Did Finland participate in World War II? Soviet-Finnish war

For the period 1918 - 1939. the Finnish Armed Forces took part in the civil war in Finland in 1918 and the Soviet-Finnish war of 1918-1920, and the Finnish volunteers participated in the Soviet-Estonian war of 1918-1920, the uprising in Soviet Karelia in 1921-1922. and in the Spanish Civil War of 1936-1939.

At the beginning of 1939, the Finnish Armed Forces numbered 37,000 people, including 2,400 officers.

The commander-in-chief in peacetime was the country's president, Kyösti Kallio ( Kyösti Kallio), Chief of the General Staff - General Lenart Esh ( Lennart Karl Oesch), the post of Inspector of the Army was held by Lieutenant General Hugo Estermann ( Hugo Victor Ostermann). The Defense Council, which was an advisory body, was headed by Marshal Carl Gustav Emil von Mannerheim ( Carl Gustaf EmilvonMannerheim).

Marshal Karl Mannerheim and Chief of the General Staff Lenart Ash. August 1939

The ground forces consisted of three infantry divisions and one armored cavalry brigade.

The infantry division of the 4-regiment staff consisted of 14,200 people. Three rifle regiments of the 3-battalion and a separate battalion of heavy weapons were armed with 250 submachine guns, 250 light and 116 heavy machine guns, 18 37-mm and 47-mm anti-tank guns, 18 mortars of 81 mm caliber. An artillery regiment in two field divisions had 24 75-mm guns; in the howitzer division there were 12 howitzers of 105 or 122 mm caliber.

Finnish Shutskor. 1920s

The border guard corps, which was not part of the ground forces in peacetime, consisted of four brigades with a total of about 6,000 riflemen.

As part of paramilitary militias or shutskor ( Suojeluskunta) there were 111,000 people. Women's militia organization Lotta Svard numbered another 105,000 people.

The Finnish Armed Forces were equipped with small arms, mostly of their own production. Armed with pistols L-35 and german Parabellumpistole, rifles M-29-30 Suojeluskunta, M-30 and M-39, 9 mm submachine guns Suomi, R scientific machine guns Lahti-Saloranta M-26 and machine guns Maxim.

The armored cavalry brigade had 64 units of armored tracked vehicles - wedges Carden-Loyd Mk VI and light tanks vickersMarkE.

Tank vickersMarkE in the Finnish army. Summer 1939

The Finnish Air Force (153 combat and 156 training aircraft of English, French, Italian and Dutch production, 172 anti-aircraft guns) consisted of three air regiments and air defense batteries.

Dutch Fokker D.XXI in service with the Finnish Air Force. 1936

The composition of the air regiments included air groups, subdivided into squadrons. Air Force Commander Major General Jarl Lundqvist ( Jarl Frithiof Lundqvist) was subordinate to the Ministry of Aviation, and operationally - to the command of the ground forces. Also, two air groups were operationally subordinate to the Finnish Navy.

Commander of the Finnish Air Force Major General Jarl Lundqvist

The Finnish naval forces with a personnel of 4250 people were located mainly in the Baltic (64 ships, including two battleships, eight minelayers, four gunboats, 11 patrol ships, 14 minesweepers, 20 torpedo boats, five submarines). The Ladoga flotilla included 10 boats. 30 coastal defense batteries had 100 guns with a caliber from 120 to 305 mm.

The Finnish Navy was led by Lieutenant General Vaino Valve ( Vaino Lahja Richard Valve).

Commander of the Finnish Navy in 1933 - 1944 Lieutenant General Vaino Valve

The main line of defense of Finland was the Mannerheim Line, consisting of several fortified defensive lines with concrete and wood-and-earth firing points, communications, anti-tank barriers, and located along the border with the USSR for almost 140 km from the coast of the Gulf of Finland to Lake Ladoga. There were 130 long-term firing structures on the line in a state of combat readiness.

By the beginning of the war with the USSR ("Winter War" - Talvisota) - by November 30, 1939, through general mobilization, the number of Finnish Armed Forces was increased to 300,000 people (14% of the country's population).

Arms and ammunition began to arrive in Finland from Sweden, Great Britain, France, the USA and other countries - 350 aircraft, 500 guns, more than 6,000 machine guns, about 100,000 rifles, 650,000 hand grenades, 2.5 million shells and 160 million rounds of ammunition .

During the Soviet-Finnish war of 1939-1940. The Finnish army included 14,000 foreign volunteers - mostly citizens of Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Hungary, and the USA. In general, volunteers came to the Finnish army from 26 countries of the world.

Swedish volunteers during the Winter War 1939 - 1940

In early February 1940, from the captured Red Army soldiers, the formation of detachments of the Russian People's Army (RNA) began, commanded by Russian émigré officers. According to preliminary calculations, each RNA detachment was to include two rifle companies (three rifle and one machine gun platoon each), an anti-tank company, one anti-aircraft gun crew, a platoon of heavy machine guns and an anti-aircraft machine gun squad. At the end of February, out of 200 people recruited in the camps, only one detachment, consisting of 40 former prisoners of war, took part in the hostilities against the Red Army.

The strategy of the marshal of the Finnish command was to concentrate the forces of the Karelian army, which consisted of the 2nd (4 divisions) and 3rd (2 divisions) corps, on the "Mannerheim Line". The 4th corps (2 divisions) was located north of Lake Ladoga, and the 5th corps (2 divisions) was in Lapland, covering the central and northern sectors of the front.

During the hostilities, the Finnish infantry successfully used maneuver tactics, which consisted in the fact that separate combat groups on skis, in camouflage suits, armed with rifles, submachine guns Suomi, light machine guns and Molotov cocktails (the so-called "Molotov cocktail") attacked the positions of the Soviet troops, penetrated into their rear, disrupting communications.

Team of Finnish skiers. January 1940

By March 1940, the Red Army (760,000 men) had broken through the Mannerheim Line. The Finnish government hastened to conclude a truce. The Finnish army suffered significant losses (during the hostilities from November 30, 1939 to March 13, 1940, the Finnish army lost 25,904 people killed, died from wounds and missing), but at the same time gained vast combat experience.

In May 1940, a reorganization took place in the Finnish army, as a result of which 16 infantry divisions were formed. They retained the regular strength of 1939, but the infantry regiments were redistributed. Each division was assigned only one regular regiment (from the 1st to the 16th). After the mobilization of the division, it was supposed to reinforce two more reserve regiments (which received numbers from the 21st to the 42nd).

Thirteen divisions were deployed along the border with the USSR, and seven artillery brigades defended the coastline.

The mobile units formed during the Winter War included an equestrian brigade, which acted as a cavalry brigade in the summer and as a ski brigade in the winter (in the future it was planned to reorganize it into a motorized brigade). In addition, the Finnish army had two jaeger brigades equipped with trucks or bicycles.

Field and anti-tank artillery was reinforced with captured Soviet guns and supplies from Germany.

The infantry was armed with the old types of small arms.

Tank troops were reinforced and deployed to three battalions thanks to the captured Soviet tanks T-26, T-37 and T-38, which accounted for 80% of the tank fleet. At the beginning of 1941, the Finnish army had 120 tanks and 22 armored vehicles (Soviet BA and Swedish Landsverk).

Captured Soviet tank T-26 in service with the Finnish army. 1941

On January 24, 1941, the Finnish Parliament passed a law on conscription, which increased the term of service in the regular troops from one year to two years.

