The Year of Broken Promises - A Finnish Timeline
- Thread starter DrakonFin
- Start date
If my sources are to be trusted, 100 000 marks in 1939 would be something to the tune of 34 000 euros today. So, not a massive sum but a considerable one none the less.
Ah, that makes more sense. Still, he needs to cut back on the wine, women and song.
Unsurprising to me, Arvo turns out to be a little shit and Papa Vaara the worst kind of self-made man.
Seven: Sisko (and Arvo, and Veli)
Seven: Sisko (and Arvo, and Veli)
Sisko Vaara was enjoying herself. Not only did she have the chance to see many people in Hirvilahti she had not seen in ages, she also got to dance with several local young men and catch up with her younger siblings. Jorma, 17, and Hilja, 18, were the two Vaara children that tended to be overshadowed these days by both the older triplets and little Erkki.
Hilja was growing into the very image of her mother Alma, and not just in looks. She was by now very good in the various duties women on the farm needed to master, a competent assistant to her mother, and not just a mindless follower, either. One of these days, Sisko thought, Hilja will make a very good mistress of a farm.[1]
Jorma, on the other hand, was like a shadow to Veli these days, working with his older brother and developing into a good farmer himself. And into an accomplished athlete as well. He was also a fair bit livelier than his brother, something of a joker, and Sisko thought that he was a good influence on his twin brother right now. Veli had always been a little too solemn and introverted for his own good, despite his social abilities he often appeared to cast himself into the role of a brooding loner.
Connecting with other people was important, in Sisko's view. During her first years in the University of Helsinki, she had come to the conclusion that as a female student, she had to work a lot harder than the young men to have her abilities recognized. And then there was the point of being accepted socially – if you only concentrated on academic excellence, you'd soon be labelled a bore, a stick in the mud. So – Sisko made sure to take part in the extracurricular activities as well. She had chosen the Savonian Nation [2] as the main arena of her student activities, and by now she was a nation officer for the second year in a row. The nation events took a lot of her time, but she believed that she was also making good connections there for her future.
”Do you still miss Hirvilahti”, Vilho Ollikainen asked her, ”living in the big city with all those people?”[3]
Sisko had just been dancing with Esteri's brother, a surprisingly tall young man with the same straw-coloured hair as the rest of the young Ollikainens. Vilho had gained even some more height since when she had last seen him.
Sisko smiled to him.
”Of course I do! I have not grown out of being a Hirvilahti girl yet, Vilho. They say that you can take a girl out of Savonia, but you can't take Savonia out of a girl, after all.”
And so say my Helsinkian friends at the university as well, she thought, remembering how much sneering comments she got about her Savonian dialect especially during her first year before she started to dial it down. She found it amazing how people in the capital liked to equate people with provincial dialects with simpletons, just like that.
In the darkening night, the dance was starting to wound down. People were drifting off, again in ones, twos and small knots, most more or less sober but some also obviously drunk. Salomo Vaara had asked the village school's teacher to come help with keeping order. Now he was ”escorting” out some of the young men who had partaken too heavily in the moonshine. The man was an ardent nationalist and also, not exactly incidentally, a Civil Guards drill instructor. He appeared to have the situation under control.
Right then, Sisko could hear a commotion outside. Surprised, he exited the building.
After arriving to the yard, Sisko located the noise to a place a bit outside the immediate vicinity of the house. Apparently, two men were having some words with each other. Walking closer, with a few others in tow, Sisko finally could see who it was.
Arvo and Veli.
They had been shouting at each other for a while, both appearing enraged for some reason, and both also drunk. By the look of it, Veli was even more unsteady than his brother, and he slurred his words somewhat.
”...Better bugger off... off to where you came from 'efore I make you sorry you... you ever came back!”, Veli shouted to his twin brother and swayed towards him. His right hand made a fist.
”You know what, brother?”, Arvo answered, with some sneer in his voice, ”that's just what I will do! I can't wait getting back to goddamn civilization instead of this...”
