''Rautu'' and ''Vilppula'' were Kljuz class Minesweepers left by the

Soviets Soviet people ( rus, сове́тский наро́д, r=sovyétsky naród), or citizens of the USSR ( rus, гра́ждане СССР, grázhdanye SSSR), was an umbrella demonym for the population of the Soviet Union. Nationality policy in th ...

to Finland in 1918 since they would not have survived the harsh sailing to the Leningrad. Ships had weak hulls and their engines were not particularly powerful. During peacetime they were used as depot and test ships. ''Vilppula'' was designated as ''T-2'' and ''Zashtshitnik'' and ''Rautu'' as ''Murman'' before they were included to the

Finnish Navy The Finnish Navy ( fi, Merivoimat, sv, Marinen) is one of the branches of the Finnish Defence Forces. The navy employs 2,300 people and about 4,300 conscripts are trained each year. Finnish Navy vessels are given the ship prefix "FNS", short for ...

In war time the ships were used as minesweepers but occasionally were assigned with more exotic tasks. On 5 December 1941 after Soviets had fled from Hanko there was urgent and pressing need to clear inshore seaways for merchants however the weak hulled minesweepers could not operate in the prevailing conditions. ''Rautu'' and ''Louhi'' were used as icebreakers breaking clearing the waters for the smaller minesweepers to operate. On 25 July 1944 ''Vilppula'' and small Finnish coastal minesweeper ''Merkurius'' (former customs boat of ~20 tons in displacement) were attached to a pier near

Porkkala Porkkalanniemi ( sv, Porkala udd) is a peninsula in the Gulf of Finland, located at Kirkkonummi (Kyrkslätt) in Southern Finland. The peninsula had great strategic value, as coastal artillery based there would be able to shoot more than half ...

when a lone Boston (Douglas A-20 Havoc) type bomber torpedoed both ships. Though the ships were later re-floated they were not deemed to be worth of repairing. ''Rautu'' was decommissioned in 1952.

References

Minesweepers of the Finnish Navy Mine warfare vessel classes {{Finland-mil-ship-stub