The turning back

 

As far as I can remember the first time I met Monica and Leif was at Mormor's funeral in 1997. Afterwards we repaired for fika (coffee and cakes) to the restaurant on Norra Stadsberget in Sundsvall. This was the town where my mormor Sigrid lived and died, and where my mum grew up.  

With Mormor's death, Monica was now one of our closest relatives still living in the north of Sweden, though she's a distant cousin. Monica doesn't like travelling outside the north, and we haven't been there for a while, so it's been a few years since we met face to face but we're still in touch. 

I'ver never exactly known how my mum is related to Monica, and I still don't. But anyway, last week when visiting my mum she began to reminisce about her country cousins. She was uncertain about some details, and I may have misunderstood others, so this grades into legend. (The placenames are all in the outback of northern Medelpad, close to the border with Jämtland.)

Basically, there were two sisters in  Lagfors. One was called Sylvia and the other Aina. Monica is the daughter of Aina and her husband Yngve. (Now in their seventies, Monica and her husband Leif live at Ljustorp, near to Lagfors. Their daughter Annica is a nurse.)

I remember Sylvia from my childhood. At that time Sylvia and her husband Ragnar were living in (or near?) Sundsvall and they were good friends of my grandparents. They had a house with a large garden. I remember being there one sunny day towards the end of August, chasing round the raspberry bushes with my sister and sampling the yellow fruit, also tasting a forkful of surströmming and the hearty laughter when I recoiled from the novel smell. 

Ragnar came from a remote hamlet in the endless woods north of Lagfors. The name of the hamlet is Återvänningen, which means "the turning back". 

It gained this name because it marked the southernmost point reached by the invading Russian army. 

Ragnar was one of many siblings. When the Russian forces were approaching (this was in about 1912), the villagers abandoned their homes and fled to pre-planned locations in the woods. But when Ragnar's large family reassembled, his parents discovered to their horror that one toddler had been left behind, little Anna. But there was nothing to be done about it now. The Russian troops were entering the village. 

They didn't stay there long. When they had definitely gone, the family returned to the village with heavy hearts. And there they found little Anna. 

She had been sitting on a garden wall when the troops filed past. She had been very impressed with their smart appearance. One soldier had given her a little coin, a silver kopek that she clutched in her hand. 

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How much of this is true I don't know. It is true that there have been Russian incursions into northern Sweden. For instance, there was a brief Russian occupation of Västerbotten in 1809. (This was during the "Finnish War", when Finland ceased to be part of Sweden and became part of Russia instead.) There was also a Russian presence in northern Sweden during an earlier conflict (1719-1721).

Återvänningen is a real place. It's an odd name, but I've so far been unable to track down any written source that relates it to a Russian invasion.