The 1932 Infantry Statute stipulated: “When the fallen are not transported to their home for burial… the military clergy must work with the medical officers… to propose a suitable burial site.” When the Winter War broke out, the initial presumption was that the fallen would be buried in the vicinity of the battlefields; there was no plan for evacuating the deceased.
Within a week of the outbreak of the Winter War, the Isthmus Army ordered that the fallen be transported to their home regions. This gave rise to a practice that set Finland apart from other nations at war. As a consequence, every parish churchyard in Finland has a heroes’ cemetery, where monuments were erected after the war. Heroes’ funerals symbolised the sacrifices that Finns made for the fatherland.
The men from Mikkeli rural municipality who fell in battle now rest in the heroes’ cemetery in front of Mikkeli parish church. Kalervo Kallio’s monument, “Duty”, was erected in 1959. The heroes’ cemeteries of Mikkeli town parish, Anttola, Haukivuori, Ristiina and Suomenniemi are within the boundaries of modern-day Mikkeli.
