spot in antiquity, as well as residing in the more wild areas of Swedish rule, not much official documents are able to support much of the life of Pekka Vesainen. Outside of a couple of official tax documents, the majority of what we know comes from oral tradition. While oral tradition is an accepted part of historiography and helps us understand the importance of events within the context of anthropology, it can be highly questionable to rely solely upon it. This is due to oral transmissions within societies being subject to embellishment, twistings, and reflections of the current societal trends. But it shouldn’t be wholly dismissed due to the faults, but used in conjunction with the more confirmable information we have.

Pekka Vesainen’s legend is one that sees more input from oral tradition. Thanks to a tax record of the Ostrobothnia bailiff in 1589, in which he collected some of the spoils from Vesainen’s expedition, we can at least confirm that he was involved in the incidents at Kandalaksha and Kem. The second expedition to Kola is one that has come under more scrutiny. Due to the closeness of the events and lack of corroborating sources, most modern historians believe that Vesainen wasn’t involved in this event but regardless of the truth, the legend has grown up around it.

In the rise of Finnish Nationlism (Fennoman movement) in the 18th century, saw a rise of National Heroes from Finland’s past. These characters were romanticised in literature and used as examples of Finnishness and bravery against the invader. Vesainen’s story was elevated to the national stage in 1894 with the publication of ‘Juho Vesainen’ by Finnish Nationalist Historical writer Santeri Ivalo. From this point, Vesainen’s life became a symbol of the determination and drive of the Ostrobothnian people and in 1936 a large statue was placed at Vesala depicting the Militia leaders head. A road in the village was also named after him, and in 1940 a lifesized statute of Vesainen was erected at Ii’s parish church.

Sources

Oral Tradition as a Reliable Source of Historical Writing: Arguments for and Against and Implications for Historical Writing in Education; MURAINA, Monsuru Babatunde  (2015)