By the summer of 1941, two Finnish armies were concentrated on the borders with the Soviet Union - on the Karelian Isthmus, the Southeastern Army (six divisions, one brigade) under the command of General Axel Erik Heinrichs ( Axel Erik Heinrichs) and in Eastern Karelia the Karelian Army (five divisions, three brigades) under the command of General Lenart Esch.

Commander of the Finnish South-Eastern Army Axel Eric Heinrichs. 1941

On June 9, 1941, the Commander-in-Chief of the Finnish Army, Marshal Carl Gustav Emil Mannerheim, ordered a partial mobilization concerning the reservists of the covering troops.

In response to the bombing of its cities and military installations by the Soviet Air Force on June 25, 1941, Finland declared war on the USSR on the same day, which was called the "continuation war" ( Jatkosota).

Finnish soldiers are considering the dead Red Army soldiers. Summer 1941

On June 28, the Finnish troops went on the offensive, in which, in addition to the Finnish units, the Swedish volunteer battalion (1500 people) took part, led by Hans Berggren ( Hans Berggren). After the Swedish volunteer battalion returned to Sweden on December 18, 400 Swedish citizens remained in the Finnish army to serve.

Estonian volunteers (2500 people) also served in the Finnish Armed Forces, of which on February 8, 1944, the 200th regiment (1700 people) was formed as part of the 10th Infantry Division under the command of Colonel Eino Kuusela ( Eino Kuusela). The regiment fought on the Karelian Isthmus and near Vyborg. In addition, 250 Estonians served in the Finnish Navy.

Estonian volunteers in the Finnish army. 1944

By the beginning of October 1941, the Finnish army stopped at a line that was only 30 km from Leningrad, not returning the lost territory to Finland during the Winter War, but also capturing most of the Karelian-Finnish SSR. During the fighting, the Finns captured more than a hundred Soviet light, floating, flamethrower, medium (including T-34) and heavy (KV) tanks, which they included in their tank units.

From June 1941 to June 1943, the Finnish SS battalion (1000 people) participated in the hostilities against the Red Army as part of the German SS troops.

In August 1943, out of two tank brigades with a total of 150 tanks (mainly captured T-26s), an assault gun brigade equipped with Finnish Bt-42s and German Sturmgeschütz IIIs, jaeger brigade and support units, a tank division was formed ( Panssaridivisoona), which was headed by Major General Ernst Lagus (Ernst Ruben Lagus).

In 1941 - 1944 Germany delivered aircraft of new designs to the Finnish Air Force - 48 fighters Messerschmitt Bf 109G-2, 132 fighters Bf 109G-6, 15 bombers Dornier Do 17Z-2 and 15 bombers Ju 88A-4 who took part in the battles against the Red Army.

In June 1944, Germany delivered 15 tanks to the Finnish army PzIVJ and 25,000 anti-tank grenade launchers Panzerfaust and Panzerschreck.

Finnish assault gun Bt-42s. 1944

Until June 1944, the front line remained stable, but on June 9, the Red Army launched a massive offensive and by the end of the month reached the Soviet-Finnish border in June 1941.

Finnish soldiers are fighting with Soviet tanks. Summer 1944

On September 4, 1944, hostilities on the Soviet-Finnish front, during which about 58,000 Finnish servicemen had died since the summer of 1941, were stopped.

From September 15, 1944, four Finnish divisions (60,000 men) commanded by General Hjalmar Salisvuo ( Hjalmar Fridolf Siilasvuo) in northern Finland fought against German troops ("Lapland War" - Lapin sota).

Finnish soldiers with a German grenade launcher Panzerschreck preparing for battle with the German troops in Lapland. September 1944

During the fighting, which lasted until April 27, 1945, about 1,000 Finnish soldiers were killed, and about 1,000 more Finns were wounded.

After the end of World War II, the Paris Peace Treaty of 1947 required Finland to significantly reduce its Armed Forces. Thus, the number of military personnel was to be determined at 34,000 people. Then the tank division was disbanded. Also, the Finnish Navy was not supposed to include submarines, torpedo boats and specialized assault ships (the ban remains to this day), and the total tonnage of ships was reduced to 10,000 tons. Military aviation was reduced to 60 aircraft.

Army of Finland 1939 - 1945 // Journal "Soldier at the Front", 2005, No. 7.

Kozlov A.I. Soviet-Finnish war 1939 - 1940 Riga, 1995.

Abbott P., Thomas N., Chappel M. Germany's Allies on the Eastern Front 1941 - 1945. M., 2001, SS. 10 - 17.

This article is available in high resolution

Last month, the Finnish Defense Forces released an archive of 160,000 photographs from the era. These are photographs from 1939-1945 describing the Winter War between Finland and the Soviet Union of 1939-1940, the military actions of Finland when it became an ally of Nazi Germany in the war against the Soviet Union of 1941-1945, and the Lapland War - military actions between Finland and Germany in September 1944 - April 1945.

Photographs of Finland in World War II.

All signatures were short and in Finnish, so some inaccuracies are possible.

The swastika is one of the most ancient and widespread graphic symbols. From 1918 to 1945, the swastika is depicted on the banners of the Finnish Air Force and tank forces, and at the present time on the presidential standard.

Snowmobile with propeller and swastika, Haapasaari, Finland. (Photo by SA-kuva):

Flamethrower in action. In the forest near the village of Niinisalo in Finland, July 1, 1942. (Photo by SA-kuva):

Waiting for approaching enemy aircraft. This incredible device is an acoustic locator. (Photo by SA-kuva):

Hitler's visit to Finland in June 1942. (Photo by SA-kuva):

Bombing of Helsinki by Soviet planes, November 30, 1939. On this day, he attacked Finland. The number of divisions is 21, the total number of soldiers is 450 thousand. The Winter War has begun. (Photo by SA-kuva):

Wounded in Helsinki. (Photo by SA-kuva):

Burning building on the Senate Square in Helsinki. (Photo by SA-kuva):

The streets of Helsinki after the bombing. (Photo by SA-kuva):

Anti-aircraft gun in Helsinki. (Photo by SA-kuva):

Vyborg. Back then in Finland. (Photo by SA-kuva):

Finnish armored train. (Photo by SA-kuva):

Experimental transport of troops in cold weather. (Photo by SA-kuva):

Hämeenlinna military dog ​​school. (Photo by SA-kuva):

Rocket launched from the forest. (Photo by SA-kuva):

Street fighting in Medvezhyegorsk, Russia. The city was occupied by Finland for three years. (Photo by SA-kuva):

Frozen soldier. (Photo by SA-kuva):

A soldier in a protective suit against a gas attack. (Photo by SA-kuva):

Downed Soviet plane. (Photo by SA-kuva):

Restoration of bombed tram tracks. (Photo by SA-kuva):

Two girls at the ruins of Martin's Cathedral in Turku, Finland. (Photo by SA-kuva):

Soviet prisoners of war. (Photo by SA-kuva):

Lifting a locomotive out of the water. (Photo by SA-kuva):

Bomb shelter-hospital in Mikkeli, Finland. (Photo by SA-kuva):

Bomb strike. (Photo by SA-kuva):

Dead German soldier. (Photo by SA-kuva):

Cathedral in Vyborg after the bombing. (Photo by SA-kuva):

A thirteen-year-old boy in the hospital. (Photo by SA-kuva):

The burning village of Nurmoila, Finland. (Photo by SA-kuva):

Finnish motorcycle and tank with a swastika. (Photo by SA-kuva):

Soldier and reindeer on ice in northern Lapland, Finland, October 26, 1941. (Photo by SA-kuva):

Another old record of mine hit the top after 4 years. Of course, I would correct some statements of that time today. But, alas, there is absolutely no time.

gusev_a_v in the Soviet-Finnish war. Losses Ch.2

The Soviet-Finnish war and Finland's participation in World War II are extremely mythologized. A special place in this mythology is occupied by the losses of the parties. Very small in Finland and huge in the USSR. Mannerheim wrote that the Russians walked through the minefields, in tight ranks and holding hands. Any Russian person who has recognized the incommensurability of losses, it turns out, must simultaneously admit that our grandfathers were idiots.