”What are you doing? Stop it!”, Sisko shouted to his brothers with sudden force. Arvo turned towards her, but Veli did not appear to hear her voice. Instead, he stepped closer to his brother and swung his right fist at him, putting some force into it. With Sisko taking his attention, Arvo only barely managed to dodge Veli's drunken haymaker.
”So that's how it is, Veli?”, he asked and raised his fists as well.
He stepped closer but, instead of trying to hit him, gave Veli a sudden, good shove, causing the more drunken brother to stumble back and then fall backwards to the grass, apparently more surprised than hurt.
”No!”, Sisko shouted again and took a few running steps, placing herself bodily between her brothers and only now capturing Veli's attention as well.
”Step aside... Sisko”, Veli said with some effort, looking enraged, trying to stand up. Sisko looked at him with blazing eyes.
”No, you're gonna stop this! And that goes for you too, Arvo!”, she said, pointing a finger towards the man in a military uniform.
Arvo seemed to weigh the turn of the events in his mind, and then he apparently made a decision. Looking at Rieti, who had also joined the group of people wondering about the fracas, he took a step away from Sisko and Veli.
”Start the boat, Rieti. We're going to Kuopio right now.”
”But Mr Lieutenant...”, Rieti said, sounding less than enthusiastic about this turn of events.
”Right now, man! I'll pay you well”, Arvo retorted, digging a couple of banknotes out of his his pocket.
Then he turned to Sisko and made an effort to look less angry and more sober.
”I really need to go anyway, I have to be at the barracks tomorrow night. Send the rest of my bags to Lappeenranta by train.”
Sisko just glared at him, and now Veli had managed to finally stand up again.
Right then, Sisko could hear a man' voice shout out in the direction of the yard.
”What the Devil is going on over there?”
It was Salomo Vaara, who somehow had also heard the noise and argument all the way to the inside of the building.
”Great”, Arvo said, ”I am not having a conversation with him again tonight. Goodbye, Sisko. Veli”, he said and took off towards the pier.
”Are you all right?” Sisko asked Veli, who looked at him with slightly glazed eyes.
”I... I guess I am. Just... Just feeling light-headed.”
No wonder, Sisko thought.
Suddenly, Sisko also heard a child's voice next to him. Turning around, he realized Erkki had joined them.
”Sisko”, the boy of six asked, looking serious, with the toy badger under his arm.
”Erkki! You should be sleeping! What is it?”
”Will Veli have a headache and a sore stomach tomorrow?”
You smart little boy, Sisko thought and held out his hand to hug Erkki.
”Yes, I think he will.”
…
It took a few tries for Rieti to get the boat motor running, but thankfully he managed it before Salomo Vaara could reach the pier himself. Slowly, then, the boat started making distance to the Vaarala pier, floating further into the almost-darkness of the still Lake Kallavesi.
”This is dangerous business”, Rieti told Arvo, ”in my professional opinion, that is. Lake-faring by night. I hope I'm getting hazard pay for this, that's all I'm saying.”
”You'll get your damn money”, Arvo said, looking back at the Vaarala pier where a few people had gathered see the boat gather distance. It even looked like one of them would have been waving at him.
”The things we do for money”, Rieti mused, trying to acclimatize to the shifting near-darkness of the lake in front of them, illuminated only by the moon and the stars above.
Arvo turned his eyes to him, sharply.
”...Say what, old man?”
”Leave the comfort of the home shore and blindly take off towards the unknown, for a measly few markkas” he said, and looked straight at the young soldier.
Instead of the usual smile, this time his face looked mournful. He looked, in fact, older than his years, and the look on his wrinkled face made the young soldier feel icy fingers run along his spine.
Right then in that moment, words failed Arvo Vaara.
Later, during the war, Arvo sometimes looked back on that August night and wondered how things might have turned out if it had all happened differently. If his deal with his father had not gone down like it did. If he had parted from his siblings under happier stars.
If he had stayed and told everyone the truth.
