A House in Salmi
Salmi, Occupied Karelia, Russia
An ordinary house in Salmi, the place where my grandmother fled from as a refugee. The current inhabitants are probably Russian, originally from somewhere in the vast plains of the empire. Maybe with roots in Belarus, Ukraine or Tatarstan… They have painted the house in pastel colours. Maybe to fight the general greyness of the melancholical life since the Soviet occupation. Or maybe because each differently coloured paint was finished.
I saw an interesting Docu a couple of weeks ago on the Discovery Chanel about Karelia — a beautiful and romantic place. I was wondering why the Soviets didn’t/couldn’t take over the whole of Finland — like Estonia and the other Baltic states — during WWll, under the pretext that Finland was part of the Russian Empire? Anyways, lucky Finland!
Because Finland put up a good armed resistance, aided by the landscape.
Kudos to the Finns!