Editing Continuation War (section)

===Finnish military administration and concentration camps===
[[File:Soviet women having breakfast at a Finnish concentration camp.jpg|thumb|Soviet women having breakfast next to burning trash at a Finnish concentration camp in Petrozavodsk.]]
{{Main|Finnish military administration in Eastern Karelia|East Karelian concentration camps}}

On 19 July 1941, the Finns created a military administration in occupied East Karelia with the goal of preparing the region for eventual incorporation into Finland. The Finns aimed to [[ethnic cleansing|expel]] the Russian portion of the local population (constituting to about a half), who were deemed "non-national",{{sfn|Kirby|2006|p=225}} from the area once the war was over,{{sfn|Vehviläinen|2002|p=105}} and replace them with [[Finno-Ugric]] peoples.{{sfn|Kirby|2006|p=225}} Most of the East Karelian population had already been evacuated before the Finnish forces arrived, but about 85,000 people — mostly elderly, women and children — were left behind, less than half of whom were Karelians. A significant number of civilians, almost 30% of the remaining Russians, were interned in concentration camps.{{sfn|Kirby|2006|p=225}}

The winter between 1941 and 1942 was particularly harsh for the Finnish urban population due to poor harvests and a shortage of agricultural labourers.{{sfn|Kirby|2006|p=225}} However, conditions were much worse for Russians in Finnish concentration camps. More than 3,500 people died, mostly from [[starvation]], amounting to 13.8% of those detained, while the corresponding figure for the free population of the occupied territories was 2.6%, and 1.4% for Finland.{{sfn|Vehviläinen|2002|p=107}} Conditions gradually improved, ethnic discrimination in wage levels and food rations was terminated, and new schools were established for the Russian-speaking population the following year, after Commander-in-Chief Mannerheim called for the [[International Committee of the Red Cross]] from Geneva to inspect the camps.{{sfn|Kirby|2006|p=226}}<ref>{{harvnb|Haavikko|1999|pp=115–116}}</ref> By the end of the occupation, mortality rates had dropped to the same levels as in Finland.{{sfn|Vehviläinen|2002|p=107}}