Again I will quote the Finnish commander-in-chief Mannerheim:
« It happened that the Russians in the battles of early December marched with songs in dense rows - and even holding hands - into the minefields of the Finns, not paying attention to the explosions and the accurate fire of the defenders.

Do you represent these cretins?

After such statements, the loss figures named by Mannerheim are not surprising. He counted 24923 people killed and died from wounds of the Finns. Russian, in his opinion, killed 200 thousand people.

Why pity these Russes?

Finnish soldier in a coffin...

Engle, E. Paanenen L. in the book "Soviet-Finnish War. Breakthrough of the Mannerheim Line 1939 - 1940". with reference to Nikita Khrushchev, they give the following data:

"Out of a total of 1.5 million people sent to fight in Finland, the USSR's losses in killed (according to Khrushchev) amounted to 1 million people. The Russians lost about 1,000 aircraft, 2,300 tanks and armored vehicles, as well as a huge amount of various military equipment ... "

Thus, the Russians won, filling the Finns with "meat".

Finnish military cemetery...

About the reasons for the defeat, Mannerheim writes as follows:
"At the final stage of the war, the weakest point was not the lack of materials, but the lack of manpower."

Why?
According to Mannerheim, the Finns lost only 24 thousand killed and 43 thousand wounded. And after such meager losses, Finland began to lack manpower?

Something doesn't add up!

But let's see what other researchers write and write about the losses of the parties.

For example, Pykhalov in The Great Slandered War claims:
« Of course, during the hostilities, the Soviet Armed Forces suffered significantly greater losses than the enemy. According to the name lists, in the Soviet-Finnish war of 1939-1940. 126,875 soldiers of the Red Army were killed, died or went missing. The losses of the Finnish troops amounted, according to official figures, to 21,396 killed and 1,434 missing. However, another figure of Finnish losses is often found in Russian literature - 48,243 killed, 43,000 wounded. The primary source of this figure is the translation of an article by Lieutenant Colonel of the General Staff of Finland Helge Seppäl, published in the newspaper “Za rubezhom” No. 48 for 1989, originally published in the Finnish edition of “Maailma ya me”. Regarding the Finnish losses, Seppälä writes the following:
“Finland lost in the “winter war” more than 23,000 people killed; over 43,000 people were wounded. During the bombing, including of merchant ships, 25,243 people were killed.

The last figure - 25,243 killed in the bombing - is in doubt. Perhaps there is a newspaper typo here. Unfortunately, I did not have the opportunity to read the Finnish original of Seppälä's article.

Mannerheim, as you know, estimated the losses from the bombing:
"More than seven hundred civilians were killed and twice as many were injured."

The largest numbers of Finnish losses are given by the Military History Journal No. 4, 1993:
“So, according to far from complete data, the losses of the Red Army in it amounted to 285,510 people (72,408 killed, 17,520 missing, 13,213 frostbitten and 240 shell-shocked). The losses of the Finnish side, according to official figures, amounted to 95 thousand killed and 45 thousand wounded.

And finally, Finnish losses on Wikipedia:
Finnish data:
25,904 killed
43,557 wounded
1000 prisoners
According to Russian sources:
up to 95 thousand soldiers killed
45 thousand wounded
806 captured

As for the calculation of Soviet losses, the mechanism of these calculations is given in detail in the book Russia in the Wars of the 20th Century. The Book of Losses. In the number of irretrievable losses of the Red Army and the fleet, even those with whom relatives cut off contact in 1939-1940 are taken into account.
That is, there is no evidence that they died in the Soviet-Finnish war. And our researchers ranked these among the losses of more than 25 thousand people.

Red Army soldiers examine captured Boffors anti-tank guns

Who and how considered the Finnish losses is absolutely incomprehensible. It is known that by the end of the Soviet-Finnish war, the total number of Finnish armed forces reached 300 thousand people. The loss of 25 thousand fighters is less than 10% of the strength of the Armed Forces.
But Mannerheim writes that by the end of the war, Finland experienced a shortage of manpower. However, there is another version. There are few Finns in general, and even insignificant losses for such a small country are a threat to the gene pool.
However, in the book “Results of the Second World War. Conclusions of the vanquished ”Professor Helmut Aritz estimates the population of Finland in 1938 at 3 million 697 thousand people.
The irretrievable loss of 25 thousand people does not pose any threat to the gene pool of the nation.
According to the calculation of Aritz, the Finns lost in 1941 - 1945. more than 84 thousand people. And after that, the population of Finland by 1947 increased by 238 thousand people!!!

At the same time, Mannerheim, describing the year 1944, again cries in his memoirs about the lack of people:
“Finland was gradually forced to mobilize its trained reserves up to the age of 45, which did not happen in any of the countries, not even in Germany.”

Funeral of Finnish skiers

What kind of cunning manipulations the Finns are doing with their losses - I don’t know. In Wikipedia, Finnish losses in the period 1941 - 1945 are indicated as 58 thousand 715 people. Losses in the war of 1939 - 1940 - 25 thousand 904 people.
In total, 84 thousand 619 people.
But the Finnish site http://kronos.narc.fi/menehtyneet/ contains data on 95 thousand Finns who died in the period 1939-1945. Even if we add here the victims of the “Lapland War” (according to Wikipedia, about 1000 people), the numbers still do not converge.

Vladimir Medinsky in his book “War. Myths of the USSR claims that hot Finnish historians pulled off a simple trick: they counted only army casualties. And the losses of numerous paramilitary formations, such as shutskor, were not included in the general statistics of losses. And they had a lot of paramilitaries.
How much - Medinsky does not explain.

"Fighters" of the "Lotta" formations

Whatever the case, two explanations arise:
The first - if the Finnish data on their losses are correct, then the Finns are the most cowardly people in the world, because they "raised their paws" almost without suffering losses.
The second - if we consider that the Finns are a brave and courageous people, then Finnish historians simply underestimated their own losses on a large scale.

Last month, the Finnish Defense Forces released an archive of 160,000 World War II-era photographs. These are photographs from 1939-1945, describing the Winter War between Finland and the Soviet Union of 1939-1940, the military actions of Finland when it became an ally of Nazi Germany in the war against the Soviet Union of 1941-1945, and the Lapland War - military actions between Finland and Germany in September 1944 - April 1945.

All signatures were short and in Finnish, so some inaccuracies are possible.

The swastika is one of the most ancient and widespread graphic symbols. From 1918 to 1945, the swastika is depicted on the banners of the Finnish Air Force and tank forces, and at the present time on the presidential standard.

