page_title: Soviet partisans in Finland
section_title: Lokka massacre
hierarchical_section_title: Soviet partisans in Finland / Partisan activity and raids / Lokka massacre
context_page_description: The Soviet partisans in Finland were an irregular military force which attacked Finnish military and civilian targets during the Continuation War, a sub-theater of World War II active between 1941 and 1944. They were based in East Karelia in the Soviet territory and conducted long-range penetration reconnaissance and raids inside Finnish borders, often attacking weak targets such as remote border villages or ambushing vehicles. Around 170 Finnish civilians were killed and 50 wounded in the raids.
context_section_description: Twenty-one civilians were killed in the village of Lokka, Sodankylä, on 14 July 1944. The partisan group Stalinets attacked the village from three directions at 7:45 p.m. after one partisan had been caught nearby and fired at with a rifle by a Finnish civilian. The school building where the civilians were hiding was then set on fire by the partisans. The partisans shot at people who tried to help them escape the burning structure through a window. Hilja Kumpula and five of her children perished in the fire, the youngest of whom was a one-month-old baby. The detachment managed to escape unharmed before units of the Finnish Army could reach them. Gennady Kupriyanov, who was leading the partisan activity, claimed in his report that the village was a "heavily fortified garrison". In reality, the NKVD had accurate intelligence on the village and the partisans had been monitoring it for days, knowing it had no combatants.
caption: Memorial to the victims in Lokka
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