construction workers included russian soldiers but also finnish civilian workers and forced labour using prisoners transported from far east. finns were exempt from conscription, and thus there was available manpower for fortification works. the payment for fortification works was slightly above average for manual labour, and made it an attractive option particularly for many rural workers. in 1915 when large scale construction of fortifications around finland began russians instituted a work responsibility for finns based on wartime emergency law to obtain the necessary labour force. to ease the manpower shortage russians brought convicted prisoners from far east to finland in summer 1916 as forced labour. approximately 2000-3000 men, including chinese, kyrgyz and tatars, were employed as lumberjacks around espoo and sipoo. kyrgyz were mainly guards. asian workers were transported back to russia already in 1917 however, citing the workers to be unaccustomed to the northern climate and possible threat of rebellion. the total number of workers in not known, but an estimated 10 000 to 15 000 men were used in construction works around helsinki and up to 100 000 total in finland. complicated bureaucracy delayed the construction works, and the supervision of the works was also poor, leading to a widespread graft.<ref name="viapori/rakentajat"></ref>