Now that I work for a Finnish company, Nokia, I am learning more and more about Finland. Today, for example, is the 70th anniversary of the Winter War.
"The Soviet Union launched attacks against Finland on November 30, 1939 after claiming Finland had shelled a border village. It was not until after the fall of the Soviet Union that Russia admitted that the shelling came from Russian territory and was used as a pretext to attack Finland.
Prior to hostilities, the then Soviet dictator Josef Stalin had demanded Finland surrender parts of Karelia in addition to some strategic locations along the Finnish south coast.
The war claimed the lives of around 23,000 Finns. After the cessation of hostilities in March 1940, some 400,000 people were evacuated from areas captured by Soviet forces. However, Finland remained an independent nation. Indeed, a survey published last week showed a majority of Finns believe the Winter War saved the nation from tyranny."
Monday, 30 November 2009
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8 comments:
DID THEY MENTION THAT THEY FOUGHT WITH THE GERMANS LATER IN THE WAR AND THEIR FLAG WAS A BLUE SWASTIKA ON A WHITE BACKGROUND?? IT WAS ONLY WHEN THE WAR WAS GOING THE ALLIED WAY THAT, AND UNDER SOVIET PRESSURE, THAT THEY EVENTUALLY KICKED THE GERMANS OUT.
I didn't know that Anonymous! Is that true or am I just being gullible. now I will have to go research it.
HERE IS A WIKI LINK IF YOU WANT A BALL PARK VERSION.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continuation_War
I live reasonably close to the Karelia area you talk about. the people around here still consider the Russians to be 'renters' and many people still have keys to their old houses they were booted out of. A very hard thing to imagine happening. hadn't heard about the swastika bit - will go and interogate hubby when he gets out of the shower
Great, Heather, will be glad to know that. One of my Finnish colleagues was telling me about Karelia. And the name of that classical work by Sibelius is about that area? The Karelian Suite? I love that music but didn't know what the name meant.
HI, HAVING SEEN THE BLUE SWASTKA ON FINNISH PLANES USED IN THE WAR I TOOK IT AS A POLITICAL SIMBOL, I WAS WRONG AND JUMPED TO THE WRONG CONCLUSION. CHECK THIS ARTICLE OUT.
/www.axishistory.com/index.php?id=6577
SORRY TO ALL THE FINNISH!
That's nice of you to give us that update, Anonymous. It was very interesting to check out all the links and learn more, even if that one thing was in error.
Here's some info from the link Anonymous gave. I never knew this stuff -- thanks for the interesting discussion.
The Finnish Swastika
It must be noted that the Finnish blue swastika (hakaristi) famously used on the Finnish aircraft during the war was not a Nazi symbol. Apart from aircraft, different designs of the swastika was used on armoured vehicles, awards (Order of the Cross of Freedom for example), the Anti-Aircraft Artillery, the Lotta Svärd organization (female auxiliaries) and on flags (for example the one used by the President 1920-1944) to name a few examples
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