Porolaitumia ja kalavesiä Neuvostoliitosta - toteutumattomia suunnitelmia

摘要

This article discusses the initiatives made by the Association of Reindeer Herding Cooperatives and the reindeer herding cooperatives of East Lapland and supported by the Association of Reindeer Herding Cooperatives to gain reindeer grazing grounds from the Soviet Union side of the border in the 1960s and the 1970s. Secondly, this article also covers the initiative made by the Ivalo section of the Finland-USSR Society in 1968 that the Skolt Samis be allowed to utilise the Suenjeli (Suonikylä) area left on the Soviet side of the border after WW2 to maintain their traditional livelihood. The article is mainly based on documents from the Finnish Ministry for Foreign Affairs. In the winters of 1966-1967 and 1967-1968, the eastern areas of Northern Lapland were afflicted with the freezing of lichen, which seriously jeopardised the amount of nourishment available to reindeer. Tens of thousands of reindeer were in danger of perishing. In 1967 and 1968, Finns were given the right to graze 10,000 reindeer on the Soviet side of the border in the areas of Kuolajärvi and Talvikylä. The grazing grounds in question were located on the other side of the border zone and leased to the Finns for the few winter months. In 1967, the grazing right was given from January to February, and in the next winter the right was extended to last from 22 December 1967 until 15 April 1968. Finns, however, never utilised the opportunity that this contract provided, due to the short grazing period and some practical difficulties. On the other hand, the construction of the Lokka and Porttipahta reservoirs in Sodankylä at the end of the 1960s deprived the Lapland reindeer herding cooperative of considerable areas of grazing ground. The Lapland reindeer herding cooperative lost approximately 600 km2 of its best winter grazing grounds and was forced to reduce its largest permissible number of reindeer by 2,000 animals. In accordance with an initiative by the reindeer herding cooperatives of Lapland and Kemi-Sompio, plans were made to acquire additional grazing grounds from the Soviet side of the border to safeguard the eastern cooperatives. The matter of leasing grazing grounds from the Soviets was on the agenda of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs on several occasions during the 1970s, but no further contracts on this subject were made between the Soviets and Finns. The reindeer herding cooperative of Northern Salla proposed in the autumn of 1971, that an area be leased from the Soviet border for collecting lichen. The reindeer herding cooperative of Sodankylä also proposed leasing new grazing grounds as a means of compensation for the losses suffered by the reindeer herding community as a result of the construction of the Lokka and Porttipahta reservoirs. The Kemi-Sompio reindeer herding cooperative also participated in the drawing up of this initiative. The discussion regarding the leasing of grazing grounds from the Soviets was finally put to an end in the autumn of 1976, when the Finnish Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry opposed the idea. While the Finnish government was busy building a welfare society, it was struggling to solve the social and economic challenges facing one of its smallest minorities, the Skolt Samis, in a way that would allow them to keep their confidence in their government's ability to safeguard their best interests. The initiative proposed by the Ivalo section of the Finland-USSR Society that the people of Suonikylä be allowed to utilise their traditional fishing waters and hunting grounds on the other side of the border, and cross the border relatively freely, entailed a very idealistic view of the friendship between Finland and the Soviet Union, but it can also be viewed as a sort of continuum to the post-war tradition of cooperation in the border area of the two countries. Speculations that the Skolt Samis might be allowed to return to the Soviet Union were by no means new but, at the end of the 1960s, they were viewed in a much more positive light then immediately after the war. That the small Skolt tribe would be allowed to move in accordance with their traditional lifestyle and view the national borders only as reference lines was a naive assumption in the Cold War world, but on the other hand, if the real purpose of the initiative was to bring national attention to the economic and social dilemmas of the Skolt Samis, it was a very skilful move.%Poro ja jäkälä liittyvät erottamattomasti yhteen. Poronhoitoalueen jäkälikköjen tilaa selvitettiin ensimmäisen kerran 1900-luvun alussa, heti paliskuntajärjestelmään siirtymisen jälkeen. Tuolloin pohjoisimpien paliskuntien jäkälälaitumien kunto oli hyvä ja eteläisissä ja keskisissä paliskunnissa kohtuullinen. Paliskuntain yhdistyksen edeltäjä, Suomen poronjalostusyhdistys, selvitti porolaidunten kuntoa koko poronhoitoalueella vuonna 1935. Jäkäliköiden kunto oli enimmäkseen kohtalainen tai heikko. Puutetta oli jäkälälaitumista, kesälaitumia oli riittävästi. Paliskuntain yhdistys kartoitti porolaidunten kuntoa vuonna 1962. Laidunten kunto oli edelleen vain kohtalainen tai heikko. Toisen maailmasodan jälkeiset itärajan alueluovutukset supistivat talvilaitumia. Laidunmaita supistivat ja pirstoivat myös muiden elinkeinojen tarpeet ja liikenneväylät.