Old road trip: Along the (Soviet) Russian border

[jtbell]

The current events took me back to my long-ago close encounter with the Finnish-Soviet border during the Cold War, during a bicycle-camping trip in the summer of 1980.

I flew my bicycle and camping gear to Helsinki. My cousins drove me out to their summer cottage on a lake northeast of Helsinki. I started my tour from there, circling through the "thousand lakes" area of southeastern Finland and returning to Helsinki via the main coastal road.

On my map, I saw a road that came within about 100 meters of the Soviet border, and decided to find out if there was anything to see there, if in fact I could go there. It's marked as road 4011 on this screenshot from Google Maps, at the upper right. The horizontal distance across this map is about 9.5 miles (15 km).

A few miles after passing a small village, I saw a simple wire fence come up alongside the road, and small yellow signs on the telephone poles: "RAJAVYÖHYKE | PÄÄSY VAIN LUVALLA" (FRONTIER ZONE | ENTRANCE ONLY WITH PERMIT). This picture looks backwards (northeast) along the road, showing my bicycle tire tracks.

A bit later, another road came in on the other side, with a larger sign where that road used to go through after crossing:

According to my road map, the actual border was about 100 meters from the edge of the road, but it was hidden by the forest. A bit further on, there was a gap in the forest which allowed me to see the border strip itself (a pair of fences), with a watch tower visible in the distance. There were also more signs on the fence next to the road, showing a camera with a red circle and slash: NO PHOTOGRAPHS. So I didn't take my camera out of my handlebar bag. I simply took a drink from my water bottle while admiring the view briefly, and moved on. I wondered if the guards in the watch tower noticed me, and what they thought if they did.

Besides the watch tower on the other side of the border, I saw no other signs of police or military presence on either side. It was strangely anticlimactic. A few miles later I started seeing occasional farms along the road again.

When I arrived at the campground in Parikkala (lower left of the Google map), the guy at the reception booth chatted me up a bit when he saw where I was from. (I always showed my passport when I checked in.) After I described where I had been that day, he said something like "well, you won't need this, but you might like a souvenir" and gave me a leaflet.

MINISTRY OF THE INTERIOR
Headquarters of the Frontier Guards
Helsinki, 29 June 1972
Nr. 4800/III/13 a 2

INSTRUCTIONS CONCERNlNG MOVEMENT AND STAY IN FRONTIER ZONE

In order to secure peace of the frontier and to maintain and emphasize general order and safety, a special frontier zone has been formed at the southeast and eastern frontier of Finland. Within this zone, persons of more than 15 years' age are forbidden to move or stay without a special permit of the proper police authority.
The control of observance of the Law and Act on Frontier Zone is the duty of the frontier guard and police authorities. These authorities have the right to interrupt and prevent activity, which according to the law in question is forbidden, and obliged to take, when needed, steps in order to bring a person guilty of offence to justice.

The frontier zone and marking of same

1. The frontier zone is an area bordering the boundary line and with a width of maximum 3 kms on the ground and 4 kms at sea. Further information on the course of the back border line of the frontier zone is submitted by the local frontier service and police authorities.
2. The back border line of the frontier zone is marked in the terrain. For the marking are used bulletin boards at public roads, sea-lanes and centers of population, yellow painted rings on trees within woodlands and yellow buoys and boards in watercourses. The notice-boards have a text in Finnish reading - RAJAVYÖHYKE PÄÄSY VAIN LUVALLA (Frontier zone admittance only with special permit).

For movement and stay in frontier zone necessary permits

3. Permit to move and stay in frontier zone when applied for by a Finnish citizen, is granted by the police superintendent of the district covering the area for which the permit is asked for.
4. For a foreign citizen permit to move and stay in frontier zone is issued by the security police.
5. During movement and stay in the frontier zone, the necessary permit shall be brought along.
6. For possession and use of a camera outdoor in the frontier zone a special permit is needed. Permit will be granted, if approvable reason is put forward, by virtue of pronouncement of the proper frontier guard authority by the police superintendent of the district covering the area for which the permit is asked for.

Behaviour within frontier zone and in the vicinity of the frontier

7. Any person moving or staying within the frontier zone has to act and behave in such a way that maintenance of peaceful conditions and irreproachable order on the frontier will not be jeopardized.
8. As activities offending the integrity of the frontier and the peace of the frontier are considered
- to cross the frontier without permit,
- moving within a strip of land comprising an area of 4-5 metres' width bordering on the frontier,
- to photograph the frontier or the borderland of the neighbouring country,
- to shout out over the frontier or to speak to the frontier authorities or civilians of the neighbouring country,
- to throw or in any other way deliver over the frontier objects, documents, newspapers or anything similar,
- to throw light upon the frontier or the area of the neighbouring country,
- to be careless with fire so that it can spread across the frontier and
- other behaviour, which disturbs the frontier peace, and conduct contrary to good manners and customs in the vicinity of the frontier.
9. A person violating the Law on Frontier Zone or the provisions issued pursuant to same, will be punished - if no heavier penalty is prescribed by other law - by fine or imprisonment for maximum two years.

