Pajala () is a

locality Locality may refer to: * Locality (association), an association of community regeneration organizations in England * Locality (linguistics) * Locality (settlement) * Suburbs and localities (Australia), in which a locality is a geographic subdivis ...

and the seat of

Pajala Municipality Pajala Municipality (; fi, Pajalan kunta) is a municipality in Norrbotten County in northern Sweden, bordering Finland. Its seat is located in the locality of Pajala. In 1884 Tärendö was detached from Pajala Municipality, forming a municipalit ...

in Norrbotten County, Sweden, with 1,958 inhabitants in 2010. It is located in Swedish Lapland. Pajala is in the

Torne Valley The Torne, also known as the Tornio ( fi, Tornionjoki, sv, Torne älv, , se, Duortneseatnu, fit, Tornionväylä), is a river in northern Sweden and Finland. For approximately half of its length, it defines the border between these two countr ...

and was dominated by people speaking 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 ...

dialect until Eastern Sweden (Finland) got annexed by Russia in the 1800s and Pajala ended on the Swedish side of the river that marked the border. Today the town is nearly unilingually

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

although the Meänkieli name for the locality remains in use and is a minority language. Even so, Pajala has belonged to Sweden since the country's inception as a political unit.

History

Lars Levi Laestadius, a botanist, Lutheran minister, and founder of the revivalist movement

Laestadianism Laestadianism, also known as Laestadian Lutheranism and Apostolic Lutheranism, is a pietistic Lutheran revival movement started in Sápmi in the middle of the 19th century. Named after Swedish Lutheran state church administrator and temperance ...

, lived and worked in Pajala municipality in the mid-19th century. He lived in

Kengis Kengis (; fi, Köngäs) is a small rural community in Pajala Municipality in northernmost Sweden, located very near the Finnish Finnish may refer to: * Something or someone from, or related to Finland * Culture of Finland * Finnish people or Fi ...

, but in 1869 his house and grave and the whole church of Kengis were moved to Pajala. The town was mistakenly bombed by

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 ...

airplanes during the Finnish/Soviet

Winter War The Winter War,, sv, Vinterkriget, rus, Зи́мняя война́, r=Zimnyaya voyna. The names Soviet–Finnish War 1939–1940 (russian: link=no, Сове́тско-финская война́ 1939–1940) and Soviet–Finland War 1 ...

, in spring 1940. Seven Soviet planes dropped 134 bombs, a mix of explosive and firebombs, which destroyed six buildings, badly damaging telephone wires, and making the streets impossible to drive on due to 43 big craters. No human deaths were recorded, although two persons were slightly injured. Soviet officers later inspected the destruction and the Soviet Union paid damages to Sweden in 1940.

Literature about Pajala

The events in

Mikael Niemi Mikael Niemi (born 13 August 1959) is a Swedish author. He wrote the novel ''Populärmusik från Vittula'' (in English as ''Popular music from Vittula''). It is the story of a young boy, Matti, growing up in Pajala in the 1960s and is recounted in ...

's book ''"Populärmusik från Vittula"'' (''Popular Music from Vittula'') occur mainly in Pajala. Vittula, or more properly ''Vittulajänkkä'', is a colloquial name (vulgar in its Finnish-Sami etymology, at least) for a certain garden suburb in Pajala. In another portrait of Pajala by Niemi, the crime novel ''"Mannen som dog som en lax"'' (''"The Man who Died like a Salmon"''), the author discusses the state of the minority language

Meänkieli (literally 'our language') is a group of distinct Finnish dialects or a Finnic language spoken in the northernmost part of Sweden along the valley of the Torne River. Its status as an independent language is disputed, but in Sweden it is recogn ...

in Pajala today.

Climate

Pajala has a harsh subarctic climate that is somewhat moderated by the influence of the North Atlantic. Its inland position and lower elevation cause warmer summers, and winters are a bit less cold than most areas on similar latitudes.

References

Populated places in Pajala Municipality Norrbotten Municipal seats of Norrbotten County Swedish municipal seats Populated places in Arctic Sweden {{Norrbotten-geo-stub