After some time, the day and the night of his father's 50th birthday started to feel like something of a pivot in his life to Arvo Vaara, something around which many important things revolved.
But then after the fact, you can't change such things. The decisions you make, the events that transpire... They become crystallized, the more immutable the more days go by.
Eventually, they turn into history.
...
2009
The young woman walked through the big, abandoned house. There were piles of books and papers everywhere, on the floor and on the furniture. Everything was covered with a thick layer of dust. It had been a long time since anyone had been here. Some months since, the house's last occupant had left, old and tired, been taken to a hospital to never return back home.
Alone in the gloom, the young woman looked around, to see what was left behind by the house's last owner who had lived like a hermit here for many years. She leaned into the big desk and opened up the heavy drapes covering the window, sending dust flying into the air.
On the desk was an old black-and-white photo in wooden frames. The woman wiped some dust from it, to see two young men and a young woman, standing together, smiling a little hesitantly to the camera. One of the men was in an old-fashioned military uniform, like something from out of the 19th century, and the woman had a white cap on her head. Two of the people had been marked with little crosses, like people used to do, to denote those who had passed away.
As if we all wouldn't die at some point anyway, the woman thought.
Behind the frame only a few words were written.
'S.V. 50, Vaarala, elokuu 1939.'
The young woman had no idea who the people in the picture were, and what the text on the frame meant.
But she intended to find out. That was why she was here.
Stil holding on to the picture frame, she walked out to her car, sat down in the driver's seat, lit up a cigarette and turned on the radio.
What she got was some passable mainstream rock, from a local commercial station.
Finnish rock, she realized when she identified the band.
Despite herself, the woman smiled.
...
Notes:
[1] The Finnish term is emäntä. It is difficult to directly translate it into English.
[2] One of the biggest student nations in the University of Helsinki, the Savolainen Osakunta was founded in 1905 when it split off from the older Savo-Karjalainen Osakunta (Savonian-Karelian Nation).
[3] Kaepootko sinä viellä Hirvilahtee siellä isolla kirkolla assuissas, kaekkiin niitten immeisten kanssa?
To Be Continued
Sisko Vaara was enjoying herself. Not only did she have the chance to see many people in Hirvilahti she had not seen in ages, she also got to dance with several local young men and catch up with her younger siblings. Jorma, 17, and Hilja, 18, were the two Vaara children that tended to be overshadowed these days by both the older triplets and little Erkki.
Hilja was growing into the very image of her mother Alma, and not just in looks. She was by now very good in the various duties women on the farm needed to master, a competent assistant to her mother, and not just a mindless follower, either. One of these days, Sisko thought, Hilja will make a very good mistress of a farm.[1]
Jorma, on the other hand, was like a shadow to Veli these days, working with his older brother and developing into a good farmer himself. And into an accomplished athlete as well. He was also a fair bit livelier than his brother, something of a joker, and Sisko thought that he was a good influence on his twin brother right now. Veli had always been a little too solemn and introverted for his own good, despite his social abilities he often appeared to cast himself into the role of a brooding loner.
Connecting with other people was important, in Sisko's view. During her first years in the University of Helsinki, she had come to the conclusion that as a female student, she had to work a lot harder than the young men to have her abilities recognized. And then there was the point of being accepted socially – if you only concentrated on academic excellence, you'd soon be labelled a bore, a stick in the mud. So – Sisko made sure to take part in the extracurricular activities as well. She had chosen the Savonian Nation [2] as the main arena of her student activities, and by now she was a nation officer for the second year in a row. The nation events took a lot of her time, but she believed that she was also making good connections there for her future.
”Do you still miss Hirvilahti”, Vilho Ollikainen asked her, ”living in the big city with all those people?”[3]
Sisko had just been dancing with Esteri's brother, a surprisingly tall young man with the same straw-coloured hair as the rest of the young Ollikainens. Vilho had gained even some more height since when she had last seen him.
Sisko smiled to him.
