Aunus Radio was a

Finnish Finnish may refer to: * Something or someone from, or related to Finland * Culture of Finland * Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland * Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people * Finnish cuisine See also ...

radio station Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based radi ...

operating in an area held by Finland in East Karelia during the

continuation war The Continuation War, also known as the Second Soviet-Finnish War, was a conflict fought by Finland and Nazi Germany against the Soviet Union from 1941 to 1944, as part of World War II.; sv, fortsättningskriget; german: Fortsetzungskrieg. A ...

Formation

Finnish military command was aware of the significant impact radio had on the troops in the front. However, near the eastern border it was impossible to listen to Finnish radio broadcasts due to the distance from the transmitters, and because of

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...

radio jamming. In summer 1941 it was decided that the

Army of Karelia The Army of Karelia ( fi, Karjalan armeija) was a Finnish army during the Continuation War. The Army of Karelia was formed on 29 June 1941 soon after the start of the Continuation War. Organisation The army was organised in two corps and one se ...

should have a radio station of its own. The meeting in which Aunus Radio was formed was held on 18 August 1941, in Leppäsyrjä. The newly founded radio station was issued a car and a

typewriter A typewriter is a mechanical or electromechanical machine for typing characters. Typically, a typewriter has an array of keys, and each one causes a different single character to be produced on paper by striking an inked ribbon selectivel ...

. One week later news were circulated about the formation of a new radio station, but due to difficulties with arrangements the opening ceremonies were not held until 1 September 1941, in Vieljärvi. At first, the station only broadcast on Sundays, and the programme was very modest.

Yle Yleisradio Oy ( Finnish, literally "General Radio Ltd." or "General Broadcast Ltd."; abbr. Yle ; sv, Rundradion Ab, italics=no), translated to English as the Finnish Broadcasting Company, is Finland's national public broadcasting company, found ...

, the Finnish national broadcasting company, donated 20

records A record, recording or records may refer to: An item or collection of data Computing * Record (computer science), a data structure ** Record, or row (database), a set of fields in a database related to one entity ** Boot sector or boot record, r ...

to the new station. When both sides of the records had been played, the station usually broadcast a couple of hours of music.

After startup

Soon after being formed Aunus Radio started inviting local talents to host shows. This often meant Finnish soldiers who were singers, humourists or "seers". In addition to music, the radio started broadcasting humour and plays. Some speeches were broadcast as well, but these were intentionally kept short to meet the wishes of the front line soldiers. At this time, the station started broadcasting daily up to 15 hours per day, including reports from the front and behind the lines. Overall the programming was aimed at entertaining the troops, with no artistic agenda. Since the station was also intended for the general populace of East Karelia, some of the programs were also broadcast in

Vepsian Veps, or Vepsians (Vepsian language, Veps: ''vepsläižed''), are a Baltic Finns, Finnic people who speak the Veps language, which belongs to the Finnic languages, Finnic branch of the Uralic languages. According to the 2002 census, there were 8 ...

and Karelian. Once Finnish troops conquered

Petrozavodsk Petrozavodsk (russian: Петрозаводск, p=pʲɪtrəzɐˈvotsk; Karelian, Vepsian and fi, Petroskoi) is the capital city of the Republic of Karelia, Russia, which stretches along the western shore of Lake Onega for some . The population ...

and renamed it Äänislinna, Aunus Radio moved there.

Trench warfare

When the war changed into

trench warfare Trench warfare is a type of land warfare using occupied lines largely comprising military trenches, in which troops are well-protected from the enemy's small arms fire and are substantially sheltered from artillery. Trench warfare became ar ...

, Aunus radio started broadcasting propaganda intended for Soviet troops. The number of staff also increased, and by 1942 the station employed 21 people, including nationally famous singer and actor

Tauno Palo Tauno Valdemar Palo (born Tauno Brännäs; 25 October 1908 – 24 May 1982) was a Finnish actor and singer in what some consider the golden age of Finnish cinema. In ''Guide to the Cinema of Sweden and Finland'' Peter von Bagh names Palo as the ...

and writer

Oiva Paloheimo Oiva Aukusti Paloheimo (2 September 1910 – 13 June 1973) was a Finnish author who wrote novels, short stories, poems and aphorisms. His best-known work is the children's book '' Tirlittan'' from 1953. Life Oiva was born under the surname Pie ...

. During the trench warfare Finnish troops were suffering from homesickness, and Aunus Radio successfully relieved this by broadcasting entertainment and information. However, their attempts at propaganda and multi-lingual broadcasts in Vepsian and Karelian were not successful in reaching the target audiences.

End of the station

On 16 June 1944 a secret order was issued to the troops in East Karelia to withdraw. Aunus Radio withdrew from Äänislinna with them and settled near Sortavala. However, the station was bombed and the front line came closer, so it was transferred inside the current borders and ended its operations in September 1944.

Sources

{{cite book , title=Tuntematon sota , last=Valitut Palat , authorlink=Reader's Digest , year=1991 , publisher=Oy Valitut Palat , isbn=951-8933-34-0

External links

YLE Elävä Arkisto: Aunuksen rintamaradio aloittaa
- Information in Finnish on Aunus Radio by

Radio in Finland Continuation War Karelian language Veps language Radio stations established in 1941 Radio stations disestablished in 1944 Defunct mass media in Finland