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Here are my two cents: Lots of international pressure was put on Finland due to malnutrition and poor treatment of prisoners in the fall of 1918 that led to ma
by pasiaj 5y ago
Here are my two cents:
Lots of international pressure was put on Finland due to malnutrition and poor treatment of prisoners in the fall of 1918 that led to mass pardons in October of 1918.
My ancestors who fought amongst the "reds" and were convicted to prison camps emmigrated a hundred kilometers north after the war after being pardoned, as things got quite heated where they were from. They seemed to have regretted their actions in the war and expressed gratitude for being welcomed to the their new surroundings. My grandfather remained a communist, and was actually killed by a "white" veteran in 1958 after a municipal government meeting (got hit with a big log).
A new Finnish identity was built in 1920s as a unifying narrative. Sports were an important part part of it. Finland had been under the rule of other countries before, but now it started to develop an identity if its own. Paavo Nurmi, the original Flying Finn won 9 olympic gold metals in 1920, 1924 and 1928. Ville Ritola won 6 medals in 1924 olympics. Hannes Kolehmainen won the olympic marathon in 1920. (He was treated as a class traitor by the left.)
In 1930 there were significant anti-communist / anti-socialist / far right movements in Finland. "Meetings held by leftist and labour groups were also interrupted, often violently. A common tactic was "muilutus", which started with kidnapping and beating. After that the subject was thrown into a car and driven to the border with the Soviet Union."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lapua_Movement https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lapua_Movement
Politically the left and the right were united in 1937 in the selection of Kyösti Kallio as president. A coalition government was formed, largely based on the deep anger and resentment by the left against Stalin's empty promises.
The biggest unifiers in the end were the Winter War and the Continuation War against Russia in 1939. It forced ex-enemies to fight side by side against the Russians. Finland was at war from 1939 to 1944. Next, the nation united to take care of war reparations worth 5.52 billion in 2020 dollars. It took until 1952 to to pay off the debt, and I think Finland still claims to be the only country to have paid war reparations in full.
- drcongo 5y agoThis is a fantastic answer, thank you. It does however raise two other questions... 1. Why was Hannes Kolehmainen treated as a class traitor? And 2. What on earth happened with that big log?
- doikor 5y ago1. To the white/nationalist press he became a hero (a Finnish speaking Finn winning). That alone is enough to make him an enemy of the communists and thus obviously a class traitor as he used to be member of the red/socialist/communist sporting club Helsingin Jyry. At that time there was 2 sporting unions Jyry was part of the red one. There was a very hard political split along this line for a while (Kolehmainen got fired from his job due to joining Jyry for example). 2. Obviously got bludgeoned to death.
- hn_throwaway_99 5y agoHere's a good answer to #1: > The working-class athletic clubs in which the Kolehmainen brothers first trained for victory opposed the participation of newly independent Finland in the 1920 Olympics, claiming the Olympic movement served the interests of the global bourgeois. William Kolehmainen, however, convinced his brother to abandon any working-class loyalties and to run at the Antwerp games, understanding the immense fame and fortune that another gold medal could bring the family. Finland's bourgeoisie embraced Kolehmainen's crossings of class lines, while his old working-class comrades denounced him as a traitor. https://libres.uncg.edu/ir/uncg/f/A_Berg_Flying_2012.pdf https://libres.uncg.edu/ir/uncg/f/A_Berg_Flying_2012.pdf
- pasiaj 5y agoA political opponent of my grandfather got angry at him in a meeting. After the meeting the opponent followed my grandfather as he was walking home and hit him in the head from behind with a ”metrin halko”, a meter long log. He died of a hemorrage.
- drcongo 5y agoBlimey. Thanks for the follow up.
- throwaway2077 5y ago>Many of the Finns deported by the Lapua Movement were later caught up in Stalin's Great Purge and executed; while persecuted in Finland as communists, Stalin accused them of being "Nationalists".[9] heh
- nabla9 5y agoThe white-threat was not what scared to Lenin and Stalin. It was every other type of socialism and communism. Social democrats, Democratic socialists, Anarchists, Syndicalists, Trotskyists, ... When Soviet Union took over, they hunted and killed other socialists first. Or tried to assassinate them beforehand. People, especially those who live in North America have no idea how big and irreconcilable the differences within the left were. Saying that someone is a socialist don't really convey that much information.
- exdsq 5y agoIt happened the other way around too. My wife's related to one-such example https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugen_Schauman https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugen_Schauman of someone who assassinated a communist
- nabla9 5y agoEugen Schauman didn't assassinate a communist. Schauman assassinated Nikolay Bobrikov, Governor-General of Finland, general of Russian Imperial Army, servant of Russian Empire. Schauman was Finnish Nationalist fighting Russian Empire before Russian revolution and Soviet union.
- pavlov 5y agoPeople in USA can get some idea if they think of how the Trumpist/QAnon bloc hates Mitt Romney despite both being technically conservatives. That's the scale of the gulf between Soviet bolsheviks and Nordic social democrats a hundred years ago.
- vidarh 5y agoA key thing to remind people of is that the October "revolution" did not depose the Czar, but the socialist-dominated provisional government. So many people seems to believe the Bolsheviks overthrew the Czar, but he and his family had been in house arrest for months by then. And of course the Bolshevik purges didn't stop at the other groups, but also other factions within their own party.
- selimthegrim 5y ago>Paavo Nurmi, the original Flying Finn Is Mika Häkkinen the new Flying Finn?