Rasti Battle Site

Kalle Piirainen (born in 1912) recalled that he and the fortification troops were constructing defensive positions at Rasti in early November, when negotiations between Finland and the Soviet Union came to an end. At the time, radios were scarce, and news was mainly obtained from the Kainuun Sanomat newspaper, published three times a week.

When the Winter War broke out, Kalle’s platoon was deployed to Saunajärvi together with the rest of the battalion. The withdrawal from Saunajärvi began late in the evening of 5 December, and the troops reached Rasti the following morning. Their defensive positions were located approximately 1,300 metres north of the present-day Rasti crossroads.

The soldiers were quartered in the Rasti farmhouse, where they immediately fell asleep after the exhausting march. Kalle’s squad was the platoon’s second machine-gun squad and took up a firing position west of the road, a short distance from it. The platoon’s first machine-gun squad, led by Viktor Merentie, was positioned on the same side of the road but closer to it.

There was no contact with the enemy on 6 December, allowing the men to enjoy a sauna at the Rasti school that evening. Combat with the enemy began the following morning, when Finnish troops also observed Soviet tanks for the first time in the area. Viktor Merentie’s squad, positioned closer to the road, came under fire more frequently.

Kalle Piirainen’s squad was forced to withdraw from the Rasti area on the evening of 11 December, when the defensive line was breached. The troops fell back to the Jyrkänkoski area, where further enemy attacks were successfully repelled. The Soviet forces held the Rasti crossroads for the remainder of the war, while Brigade Vuokko stopped further enemy advances south of the junction.