Kuolismaa Road - Attack Avenue

The perimeter of the border zone is marked in the terrain with yellow border zone signs, yellow circles painted on or affixed to trees and poles, and booms located on roads and access routes. You need a permit to enter the border zone. Trespassing in the border zone is punishable.

Red Army's southern axis of advance toward Ilomantsi in 1939 and 1944.

The road to Kuolismaa can be called an attack avenue for good reason. In the morning of November 30, 1939, the first day of the Winter War, the Red Army’s 155th Division with a total strength of 18,000 men crossed the border into Ilomantsi at three points.

Two northern axes of advance converged before the present-day border. The 786th Rifle Regiment, which was the southernmost of the attacking formations, veered via Lake Ilajanjärvi toward Kallioniemi. The regiment's combat strength was 6,000 men.

From behind the low incline on the other side of the barrier, a combined force of two rifle regiments of 12,000 men and 1,470 horses rolled toward Möhkö.

Soviet troops retraced the route after the end of the Winter War, but the border was by then moved to its present location. In the Moscow peace talks Finland ceded one third of the land area of Ilomantsi to the Soviet Union. Kuolismaa, Liusvaara and Megri were left behind the border.

When the Continuation War began on June 25, 1941, Kuolismaa road again witnessed advancing military formations. However, this time the flow was in the opposite direction: the marching troops were Major General Woldemar Oinonen's men on their way to recapture the lost lands.

They were opposed by the 126th Rifle Brigade under the command of Valter Valli, an ethnic Finn who had defected to Russia in 1918 and risen through the ranks to Red Army major.

Three more years passed, and Kuolismaa road became once again an avenue of attack, now toward Finland. The Soviet offensive in the south had met fierce opposition, and now the Red Army was striving to drive through Ilomantsi to deliver the final blow on Finland.

The attacking force consisted of two divisions which were depleted by fifty percent compared with their nominal strength of Winter War days. In the north, the 176th Division proceeded toward Hattuvaara, while along Kuolismaa road, the 289th Division faced Major General Erkki Raappana's 21st Brigade.