Note that this document never refers to the Soviet Union by name, but only discreetly as "the neighbouring country."

The fence along the road was the "back boundary" of the frontier zone, so I had never actually entered it. My road map in fact showed this back boundary, and that the zone narrowed in width to about 100 m to accommodate the road where I had been.

 

[jedishrfu]

This reminds me of the hikers weaving across the Iranian border and being arrested and detained as spies:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009–2011_detention_of_American_hikers_by_Iran

I guess you were rather lucky.

 

[artis]

@jtbell That is an interesting story, 1980, wow time sure flies doesn't it!

Well Our side of the border, bit lower down in the Baltics , especially the sea shore was "littered" with air defense and anti- ship defense battalions and weaponry.
They "combed" the sea shore each night with special tractors so that they could spot if anyone tried to escape via sea with a boat or anything.
Even being allowed near the shore you had to have a special permit.
In my country alone the shore had some of the toughest installations , just to give you a few
1) We had a large radiotelescope , but no not for "proving" the Lambda CDM model, instead for spying on US and western communications
https://www.google.com/search?q=irb...HTxhDTMQ_AUoAXoECAIQAw&biw=1366&bih=615&dpr=1
It's a nice place now, you can visit freely, they use the scope now for space exploration.

2) We had a functioning "DNEPR" radar and an unfinished "DARYAL" early warning radar just a small distance from the radiotelescope

Then they had the , submarine communcations VLF transmitters here.
And on top of that a couple of ICBM bases.

So yeah, our side of the border was a rather interesting part, no wonder they did not want you to cause any trouble while there, the zone was very militarized.

The daryal unfinished radar building got blown up in 1995 after we regained independence
An old video they made it like a celebration event that day sort of.
Hope you found this piece of history interesting.

 

[DennisN]

I've also got memories of the Iron Curtain:

During three winter skiing travels (1983, 1984 and 1985) from Sweden to Austria we traveled through East Germany (DDR). I don't know why the travel company chose this route, maybe it was cheaper.

We took boat from Trelleborg (Sweden) to Sassnitz* (DDR), and then the bus went to Rostock (if I remember correctly) and then further into DDR. At some place (I can't remember where) we then entered West Germany from DDR.

I still have memories from this time. It was a very strange feeling when crossing the border into and out of DDR. It usually took a very long time, with guards with weapons coming into the bus, collecting all passports into a box and then disappearing with them for quite some time. It was always a bit scary and I was only a teenager at this time.

Another thing I remember is that the East German border guards always checked under the bus with large mirrors attached to long poles, presumably checking for people trying to escape to the West.

I also remember that the border crossing between DDR and West Germany was a very, very wide area with large fences and watch towers. This was part of the Iron Curtain.

And I also remember the difference in road quality between DDR and West Germany, as it could be literally felt on the bus. The roads in DDR were uneven and quite bumpy, but as soon as we entered West Germany the roads were suddenly smooth.

* Actually there was a permanent ship route between Trelleborg (Sweden) and Sassnitz (DDR). I think this route still exists today.

 

[Fervent Freyja]

That sounds like it was a great time. I’ve already paid for a solo trip to Helsinki in October, but will look into hiking groups in the Northeastern side now that you mentioned it! I may come across similar notices or not be able to go at all.

 

[jedishrfu]

I’m sure there will be heightened security anywhere near the border with Russia.

 

[jtbell]

That sounds like it was a great time. I’ve already paid for a solo trip to Helsinki in October, but will look into hiking groups in the Northeastern side now that you mentioned it! I may come across similar notices or not be able to go at all.

About where is that? "Northeastern side" makes me think of Kuusamo and points further north. One of my cousins had a summer cottage not far from Kuusamo. I visited them on the same trip, but not on my bicycle; I took the train and bus from Helsinki, leaving my bicycle with my cousins in Helsinki.

 

[jtbell]

Our side of the border, bit lower down in the Baltics , especially the sea shore was "littered" with air defense and anti- ship defense battalions and weaponry.

This reminds me of a series of TV travel shows, "Great Continental Railway Journeys", produced in the UK and shown on some public TV stations in the US. The presenter was Michael Portillo, who previously served in the British Cabinet. In one of those shows, he visited a former Soviet nuclear installation in the Baltics (Estonia, IIRC).

 

[Mike S.]

This reminds me of the hikers weaving across the Iranian border and being arrested

The article for that case suggests those people were arrested by the Iranian border police in Iraq. In all such incidents someone has violated the border, but we shouldn't assume it's the hikers. I don't think it's advisable to dally around in the vicinity of hostile armed men from a totalitarian state and assume an imaginary line is going to protect you.