Snowmobile with propeller and swastika, Haapasaari, Finland. (Photo by SA-kuva):

Flamethrower in action. In the forest near the village of Niinisalo in Finland, July 1, 1942. (Photo by SA-kuva):

Waiting for approaching enemy aircraft. This incredible device is an acoustic locator. (Photo by SA-kuva):

Hitler's visit to Finland in June 1942. (Photo by SA-kuva):

Bombing of Helsinki by Soviet planes, November 30, 1939. On this day, the USSR attacked Finland. The number of divisions is 21, the total number of soldiers is 450,000. The Winter War has begun. (Photo by SA-kuva):

Wounded in Helsinki. (Photo by SA-kuva):

Burning building on the Senate Square in Helsinki. (Photo by SA-kuva):

The streets of Helsinki after the bombing. (Photo by SA-kuva):

Anti-aircraft gun in Helsinki. (Photo by SA-kuva):

Vyborg. Back then in Finland. (Photo by SA-kuva):

Finnish armored train. (Photo by SA-kuva):

Experimental transport of troops in cold weather. (Photo by SA-kuva):

Hämeenlinna military dog ​​school. (Photo by SA-kuva):

Rocket launched from the forest. (Photo by SA-kuva):

Street fighting in Medvezhyegorsk, Russia. The city has been Finnish for three years. (Photo by SA-kuva):

Frozen soldier. (Photo by SA-kuva):

A soldier in a protective suit against a gas attack. (Photo by SA-kuva):

Downed Soviet plane. (Photo by SA-kuva):

Restoration of bombed tram tracks. (Photo by SA-kuva):

Two girls at the ruins of Martin's Cathedral in Turku, Finland. (Photo by SA-kuva):

Soviet prisoners of war. (Photo by SA-kuva):

Lifting a locomotive out of the water. (Photo by SA-kuva):

Bomb shelter-hospital in Mikkeli, Finland. (Photo by SA-kuva):

Bomb strike. (Photo by SA-kuva):

Dead German soldier. (Photo by SA-kuva):

Cathedral in Vyborg after the bombing. (Photo by SA-kuva):

A thirteen-year-old boy in the hospital. (Photo by SA-kuva):

The burning village of Nurmoila, Finland. (Photo by SA-kuva):

Finnish motorcycle and tank with a swastika. (Photo by SA-kuva):

Soldier and reindeer on ice in northern Lapland, Finland, October 26, 1941. (Photo by SA-kuva):

In the autumn of 2012, I was sitting on the Allegro train on the way to St. Petersburg. In the same car with me were two Finns, apparently historians and scientists who did not hesitate to express their opinions to all other passengers. One of the men repeated several times his opinion that "Russians do not know how to study history."

I thought why should I listen to such statements again in 2012, on the train between Helsinki and St. Petersburg, in the famous Allegro, which symbolizes the high level of Russian-Finnish relations.

One of the most interesting national historiographies is the historiography of Finland about the Second World War. The virtuoso nature of factual distortions, falsification of historical events and contextual falsification, as well as constant false lawyer speculation around almost all facts and events - all this is like pseudoscientific historiography of Finland has extremely interesting psychological functions, the function of the psychology of the masses, and the significance for the study of political psychology.

The primary goal of the distortions of the history of the Second World War in Finland is to reassure the people, to prevent people from drawing the wrong conclusions about why and at what cost Finland lost the wars as an ally of Nazi Germany. The main purpose of the distortions is to make the Finnish people believe that Russia and the Russians are the eternal enemies of Finland, who have always tried to “occupy” and destroy Finland, that Finland had no relations with Nazi Germany during the war (the Germans only “helped” a little), that there was no nationalism, fascist movements and organizations in Finland. Such a distorted mythology is still active, including in Finnish school history textbooks. The history departments of Finnish universities are, of course, masters in teaching the technologies of these distortions.

The goal is also at the same time, and quite cunningly, to hide the fact that a large-scale anti-fascist opposition movement. So, if there is no fascism in Finland, if the Finns are not allies of the Nazis, if the Russians are only dangerous "occupiers" - then, of course, no resistance movement is needed. The entire Finnish people is allegedly united against the "Russ" (the so-called insulting word for Russians in Finnish nationalist and fascist propaganda).

In practice, we are talking about preventing the denazification of Finland. This is one of the main functions of the falsification of the history of the Second World War in Finland. It is important to distort history by deceiving that there are no Nazi or fascist movements in Finland and that Finland was not an ally of Nazi Germany - therefore, in Finland no denazification needed.

It is characteristic of Finnish falsification that each fact is falsified according to one scheme: Stalin or the Russians planned to “occupy” Finland and destroy the nation, Finland was always alone, the Finns made only the right decisions, the Russians are always wrong, immoral, etc. For this purpose, the well-known Finnish pseudo-historian Ohto Manninen even published a book, a "study", titled "How to Occupy Finland: Operational Plans of the Red Army 1939-1944" (2008), ostensibly as proof of Stalin's "plans" to exterminate the Finnish people and nation.

Thus, the falsification of the history of the Second World War in Finland can, first of all, be defined as informational and psychological warfare against their own people. As a result, the entire Finnish people almost all the time live in a state of military psychosis. This paranoia is easy to spot in the Finnish media, which regularly broadcast highly distorted stories about Finnish military history, Finnish-Russian relations, and the internal situation in Russia.

The myth of the occupation

The main myth of the Finnish historiography of the Second World War is the myth of the occupation, that Stalin's original goal was supposedly to conquer all of Finland, to "occupy" the country, to destroy the entire Finnish people. Such a myth gives Finnish pseudo-historians many opportunities to justify the decisions and actions of the Finnish authorities during the war years.

The myth of the occupation, of course, has a lot to do with the former Baltic states, which were actually allegedly “occupied” in the summer of 1940. Therefore, in Finland they often say that it was right to fight (even with Hitler) against the USSR, because otherwise Finland would have been waiting for the fate of the Baltic states. Related to this is the crude fake of the pseudo-historian Kimmo Rentol that Stalin planned to shoot 30,000 Finns in the Katyn forest (despite the fact that no document supports such nonsense). Although in the propaganda about the occupation, the most important thing is, of course, the version that the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact allegedly determined the entire European history. Therefore, the Baltic States and Finland supposedly had one common fate: Soviet occupation!

For example, if one has to admit the fact of Finland's alliance with Nazi Germany, Finnish pseudo-historians always emphasize that it was, at least, a personal decision of President Ryti in the summer of 1944, and the main event of this alliance was the support of the German Air Force in the summer of 1944 against the massive offensive of Soviet troops (an attempt to "occupy" the country) on the Karelian Isthmus. The large-scale cooperation of the German and Finnish fleets, infantry, reconnaissance, aviation, the presence in Finland of dozens of airfields of the German air force for operations against Leningrad and Karelia are often hushed up, because these facts do not support the myth of the occupation.

Finnish historiography regularly talks about the "mass offensive in the summer of 1944" in order to prove to the Finns that the Soviet Union, which attacked Finland, was to blame for the war. But in Finnish historiography, of course, they are silent about the fact that Finland from the 1920s to the 1940s was an extremely aggressive neighbor, which itself staged several attacks on the territory of Soviet Russia and Karelia.

One characteristic and recent example. The extremely Russophobic main newspaper of Finland, Helsingin Sanomat, asked its readers in September 2012: “When did Finland have the most independence?” One of the answers published in the newspaper is extremely interesting. A certain Matti Püstynen from the city of Espoo answered briefly: "Historically, we were most independent, and lonely, during the war years 1939-1944." Matti Püstünen's opinion is, of course, a gross falsification of facts - Finland was not really "alone" during the Second World War, on the contrary - it was perhaps the most important ally of Nazi Germany - and not only of Germany, but also of Italy, - also perhaps the most loyal ally of the Nazis and fascists. The goals in the war were common: the destruction of Leningrad and the USSR, the mass destruction of the "lower races" - Russians, Jews.

