They Took My Father: A Story of Idealism and Betrayal

Mayme Sevander's book, "They Took My Father," sheds light on an almost unknown chapter in the intersecting histories of Russia, Scandinavia and America. The Autonomous Republic of Karelia, set up by the Soviet Union in the 1930s as an experiment in social engineering, was an enticing destination for many Finnish-Americans who were, at that time, enduring the economic hardships of The Great Depression. Sevander's family made up just a handfull of the some 6,000 Finnish-Americans who emigrated to Karelia, bringing with them American technical expertise as well as Finnish grit and determination. However, as Sevander describes, life in Karelia was far from the "Worker's Paradise" it was slated to become. A series of purges and disappearances shook Karelia's Finnish-American population. Karelia's two Finnish leaders were imprisoned and later executed as Stalin began his reign of terror over the USSR. Sevander's own father was arrested and later revealed to have been executed (his death certificates, both fake and real, were not officially released until 1991), leaving the remaining members of the Sevander family in a state of grim poverty. Striving to provide for her suffering mother and siblings, Sevander secured government work and climbed the long ladder from "Enemy of the People" (A title bestowed upon her father by the Soviet authorities) to a respected government worker, friend of future Soviet leader Jurij Andropov, and a member of Komsomol, the Soviet Communist Youth Organization. However, Sevander's story is riddled with hardship at every step, from her father's arrest and execution, to stints in exile in Siberia, to internment in a work camp after failing intelligence officer's training in the Red Army. Throughout her seemingly impossible journey, though, Sevander remains confident that communism, instituted under the right circumstances, is a feasable system and a worthy goal. Both Inspiring and saddening, Sevander's book offers a glimpse into Soviet Karelia and relates one tale of many - one tale of the over 6,000 tales of American citizens who endured unspeakable atrocities under Stalin's regime.