Category Archives: History | Historiaa

History | Historiaa

Lempi Alanko

[Ilmestynyt alun perin Facebookissa.]

Kun neiti Lempi Maria Kettunen astui ulos Alppikatu 13:n nupukiviseltä pihalta kadulle, hän olisi voinut nähdä suoraan alapuolella Tauno Palon puiston ja takavasemmalla Linnanmäen maailmanpyörän. Mutta koska oli vuosi 1913, maisemaa hallitsivat pelkät Josafatin kalliot. Vuotta aiemmin Helsingin sähkölaitos oli asentanut Alppikadulle ensimmäiset sähkölamput. Kolme kappaletta, ja vain väliaikaisesti.

Lempi oli 15-vuotias koululainen, tuleva Kulosaaren suomalaisen alakoulun opettaja.

Kuten melkein kaikki Pitkänsillan pohjoispuolella asuvat, myös Kettuset olivat työväkeä. Paavo-isä oli ammatiltaan viilari, syntynyt Pietarissa. Äiti Sofia oli kotoisin Haminasta. Perheessä oli viisi lasta, joista Lempi oli vanhin. Nuorin, Reino, oli vasta kolme vuotta.

Alppikatu 13 oli Lempille varsinainen elämänkoulu.

Vaikka vuokrataloissa asukkaat vaihtuivat tiuhaan eikä pitkäaikaisia ystävyyksiä oikein voinut syntyä, talon nuoret varmasti tunsivat toisensa. Heihin kuuluivat tuolloin 16-vuotiaat Saima Johansson ja Hilja Rötkö sekä 18-vuotias Impi Johansson, Saiman isosisko.

Juhannusviikolla vuonna 1914 Saima ja Hilja löydettiin tajuttomana Eläintarhasta, muutaman kilometrin päässä Alppikadulta. Saima kuoli ja Hiljankin elämä oli kiikun kaakun.

Tytöt olivat juoneet “lysoolia”, josta oli tullut suosittu tapa päästä hengestään. Esimerkiksi Australiassa ja New Yorkissa se oli yleisin itsemurhan tekoväline vuonna 1911. Helposti saatavilla, luultavasti myös edullista. Kerrotaan, että Suomessa sairaalat haisivat lysolille aina 1950-luvulle saakka. Aine nousi yllättäen otsikoihin vuonna 2020, kun amerikkalaisyritys Lysol joutui painokkaasti kieltämään presidentti Trumpin ehdotuksen desinfiointiainerokotuksesta COVID-19-virusta vastaan.

Sanomalehdet uutisoivat, että tytöt olivat jättäneet viestin, saajana kaksi nimeltä mainittua poikaa. “Kirjeitten sisällöstä päättäen on tyttöjen ja mainittujen mieshenkilöitten wälillä ollut läheinen suhde. Kirjeissä selittäwät tytöt kyllästyneensä elämään ja päättäneensä sen wuoksi kuolla.” Nykypäivän näkökulmasta tämä teatraalinen viesti on tulkittavissa niin, että Saima ja Hilja olivat rakastavaisia. 17-vuotiaana ei olla kyllästyneitä elämään, mutta jo silloin voi olla selkeä näkemys siitä, miltä tulevaisuus näyttää.

Puoli vuotta myöhemmin, tammikuun 10. päivänä vuonna 1915, kello neljä iltapäivällä, Alppikadun pihalta kuului revolverin laukaus. Toinen. Impi Johansson oli ampunut itsensä ja heti perään, samalla aseella, hänen venäläinen miesystävänsä. Tragedia oli luonnollisesti valtakunnanuutinen: nuori pari, ampuma-ase, kaksoisitsemurha! Kukaan ei ole enää kertomassa, mitä oikeastaan tapahtui, miksi ja kuka oli syyllinen.

Vuoden 1916 helmikuussa kauppias Adiel Lahtinen Raahesta osti Alppikatu 13:n osakkeet ja tontin Helsingin kaupungilta. Moni vuokralainen teki tästä ainoan oikean johtopäätöksen: on muutettava. Toukokuussa Paavo Kettunen perheineen siirtyi Alppiharjusta Kallioon, osoitteeseen II linja 15. Lahtinen oli täysverinen liikemies ja sarjayrittäjä, jolla oli jatkuvasti monta rautaa ja oikeusjuttua tulessa. Alppikatu 13 oli ostettu velalla, jota hän ei pystynyt hoitamaan. Niinpä talo ja tontti pakkohuutokaupattiin jo vuonna 1917.

