Furuborgsvägen/Furuborgintie 6, 10160 Degerby (Look at the map under the heading Contacts)
+358 (0)40-5418526, igor@degerby.fi
Opening hours in the village office Rosenberg and the Igor Museum in winter (September to June) Saturdays 12 p.m. to 4 p.m. and always by agreement. Nb! We are updating our exhibitions 09.1-29.2 but will open by agreement. Opening hours in June, July and August Tuesdays to Saturdays 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Coffee can be arranged, please book in advance. We can also offer you transports in a minibus for 9 persons. Please contact Porkkala Bus, Berndt Gottberg, +358 (0)400 528 598.
We also make guided tours in German!
Führungen auch auf Deutsch.
In summer 2012 we are presenting new exhibitions with a lot of new stories in our enlarged museum! Come and listen to the story of young Vassilij who was sent to the Porkkala base in 1949, surviving just three months in duty. We also tell about Egon Lutomsky who was on board of one of the German ships which in December 1944 were blown up by German mines in the absolute vicinity of the border to Porkkala. Egon Lutomsky was interviewed by us in April 2011.
There is something for all ages in our museum.
What kind of people lived in the Soviet naval base? What was everyday life like? We can offer you some answers, because they are now coming to visit the Igor museum: Russians, Estonians, Lithuanians. Tamara from the Ukraine, the girl in sandals on the picture, is one of them. We will tell you the story about the sandals.
What did happen to Porkkala’s inhabitants when they had to leave their homes in 1944? Where did they go? How where they accepted in a country where a large number of Karelians also had to be resettled? And how did they feel in 1956? We have several different answers.
This summer we will tell more about what happened to the Degerby inhabitants when they had to move out in 1944.
We also have more stories from the Baltic countries and about the Carelians. We get new material every year.
The lease of Porkkala is always the major theme for our museum
The answers to these questions are served at the Degerby Igor museum that focusses on the so called Porkkala Parenthesis or the years 1944-1956 when this area was leased to the Soviet Union. This period forms an outstanding period in Finnish political history. Outstandingly dangerous for our independence too. That outstanding that you can only grasp it today.
The news about the coming evacuation came late on Tuesday 19th September. On Thursday the 28th of this area should be emptied of inhabitants by midnight. On Friday the 29th september the area was handed over to the Soviet Union.
Thanks to the Lotta Svärd organisation and other volunteers the evacuation ran smoothly and effectively. On the other hand Finland had some experience with evacuations of Carelia twice in 1940 and in 1944 and Hanko/Hangö in 1940.
The museum has a Mona-Lisa of its own, a picture of a little girl who lived in the military camp Brasis-Grefvas during the Parenthesis. The picture was found on an undeveloped roll of film in 1956. Today we know a little more about Degerby’s own Mona-Lisa, however let the guides at the museum tell this story.
The major (ret) Vladimir Dimitrievsh Borzov served in the marine base Porkkala-Udd 1948-1955. During the first years of duty he was situated in Degerby at Torbacka manor. Until present he is the only Soviet officer who has told a story about life and service in Degerby. On a visit to Degerby in the summer of 2002 he donated a photo album complied by his colleague and friend first liutenant had presented to him. You can view pictures from this album in the museum.
You can also learn more about the Soviet prisoners of war. Many of them were placed on the Finnish countryside to ensure farm labour. Igor was one of those prisoners.
Two of the Russian war prisoners at Nordanå farm in Siuntio.