International Rovaniemi

INTERNATIONAL ROVANIEMI Stimulated by the Roman Empire, the fur trade created a demand for northern products, enabling ready-made iron products and other valuable com- modities to be obtained by barter. The Alajärvi buckle from around 500 A.D. and a bearded axe blade from the 6th–7th century A.D. must have reached Rovaniemi through Norway. The weapons found at Marikko- vaara, dating from 1150–1250, indicate that there were already contacts with Central Europe at that time. Relations between Vice-President of the United States Lyndon B.Johnson and Lady states Bird Johnson on their visit to Rovaniemi. A new meaning became at- tached to international relations when organised states began to extend their power into the Kemijoki Valley, although Nov - gorod, in spite of having the Rovaniemi area incorporated in its territory in 1323, never es- tablished a local administration. Once Sweden gained a hold e can talk about Connections in all over the valley with the support being interna- directions, even in of the Roman-Catholic Church Wtional only when prehistoric times in the 1370’s, international rela- there exist groups ”Rovaniemi market” was evi- tions were largely a matter of that are referred to as nations. dently one of the nodal points making war. Although the first people set- for the international exchange of In retribution for the tling on the banks of the River goods even during the Combed Swedish raids on the White Sea Kemijoki were not numerous, Ware Era, 4200–2000 B.C., area of Karelia and the Kola they still managed to develop a when the shores of the Ancient Peninsula, the Russians and culture of their own over 6000 Lake Kolpene had links with ar- Karelians destroyed Rovaniemi years ago, characterised by typi- eas beyond the White Sea and a number of times in cal stone artefacts. This marks a Lake Onega in the east, the 1578–1611, and when Sweden point in time at which a group shores of Varangerfjord in the conquered the Baltic and Pom- had emerged that was capable of north and the Straits of Den- merania, soldiers recruited from establishing contacts with other mark in the south-west. Rovaniemi would be stationed cultures. The resulting interac- Bronze working skills in the local garrisons for decades tion was by no means one-sided reached Rovaniemi from east – so that when they died they even then, for they would learn and west simultaneously around would be replaced with new sol- things from others and their 1300–500 B.C., and iron diers from Rovaniemi. Military own skills would enrich the lives founding was acquired from the expeditions did not end until 59 of others. east in the first centuries A.D. Sweden lost its position as a ma- Ministers of the Environment representing eight countries signed an agreement on the conservation of Arctic environments following a se- ries of conferences held in Rovaniemi in 198991. The work is still going on under the title of the "Rovaniemi Process". jor power at the beginning of the 18th century. Despite the fact that Finland fell under the imperial rule of the Tsar in 1809, Russian influence did not increase at all in Rovanie- mi, other than through some of the farmers purchasing goods from St. Petersburg and travel- ling pedlars from Karelia making their habitual and usually wel- come visits to the villages to sell odds and ends. More important was the western influence, espe- cially that of the Norwegian busi- nessman Terje OlsÈn and his in - put of British capital, which en- abled forestry to gain a foothold in the local economy. The most international event At the outbreak of the Win- and even published their own in Rovaniemi in the late 19th ter War, the Russian bombing newspaper there for a while. century and the early 20th cen- raids on Rovaniemi reminded A new group of foreigners, tury was undoubtedly the mar- the Finns that a similar threat the Germans, gained a foothold ket, which in addition to the could be expected from the east in Rovaniemi at that time. The more affluent local people, at- as they remembered from the local people welcomed them tracted Lapps, gypsies selling tales of the period of oppression readily, mainly thanks to the horses, Englishmen purchasing and Russification that had possession of a common enemy. furs, Jews engaged in all sorts of coloured the early days of the Thus there were 5000–6000 trade, Russians and Tatars sell- struggle for independence. On Germans living in the town for ing a variety of goods, and the other hand, in spite of the some years, almost equalling the tradesmen from northern Swe- nationalist ideals and aspirations local people in number, despite den and the shores of the Arctic for a Greater Finland that the lack of dwellings, all types of