Venäläisten asemia Saunajärvellä. Kuva on otettu rauhan tulon jälkeen 14. maaliskuuta 1940. SA-kuva.

Saunajärvi defence positions

At the beginning of the Winter War, the bottleneck between Lake Saunajärvi and Lake Alasenjärvi in the area of the Saunajärvi village was the location of the main Finnish defence positions, despite the offensive intentions. At Saunajärvi, the road from Kuhmo turned into a cart road leading east. The area had been fortified during the additional reserve exercises.

Juoksuhautaa Saunajärvellä. Kuva Lassi Piirainen.

Battles at Saunajärvi in December 1939

The main part of Finnish Detached Battalion 14 was grouped at the defence positions at the outbreak of the war on 30 November 1939. The move from Kuhmo to the Saunajärvi defence positions began early in the morning. The spirit of the troops was good and there was no hesitation.

At Saunajärvi, the Finnish troops engaged the 118th Mountain Infantry Regiment that was spearheading the enemy’s attack on 2 December. The enemy attempted to investigate the structure of the defence positions with reconnaissance attacks, which were repelled fairly easily. At the same time, the enemy was observed to be moving troops north of Lake Alasenjärvi, and the 1st Company was sent there from the reserve. However, it turned out that the whole 337th Mountain Infantry Regiment under Major Tsurilov was behind the flanking manoeuvre, so the 1st Company was unable to ward off the attack. Because of the risk of becoming encircled, the entire battalion had to be ordered to retreat at around 10 p.m. on 5 December. The Finnish troops were able to retreat in good order towards the Rasti area while being pursued by the enemy.

Korsu Saunajärvellä. Kuva Lassi Piirainen.

Motti battles at Lake Saunajärvi

Thanks to the counterattack of the Finnish 9th Division, a large motti was created on the western side of the bottleneck formed by the lakes around Saunajärvi, in the area of the Kannas farm, in February 1940. Then the Red Army troops took advantage of the defence positions built by the Finns. The Finnish troops cut off the road on the eastern side of Saunajärvi on 29 January and on the western side on 6 February. The strong enemy in the motti could not be destroyed and some 1,500 Soviet soldiers survived when the peace arrived.

Saunajärven muistomerkki. Kuva Lassi Piirainen.

Saunajärvi memorial

The memorial is located next to a car park, on the shore of Lake Saunajärvi.

The memorial to the fallen Soviet soldiers was designed by Sculptor Pyotr Dobrolyubov and erected by the City of Kuhmo and the Russian Ministry of Culture in 1997.

Salpa Line fortifications

During the Interim Peace, the 2nd Battalion of the 10th Brigade (2nd/10th Bde) was stationed in Paloniemi, Kuhmo. The battalion was commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Paavo Susitaival. The battalion’s conscripts participated in the building of fortifications with the fortification troops that had been hired to build the Salpa Line. The battalion was responsible for the battle positions at Kiekinkoski and Saunajärvi and for the barbed wire entanglements. The fortification troops were responsible for fortifying the Rasti area and for building stone anti-tank obstacles as well as dugouts that could withstand artillery fire throughout the area. A barrack village called Hakku was built in the Saunajärvi area and a larger barrack village called Kirves in the Rasti area. However, the fortifications built by the fortification troops and the conscripts were not needed in the Continuation War.

In 1984, the Kainuu Brigade rebuilt a dugout, a machine gun nest and part of the trench on the north side of the Saunajärventie Road. The structures of the strongpoint were restored by the City of Kuhmo in 1997–1999 and again in 2006–2008.