Kallio oli huomattavasti rauhallisempi asuinpaikka. Moneen vuoteen ainoa Kettusten taloyhtiötä ravisuttanut skandaali oli se, kun talossa toiminut Lindbergin maitoliike sai vuonna 1919 terveydenhoitolautakunnalta huomautuksen ala-arvoisen maidon myynnistä. Maidossa oli rasvaa alle 2.5%.

Saman vuoden syksyllä Lempi aloitti päivittäiset työmatkat raitiovaunulla Kulosaareen ja takaisin. Hänet oli valittu opettajan toimeen seitsemän hakijan joukosta. Vuosipalkka oli 5000 markkaa (nykyrahassa n. 15.000 euroa) ja lisänä Brändö Spårvägsaktiebolagin vuosilippu. Kukaties Lempi ehti jopa matkustaa ratikkalautalla, sillä Sörnäisten ja Kulosaaren välinen silta valmistui vasta vuonna 1919. Sääli, ettei sata vuotta sitten kaikilla ollut valokuvauskonetta käsilaukussa ja IG-tiliä kuvien julkaisemiseen. “Jippii, nyt on jännät paikat! Menossa ensimmäiseen työpaikkaan! Wish me luck!”

Tammikuisena sunnuntaina vuonna 2023 kiipesin Kulosaaren ala-asteen viereiselle kalliolle räpsimään pari kuvaa, kun oli niin erikoinen pakkaskeli. Vasta kotona ymmärsin, että kallio oli muutama vuosi sitten nimetty Lempi Alangon mukaan. Kuka? Tuntematon nimi.

Nyt tiedän Lempistä jotakin. Koska olin juuri käyttänyt aikaa parinsadan suomalaisen vuorineuvoksen tietojen vientiin Wikidata-palveluun, ajattelin että on oikeus ja kohtuus panostaa myös yhteen kallioneuvokseen. Niinpä kirjoitin Lempille Wikipedia-sivun.

Miltä Lempi näytti? Kulosaaren 100-vuotisjuhlien sivustolta löytyy luokkakuva, jossa Lempi on kahdesta opettajasta vasemmanpuoleinen.

Alppikatu 11, 13. Valokuvaaja Grünberg, Constantin, 1955. Helsingin kaupunginmuseo. CC BY 4.0. Talojen suunnittelu: rakennusmestari Karl Forstadius, 1906. Purettu 1960-70-luvulla.
History | Historiaa

A Finnish alien

On 17th April 1929, Aimo August Sonkkila, brother of my late grandpa, left Finland to London. He was 30 years old, son of a farmer in the then rural Laitila municipality in SW Finland.

In London, Aimo embarked S/S Orvieto. His target destination was Brisbane, Australia.

The same year, 589 males in his age emigrated. 11 of them were from the countryside of the same province, Turun ja Porin lääni.

ShipSpotting.com
© Gordy

The first stop was Gibraltar. Then, via Toulon and Neapel, over the Mediterranean Sea to Port Said, Egypt. From there via Suez Canal to Colombo, Sri Lanka. Finally, on the horizon, the West coast of Australia, Fremantle! But the trip was not over yet. Following the Australian coastline, Orvieto visited Adelaide and Melbourne before reaching Brisbane.

I haven’t found the date of the departure, so Orvieto’s exact travel time is unknown. Unlike the newspaper archive provided by National Library of Australia from where I found the route, the British Newspaper Archive is subscription-based. An unfortunate show-stopper for a random visitor like me, although I can understand the monetizing idea.

Anyway, there are hints that the voyage lasted several weeks, which is what you would expect, really. If we trust the computations of Wolfram Alpha, the travel time would’ve been around two weeks, had Orvieto managed 25 knots. Orvieto’s speed, however, was only 18 knots. Yet the globe-shaped map that Wolfram Alpha serves, wakes suspicions. Maybe they use a straight line of distance? In any case, given the fair number of waypoints on route, let us imagine a rough travelling time of one month.

As it happens, Orvieto’s voyage became one of its last ones. The ship was taken out of business in 1930.

Aimo travelled in the 3rd class with roughly 550 other passengers, whereas the 1st class only occupied 75. Among these lucky ones were few celebrities and other prominent figures, featured by The West Australian the day after Orvieto’s arrival to the Australian continent. Onboard was also mail and cargo.

On 28th May, Orvieto docked Fremantle. From the Incoming passenger list, on row 692, we find Aimo. A search by Sonkkila hits 0 because the name is mistyped as M. Sonkkilla. A non-English person, misspellings were to follow Aimo the rest of his life. In the scanned bundle of official records of him, Amio comes up just as often as Aimo. Maybe not a big deal. In Australia, with a hint of Italian, that version was perhaps more practical anyway.

