#kccpablo

This is my version of a popular accordion song called the Säkkijärven Polkka. It is renowned for its use in the Continuation War, a sub-conflict of WWII fought on the Russian-Finnish front, stemming from the 1939, 3 month Winter War. In the time since I played this piece, I have made quite a few modifications. Maybe I’ll make another video with that version? Who knows...

The Säkkijärven Polkka is a Finnish song that was written around the time of the Winter War (1939) and was popularized by Viljo Vesterinen, an accordion player and composer.

In Finland, military service is compulsory for men 18 and over. You can spend up to a year in jail if you do not comply with the conscription. Like most male citizens of Finland, the polkka also went to war. 

In 1940, the Finnish Army found out that the Soviets had scattered radio mines all over the Viipuri, which was just recaptured by the Finns. When a certain combination of 3 chords were played on the frequency of the mines, they would be set off. 

Once the Finnish Army and the staff at Yleisradio, one of the radio services that is now funded by the Finnish Government, figured out how the mines worked, a transmitter was brought in and a version of the Säkkijärven Polkka recorded by Viljo Vesterinen was played over 1500 times to jam the radios. 

The Säkkijärven Polkka is featured in many modern day medias. Some examples are:

Girls und Panzer (Keizoku/Jatkosota school song)

Skrijaargen Polkka (The Dreadnoughts)

Ang Alamat ng Kalabaw at Baka (Legend of the Carabao and the Cow) is a popular children’s story in the Philippines. My mom is involved in a grassroots project teaching Tagalog to beginner learners, mostly children from the FIlipino-Canadian community in Vancouver. I was asked to illustrate scenes from the story. I happily complied (hard to say “no” to my mom!). I will be updating this post with additional 2 or 3 more frames to provide more white space for certain sections with heavy text.

The Tagalog version was based on the story in English here.