Ocean. There would sometimes aroused fear and anger in Swe- goods and a joint language, and even be a whole orchestra from den and Norway as well as the despite the differences in ways Germany playing there. It is re- Soviet Union in the 1920’s and of behaving and other problems. ported that in 1912 a German 1930’s, voluntary Swedish pilots There were also Germans sta- merchant bought all the rein- were ready to protect Rovaniemi tioned in almost every village in deer skins on offer at the mar- against enemy bombing as soon the rural district. The Germans ket, needing 26 railway wagons as war broke out. also employed some 250 to transport them all away. From June 1940 until the be- Swedes, almost a hundred Esto- ginning of the Continuation nians and people of many other The influx of foreign- War, contacts with the Swedes nationalities. Rovaniemi was in ers during the war were promoted by the lively fact the most international place Although a small group of Ger- traffic to and from Petsamo, a in Finland at that time, and per- man soldiers had visited route through which large quan- haps in the whole of northern Rovaniemi at the end of the tities of supplies were transport- Europe. First World War, there were no ed to Sweden as well as Finland. Rovaniemi’s war-time inter- real signs of international mili- The Swedes consequently estab- national character ended in cata- 60 tary activity until the Second lished offices and permanent strophe when the former com- World War. servicing bases in Rovaniemi, rades in arms destroyed the place almost completely in au- The symbol of international both in its restricted Nordic tumn 1944. Compared with the cooperation in Rovaniemi is form and when expanded to in- wars that have taken place else- the Arcticum building, in clude the Kola region. The town where since that time, however, which the Provincial Museum library, for example, set out to the Lapland War was conducted of Lapland is able to demon- cover the entire Arctic area, and on a gentlemanly basis, at least strate connections with distant now has one of the most exhaus- in as far as the parties jointly lands going back to the Stone tive collections of books in the transported the civilians to safe- Age and the Arctic Centre has world on this subject. The secre- ty before hostilities broke out. exhibits showing the natural tariat of the Northern The majority of the local peo- environments and cultures of Fennoscandia Committee, the ple were evacuated to northern the whole circumpolar region. official joint body set up by Sweden, and would thus have Norway, Sweden and Finland, been able to witness personally food from the United States. has been located in the building how their western neighbours Some American Quakers lived of the Lapland provincial ad- lived, and to see how the in Rovaniemi from Christmas ministration since the 1970’s. Swedes, whom they originally 1945 onwards to ensure that the Nowadays the provincial ad- regarded as arrogant, had made help reached its destination. In ministration and the Regional extreme sacrifices to help their addition, the Evangelical- Council of Lapland are also en- neighbours who were not even Lutheran parishes in the United gaged in multinational coopera- able to express themselves in States assisted in the building of tion in the Barents Sea region. Swedish. The evacuation period a new church to replace the one The University of Lapland laid the foundation for many burnt down by the Germans. has also placed arctic coopera- long-term friendships and a Ragnar Lassinantti, governor tion high on its list of priorities. number of Finnish-Swedish of the province of Norrbotten in The Arctic Centre was estab- marriages. Sweden, was one of the first to lished in 1989 as a special insti- raise the question of cooperation tute within the university, Work for peace after in Northern Fennoscandia, the housed together with the the war area known as 'Nordkalotten', Provincial Museum of Lapland Although Finland did not ac- soon after the war. Rovaniemi in the Arcticum building. The cept Marshall aid, Lapland did enthusiastically supported this university has attracted a num- 61 receive gifts of clothing and type of international activity, ber of foreign researchers and The cabin provided for international local company in The Rural District of Eleanor Roosevelt soon became the area today, exporting to Rovaniemi also has two twin- too small to cope with the Japan as well as to many Euro- ning arrangements, with Sant numbers of visitors, and the pean countries. Another form of Johan in the Tirol (Austria) and Borough Council built a new international trade is represent- Ajka in Hungary. Arctic Circle cottage.

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