 

[artis]

In one of those shows, he visited a former Soviet nuclear installation in the Baltics (Estonia, IIRC).

I've visited those former nuclear silo bases multiple times, sadly the most interesting part - the missiles were gone, actually these being the early type misisles were taken out of service even before the end of the USSR sometimes in the 80's . The bases we had here had some of the older - early Cold ware missiles that were one of the first ICBM's ever made. Later more modern ICBM's were mostly put on Russian soil and some were in Ukraine which is why it was a dumb step for Ukraine to give them up. They had those ICBM's that could well go beyond ocean's.
Our older ones were meant only for Europe.

We still have one preserved ICBM base from the older type here it's a museum now.
You can google R12 Dvina or R14, the R12 bases were the ones I had visited , those are the same exact missiles that were sent to Cuba back in 1962, so there is a historical aspect to them.

 

[Fervent Freyja]

About where is that? "Northeastern side" makes me think of Kuusamo and points further north. One of my cousins had a summer cottage not far from Kuusamo. I visited them on the same trip, but not on my bicycle; I took the train and bus from Helsinki, leaving my bicycle with my cousins in Helsinki.

I thought you wrote Northeastern side! Sorry, I have poor vision and a bad attention span

I haven’t planned much more out yet, other than finding a host that will babysit me while ice swimming right off their property.

To be honest, I’m thinking about canceling all of my upcoming trips for the next year. The war in Ukraine is so disturbing that I cannot imagine enjoying anything right now.

 

[jtbell]

The dateline of Vaalimaa, Finland, on this article that @DennisN posted yesterday:

War in Ukraine: The Russians leaving Russia for Finland (BBC, 5 March 2022)

reminded me again of this long-ago trip. Two days after the pictures that I posted at the beginning of this thread, I continued from Lappeenranta through far southeastern Finland, roughly parallel to the Soviet border.

Just below the bottom edge of the map, the road from Lappeenranta ended at the coastal road that ran between Helsinki and St. Petersburg (at that time, Leningrad).

At the intersection was a small truck stop (gas/petrol station, shop and café). Otherwise there was nothing but forest. After lunch at the café, I turned eastward to find out if there was anything to see at the border.

A few minutes later I glanced in my rear-view mirror and noticed a car behind me. When it didn't pass me a bit later, I looked again and it was still there. It was apparently following me. Slightly unnerved, I continued pedaling.

After maybe 1.5 km I saw in the distance ahead of me a small building next to a gate across the road. I suspect this was at the back boundary of the frontier zone. Since there was apparently nothing else to see, I crossed the road and headed back down the other side.

As I passed the car that had been following me, I refrained from waving at it, or even glancing over at it. Just before I got back to the intersection I checked my mirror again. Yep, it was still behind me, having also turned around. Fortunately, that was the last I saw of it, as I continued westward towards Helsinki.

Just like a couple of days earlier, I was impressed by the unremarkable setting: a T-intersection of two 2-lane highways in the middle of a forest, with only a truck stop nearby. I don't remember any signs announcing the nearby border crossing point. And there wasn't much traffic.

 

[jtbell]

I used Google Maps to find out what Vaalimaa looks like now. It's a lot different!

The old intersection has been obliterated by a roundabout at the end of a new motorway from Helsinki. The old coastal road still exists as a "back road." The road from Lappeenranta has been shifted to a separate interchange a km or so northwest of the roundabout. The old Lappeenranta road now apparently mainly serves as access to the Zsar Outlet Village. On the map, I marked in red the location of the now-shuttered truck stop.

Zooming in a bit further reveals a lot more stuff in the area, which is no longer an empty forest. All those shops must be targeting Russian tourists coming across the border.

Next, I tried the Google Maps street view to see if I could make out the old truck stop. First, I positioned myself on the old Lappeenranta road just before it curves to go over the motorway, and was surprised to get an image from 2011 that pre-dates the roundabout and shows the old road continuing to the intersection.

At the left is the entrance to the old truck stop, which looks like it's already been closed by then. Unfortunately, Google wouldn't let me click forwards along the road for a better view, probably because the road now doesn't exist beyond this location.

Next, I tried coming in from the west along the old coastal road, and got a more current view (2018):

At the far left, there's a low building which I'm pretty sure is the former truck stop.

Past the roundabout and the entrance to the shopping center down the road is the entrance to the border crossing point, which is now much more obvious than it was 40-odd years earlier:

 

[artis]

@jtbell the car that was following you, could it have been Finish some sort of border guard?

 

[jedishrfu]

It was Bond, James Bond.

 

[artis]

It was Bond, James Bond.

But then there also had to be at least two women an evil villain and a conspiracy.

 

[jedishrfu]

I am not at liberty to release anything more to the public. @jtbell would have to reveal that info.