LIFE HISTORY OF VALTO ANTERO TOLVANEN
1908
EARLY YEARS
1911
Born: 16 Sept 1909 in Pielisjärvi, Kuopio, Finland
Parents: Pekka Tolvanen (1876 - 1958)
Ida Sofia Huttunen (1889-1917)
Parents: Pekka Tolvanen (1876 - 1958)
Ida Sofia Huttunen (1889-1917)
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| Pekka Tolvanen and Iida Sofia Huttunen. | 1908. |
My parents, Pekka Tolvanen and Iida Sofia Huttunen were both from the Tohmajärvi area in Finnish Karelia. They met in 1908 in Savonlinna, Kuopio, Finland where Mother was working as a maid and Father worked on the railroad. They fell in love and were married in Savonlinna on Nov. 8, 1908. Father was 32 and mother, a pretty blonde with flaxen hair and sky blue eyes, was only 19 years old. I was born the following year in September, 1909. I was followed by brothers Veikko Arvo in 1911, and Voitto Ensio in 1913.
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| Imperial Crest - Grand Duchy of Finland |
EARLY YEARS
NB: From 1809-1917 Finland was politically an autonomous Grand Duchy of Imperialist Tzarist Russia. Valto Antero Tolvanen was born in 1909, and was a citizen of the vast Russian Empire. Finland won its independence after the Russian Revolution in 1917.
1911
The summer of 1911 - Lieksa?
I was walking with Father and Mother along a forest road — or rather it was actually a wagon trail, a 10-foot wide gravel ro
ad. The journey seemed to be very long, because I remember quite clearly how I suddenly grew very tired and refused to walk any further. Father finally had to gather me up in his arms, there was no other remedy. I recall quite clearly how the green leaves on the trees were silhouetted against a brilliant blue sky. It felt so good and safe to be held in Father’s arms. There I soon fell asleep so I must have been quite exhausted. — This is one of my most vivid childhood memories and most likely the earliest. In retrospect it may have been right before Veikko was born and Father was taking Mother to the doctor or to a midwife.
ad. The journey seemed to be very long, because I remember quite clearly how I suddenly grew very tired and refused to walk any further. Father finally had to gather me up in his arms, there was no other remedy. I recall quite clearly how the green leaves on the trees were silhouetted against a brilliant blue sky. It felt so good and safe to be held in Father’s arms. There I soon fell asleep so I must have been quite exhausted. — This is one of my most vivid childhood memories and most likely the earliest. In retrospect it may have been right before Veikko was born and Father was taking Mother to the doctor or to a midwife.
Lieksa, Heinävesi, Varistaipale, Pieksämäki — those names have a familiar ring to them. Father worked as a breakman with a railroad crew — so it would have been Joensuu -Varkaus — and as the rail line progressed so of course the family moved along with it.
[Daddy told me years ago how he remembered being all swaddled
up and laid in a birch basket out in the hay fields while his mother,
Iida, was gathering hay during the harvest. He remembered the blue sky
and the golden stalks
of hay all around him. He said he was just an infant but he recalled
this moment very clearly. Probably summer/fall of 1910 when he was about a year old. - mltr ]
1912
Varistaipale?
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| Karelia region and Eastern Finland |
I remember a large cottage. Veikko was in a birch-bark basket which hung by ropes from a beam in the ceiling. I think it was summer if not already fall, and Veikko would have been only a few months old — so it would have been around 1911. Veikko was not walking yet at this time, but he squirmed around in his basket so vigorously that he fell out of it and hit his head on the floor. I remember how much this frightened me and I yelled, “Now Veikko is dead!” Of course he didn’t die from the fall, anything but, however this incident did give him a permanent scar on his forehead.
1913
Heinävesi -Varkaus on a boat? It was of course a great occasion — it was summer and the waves swayed and shimmered in the sunlight. The grandest thing of all was that Father bought us some grapes somewhere along the way. I had never eaten any and it has ever remained with me how exquisitely transparent they were. And so marvelously sweet. (Savonlinna).
1914
Pieksämäki? — It seems that we lived there also, but I can’t be sure. In the fall of 1914 we moved to Jyväskylä where w
e lived in a one-room shack and, when winter came, it was so drafty and cold that it took at lot of squirming around on the icy floor before sleep finally came. Voitto was with us by this time but no memory of it has stayed with me. It’s possible that the boat trip I mentioned above had some connection with Voitto’s birth, in which case it would have happened during the summer of 1914. Voitto was born in June. And because Father and Mother had been married in Savonlinna it is very possible that our journey took us there. But who to ask about these things now. Something is wrong here, however, because the birth document states that Voitto was also born in Pielisjärvi. Well, be that as it may, by the time our family lived in Jyväskylä all three of us boys were running around on the wooden floorplanks of the fishing shack.
e lived in a one-room shack and, when winter came, it was so drafty and cold that it took at lot of squirming around on the icy floor before sleep finally came. Voitto was with us by this time but no memory of it has stayed with me. It’s possible that the boat trip I mentioned above had some connection with Voitto’s birth, in which case it would have happened during the summer of 1914. Voitto was born in June. And because Father and Mother had been married in Savonlinna it is very possible that our journey took us there. But who to ask about these things now. Something is wrong here, however, because the birth document states that Voitto was also born in Pielisjärvi. Well, be that as it may, by the time our family lived in Jyväskylä all three of us boys were running around on the wooden floorplanks of the fishing shack.
Only one incident from those days has stayed with me, and it caused me such fear that I will never forget it. It happened on a day when the first ice appeared on the river — it must have been a Sunday because Father was at home. His intent was to go catch eels, so he grabbed his axe with one hand and dangled me from the other. The river was one big sheet of ice as crystal clear as glass. I recall seeing the river bottom covered with large rocks, and among them the 
watercress swayed slowly with the current. Father stepped out on the ice and tried to pull me along with him, but I was overcome by such paralyzing fear that nothing could persuade me. It was a mindless terror, and nothing helped to overcome it even when Father himself stepped out on the ice and showed me how well it supported him. There was nothing to do finally but head back home. I truly hope that Father went back to the river by himself later that day. He must have wondered to himself what kind of weakling he had sired! — I’ve thought to myself in retrospect that it was one of those perfect fishing days that seldom come along.
watercress swayed slowly with the current. Father stepped out on the ice and tried to pull me along with him, but I was overcome by such paralyzing fear that nothing could persuade me. It was a mindless terror, and nothing helped to overcome it even when Father himself stepped out on the ice and showed me how well it supported him. There was nothing to do finally but head back home. I truly hope that Father went back to the river by himself later that day. He must have wondered to himself what kind of weakling he had sired! — I’ve thought to myself in retrospect that it was one of those perfect fishing days that seldom come along.
Translated from the Finnish: Marja-Leena Tolvanen-Rogers
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