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> I also find it pretty amusing that people always mention the Winter war but not what came after I guess the time when Finland sided with the Germans, providin

> I also find it pretty amusing that people always mention the Winter war but not what came after I guess the time when Finland sided with the Germans, providing support and logistics including naval and air bases to the Germans and invading Russia later which lead to the seige of Leningrad isn’t as foundly remembered. I don't envy the Finns of the 20th century. They were wedged in an extremely awkward spot for much of it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finlandization https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finlandization

dogma1138 8y ago
Don’t get me wrong I don’t blame them the Germans were their only real possible ally it’s just amusing to me that people always seem to forgo that period. That said the Finns weren’t as passive as one might think they sought out to gain the territory they lost and they went into the alliance with Germany quite willingly and even proactively.
- mkempe 8y ago
  You seem to have quite an axe to grind against Finland. Since Soviet Russia was an ally of the USA and UK for the second half of WW 2, and Soviet Russia had already attacked Finland, still occupied large territories, and intended to take the rest of the country -- what were the Finns supposed to do in order to survive against the Soviets? objectively, why start a fight against the new enemy of their enemy? Similar question for the people of Poland, attacked by both Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union at the outset of WW 2. Do you denounce them because some resistance eventually worked along with the Red Army when they pushed out the occupying Nazis? what about the resistance who fought against the Red Army?
  - dogma1138 8y ago
    What exactly in my post indicated that I have any axe to grind with Finland of all places? Finland and Russia have a pretty long and complicated history dating to the napoleonic wars. In more "recent" history Russia and Finland were at odds since the Russian civil war and the Finnish civil war that followed. During the Finnish civil war the "Whites" which one were already supported by Germany with Mannerheim which remained the commander of the Finnish forces through WW2 having a pretty close relationship with Germany. Overall even prior to the winter war Finland was not exactly "neutral" or to be more exact passive and the whole concept of "greater finland" after the Finnish civil war wasn't just a shrug. During WW2 the Finns acted in their own best interest and they were not coerced into every action by either Russia or Germany as they had a pretty clear agenda of their own even if they could not act on it all the time due to well them being Finland. To their credit they are the only country that managed to fight both the allies and the axis with the same government as after Finland broke the Ryti–Ribbentrop agreement by negotiating a separate peace with Russia (or well the Soviet Union) they had essentially to spend the next 7 months "fighting" the German forces with Russian troops supporting them nonetheless but for all accounts the "lapland war" had only a few engagements. Finland also gave us the only known recording of Hitler outside of his speeches where he bitched about losing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hitler_and_Mannerheim_recording https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hitler_and_Mannerheim_recordin....

dogma1138 8y ago

Don’t get me wrong I don’t blame them the Germans were their only real possible ally it’s just amusing to me that people always seem to forgo that period. That said the Finns weren’t as passive as one might think they sought out to gain the territory they lost and they went into the alliance with Germany quite willingly and even proactively.

mkempe 8y ago
You seem to have quite an axe to grind against Finland. Since Soviet Russia was an ally of the USA and UK for the second half of WW 2, and Soviet Russia had already attacked Finland, still occupied large territories, and intended to take the rest of the country -- what were the Finns supposed to do in order to survive against the Soviets? objectively, why start a fight against the new enemy of their enemy? Similar question for the people of Poland, attacked by both Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union at the outset of WW 2. Do you denounce them because some resistance eventually worked along with the Red Army when they pushed out the occupying Nazis? what about the resistance who fought against the Red Army?
- dogma1138 8y ago
  What exactly in my post indicated that I have any axe to grind with Finland of all places? Finland and Russia have a pretty long and complicated history dating to the napoleonic wars. In more "recent" history Russia and Finland were at odds since the Russian civil war and the Finnish civil war that followed. During the Finnish civil war the "Whites" which one were already supported by Germany with Mannerheim which remained the commander of the Finnish forces through WW2 having a pretty close relationship with Germany. Overall even prior to the winter war Finland was not exactly "neutral" or to be more exact passive and the whole concept of "greater finland" after the Finnish civil war wasn't just a shrug. During WW2 the Finns acted in their own best interest and they were not coerced into every action by either Russia or Germany as they had a pretty clear agenda of their own even if they could not act on it all the time due to well them being Finland. To their credit they are the only country that managed to fight both the allies and the axis with the same government as after Finland broke the Ryti–Ribbentrop agreement by negotiating a separate peace with Russia (or well the Soviet Union) they had essentially to spend the next 7 months "fighting" the German forces with Russian troops supporting them nonetheless but for all accounts the "lapland war" had only a few engagements. Finland also gave us the only known recording of Hitler outside of his speeches where he bitched about losing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hitler_and_Mannerheim_recording https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hitler_and_Mannerheim_recordin....