One illustrative example: the well-known Finnish pseudo-historian Kimmo Rentola (professor at the University of Turku, also an employee of the Finnish Security Police) published material in 2003 on the reasons why Polish officers were shot in the Katyn forest. Rentola's explanation is extremely surprising: Beria and Stalin allegedly intended to shoot not the Poles in Katyn, but 30,000 Finnish officers, for whom it was necessary to "make room" by killing the corresponding number of Polish officers. But when the Finns unexpectedly “won” the winter war (as the pseudo-historian Rentola writes), it turned out that it was no longer necessary to kill Polish officers. Although, writes Rentola, Stalin was so angry because of the victory of the Finns that he decided to kill the Poles anyway. Thus, according to Rentol's interpretation, the cause of the Katyn tragedy is the victory of the Finns in the winter war! It should be added that Rentola did not provide any evidence for his statements regarding the plan to kill 30,000 Finns in Katyn, or about Stalin's intentions. But still, he is engaged not only in a pathological distortion of history, but also in a gross mockery of the feelings of Polish families who lost their relatives in this tragedy. By the way, it was Rentola who became an employee of the Finnish Security Police on projects to falsify Finnish history in the interests of the special services. Whether the gross falsification of the Katyn tragedy is used in the interests of the Finnish law enforcement agencies, we, of course, do not know.

In many ways, the Finnish historiography of the Second World War is a repetition of the speech of the defense of President Risto Ryti at the trial against Finnish war criminals in Helsinki in 1945-1946. It was then that Ryti persistently repeated the cliché that Finland was alone, that Stalin intended to occupy Finland, that an alliance with Hitler was forced as the only way out for the Finns, and so on.

The peculiarity of the historical falsification of Finland is that history is already falsified in the course of events. So, 25.-26. On June 1941, the Finns faked a large-scale operation of Soviet aviation against German airfields and other military facilities in Finland as an unexpected and unjustified offensive against civilians, women and children. This is exactly what President Risto Ryti said in a famous radio speech, knowing full well that Finland was allied with Hitler. In the same radio speech, Ryti called Hitler "a brilliant leader."

In many ways, the historiography of the Second World War in Finland is just a repetition of wartime propaganda. Finland, of course, already then tried to emphasize the “independent” role of its campaign next to Hitler, of course, primarily so that the Finnish front-line soldiers would not understand that they fought for Hitler and shed blood for the interests of Germany (it was with these words that he assessed the situation former President Ryti himself after the war).

"Mainil Shots"

There are other examples of how the Finns falsified history already in the course of the events of history: the famous “Mainil shots” (“Mainilan laukaukset”), which were reported by Radio Moscow on 11/26/1939. According to the Soviet radio broadcast, the Soviet border guards noticed seven shots from the Finns, which hit the territory of the USSR. The Finnish authorities immediately decided to fabricate a case against the Soviet leadership that Soviet artillery near the border with Finland allegedly fired on their own border guards in order to have a pretext for attacking Finland. For these purposes, at night, the Finnish General Staff collected "testimonies" from Finnish border guards, who stated that they allegedly "saw" from the territory of Finland how Soviet artillery fired at their own on the territory of the USSR. The evidence is conflicting. Although in fact, there were no “Mainil shots”. But until now, the invented story of the “Mainil shots” is the main event of the invented and falsified history of the so-called. "winter war".

But that's not all. Well-known Finnish pseudo-historian Ohto Manninen stated in the early 1990s that he allegedly "found" evidence of "Mainil shots" in Russian archives. The results of these "research" were published in 1994. Based on the materials of Manninen, there are records of the winter war, where the word "execution" is written. This, according to Manninen, is proof of the "plans" of the Soviet leadership regarding the "Mainil shots". The well-known Finnish professor Manninen (so far) has not found other evidence, except for the word "execution" in one document.

On the issue of the "winter war", it is also popular among Finnish pseudo-historians to spread the opinion that the League of Nations allegedly legally deprived the USSR of membership in this organization after the USSR attacked Finland in November 1939. This version for Finnish pseudo-historians is supposedly proof that Finland is not to blame for anything. Although in fact, as is known, the decision of the League of Nations to exclude the USSR was made illegally and had no legal force.

Also in Finland, it is popular among pseudo-historians to say that the so-called. Teriyo government, i.e. the Finnish people's government on the Karelian Isthmus during the "winter war" was proof that the USSR intended to occupy Finland. In fact, here again, Finnish pseudo-historians want to hide the fact that the Finns themselves planned already during the "winter war" to create a Russian people's government in Rebola, under the leadership of Trotsky or Kerensky, and even planned to create a Russian people's army there (like the predecessor of Vlasovskaya army).

Thus, any choice of topics by Finnish pseudo-historians should always be assessed as an attempt to falsify history, to hide particularly important facts and events of wartime.

"Yatkohot"

Of course, in falsifying history through conceptual manipulation, the Finns are simply great masters. There is, for example, the concept of “continuation war” (in Finnish “yatkosota”) - the period 1941-1944, i.e. participation of Finland in Operation Barbarossa as an ally of Nazi Germany. After all, for the Finns, this is just a "continuation" of something, although "Barbarossa" is a unique event in military history. Although it is not entirely clear what the “continuation” of what this war could be: some Finnish pseudo-historians believe that “Barbarossa” is a continuation of the “winter war” of 1939-1940, a bilateral military conflict that, by the way, lasted only 105 days.

The use of the term "yatkosota" (continuation war) is, of course, the best evidence that the author is falsifying history. Unfortunately, according to the national bibliography of Finland, there are 2,143 works published in the country about "Yatkosota", and only 1,761 works about "Talvisota" (i.e. about the winter war).

It must be said that the use of the term "Yatkosot" unfortunately also indicates that the author supports Nazism - after all, the very term "Yatkosot" exists in order to justify and support Operation Barbarossa. Thus, the reader should be careful, since all works using this term (“yatkosota”) reflect an extremely hostile Russophobic ideology, neo-Nazism and extremism. The word "yatkosota" is an information weapon, a military threat against Russia.

But “yakkosota” is far from everything. The Finns have other false terms to confuse the causes and essence of this war. There is the term “separate war” (in Finnish “erillissota”), also the period 1941-1944, in order to tell people that Finland allegedly had nothing to do with the Germans, but fought “alone”. The meaning of the terms “yatkosota” and “erillissota” is, of course, the justification of the military aggression of Finland together with Germany against the USSR, as well as the justification of the Barbarossa plan itself. Thus, these terms can still be classified as a kind of military threat against Russia.

In a notorious example, Finnish President Tarja Halonen's speech at the Institute for Foreign Policy in Paris in 2005. Halonen stated that for the Finns, the Second World War was a "separate war" against the USSR, and after the war, Finland allegedly "maintained" independence and democracy. The Russian Foreign Ministry reacted clearly and decisively, recalling the Paris Peace Treaty, which clearly defined Finland's criminal alliance with Nazi Germany, as well as Finland's role in the war.

The Finns, in principle, are ready to admit the fact that Finland, together with Germany, really attacked the USSR in the summer of 1941. But for this situation, they have a special false conceptual manipulation, dividing the "yatkocell" into three parts. Therefore, they talk about the "offensive phase" in the summer of 1941, but then very soon there appeared the already supposedly defensive "positional war phase", and in the summer of 1944, the "retreat phase", which already allegedly testifies to Stalin's aggression, the intention to "occupy » Finland (according to Manninen), etc. By the way, in the notorious Finnish "novel" about the war, "The Unknown Soldier", these three phases are supposedly very well reflected. Therefore, the book is even recommended to schoolchildren.