Why did Aimo emigrate? We can only guess. Was he adventurous? Driven to believe in juicy stories of easy money, or official promises on steady income? Had someone he knew and emigrated before him, sent assuring letters to homeland, making him decide to follow suite? As a son of a farmer, he had prospects of taking care of the farm after his father. But, he was not the only son – always a problematic situation. Besides, what if farming was not something he looked forward to? Both push and pull may have played a role here.

We know now that 1929 was the year when Great Depression started. Still, it is difficult to judge in what way and how soon, individual lives are affected by economic fluctuations of such a global scale.

Emigration from Finland was by no means a sudden fad. Previously, the obvious target for the majority of people had been the North American continent. The Immigration Act of 1924 drastically changed this. People were still let in, but in much less quantities than earlier. Very much like in Europe at the moment, both the US and Canada had switched to a selective immigration policy.

This sankey diagram tries to visualize where Finns left between 1900 and 1945, aggregated over decades. Data come from Institute of Migration (Emigration 1870-1945). Note that all targets are not mutually exclusive. Between 1900 and 1923, Americas was recorded as one entity, but from then on, as separate countries. In addition, during that same period, statistics from other countries are scarce. [A technical side note: with Firefox, the diagram may appear very small. Chrome and Internet Explorer don’t have this issue.]

Life in Australia proved a challenging endeavour for Aimo, to say the least. The records are fragmented and don’t reveal much, but it is fairly easy to imagine what is in the gaps.

Work as a miner was incredibly tough. Some of it is captured in The Diminishing Sugar-Miners of Mount Isa, Australia by Greg Watson, linked to by Institute of Migration. I wonder if Aimo had any realistic idea beforehand what it was to be like. Yet, with his modest background, he had not much choice once he had arrived.

Then, after 12 laborious years, Second World War.

On 12th April 1942, Aimo is arrested in Townsville. He is still a Finnish citizen, and because Finland is Axis-aligned, he is a member of the enemy. The rest of the year Aimo would stay in an internment camp at Gaythorne (Enoggera), Brisbane. However, on the application by the Mt Isa Mining Company, his employer, he is allowed to work. Between a rock and a hard place is an idiom that must have been coined by Aimo himself.

At some stage, Aimo had married Impi Rapp. That’s basically all I know about her, the name. Few years after WWII, a son is born. His life would become totally different from that of his parents.

Finger print

National Archives of Australia, NAA: BP25/1, SONKKILA A A FINNISH. Digital copy, page 31

R code of the diagram is available here.

Diverse coding | Kaikenlaista koodailua, History | Historiaa

2015 on 1917

Kulosaari (Brändö in Swedish), an 1,8 square km island in Helsinki, detached itself from the Helsinki parish in early 1920’s, and became an independent municipality. The history of Kulosaari is an interesting chapter of Finnish National Romantic architecture and semi-urban development. It all began in 1907 when the company AB Brändö Villastad (Wikipage in Finnish) was established – but that’s another story. In 1949, the island was annexed again by Helsinki. Today, Kulosaari is cut in half by one of the busiest highways in Finland. The idealistic, tranquil village community is long gone. Since late 1997, Kulosaari has been my home suburb.

One of the open datasets provided by Helsinki Region Infoshare, is a scanned map of Kulosaari from 1917. Or rather, a scheme which became reality only in a limited extent. As long as I’ve known a little about what georeferencing is all about – thanks to the excellent Coursera MOOC Maps and the Geospatial Revolution by Dr. Anthony C. Robinson – I’ve had in mind to work with that map some day. That day dawned when I happened to read the blog posting Using custom tiles in an RStudio Leaflet map by Kyle Walker.

Unlike Kyle, I haven’t got any historical data to render upon the 1917 map but instead, there are a number of present day datasets available, courtesy of the City of Helsinki, e.g. roadmap and 3D models of buildings. How does the highway look like on top of the map? What about buildings and their whereabouts today? Note that I don’t aim particularly high here, or to more than two dimensions anyway; my intention is just to get an idea of how the face of the island has changed.

Georeferencing with QGIS is fun. I’m sure there are many good introductions out there in various languages. For Finnish speakers, I can recommend this one (PDF) by Latuviitta, a GIS treasure chamber.

georeferencing

The devil is in the detail, and I know I could’ve done more with the control points, but that’s a start. When QGIS was done with number-crunching, the result looked like this when I adjusted transparence for an easier quality check.

qgistransparence

Not bad. Maybe hanging a tad high, but will do.

