Rafik Moksanov (Raffi Moks)
Rafik Moksanov (born 1926), later known in Canada as Raffi Moks, was one of the three Estonian Tatar Finnish Boys known by name — alongside Ibrahim Zarip and Ahmed Haerdinov. He served in the Finnish army as a driver in the Continuation War, escaped to Canada in the autumn of 1944, and was for decades an active figure in Toronto's Estonian community: a freedom-fighters' association stalwart, a scout leader and an actor in an exile film.
Origins
Moksanov was born in 1926. According to the Finnish archival record his father was a Tatar and his mother an Estonian; his religious affiliation does not appear in the Finnish documents. No accessible source preserves the family's pre-war home town or further background — community memory may yet fill these gaps.
A Finnish Boy: 8./JR 200
In the autumn of 1943 Moksanov fled to Finland with other Estonian Tatar families — by community tradition, across the gulf in motorboats, registering as political refugees. On Finland's Independence Day, 6 December 1943, he volunteered for the Finnish armed forces. He served as a driver in the 8th Company of Infantry Regiment 200 (8./JR 200) on the Bay of Viborg, where the regiment's II Battalion held the line in the summer of 1944. When the September 1944 armistice between Finland and the USSR made it unsafe for Estonian volunteers to remain, he left Finland — the road led to Canada. His service is recorded in the Finnish Boys' biographical lexicon Vabaduse eest (1997) and in the Finnish State Police (Valpo) file; of the three Estonian Tatar Finnish Boys, Moksanov's unit is the only one precisely documented.
His two companions each went their own way: Ibrahim Zarip served as a sailor at the Turku naval base and later reached the USA; Ahmed Haerdinov married a Finnish Tatar and stayed in Stockholm. See also: The Continuation War.
In Canada: Raffi Moks
In Toronto, Rafik Moksanov became Raffi Moks — a constant presence in the Toronto Estonians' story:
He was an active member of the Toronto Estonian Combatants' Association (TEVÜ): in 1979 he received the merit badge of the World Central Organisation of Estonian Freedom Fighters, and at the association's 50th anniversary on 28 September 2002 it was he who delivered the jubilee history address at the Toronto Estonian House.
As a junior scoutmaster he led the Toronto Estonian scouts' Viru troop — and argued that the freedom fighters' organisations must open themselves to the nationally minded youth born in exile: “a second generation is growing up in exile”, he said in 1983.
He played a Forest Brother in the Canadian-Estonian exile film Legendi loojad (1963, shot at Cedar Valley, Ontario) — and when the film was screened again at Tartu College on 26 January 2014, he was the only participant present.
On the Estonian Foundation of Canada's donor wall in the Toronto Estonian House stand, side by side, the names Raffi and Eevi Moks.
Of the three Estonian Tatar Finnish Boys, Moksanov became the most visible member of the exile-Estonian community: a man who fought in Finnish uniform, raised Estonian scouts in Canada and kept the freedom fighters' memory.
See also
Sources
Antero Leitzinger (Agricola-verkko, 2006), citing the lexicon Vabaduse eest. Soomepoiste lühielulood (1997, p. 203) and Valpo file kptk 496/43; Meie Elu, 1 Feb 1979 and 17 Mar 1983 (Toronto); Estonian World Review — Raffi Moks's address at TEVÜ's 50th anniversary (8 Oct 2002); Eesti Elu — Eerik Purje, “Ai-tsih-ai-tsah, ai velled!” (7 Feb 2014); the Estonian Foundation of Canada donor roll; Finnish Infantry Regiment 200 (Wikipedia).