They Took My Father: A Story of Idealism and Betrayal

by Mayme Sevander, Laurie Hertzel

The author recounts how her family idealistically moved to Russia, only to have her father arrested during one of Stalin's purges

Genres: History, Russia

190 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1992

Reviews

[Liz · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an interesting read about a little known aspect of U.S. history. Thousands of Finnish-Americans living in the upper mid-west were recruited to move to the Soviet Union in the 1930s. This book talks about the story of one such family, and the hardships they endured in Stalinist Russia. This is a good read if you are interested in Soviet, Finnish, or U.S. history. As someone who grew up near many of the mid-western cities mentioned, this was a revealing look at some of our forgotten stories.

[Donald Josephson · Rating 5 out of 5]

American Finns and their Story

Being Finnish myself and had some of my relatives go to Russia .They came back with the same stories that I read about.

[Enno · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very well written and compelling story about the other side of socialism and people who did their best to live their values in the midst of the capitalist West and the communist East.

[Rachel Anne · Rating 5 out of 5]

I came across the title of this book in a Facebook group for Finno-Canadians. I was ignorant of the movement between WW1 and WW2 for North American Finns to relocate to Russia and act as pioneers to Karelia.

From the family stories I have been told, because Finland had so many wars in the 1900's, our family wanted to leave the war-torn country and relocate somewhere peaceful, in our case, Canada. I had heard stories of relatives that had lived in Karelia betwen WW1 and WW2 and decided to stay with their land, eventually being annexed to Russia.

To hear of families who had moved from Finland to North America to then to choose to move to Russia to sparsely populated areas with little resources sounds complete contrary to everything I have been told about Finnish migration. Finns left to make a better life in North America - why would they then try to go to Russia as it came under Soviet rule?

This book is an eyeopener. Many thousands chose to do just that and willingly accepted that they would be signing up for a hard life (although they had no idea of the true extent). I found "They Took My Father" to be an absolutely riveting read. Circumstances lined up just so for the author's father to become involved with the rising socialist movement in the United States, to believe all the Soviet propaganda that was being sent across the Atlantic, and to not only recruit immigrants, but to take his whole family willingly into such a hard life.

I felt the confusion, despair and deep admiration for the author and her family as they faced their father's disappearance, the distrust of their community, and the obstacles they overcame to still try to create the country their father had envisioned Russia could be. I highly recommend this book, especially for anyone else who had no idea that this period even happened. The author provides a very unbiased historical commentary.

[Toni · Rating 5 out of 5]

wonderful book which takes place in Petrozavodsk, Russia, where I lived for two years. Startling account of life in Soviet Russia under Stalin.

[Jeffrey Williams · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mayme Corgan-Sevander did an admirable job in telling her story of growing up in Upper Michigan, Northern Wisconsin and Northern Minnesota, and relocating as a youth to Karelia as it became part of the Soviet Union in the 1930s, how the Stalinist purges and WWII affected her family, and how she lived to tell about it.

Because there are few who survived and wrote about their experiences, this has become an important work in the historiography of the Communist Party Finnish-American/Karelian resettlement program.

What I appreciate about this is that it is not a propaganda piece. Though she was an unabashed socialist even as she wrote the book, she gives us a lesson on an important difference that most Americans have missed regarding life in the Soviet Union, what she refers to as "Sovietism" as opposed to "Socialism." Though she believes that socialism hasn't been properly implemented, that argument can be made for another day. She shows us the horrors of life in Stalin's USSR, the misuse of power and the grift by party members, but the real takeaway is seeing the impact of Sovietism on the local family.

I also appreciated the fact that the end ties in with the beginning. Her story has come full circle. We now understand why this story needed to be told and why she was the one to tell it. Even though we are told that in the introduction, the ending truly emphasizes that yes, she is the one to tell this important story. She did a great job of it, too!

[Craig · Rating 5 out of 5]

Drawn to this book by my Minnesota/Finnish heritage, wherein a story is discovered; replete with shocking hardships, dashed dreams, and a determined mindset, common to thousands of Finnish Americans. Thousands of which migrated to Russia from the US around 1930, looking for the utopian communist state.
The author, Mayme Sevander gives life to the eye-opening, stark, unbelievably heartbreaking trials endured (those that survived) by this group of people. The stories are gripping as families plummeted and slogged through the 1930s-1950s, dealing with the cruel hardscrabble of life in the Finnish/Russian area of Karelia, under Stalin and his ilk.
5/5 stars!

[Amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Horrifically sad memoir.

[Lin · Rating 5 out of 5]

The other side of the story...what happened to those Finnish-American families who migrated to Russia with their idealistic dreams of helping develop the new society. The author survived and succeeded, not a small accomplishment in an environment that resented the new immigrants.

[John Benson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fascinating memoir that was co-written with Laurie Hertzel, the book editor of the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Mayme Sevander was born near Duluth, MN, the child of socialist Finnish immigrants. Her father became involved in helping families move to the Karelian region of Russia, which borders on Finland, so that they could live out their socialist ideals. Eventually, when Mayme is ten, the family moves there, as well. The memoir concentrates on the twenty years between 1930 and 1950 during which the family settles into the town of Petrozavodsk; the father is eventually taken away and the family continues to always wonder why; their lives surviving World War II, and the disillusionment with socialism in Russia, which Mayme calls Sovietism. Mayme Sevander remained a strong believer in the ideals of socialism all her life. This book is a fascinating glimpse into a little know part of American and Russian history, with strong ties to the Scandinavian and Finnish cultures of the Upper Midwest.

[Laurel Deloria · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tracing the hopes and hardships of one family over two continents, They Took My Father explores the boundaries of loyalty, identity, and ideals."
"What makes Mayme 19s story so uniquely 14almost unbelievably 14tragic is that her family chose to move from the United States to the Soviet Union in 1934, thinking they were going to help build a 18worker 19s paradise. 19 They found, instead, a deadly nightmare." 14

[Alex Bare · Rating 5 out of 5]

A truly breathtaking story from one of history's lost chapters. You really never expect to find a socialist Finnish-American community in Soviet Russia during the 1930s, yet here it is. Their story is one of thousands of people who went there looking for a better life, only to disappear under a paranoid government.

[Caryl · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was interested in the connection of the Finnish of Northern Minnesota where I visited last summer and the socialist idealism that took this family back to Russia and through World War II.