In November 29-30, 2002 the first joint working meeting and the workshop of the members of the "Monument of the Winter War" project devoted to the official start of the project took part at the Raatteen Portti museum (Suomussalmi, Finland).

The Finnish side at the working meeting and the workshop was presented by:

• Paavo Keränen – coördinator of the "Interreg 3A – Karjala" program in Kainu region
• Erkki Pullinen – representative of the Suomussalmi commune, Suomussalmi commune secretary on evironment
• Marko Seppänen – The head of the "Monument of the Winter War" project, director of the Raatteen Portti Museum
• Markku Palokangas – representative of the Finnish Military History Museum
• Jussi Kämäräinen – researcher, representative of the Joensuu University
• Alpo Rissanen – Suomussalmi commune secretary on tourism
• Risto Äntti – the head of the Services office of Suomussalmi commune

The representatives of the community and the researchers from the Raatteen Portti museum took part in the working meeting proceedings.

The Russian side at the working meeting and the workshop was presented by:

• Pavel Rasinov – Project coördinator in Karelia and Russia, representative of the Karelian RIPK
• Sergey Verigin – the dean of the faculty of history of the Petrozavodsk State University
• Ejnar Lajdinen – assistant professor, researcher, Scientific and Educational Centre on the History and Culture of the European North
• Vladimir Kozin – military historian and researcher, assistant professor, Petrozavodsk State University
• Alexander Tereshkin – researche of the Karelian State Museum
• Valentina Markova – the head of the Karelian State Centre on the protection of the monuments of history and culture
• Andrew Heninen – administrator of the heninen.net site
• Natalia Aluferova – representative of the "Karelsky bereg" tourist firm
• Robert Manner – editor-in-chief of the "Karjalan Sanomat" newspaper
• Apu Sundelin – journalist of the "Karjalan Sanomat" newspaper
• Rudolf Sykiäinen – journalist, correspondent of the "Karjalan Sanomat" newspaper in Moscow

The embassy of the Russian Federation in the republic of Finland was represented by the duputy military attache Sergey Ilnitsky.

Russian press at the meeting was also presented by the team of the TVS channel headed by Kirill Nabutov, filming a ducumentery "The secrets of the Finnish war".

Participants of the meeting took part in the ceremony of the opening of the memorial plate dedicated to the inhabitants of the Suomussalmi commune – grown up and children – fallen in the military actions on the territory of the commune and in other places.

The ceremony of the opening of the memorial plate to the fallen compatriots became a focus point of these two days. The members of the Suomussalmi commune governing bodies, secular and clerical society members of the Suomussalmi commune and Kajnuu region, veterans of the Winter war and 1941-44 war, military men, journalists from the regional and other Finnish and Russian press took part at the event.

Erkki Pullinen – one of the primary co-authors and initiators of the "Monument of the Winter War" project – presented the working meeting members and those participated at the ceremony of the opening of the memorial plate current results of the works on the construction site of the would-be memorial.