Characteristic for studies of the "winter war" of 1939-1940. that its study is practically forbidden. The main thing is that the causes and background of this war are classified information for the Finns. The main person involved in this case, of course, was the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Finland in 1938-1939. Elyas Erkko, whose archives are closed. (It is interesting that the Finns always protest about the closed Moscow archives, but never about the Erkko archives, although in fact it is very beneficial for lazy Finnish pseudo-historians to talk about the closed Moscow archives.) There is an opinion that in the negotiations between our countries until the winter war, Erkko's personal position and behavior influenced the situation a lot. For example, he refused all the constructive proposals of the Soviet leadership (for him, all this was supposedly just an attempt to "occupy" Finland, of course). Logically, after the winter war, Erkko's archives were always closed, and no one received permission to explore them. In everyday life, however, a very interesting term for the winter war appeared, "Erkko's war" (in Finnish "Erkon sota"), as if he somehow personally initiated this war. It is no secret that Erkko and his son Aatos were also the main shareholders of the Russophobic newspaper Helsingin Sanomat, which is just aggressively spreading anti-Russian propaganda, including the grossest falsification of history, especially with regard to the “Erkko war”. Some research still needed to be done about the life of Elyas Erkko, in the style of a biography, and for this the archives were partially opened. Although it is extremely typical for the Finnish historiography of the Second World War, the fact that Erkko could work with the archives of Elyas, naturally receiving funding from Erkko himself, is none other than the same Ohto Manninen, whom we, unfortunately, have repeatedly mentioned. A work appeared about Erkko's life, where, of course, it is written that the winter war was a necessity because the Russians were trying to occupy Finland, and so on.

misty curtain

The main goal of the Finnish falsification of military history is the denial of the alliance with Hitler, and thus the denial of Finland's responsibility in the war, which is recorded in the Paris Peace Treaty. In a rather interesting way, for example, he characterized the situation of the so-called. research project of the Minister of Justice Tuja Braks in 2010 on the question of the rehabilitation of Finnish war criminals convicted in the Helsinki Trial of 1945-1946. Minister Brax's working group, in principle, recognized Finland's alliance with Hitler, but added that "Finland was de facto an ally of Germany", meaning "de jure" Finland was not an ally. This means that the Finnish Ministry of Justice believes that Finland does not bear any responsibility in the war, because there is no evidence. Therefore, it is also legitimate, according to the Finnish Ministry of Justice, to state that there was no alliance.

It is important to note that all this pseudo-lawyer speculation about Finland's alliance with Nazi Germany is a foggy curtain covering real legal problems and crimes of the Finnish leadership during the Second World War, for example: provocations and refusal to constructive negotiations on the eve of the “Erkko war”, mass deportations of Jews, prisoners of war and Finnish political prisoners to concentration camps (including Auschwitz), genocide of civilians in Finnish concentration camps on the territory of Soviet Karelia, mass destruction Soviet prisoners of war, participation in the blockade of Leningrad, political persecution of democratic and anti-fascist resistance movements, exploitation of concentration camp prisoners (including Poles during the construction of roads in Lapland), etc. How this relates to the words of the Finnish President Halonen that Finland allegedly "defended democracy when the USSR tried to occupy it twice" is worth considering.

Master of Yokisipil

There is another interesting version of the falsification of the history of Finland's alliance with Nazi Germany - this is the version that Finland supposedly "refused" its alliance with the Nazis. Those. Germany allegedly offered the Finns to join the union, but the Finns ("democrats") refused. The master of these distortions is the relatively young historian Markku Jokisipilä from the University of Turku. Jokisipilä published an article in the 1990s entitled "Finland's opposition to the German proposals for an alliance treaty in 1943". This means that the idea is precisely to prove that Finland not only waged a separate, "independent" war, but even resisted the Germans' attempts to conclude an alliance. This means that Finland fought simultaneously against the USSR and Nazi Germany! In 2004, Jokisipil published his doctoral dissertation with the title, quite typical for Finns, “Brothers in Arms or Allies?” Those. back in 2004, this young "scientist" questioned the status of Finland's alliance with Nazi Germany.

Also, Jokisipil, and many other Finnish pseudo-historians, often have a false version that Finland's alliance with Germany, if it was at all, is a "personal affair" of President Ryti, who sent Hitler a letter in the summer of 1944 regarding the support of the German Air Force against the USSR on the Karelian Isthmus. This letter is allegedly the only "contract" of alliance. Thus, Finnish pseudo-historians are ready to betray even their president, the famous fan of Hitler, the occultist Risto Ryti, who quite frankly expressed his obsequious attitude towards Hitler in a radio speech at the end of June 1941.

Quite problematic for Finnish pseudo-historians is, of course, the radio speech of Hitler himself on June 22, 1941, where he said that the Finnish troops were advancing next to the Nazis and in alliance with Nazi Germany. Finnish pseudo-historians believe that this was extremely "problematic", and the Finns even tried to hide Hitler's words from the people. Although it is quite interesting that Hitler's radio speech was published in the newspaper Helsingin Sanomat, already on the same day in Finnish translation. So it was transferred earlier. But it is quite surprising that the Finns even deny the words of Hitler, which they themselves published.

The ideological prejudices of the pseudo-historian Yokisipil are extremely interesting and reflect the thinking of the younger generation. Yokisipilya believes that "talvisota" and "yatkosota" are just "justified defensive military operations against the aggression of the USSR." For Yokisipilya, "talvisota" is a "patriotic holy war", and, despite the fact that its continuation was an offensive against the USSR, only the USSR itself is to blame for this, Jokisipilya believes. He also writes that even though Finland lost both wars, it was a "political winner" because the country "was not occupied". For Jokisipil, the mass offensive of the USSR in the summer of 1944 is, of course, proof of an attempt to occupy Finland. According to Jokisipil, Finland could conquer the city of Leningrad and help Hitler win, including in the confrontation with Great Britain, writes the Finnish historian of Jokisipil, a great expert on the history of the Third Reich (apparently, he already lives in his dreams in it). It is already clear to everyone that the Finnish historian Jokisipilä is a National Socialist by political convictions, like many other Finnish pseudo-historians.

For Finnish pseudo-historians, any fact can serve as proof of the opposite. Thus, the relatively mild convictions of Finnish war criminals in the Helsinki trial for Markku Jokisipil are evidence that Moscow has recognized the independent (“separate”) nature of the Finnish war.

"War Children"

There is another extremely tragic story that is connected with Finnish children. During the war, the Finnish authorities deported about 80,000 Finnish children from Finland, without parents, mostly to Sweden. The subject is still poorly understood, but there is reason to believe that the children were deported in order to save resources - to make it easier to provide and feed the 200,000 German soldiers in Finland.

It was assumed that the deportation of children would be temporary - after all, the "blitzkrieg" was supposed to end in the summer, and the children were supposed to return to "Great Finland". But potential "Great Finnish" children remained there. Some of them briefly returned, but were again deported. There were many tragic cases when the Finns abandoned their children if, for example, the mothers had a Fritz groom. Until now, the issue of “military children” (in Finnish “sotalapset”) is a little studied, extremely tragic episode of Finnish history. Many children were seriously injured. Finnish pseudo-historians naturally believe that Stalin is to blame for the suffering of children. After all, because of him, the German troops could not arrange a “Great Finnish” future for Finnish children.

