Finnish long distance ranger, so called "sissi", Arvo Juvonen died at his home Oregon, USA, aged 88 years. Juvonen had born 4th April 1916 at Terijoki, Finland.
Having completed his military duty Juvonen continued his career in the Finnish border guard. During Winter War and Continuation War he acted as a "sissi", special ranger operating behind enemy lines during missions lasting for weeks, even months. During these missions the sissi-rangers sabotaged Soviet supply routes, often especially the Murmansk railroad, and spied Soviet troop shipments.
After resigning from the Finnish Army in 1951 the Norwegian intelligence service contacted him. Finnish sissi rangers were being hired for intelligence operations against Soviet union. The only reliable method at that time was to go there yourself and see, count and photograph the targets. Several dozens of Finnish ex sissi soldiers were hired for this operation, started and funded by American CIA, as they had already experience of operating for extended periods in hostile area without outside support, knew the area, could live off the land, could blend into the nature and could avoid enemy patrols.
Vuring 1951-1954 Juvonen conducted several operations into the northern reaches of Soviet Union. Once Juvonen returned with his backpack empty, as Soviet bullets had ripped it into shambles.
One misison started from Norwegian coast - the border was crossed in agent movie style using hot air balloon. Target: Murmansk. This mission is described in the book "Yli rautaesiripun", Over the Iron Curtain, written by Esa Anttala, a friend of Juvonen and his wartime colleague in sissi operations.
All this activity was dangerous to the Finnish government, so it was an official secret and the agents had to watch out for the state police. In the end Juvonen and his family left the country, moved to USA and were granted US citizenship. Many of the other agents made the same, and all got US citizenship for their duty for CIA, US and the western allies.
Some of the agents returned to Finland in the 70s and were trialled. Also Juvonen missed his homeland and after getting confirmation that he wouldn't get any troubles anymore, he visited Finland in 1995 and several times after that. He wrote two books of his experiences of his wartime experiences as long distance ranger, and Finnish television made a tv documentary of him.
At United States he got to discuss with president Eisenhower and seemingly he had done his work at CIA very well, because at his 80th birthday mr. Juvonen got a birthday greeting from president Clinton.
Why mr. Juvonen started his spy career? The will to adventure and to see his old home behind the iron curtain (his birthtown Terijoki was in the area ceded to Soviet Union in the peace treaty). Also mr. Juvonen felt that his actions were a valuable service to his motherland.
For his last resting place mr. Juvonen wanted to be returned to Finland.
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Thus ended one story.
Mr. Juvonen was one of the many Finnish soldiers, who continued their work in the service of western powers. Finnish veterans served in the ranks of CIA, US Marines and US Army in post war years, operating as agents or trainers, writing American winter fighting combat doctrines and using their extensive combat experiences for training American soldiers. Many of them were still in active service during the Vietnam war - and some gave their lives far from home.
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The Oregonian newspaper:
A life of derring-do comes to an end
Arvo Juvonen, a decorated soldier of the Winter War of 1939-40 in Finland, became a spy for the CIA
Monday, December 13, 2004
AMY MARTINEZ STARKE
Adventurous, fearless, intensely patriotic, and bitter over the 1940 loss of one-tenth of Finnish land to the Soviets -- including the farm where he was born -- the young soldier was up for anything.
During the Cold War, he was recruited by the Office of Strategic Services, which became the CIA, to make clandestine reconnaissance trips from Finland into the Soviet Union, at $2,000 per trip, armed with a poison pill in case he was captured.
Arvo Juvonen knew the countryside. He had been a highly decorated soldier in Finland during the Winter War of 1939-40. Later, as a long-distance scout, on foot, and once by balloon, he photographed and gathered information about military installations in Murmansk and elsewhere. He officially worked for the forest service, and food and radio batteries were dropped from airplanes for him.
He had many close calls. He was chased on cross-country skis. He was shot at, but a backpack deflected the bullet.
"There was no time to be afraid," he said. "Not for a fraction of a second."
He also helped blow up at least two trains filled with Russian soldiers. The attack was not authorized by the CIA, which immediately moved him out of Finland under cover of darkness and with no passport. He ended up in the United States with his wife and three sons, and a new home where he could no longer live the life of a hero.
He bounced from Washington, D.C., to Boston to Minnesota to Seattle working off and on as a carpenter, and spent the last 24 years of his life in Lake Oswego and Gladstone, fighting alcohol problems.
He died Nov. 28, 2004, at 88 of heart failure and will be buried after the ground thaws in Finland.
He and his seven siblings were born in a sauna.
When the 100-day Winter War broke out in 1939, he and his family were among the 400,000 displaced, and Arvo became a scout. In 1941, he barely made it to his wedding with Maija Hankanen because he was on a secret mission. It was not a good life, being a wife of a spy.
In the mid-1950s, the CIA arranged their move to the United States. He continued to have close calls: accidents in Minnesota and Florida, a house fire in Massachusetts, a car accident in Seattle that caused a brain injury, costing him most of his English skills. The middle of their three sons was killed in 1963 in an accident. Nothing was ever the same after that. He and Maija divorced but remarried.
Arvo wrote three books published in Finnish, including "Over the Iron Curtain." Norwegian TV did a documentary about him. The BBC would have done one, but Arvo wanted more money than it was willing to pay.
He smoked his own fish, caught from the Clackamas River. While fishing, he would carve a bird out of the roots of a shrub. He attended a Finnish-language church. He followed the news of other displaced Finns.
He treasured his medals and continued to think of himself as a soldier. A red light at an intersection would remind him of the Soviets, the enemy.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, he felt a sense of ease about possible recrimination. In 1991, he was able to return to Finland. He met other scouts. He saw himself pictured on the front page of Finnish newspapers and was treated like a lord -- a hero and Finland's most famous spy.
