Materials for the History of the Savior-Transfiguration Monastery on the Island of Valaam and in the Papinniemi Area in the Finnish Republic in 1939-1944 Abstract
A prosperous existence of the Savior-Transfiguration Monastery on the island of Valaam in the Finnish Republic that had lasted for a quarter of a century was interrupted by the Russo-Finnish Winter War of 1939-1940 and had to be continued in the estate of Papinniemi, acquired by the monastery after its evacuation. However, the successful campaign of Finland to recapture its historical territories in autumn of 1941 allowed to begin soon preparing the monastery for the return of brethren. From the beginning of 1942 until 1944 the monastery was located and carried out its economic activities in two territories - on the island of Valaam, where a small part of the brethren moved, and in the Papinniemi estate. The author has referred to the previously unused Archives of the Valaam Monastery in Finland, private archives in France and periodicals of Russian emigration in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, Kingdom of Italy, the French Republic, the Manchu Empire and the Slovak State. The application is including published for the first time Main Official Report of the Valaam Monastery Administration concerning the state of the monastery on the island of Valaam after it was returned to Finland in autumn 1941; the Report addressed to the Finnish Church Administration has been never before taken into account by researchers (translation is made by Liisa Spackstein). The application also contains complete lists of the monastery’s inhabitants who were evacuated from the island during the fighting (the first list is compiled in the monastery and contains some corrections made by the author and the second one is compiled by the author on the basis of various documents from the Monastery Archive); Obituary of the monks died in 1939-1945, some official reports on church audits in the Orthodox monasteries of Finland of the pre-war period and other significant documents written in 1935-1944 which reflect the history of Valaam Monastery and its brethren, including the diary records of Hegumen Chariton (Dunaev) about the events of the war period together with his reports compiled for publication in Finnish periodicals and concerned trips to the returned monastery on the island of Valaam.