Most of the deaths among Soviet POWs, 16,136, occurred in the ten-month period from December 1941 to September 1942. Prisoners died due to bad camp conditions and the poor supply of food, shelter, clothing, and health care. About a thousand POWs, 5 percent of total fatalities, were shot, primarily in escape attempts. Food was especially scarce in 1942 in Finland due to a bad harvest. Punishment for escape attempts or serious violations of camp rules included solitary confinement and execution. Out of 64,188 Soviet POWs, from 18,318 to 19,085 died in Finnish prisoner of war camps. In 1942 the number of prisoner deaths had a negative effect on Finland's international reputation. The Finnish administration decided to improve living conditions and allowed prisoners to work outside their camps. Hostilities between Finland and the Soviet Union ceased in September 1944, and the first Soviet POWs were handed over to the Soviet Union on 15 October 1944. The transfer was complete by the next month. Some of the POWs escaped during the transportation, and some of them were unwilling to return to the Soviet Union. Furthermore, Finland handed over 2,546 German POWs from the Lapland War to the Soviet Union.. How many months after hostilities ceased did the first prisoners of war start to be returned to the Soviet Union?