Aunus Radio was a Finnish

radio station Radio broadcasting is the broadcasting of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based rad ...

operating in an area held by Finland in

East Karelia East Karelia (, ), also rendered as Eastern Karelia or Russian Karelia, is a name for the part of Karelia that is beyond the eastern border of Finland and since the Treaty of Stolbovo in 1617 has remained Eastern Orthodox and a part of Russia. I ...

during the

continuation war The Continuation War, also known as the Second Soviet–Finnish War, was a conflict fought by Finland and Nazi Germany against the Soviet Union during World War II. It began with a Finnish declaration of war on 25 June 1941 and ended on 19 ...

Formation

Finnish military command was aware of the significant impact radio had on the troops in the front. However, near the eastern border it was impossible to listen to Finnish radio broadcasts due to the distance from the transmitters, and because of Soviet

radio jamming Radio jamming is the deliberate blocking of or interference with wireless communications.https://apps.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-12-347A1.pdf Enforcement Advisory No. 2012-02 FCC Enforcement Advisory Cell Jammers, GPS Jammers, and Other J ...

. In summer 1941 it was decided that the

Army of Karelia The Army of Karelia (; ) was a Finnish army during the Continuation War. The Army of Karelia was formed on 29 June 1941 soon after the start of the Continuation War. Organisation The army was organised in two corps and one separate group. * ...

should have a radio station of its own. The meeting in which Aunus Radio was formed was held on 18 August 1941, in Leppäsyrjä. The newly founded radio station was issued a car and a

typewriter A typewriter is a Machine, mechanical or electromechanical machine for typing characters. Typically, a typewriter has an array of Button (control), keys, and each one causes a different single character to be produced on paper by striking an i ...

. One week later news were circulated about the formation of a new radio station, but due to difficulties with arrangements the opening ceremonies were not held until 1 September 1941, in Vieljärvi. At first, the station only broadcast on Sundays, and the programme was very modest.

Yle Yleisradio Oy (; ), abbreviated as Yle () (formerly styled in all uppercase until 2012), translated into English as the Finnish Broadcasting Company, is Finland's national public broadcasting company, founded in 1926. It is a joint-stock comp ...

, the Finnish national broadcasting company, donated 20 records to the new station. When both sides of the records had been played, the station usually broadcast a couple of hours of music.

After startup

Soon after being formed Aunus Radio started inviting local talents to host shows. This often meant Finnish soldiers who were singers, humourists or "seers". In addition to music, the radio started broadcasting humour and plays. Some speeches were broadcast as well, but these were intentionally kept short to meet the wishes of the front line soldiers. At this time, the station started broadcasting daily up to 15 hours per day, including reports from the front and behind the lines. Overall the programming was aimed at entertaining the troops, with no artistic agenda. Since the station was also intended for the general populace of East Karelia, some of the programs were also broadcast in

Vepsian Veps, or Vepsians (), are a Baltic Finnic people who speak the Veps language, which belongs to the Finnic branch of the Uralic languages. According to the 2002 Russian census, there were 8,240 Veps in Russia. Of the 281 Veps in Ukraine, 11 spo ...

and Karelian. Once Finnish troops conquered

Petrozavodsk Petrozavodsk (, ; Karelian language, Karelian, Veps language, Vepsian and ) is the capital city of the Republic of Karelia, Russia, which stretches along the western shore of Lake Onega for some . The population of the city is 280,890 as of 2022. ...

and renamed it Äänislinna, Aunus Radio moved there.

Trench warfare

When the war changed into

trench warfare Trench warfare is a type of land warfare using occupied lines largely comprising Trench#Military engineering, military trenches, in which combatants are well-protected from the enemy's small arms fire and are substantially sheltered from a ...

, Aunus radio started broadcasting

propaganda Propaganda is communication that is primarily used to influence or persuade an audience to further an agenda, which may not be objective and may be selectively presenting facts to encourage a particular synthesis or perception, or using loaded l ...

intended for Soviet troops. The number of staff also increased, and by 1942 the station employed 21 people, including nationally famous singer and actor

Tauno Palo Tauno Valdemar Palo (born Tauno Brännäs; 25 October 1908 – 24 May 1982) was a Finnish actor and singer in what some consider the golden age of Cinema of Finland, Finnish cinema. In ''Guide to the Cinema of Sweden and Finland'' Peter von Bagh ...

and writer

Oiva Paloheimo Oiva Aukusti Paloheimo (2 September 1910 – 13 June 1973) was a Finnish author who wrote novels, short stories, poems and aphorisms. His best-known work is the children's book ''Tirlittan'' from 1953. Life Oiva was born under the surname Piet ...

. During the trench warfare Finnish troops were suffering from homesickness, and Aunus Radio successfully relieved this by broadcasting entertainment and information. However, their attempts at propaganda and multi-lingual broadcasts in Vepsian and Karelian were not successful in reaching the target audiences.

End of the station

On 16 June 1944 a secret order was issued to the troops in East Karelia to withdraw. Aunus Radio withdrew from Äänislinna with them and settled near Sortavala. However, the station was bombed and the front line came closer, so it was transferred inside the current borders and ended its operations in September 1944.

Sources

{{cite book , title=Tuntematon sota , last=Valitut Palat , authorlink=Reader's Digest , year=1991 , publisher=Oy Valitut Palat , isbn=951-8933-34-0

External links

YLE Elävä Arkisto: Aunuksen rintamaradio aloittaa
– Information in Finnish on Aunus Radio by

Continuation War Karelian language Veps-language mass media Radio stations established in 1941 Radio stations disestablished in 1944 Defunct radio stations in Finland