The Finnish connection

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the Orthodox Church changed to English. It just seemed to fall apart slowly (…). When I came to Sitka, after a couple of weeks I came to St. Michael’s. I walked in here and I just felt like I came home. Into my grandmother’s house. It was very old-fashioned, the way they did things. All the women were here, and all the men were there. It brought up a lot of personal enrichment for me³⁶². Such a personal recollection is often seen among people who rediscover a certain form of their identity. St. Michael’s Cathedral could have a very powerful impact given its historical significance as one of the few examples of historical presence of Russian Orthodox Church in America. Perhaps the feelings gets stronger because of the fact how few such people like Ana are in Sitka – a non-indigenous American with an Orthodox upbringing. As she comments herself: The parish here in St.

Michael’s Cathedral is mostly Indigenous Alaskan. Most of those families were living here when the Russians came and they’re still here³⁶³.

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took control over Russian America and the newcomers from mainland Russian were predominantly recruited from the Navy officers and its other employees. Such a vocation was a typical career path for Baltic Germans and Finns³⁶⁵. Germans were also very common among the medical personnel. Out of 15 doctors who served in the colony since 1810, 8 were of German origin³⁶⁶ Distinguishing specific and separate ethnicities is generally a very challenging, difficult, and troublesome task. The case of Russian America or Russian colonization as such is no exception. Some people were of mixed origin, some has changed or russianized their name³⁶⁷. On top of that, the very concept of ethnic identity poses numerous challenges when defined. Nevertheless, certain features were very common among the Baltic Germans and Finns. They were both predominantly Lutheran³⁶⁸. They former also communicated in German as their first and main language.

The situation with Finns is a bit more complicated as they were coming from different parts of Grand Duchy of Finland and thus spoke non only Finnish but also Swedish and Russian³⁶⁹ The involvement of Finns in the colony became particularly apparent and in the mid-19^th century they became a second most populous ethnic group after the Russians.

Although difficult to be very specific, it is estimated that the number of Finnish settlers throughout 1820s to 1860s was 430³⁷⁰. This number is quite impressive given that the general Russian population in the colony was between 500-1000 people. Even including big fluctuations among the inhabitants, the total number increasing 400 says a lot. Even though two Finns rose to high in ranks to hold the position of Chief Manager, most of them performed duties of ordinary workers³⁷¹. They kept coming to New Archangel till the very end of the Russian occupation. One of them, T. Ahllund came there in the end of

365 A. V. Grinev, Germans in the History of Russian America, [in:] Journal of the West, Spring 2008, Vol. 47, No. 2, p.

33.

366 A. V. Grinev, Russian and Foreign Medical Personnel in Alaska (1784 - 1867), [in:] Journal of Northwest Anthropology, Vol. 46, No. 1, Spring 2012, p. 97.

367 Ibidem, p. 32.

368 A. Golubev, I. Takala, The Search for a Socialist El Dorado. Finnish Immigration to Soviet Karelia from the United States and Canada in the 1930s, Michigan 2014, p. 6.

369 A. V. Grinev, The Specific Character of Professional Statuses of Finns in Russian America, [in:] Scandinavian Studies, Vol. 88, No. 1 (Spring 2016), p. 20.

370 Ibidem, p. 18.

371 Ibidem, p. 25.

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July 1867 and bared witness to the final days of Russian America. He wrote his memoirs in Finnish and published them in 1873.

In 1867, when I was working in St. Petersburg, I heard it said in the evening at my living quarters, that at such and such place they were hiring colonists for the island of Sitka, which was located in America, but which was still ruled over by our Emperor. The wages were high, it was said, and land there was among the best on earth. Therefore, I went to this place, too, without saying a word to anyone, and let them hire me. It was not so much the wages that attracted me, but I thought to myself "Why shouldn't I go and try that too, even if only once." When I returned to my quarters and proclaimed the matter, my acquaintances began to try to scare me, and told me to go and break the contract. But I answered to them in a most resolute way: "Whatever I have once decided upon, no one has ever been able to divert me from, and I have always been able to fulfill my plans!"

