The Pihlava sawmill was founded in 1875 on islets of the Kokemäenjoki River delta, on Finland’s west coast. Logs were driven to the logistical hub from the country’s dense inland forests. Barges carried boards and planks from the sawmill to the Reposaari harbour, from where they were steamed off to all corners to the world.

In 1889, the sawmill passed to the Ahlström family dynasty, under whose control it flourished for the next 125 years. The large sawmill operation was hit hard by the wars, revived by reconstruction and, on several occasions, dangerously close to going under. Through it all, the proletariat torch burned bright among the workers of Pihlava, despite their patron’s merciless strikebreaking.

In the 2010s, Pekka Kopra’s Westas Group assumed ownership of the sawmill. The post-pandemic sawmill boom of the 2020s at last solidified the rejuvenation of the industry’s business prospects and Pihlava’s cutting edge.

This seminal account relates the colourful history of the Finnish sawmill industry: from industrialisation, the perils of early sawmill operations, and labour strikes and their suppression to corporate restructuring and other more contemporary phenomena. The book’s perspective expands out from the local to the national to the global, providing an eagle eye view of the sawmill and timberyard and a glimpse behind the office curtains.

Doctor of Philosophy Sakari Siltala is a historian and award-winning non-fiction writer who has written extensively about the forest industry.

Translation: Pamela Kaskinen