On Sunday 19th of October a Russian tourist group visited the Igor Museum in Degerby. One of the members of the group was a woman, who has visted us several times before, Marina Kalinina. She has visited the Porkkala area many times because she was born here during the lease period of Porkkala. Another visitor was Jelena Voronina, born 1951 in Leningrad, as her parents lived and served in Porkkala. Her father was a doctor and worked at the hospital close to the railwaystation in Siuntio. The family left Porkkala in 1955. Jelena has few memories of the time they spent here.
The village council is now renewing the shop we have at the village office. As our village assistant Jouko Kautto started to remove the wallpapers he soons noticed an old wallpaper, which looked like an old Russian wallpaper.
In the picture Marina is taking a picture of the wallpaper. Later a local carpenter, who visited a lot of the old Finnish houses after the lease period, confirmed that these kinds of wallpapers could be found in several houses in Degerby, and therefore they descend from the Soviet lease period.
If you know more about the Soviet wallpapers, we will be thankful for all information we can get. Write to us!