Haikola

The village is located on an island in Lake Kotijärvi, part of the Kepajoki River system, and is about 40 km from Uhtua in the direction of Kemi. Haikola has never been particularly large; the size of the island (only 1 km long and 0.5 km wide) has imposed certain limitations. Seven houses have remained intact in the village. In 1905 there were 11 houses and 84 inhabitants.

All of the buildings in the village are traditional and fit the landscape well. The graveyard in Haikola is one of the most beautiful in Viena.

The village used to be called Jouhkola, after its earliest known resident. According to a story passed down in his family, Jouhko was the nephew of the founder of the village. The father left his former home in Tuhkasenvaara when bears started looking in the windows and settled on the island to get away from them.

The best known resident of Haikola in the present century is the national writer of Karelia, Ortjo Stepanov, or, in the Karelian fashion, Ortjo, son of Miihkali, who is son of Pekka, in turn son of Oleksei, in turn son of Vaske, in turn son of Kalaska, son of Jouhko. In 1872, Borenius recorded poems sung by Vaske Kalaska, the grandfather of Stepanov's grandfather, and Karppa´s Moarie, the mother of Stepanov's maternal grandfather, and stated that Haikola was one of the last bardic areas in the east.

Ortjo Stepanov has written a series of six novels entitled "A Tale of the Home District," which portray developments in Viena from the 1920s through the 1960s. The writer's home district provides the focus of the events in the novels.

Haikola
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