Plans for "Greater Finland"

The most influential socio-political organization in Finland before the war was, of course, the Academic Karelian Society (AKS), whose goal was to create a "Greater Finland" through war, the destruction of the city of Leningrad, mass deportations and the destruction of Russians. Many representatives of the Finnish cultural, military, political and academic elite were members of this organization. Members of the AKC signed their letters with the slogan "your brother in hatred of the Russians." Despite the openly fascist nature of this organization, Finnish pseudo-historians characterize it as merely nationalist, partly marginal. Those. justify the activities of this organization with all their might.

Literally in 2011, a large publication about the history of the AKC was published, a collection of several Finnish authors who do not write anything critical or negative about this organization. On the contrary, in the collection, the well-known Finnish pseudo-historian, journalist and publisher Jarkko Vesikansa (Vesikansa Jr.) writes about an organization called "Spiritual Warfare-continuation of the AKC - the influence of society on anti-communist activities in Finland during the Cold War" . This means that the propaganda term “yatkosota” (continuation war) has reappeared, which has already acquired a new meaning here: the war against the USSR after the Second World War through the vigorous activity of former members of the fascist organization AKS.

Of particular importance to Finnish pseudo-historians is the falsification of plans for the creation of a "Greater Finland". Here, Finnish pseudo-historians act extremely cunningly. They acknowledge the fact that Finland has occupied "Eastern Karelia", although they try to justify this occupation as a necessity. This means that for the Finnish false historiography, there was nothing in the “Great Finland” except Finland itself with the occupied “Eastern Karelia”. For these purposes, the Finns even published works criticizing the occupation of "Eastern Karelia". But here again, falsification: Finnish pseudo-historians only recognize the fact of the “Finnish occupation” in Eastern Karelia, they deliberately hide the fact that the occupation was German-Finnish. This is again proof of the cunning of the Finnish pseudo-historiography of the Second World War. At one time, the widely known, first "critical" work on the occupation of Eastern Karelia, was called accordingly "Finland as an occupier" - in order to again preserve the mythology that Finland fought without Nazi Germany.

The plans of "Great Finland", of course, were different: to unite the vast territories of the USSR, Norway, Sweden, Estonia, Latvia into one "Great Finnish" state. On the territory of the USSR, the goal was to occupy the Kola Peninsula, Karelia, the city of Leningrad (with its subsequent destruction), the Estonian SSR, part of the Latvian SSR, etc. In the journal AKS in 1923, a map of "Great Finland" was published, which extends to Yekaterinburg, the Urals. And only with the help of Nazi Germany, the Finns considered the implementation of these plans possible. Of course, against the backdrop of all this, talking only about the “Finnish occupation of Karelia” is extremely ridiculous.

"Savior of Leningrad"

The complete denial of Finland's participation in the blockade of Leningrad is the main theme of the distortions of the history of the Second World War in Finland. The main motivation here, of course, is to accuse the Soviet leadership of unreasonable demands in connection with the statement that Finland threatens the security of Leningrad. Finnish pseudo-historians, despite the participation of Finland in the blockade of Leningrad along with Nazi Germany, are confident that during the war years Finland did not pose any threat to Leningrad. Even the fact that a radio speech was prepared in Finland in honor of the capture of the city of Leningrad (both in Finnish and in Swedish) does not affect the position of Finnish pseudo-historians.

Recently, in the 2000s, a new version appeared that Finland allegedly “protected” Leningrad or even “saved” it. Here, they especially want to draw attention to the new role of Marshal Mannerheim of Finland as the “savior of Leningrad”, when he allegedly refused to attack Leningrad. The authors of these gross falsifications and false statements are the pseudo-historians Ohto Manninen, Timo Vihavainen, as well as the revanchist organizations "ProKarelia" and others, who began to demand some kind of compensation from Russia for the fact that Finland "saved" the city of Leningrad. We also recall the opinion of the pseudo-historian Mark Jokisipil, who writes that only Finland could lead Germany to a complete victory, including the occupation of Leningrad, but Finland allegedly refused. Although it is known that Finland was ready to send about 30,000 military policemen to occupied Leningrad to organize purges in the city.

The publication in Finland of the first book about Finland's participation in the siege of Leningrad by the well-known author and historian Nikolai Baryshnikov in 2003 led to loud scandals, harsh attacks and insults from Finnish pseudo-historians. The main newspaper, Helsingin Sanomat, even falsified Baryshnikov's written response, which led to a penalty from the Glasnost Council of Finland.

Anti-fascist resistance movement in Finland

The existence of an anti-fascist resistance movement in Finland is a fact that is extremely difficult for Finnish pseudo-historians to admit, because. they argue that in Finland there was never any fascism, Nazism, any alliance with Hitler (often pseudo-historians try to distort the facts, explaining that the Finns allegedly treated the Germans with contempt or suspicion during the war). If there is no fascism, no anti-fascist resistance movement, of course, can take place, especially when supposedly the entire Finnish people “united” in the war against the USSR already during the winter campaign (the so-called myth of “unity in the winter war”, one of the main myths of pseudo-historians). It is logical that if there was "unity" in the winter war, then, of course, it was then in the "continuation war".

In the distorted historiography of the Second World War in Finland, there is a tendency to deny the very existence of the resistance movement, as well as the denial of all specific actions of this movement, the denial of the heroism of the Finnish liberator fighters, and finally, the denial of the existence of political repression and terror against the democratic resistance movement in Finland. In fact, despite the fact that the democratic movements were repressed already in the 1920s and 1930s, the anti-fascist resistance movement had a very large scale in Finland. It is known that in the 1930s there were about 400,000 people in the file cabinet of the Finnish State Police. Tens of thousands of deserters lived in the forests, anti-fascist propaganda was distributed throughout the country, including charters on the creation of partisan and sabotage brigades, and acts of sabotage and propaganda were carried out everywhere. Finnish pseudo-historians are trying to explain the situation by saying that the “cowardly deserters” just hid in the forests - because of this, the humiliating name “bump guard” (“käpükaarti”), “forest guard” (“metäkaarti”). Many Finnish resistance fighters fought bravely, the fascist detachments, the police and the army ruthlessly pursued them and killed them on the spot.

Probably one of the most famous Finnish heroes of the anti-fascist resistance Veikko Peysti, in December 1942 in Helsinki, fought alone with the police until the last shell, did not give up, was killed. During the siege, which lasted all day, dozens of policemen fired thousands of shots. Despite this, Peysti managed to kill two police officers and mortally wound several. One of the martyrs of the Finnish anti-fascist resistance movement is Finn Martta Koskinen, who was shot by the Nazis in Helsinki in October 1943 (only one year and 2 days before the signing of a truce between Finland and the USSR). Martha selflessly engaged in the correspondence of the underground resistance movement in Helsinki, for which she was sentenced to death. Her last words before the execution: "Down with Ryti and Tanner!" A couple of years later, the same Ryti and Tanner were convicted and were in the same prison where Marta Koskinen was.

The Finnish anti-fascist and democratic resistance movement was widely written about in the 1970s. For example, in 1973 a collection of poems from the Finnish resistance movement was published. But then Finnish pseudo-historians in recent decades began to distort the history of the movement.

The myth of the Soviet partisans

Associated with the denial of the existence of a resistance movement, this is the aggressive propaganda of Finnish pseudo-historians against the Soviet partisan movement. Over the past two decades, Finnish pseudo-historians and the Finnish press have been very aggressively spreading the version that the official goal of the Soviet partisan movement is the alleged mass destruction of Finnish women and children, and allegedly on the orders of Stalin. Such a delusional falsification, unfortunately, has become the official truth for the Finnish media and some publications in the field of Finnish pseudo-history. The main propagandist in this area is the Finnish journalist Veikko Erkkila, who has already managed to publish 2 books on this topic.

