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Operation Alaska

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Operation Alaska, Finalaska or New Finland was a proposed plan by some US officials[which?] to take Finnish refugees into Alaska if the Soviet Union would have conquered Finland. There were plans to take Finns into Alaska, both during the Winter War and the Continuation War. New Finland would have been established in Central Alaska around the Tanana River.

The plan was opposed by Alaskans in the Congress, mainly because of the issue of having a large group of people speaking a language that was not understood in the region.[1][2][3][4]

Background

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In the United States during the Winter War, a genocide of the Finns was feared, so it was proposed[by whom?] that America would save the Finns by evacuating them into Alaska. Alaska was chosen because it was thought to be suitable for Finnish people and because it had a very low population. During the Continuation War there was also a plan to take Finnish refugees, however on a larger scale, because America was ready to evacuate the whole Finnish population and a populated Alaska would have been better secured in the upcoming Cold War against Soviet offensives.[2][5][1][6]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b "Finalaska - unelma suomalaisesta osavaltiosta". yle.fi (in Finnish). Retrieved 2021-05-26.
  2. ^ a b "Researcher: US Planned "New Finland" for Refugees in Alaska". Yle Uutiset. Retrieved 2021-05-26.
  3. ^ Operaatio Alaska (in Finnish), retrieved 2021-05-26
  4. ^ "Uskomaton salasuunnitelma talvisodan ajalta: suomalaiset oli määrä lähettää Neuvostoliiton pelossa laivoilla Alaskaan". Ilta-Sanomat (in Finnish). 2017-11-03. Retrieved 2021-05-26.
  5. ^ "Finalaska - unelma suomalaisesta osavaltiosta". www.oulu.fi (in Finnish). Retrieved 2021-05-26.
  6. ^ "Finalaska oli outo mutta sitkeä idea". www.ksml.fi (in Finnish). Retrieved 2021-10-15.