Great Wrath

Brutalities[edit]

Mothers and fathers were tortured in front of their children and vice versa. Finns were hanged by their wrists with their hands behind their backs and exposed to freezing cold temperatures. Another commonly used torture method was to bake them in ovens. When a man named Esko Juhonpoika Eskonsipo returned to Oulunsalo in 1716, only a few of his acquaintances were alive and "they were also tortured until they were weak." He found the corpses of children as well as tortured people languishing in pain, eventually dying from their injuries. According to Professor Kustaa H. J. Vilkuna, many authentic sources depict the torture. It was not rare for females of any age to be raped and taken as long-term sex slaves. Children in particular were taken to Russia as prisoners.^[14]


The main reason for the torture was to get information about Finns' money stashes. Finns were forced to reveal the caches, and afterwards they were usually killed. Peter the Great had also twice ordered the destruction of the Northern Ostrobothnia into wasteland, making the conditions impossible for the Swedish army to live in. In Porvoo, corpses of the locals were put on display as early as 1708, some of which had their genitals burned. Typically, all the houses except the soldiers' quarters were burned. Everyone in Kirkonkylä would be killed.^[14]


Peasants were slaughtered at Raahe's market square. Matti Puusti laid wounded for the town to see, which lasted for three days before he died. His wife Marjatta was whipped multiple times and later underwent worse torture in 1716. The peasants were stripped naked and whipped with lead-tipped knotted whips. On some occasions they were made to stand naked in the snow, their backs burned with birch and their eyes blinded with burning tallow.^[14]


Cossack Stones were laid when a Cossack has given orders of destruction, or when a Cossack was shot or killed by the Finnish. ^[15]