Kirsti Huurre

Aikoinaan sensuroitu kirja näyttää 1930-luvun Neuvostoliiton houkutuksen ja lohduttomuuden. Nuori Kirsti muutti Neuvostoliittoon löytääkseen työläisten paratiisin. Pian suuret toiveet ja innostus romahtivat - ystävät Leningradissa olivat varuillaan ja nälkä kuritti kaikkia. Epäluulo, väkivalta ja valtion propaganda kietoutuivat verkoksi kohta myös Kirstin ympärille, viereltä alkoi kadota tuttuja. Stalinin sortovallan aikana moni suomalainen pettyi katteettomiin lupauksiin sekä karmaiseviin vankileireihin. Kirstille kävi paremmin kuin monelle: hän pakeni Ruotsiin. 1944 sensuroitu kirja tulee nyt päivänvaloon Kirstin lapsenlapsenlapsen saattelemana.

‘A captivating story of courage, belief, and disillusionment under the persistent tyranny of Russian imperialism. Even after 90 years, Kirsti’s story is a testament to the ongoing fight for Freedom.' - Ana Khizanishvili, Human Rights LawyerUnder the Sickle and the Sledgehammer was originally published in 1942, as war still raged between Finland and the Soviet Union. The author of this memoir, Kirsti Huurre (a pseudonym, since it was far too risky to reveal her real name), was a Finnish woman who immigrated to the Soviet Union in the 1930s, convinced the new egalitarian state and workers’ paradise would provide a better life for her and her young son; she was hopeful that, once settled, she would be able to send for him. What followed was vastly different to what was promised: a life filled with fear, suspicion, violence and state-run propaganda that spun a web of lies around its people. Kirsti eventually escaped – defying the odds when so many of her friends and loved ones did not. Under the Sickle and the Sledgehammer is the first English translation of what became the second most censored book – second only to Mein Kampf – from Finnish libraries after the war. This is a gripping and valuable account of life in Stalin’s oppressive Soviet Union.