Next, I basically just followed Kyle’s footsteps and made tiles with the OSGeo4W shell. I even used the same five zoom layers than he. Then I uploaded the whole directory structure with PNG files (~300 MB) to my web domain where this blog resides, too.

Roadmap data is available both in ESRI Shapefile and Google KML. I downloaded the zipped Shapefile, unzipped it, and imported as new vector layer to QGIS. After some googling I found help on how to select an area – Kulosaari main island in my case – by rectangle, how to merge selected features, and how to save the selection as a new Shapefile.

Then, to RStudio and some R code.

In Kulosaari, there are 23 different kind of roads. Even steps (porras) and boat docks (venelaituri) are categorized as part of the city roadmap.

> unique(streets$Vaylatyypp)

 [1] "Asuntokatu"                             "Paikallinen kokoojakatu"                    
 [3] "Huoltoajo sallittu"                     "Moottoriväyläramppi"                        
 [5] "Alueellinen kokoojakatu"                "Silta tai ylikulku (katuverkolla)"          
 [7] "Moottoriväylä"                          "Pääkatu"                                    
 [9] "Silta tai ylikulku (jalkakäytävä, pyörä "Alikulku (jalkakäytävä, pyörätie)"          
[11] "Jalkakäytävä"                           "Porras"                                     
[13] "Yhdistetty jalkakäytävä ja pyörätie"    "Puistotie (hiekka)"                         
[15] "Ulkoilureitti"                          "Puistokäytävä (hiekka)"                     
[17] "Puistokäytävä (päällystetty)"           "Venelaituri"                                
[19] "Polku"                                  "Suojatie"                                   
[21] "Väylälinkki"                            "Pyöräkaista"                                
[23] "Pyörätie"

From these, I extracted motorways, bridges, paths, steps, parkways, streets allowed for service drive, and underpasses.

Working with the 3D data wasn’t quite as easy (no surprise). By far the biggest challenge turned to be computing resources.

I decided to work with KMZ (zipped KML) files. The documentation explained that the data is divided into 1 x 1 km grids, and that the numbering of the grids follows the one used by Helsingin karttapalvelu (map service). The screenshot below shows one of the four grids I was mainly interested in: 675499 (NW), 674499 (SW), 675500 (NE) and 674500 (SE). These would leave out outer tips of the island in the East, and bring in a chunk of the Kivinokka recreation area in the North.

kartta.hel.fi

First I had in mind to continue using Shapefiles: imported one KML file to QGIS, saved as Shapefile, and added it as a polygon to the leaflet map. It worked, but I noticed that RStudio started to slow down immediately, and that the map in the Viewer became seemingly harder to manipulate. How about GeoJSON instead? Well, the file size do was reduced but still too much data. Still, I succeeded in getting all on the map, of which this screenshot acts as the evidence:

roadmap and 3D buildings

However, where I failed was to get the map transformed to a web page from the RStudio GUI. The problem: default Pandoc memory options.

Stack space overflow: current size 16777216 bytes.
Use `+RTS -Ksize -RTS' to increase it.
Error: pandoc document conversion failed with error 2

People seem to get over this situation by adding an appropiate command to the YAML metadata block of the RMarkdown file, but I’m not dealing with RMarkdown here. Couldn’t get the option work from the .Rprofile file either.

Anyway, here is the map without the buildings, so far: there is the motorway/highway (red), few bridges (blue), sandy parkways (green) here and there, a couple of underpasses (yellow), streets for service drive only (white) – and one path (brown) on the Southern coast of the neighbour island Mustikkamaa, as unbuilt as in 1917.

Note that interactivity in the map is limited to zooming and panning. No popups, for example.

I’ve heard many stories of the time when the highway was built. One detail mentioned by a neighbour is also visible on the map: it reduced the size of the big Storaängen outdoor sports area on the Southern side of the highway. The sports area is accessible from the Hertonäs Boulevarden – now Kulosaaren puistotie – by an underpass.

EDIT 26.3.2015: Thanks to the helpful comment by Yihui Xie, I realized that there is in fact several options to do a standalone HTML file from the RStudio GUI. With File > Compile Notebook... the result was combiled without problems, and now all buildings are rendered in the leaflet too. The file is a whopping 7 MB and therefore slow in its turns, but at least all data are now there. As a bonus, the R code is included as well! RStudios capabilities don’t stop to amaze me.