tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4264664035215127547.post5095080408198727262..comments2024-03-28T03:13:09.436-05:00Comments on The Reluctant Blogger: Reality catches up to fictionHENRY KISORhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12366450710995335659noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4264664035215127547.post-27850663181861902422016-05-15T17:11:23.112-05:002016-05-15T17:11:23.112-05:00UPDATE - The Talikka Saga Continues:
A couple of w...UPDATE - The Talikka Saga Continues:<br />A couple of weeks ago I received an email out the blue from a lady in Finland who apparently had come across this blog post while searching for long lost relatives. She saw the comment above about the Talikka brothers and decided to get in touch with me. Turns out she is the granddaughter of Simo and John Talikka's sister who, unlike her brothers, did not immigrate to the US. The families on opposite side of the Atlantic had kept in touch originally, but lost contact with other some 60+ years ago. So, a phone call and a couple of emails later, her cousins over here were located, and a family is now reunited. <br /><br />Doug KAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4264664035215127547.post-24411103692577095752012-08-19T13:34:56.137-05:002012-08-19T13:34:56.137-05:00Terve Toivo,
Yes, these are one and the same Simo...Terve Toivo,<br /><br />Yes, these are one and the same Simo Matinpoika Talikka. Their birthdates and places match. Simo left Green, Michigan to go to Karelia in October 1931 along with his wife Caroliina. They had no children of their own, but were accompanied by three neighbor children whom they had helped to raise after their mother died. These children were Viljo, Paavo, and Eero Wesa (aka Arthur, Walter, and Elmer Wesa). Also leaving to Karelia at the same time was the Wesa boys' father Arthur Wesa. Simo had an older brother John Talikka, who also lived in Green. John and his wife Mary had several children, and descendants of theirs still live in the area. I am assuming, Toivo, that you may be related to these Talikka brothers. If you are interested I can probably put you in contact with some of the family members still living in the USA.<br /><br />Doug Karttunen<br />dkarttunen@chartermi.net green hermitnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4264664035215127547.post-5318313486160364992012-08-19T08:19:16.945-05:002012-08-19T08:19:16.945-05:00If his age in 1936 was around 50, Simon Talikka co...If his age in 1936 was around 50, Simon Talikka could be Simo Matinpoika Talikka, born 19 Sept 1885 in the Tervajärvi village of the Jaakkima municipality in Karelia. My own family was evacuated from the same region in 1944. <br /><br />You can find the following details from the site which lists the names of the victims of the Soviet terror in the 1930s: http://lists.memo.ru/d32/f37.htm#n5<br /><br />This person is likely to be Simo Talikka, based on the year of his birth and his father's first name: <br /><br />Semen Matveevich Talikka, born in 1885, locomotive engineer "Ormedzoloto." Lived: Kuvandyksky rn, p. Rakityanka. <br />Sentenced: three in the NKVD to Orenb. region. October 14, 1938 <br />Verdict: HMB rehabilitated in October 1989<br />Source: The Book of Memory of the Orenburg region<br /><br />Simo Talikka may not have survived the labour camp in Orenburg. <br /><br />Those times were extremely tragic for immigrants and people with ethnic background in Russia. According to the archives, around 8000 people of Finnish origin were executed, and out of 143,000 Poles 111,000 were shot.<br /><br />Best Regards,<br />Toivo TalikkaAnonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11837160959200935006noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4264664035215127547.post-77699546289708793902009-10-30T15:43:47.309-05:002009-10-30T15:43:47.309-05:00This is fascinating. Not only because of it's...This is fascinating. Not only because of it's historical value, but also it shows how powerful the internet is, and how widely it reaches around the world.<br /><br />Cheers<br />Robyn<br />(Any kiwi's in Porcupine Country?)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4264664035215127547.post-6849775935356038672009-10-30T10:13:19.831-05:002009-10-30T10:13:19.831-05:00Hi Henry,
Your posting today reminds me how your ...Hi Henry,<br /><br />Your posting today reminds me how your novels about Porcupine County are doubly interesting for those of us who hail from there. There's not only the story line but also the lightly veiled incorporation of people and places that we all recognize - or think we do. The Talikkas and "Wesers" were, as you mention, just a few of those who partook of an exodus of sorts from "Greenfield" to Karelia during the Great Depression. I dare say most of the original Finnish Greenfield families will have a relative or two in their genealogical closets that were caught up in the "Karelia Fever". Sadly, almost none of the adult men of those that went there survived Stalin's purges during the late 1930's or the Winter and Continuation Wars with Finland that followed. Except for a small number who managed to escape from the Soviet Union, almost all were shot or imprisoned. Most of the wives and children were, howver, spared the fate of their menfolk. Many of these (or their descendants now) still live in Russia having survived a very difficult life in "Utopia". <br /><br />Following Gorbashev, records concerning the fate of these men (who up to then could scarcely even mentioned by their families for fear of some sort of retribution) have been opened and made available to the public. I've actually been able to get an official document from the Karelian Prosecutor General indicating that my great uncle, who also went there in the early 1930s, was rounded up in 1938 by the NKVD and sentenced to 10 years in prison for some unspecified acts against the State. They even provided papers indicating that because the charges against him had been trumped up, the Russian state had also officially, and certainly belatedly, exonerated (or "rehabilitated" in typically Russian language) him sometime in the 1996. His final demise (I suspect he was shot or starved in prison) I can obtain by sending Moscow some proof of relationship. Your blog reminds me that this is some thing I still need to do!<br /><br />До свидания, <br /><br />the "greenfield" hermitgreen hermitnoreply@blogger.com