It is clear that the trend of distortions, outright lies, is again connected with the general trend of falsification and denial of Finland's alliance with Nazi Germany. If Finland really fought "alone", if it was a victim of the Stalinist attack and the threat of "occupation", if there was "unity of the people" against the USSR, then the military operations and reconnaissance operations of the German garrisons and other military installations near the border are easier to falsify, using the version of a deliberate attacks on civilians. Although here again what he writes, for example, the pseudo-historian Erkkila, is very similar to the Nazi propaganda of the war period. It was the Nazis who created the mythology that the goal of the Soviet partisans was the mass destruction of the civilian population, women and children. Although in these cases, which 60 years later the pseudo-historian Erkkil is studying, it is no longer possible to prove who killed whom and why.

"Return Karelia"

There is also an interesting tendency in the Finnish revanchism of the 1990s and 2000s to falsify the history of the Second World War. The main slogan of the Finnish revenge-seekers "Return Karelia" (in Finnish "Karjala takaisin") has no real relation to reality - after all, Karelia has never been part of Finland. Parts of it were occupied by German and Finnish occupiers, but this, of course, does not give any right to its "return". If you look at the official propaganda of the ProKarelia organization, then against the backdrop of the slogan “return Karelia”, they demand from Russia, in fact, the regions from the Barents Sea to the islands of the Gulf of Finland, in accordance with the Yuryevsky peace treaty of 1920, which has nothing to do with Karelia. Thus, the slogan "return Karelia" for the Finnish revenge-seekers is just a foggy curtain of demands for the creation of a "great Finland" with various territorial claims.

Interestingly, the slogan "ProKarelia" is the battle cry of the Finnish fascists of the AKS movement in the 1920s, when they also demanded the creation of a "Great Finland" under this slogan. After the liquidation of this fascist organization (AKC) after the war on the basis of the Paris Peace Treaty, it continued to work until the 1980s under the name "Club 22" ("Kerkho 22"), then in the early 1990s a new organization was created - the successor of the AKS , "Pro Carelia", and in the early 2000s "ProKarelia". In the 2000s, an event was even organized where activist members of Pro Carelia joined ProKarelia and handed over all the archives to them. Thus, the revanchist organization "ProKarelia" is the main successor of the fascist movement AKS in Finland.

It is also very problematic that the activist members of the AKC, as well as the authors-architects of "Greater Finland", were never punished - on the contrary, they continued their work, occupying key positions in Finnish society. It is characteristic that the children of prominent figures of the AKS, for example, the children of the famous fascist Martti Haavio, never apologized for the genocide of Russians in the German-Finnish concentration camps in the occupied territory of Soviet Karelia.

In recent years, the most heated discussion among Finnish historians has unfolded over the mass executions of Finnish soldiers in the summer of 1944 on the Karelian Isthmus. Several books have been published on the subject, pros and cons, which either acknowledge the existence of mass secret executions of Finnish deserters in the summer of 1944 or deny the existence of such executions.

The demands are also interesting here: to cancel the criminal record of Finnish political leaders and the guilty verdict handed down to them by the post-war tribunal of 1945-1946, when eight Finnish political leaders were convicted precisely for planning military aggression together with the Germans. It is often accepted to respond to such demands that the convictions are allegedly unconstitutional and do not express the opinion of the people, so they should not be canceled.

Results

As a result, we can say that the Finnish historiography of the Second World War is practically absent. There are myths, legends, military propaganda, psychological agitation. The most important thing is the anti-Soviet propaganda that Stalin's main intention was allegedly from the very beginning to "occupy" Finland, to destroy its people, and therefore the Finnish attack with Hitler was "fair". In many ways, Finnish historiography of World War II resembles the pro-fascist revanchism of the German historian Ernst Nolte, the main person involved in the so-called. Historian Straight in the 1980s. Changes in the Finnish so-called. there was practically no historiography - it remained the same as it was during the war. The main point of Finnish military propaganda is an attempt to hide the real nature of German-Finnish relations. There are also elements of Nazi propaganda in Finnish national historiography. Many facts and events have already been distorted in their time (“Mainil shots”, Soviet air raids on Finland on 25.-26.6.1941, the activities of Soviet partisans in Finland). Finnish historiography of World War II has an extremely Russophobic character. The purpose of using such terms as "yatkosota" (continuation war) is, ultimately, the justification of the policy of the Third Reich and Hitler's attack on the USSR, the recognition of Operation Barbarossa as legitimate. Thus, the term "yakkosot" is a Nazi, extremely dangerous information weapon. Those people who use the term “yatkosota” justify Nazism and its crimes, recognize Operation Barbarossa as legitimate and are ready to repeat the crimes. Finnish historiography of World War II is extremely anti-democratic. There was no real denazification in Finland, so Finnish pseudo-historians can calmly repeat the fascist slogans of “Great Finland”. The Finnish historiography of the Second World War must be written from the point of view of the anti-fascist resistance movement. This point of view already existed during the war in leaflets and underground newspapers. The heroes of the Finnish anti-fascist resistance movement and their exploits are immortal. The time will come when their point of view will be legitimate. Only then can the Finnish people live a full spiritual life.

Johan Beckman, Doctor of Social and Political Sciences, Associate Professor at the University of Helsinki, Chairman of the Anti-Fascist Committee of Finland

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Jokisipilä Markku. Saksan liittosopimusvaatimusten torjuminen vuonna 1943. // Leena Pylvänäinen ja Timo Soikkanen. Toim. Ajankohta. Poliittisen historian vuosikirja 1996. Poliittinen historia. Helsingin ja Turun yliopistot. Tutkijakoulu. Historia ja politiikka uudessa maailmassa (HISPO). Julkaisuja 2. Helsinki. 1996.

Jokisipilä Markku. Aseveljiä vai liittolaisia? Suomi, Saksan liittosopimusvaatimukset ja Rytin-Ribbentropin sopimus. Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura. Helsinki. 2004.

Hitlerin julistus Saksan kansalle. Helsingin Sanomat. Ylimääräinen numero. Helsingissä, sunnuntaina kesäk. 22. pnä 1941.

Jokisipilä Markku. Suur-Suomesta sosialistiseksi neuvostotasavallaksi 1939--1944. // Niemi Mari K. & Ville Pernaa. Toim. Entäs jos... Vaihtoehtoinen Suomen historia. Ajatus Kirjat. Helsinki. 2005.

Ibidem. S. 140.

See for example: Kaven Pertti. Sotalapset: toiveet ja todellisuus. Minerva. Helsinki. 2011.

Wala Mikko. Toim. AKS:n tie. Akateeminen Karjala-Seura isänmaan ja heimoaatteen asialla. Minerva. Helsinki. 2011.

Kulomaa Jukka & Jarmo Nieminen. Toim. Teloitettu totuus: kesä 1944. Ajatus. Helsinki. 2008; Arponen Antti O. Teloitetut: viimeinen jatkosodan kesä 1944: kadonneet rintamakarkurit: Huhtiniemen mysteeri. Revontuli. Tampere. 2006; Jaakkonen Pasi. Huhtiniemi: 400 kadonneen miehen mysteeri. Minerva. Helsinki. 2007; Ylikangas Heikki. Romahtaako rintama? Suomi puna-armeijan puristuksessa kesällä 1944. Otava. Helsinki. 2007.