Thus I departed, after all, on the sea voyage around half of the world, during which we did not see much apart from water and sky. After 12 weeks, on July 30, the mate finally said: "If we continue to have this kind of wind, we shall see land at around noon tomorrow." And he was quite correct: at twelve noon we began to see land which appeared to shine in black and white. "There you have your land of Canaan that you have been looking for!'' That is how those who had been there before made fun of us rookies. And we stood there silent, watching this distressful sight with our sad eyes, for the white spots were-snow-at this time in the middle of summer. The following morning we arrived on the island of Sitka, at the New Archangel harbor. After we had fired a cannon, a pilot came to meet us in a skin boat, which had a fully covered top, except for three holes, [one) for the pilot and [two for his) paddlers. As we came to the shore, there were many people to meet us, among them also many Finns, who surprised us by telling us that it was already Sunday, whereas we had been still on Saturday on the boat?³⁷²

The Ahllund story sheds light on the life of an ordinary Finnish servant of the tsar. He chose to move to Russian America as he found this trip attractive money and adventure-wise. Straight after getting off the ship, he acknowledged the presence of large Finnish

372 T. Ahllund, From the Memoirs of a Finnish Workman, tr. P. Hallamaa, ed. R. Pierce, [in:] Alaska History, Vol. 21, No. 2, Fall 2006, p. 3.

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population in New Archangel. This is yet another indicator proving how important and self-aware this community was.

Today, their legacy is Sitka is not enormous, nonetheless noticeable. As was discussed in the section on material culture in Sitka, 4% of the town’s street are named after people of Finnish origin. The involvement of Finns is acknowledged by the Sitka National Historical Park and the background information on the subject matter received a separate section on their website³⁷³. Although it’s not confirmed yet, one can assume that this topic will be covered by the next exhibition in the Russian Bishop’s House. Arguably, the most long-lasting legacy of Finns in Sitka is the Lutheran Church. Just like the Orthodox Church outlived its Russian founders so did the Lutheran. The main difference was that the Lutheran Church has never attracted the Tlingit population, so it was mostly frequented by the Finns, Germans and some individual cases of Danes, Swedes, Latvians, or Estonians³⁷⁴. The parish was established in 1840 by the Finnish pastor Uno Cygnaeus, who came to Sitka with Arvid Adolf Etholén³⁷⁵. The latter commissioned the building of the Lutheran Church, and the former oversaw the construction. It was completed in 1843 and serves the Lutheran congregation in Sitka until today. Although, it is the third construction (1967) on this site since 1843, it keeps the continuity through the original elements of the first church that are were preserved and are presented to the visitors. Those include the altar painting by Finnish artist Berndt Godenhjelm³⁷⁶. The church also features organs that were brought by Finns as well and are considered the oldest in the West Coast.

The church lost its meaning when most of the Lutheran population abandoned Sitka after the Alaska sale. The town was soon repopulated with Americans of Lutheran background who brought the church back to life. Throughout the decades that followed, the organs broke down. It was not until 1990s that they were restored to be used again³⁷⁷. Today, the

373 https://www.nps.gov/sitk/learn/historyculture/the-finnish-connection.htm [access: June 7th, 2022].

374 M. Jarlsdotter Enckell, In Search of a People Lost: The Finns in Russian America and Their Descendants, [in:] Over the Near Horizon. Proceedings of the 2010 International Conference on Russian America, ed. J. Dusty Kidd, Sitka 2013, p. 48.

375 A. R. Alanen, Sitka’s “Only Place of Amusement”: Russian, Finnish, and Other European Interactions with the Indian River Landscape, in:] Over the Near Horizon. Proceedings of the 2010 International Conference on Russian America, ed. J. Dusty Kidd, Sitka 2013, p. 130.

376 M. Jarlsdotter Enckell, op. cit., p. 50.

377 D. Dahl, Alaska's Oldest Organ Plays Again After a Century, [in:] The Tracker. Organ Historical Society, Vol. 40, No. 2, 1996.

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Lutheran Church in Sitka proudly presents itself as first Lutheran Church to be found on the West Coast of North America³⁷⁸.

While presenting it, they emphasize the role of the Finns in bringing Lutheranism to North America.