Vuokkiniemi

When poetry collection first began, in the 1820 and 1830s, Vuokkiniemi was not a big village, although it was the administrative center of an extensive parish. At the time of Lönnrot's first visit, the village had some seventy houses. Fifty years later, in the early 1880s, A.W. Ervasti reported that there were some 140 houses. In the early 1990s, Vuokkiniemi had over 200 houses and some 500 inhabitants, about 85% of whom were Karelian. In their everyday interactions, most of the people in Vuokkiniemi speak the local variety of Karelian, which is very similar to Finnish.

Although Vuokkiniemi cannot be counted among Karelia's most beautiful villages, it is nevertheless the most important. This status derives not only from its cultural-historical past but from its being Karelia's most nationalistic village. As mentioned earlier, 85% of the people in the village are Karelian and speak the local Karelian dialect.

The population of Vuokkiniemi comprises the original inhabitants of the village as well as people who moved from nearby bardic villages that were vacated in the 1960s. It is difficult to find a family in Vuokkiniemi which is not in some way related to the more celebrated bardic families of Viena.

Vuokkiniemi is also the educational center of its district; it has a school with eleven classes that prepares students for vocational or university-level studies.

Vuokkiniemi
Poetry collecting in Vuokkiniemi
What to see
Panorama
Audio sample