WarSampo: A Finnish WWII Knowledge Graph

Finland's Second World War is documented in a harmonized knowledge graph with over 14 million triples. The data covers the Winter War (1939-1940), Continuation War (1941-1944), and Lapland War (1944-1945). It is structured into subgraphs for events, actors, places, photographs, and other documentation, and powers the semantic portal WarSampo.

Use Cases

• [Semantic querying] of linked events, casualties, and photographs via SPARQL endpoints
• [Historical analysis] of military operations and casualties across specific time intervals and geographic locations
• [Data integration] for cultural heritage portals by linking harmonized actor, place, and event entities

Strengths

• Contains 14,322,426 triples (version 2.1.0), indicating a substantial knowledge base
• Data is harmonized and separated into specific subgraphs (events, actors, places, photographs), suggesting structured organization
• Covers three distinct conflicts over a six-year period (1939-1945), providing broad temporal coverage for Finland's WWII experience

Limitations

• Column names and a complete schema are not provided in the available metadata, limiting understanding of the graph's specific properties
• Conflicting or absent metadata for size, row counts, and last updated date across platform entries
• The dataset's primary documentation and example queries are referenced but not fully detailed in the provided descriptions

Provenance

Source

Aalto University, authored by Mikko Koho

Collection Method

Data appears to be harmonized from various historical sources into a linked data format, though the specific gathering methods are not detailed.

Time Range

1939 to 1945

Geography

Finland, with specific mention of places like Vyborg and Lapland