”Of course I do! I have not grown out of being a Hirvilahti girl yet, Vilho. They say that you can take a girl out of Savonia, but you can't take Savonia out of a girl, after all.”
And so say my Helsinkian friends at the university as well, she thought, remembering how much sneering comments she got about her Savonian dialect especially during her first year before she started to dial it down. She found it amazing how people in the capital liked to equate people with provincial dialects with simpletons, just like that.
In the darkening night, the dance was starting to wound down. People were drifting off, again in ones, twos and small knots, most more or less sober but some also obviously drunk. Salomo Vaara had asked the village school's teacher to come help with keeping order. Now he was ”escorting” out some of the young men who had partaken too heavily in the moonshine. The man was an ardent nationalist and also, not exactly incidentally, a Civil Guards drill instructor. He appeared to have the situation under control.
Right then, Sisko could hear a commotion outside. Surprised, he exited the building.
After arriving to the yard, Sisko located the noise to a place a bit outside the immediate vicinity of the house. Apparently, two men were having some words with each other. Walking closer, with a few others in tow, Sisko finally could see who it was.
Arvo and Veli.
They had been shouting at each other for a while, both appearing enraged for some reason, and both also drunk. By the look of it, Veli was even more unsteady than his brother, and he slurred his words somewhat.
”...Better bugger off... off to where you came from 'efore I make you sorry you... you ever came back!”, Veli shouted to his twin brother and swayed towards him. His right hand made a fist.
”You know what, brother?”, Arvo answered, with some sneer in his voice, ”that's just what I will do! I can't wait getting back to goddamn civilization instead of this...”
”What are you doing? Stop it!”, Sisko shouted to his brothers with sudden force. Arvo turned towards her, but Veli did not appear to hear her voice. Instead, he stepped closer to his brother and swung his right fist at him, putting some force into it. With Sisko taking his attention, Arvo only barely managed to dodge Veli's drunken haymaker.
”So that's how it is, Veli?”, he asked and raised his fists as well.
He stepped closer but, instead of trying to hit him, gave Veli a sudden, good shove, causing the more drunken brother to stumble back and then fall backwards to the grass, apparently more surprised than hurt.
”No!”, Sisko shouted again and took a few running steps, placing herself bodily between her brothers and only now capturing Veli's attention as well.
”Step aside... Sisko”, Veli said with some effort, looking enraged, trying to stand up. Sisko looked at him with blazing eyes.
”No, you're gonna stop this! And that goes for you too, Arvo!”, she said, pointing a finger towards the man in a military uniform.
Arvo seemed to weigh the turn of the events in his mind, and then he apparently made a decision. Looking at Rieti, who had also joined the group of people wondering about the fracas, he took a step away from Sisko and Veli.
”Start the boat, Rieti. We're going to Kuopio right now.”
”But Mr Lieutenant...”, Rieti said, sounding less than enthusiastic about this turn of events.
”Right now, man! I'll pay you well”, Arvo retorted, digging a couple of banknotes out of his his pocket.
Then he turned to Sisko and made an effort to look less angry and more sober.
”I really need to go anyway, I have to be at the barracks tomorrow night. Send the rest of my bags to Lappeenranta by train.”
Sisko just glared at him, and now Veli had managed to finally stand up again.
Right then, Sisko could hear a man' voice shout out in the direction of the yard.
”What the Devil is going on over there?”
It was Salomo Vaara, who somehow had also heard the noise and argument all the way to the inside of the building.
”Great”, Arvo said, ”I am not having a conversation with him again tonight. Goodbye, Sisko. Veli”, he said and took off towards the pier.
”Are you all right?” Sisko asked Veli, who looked at him with slightly glazed eyes.
”I... I guess I am. Just... Just feeling light-headed.”
No wonder, Sisko thought.
Suddenly, Sisko also heard a child's voice next to him. Turning around, he realized Erkki had joined them.
”Sisko”, the boy of six asked, looking serious, with the toy badger under his arm.
”Erkki! You should be sleeping! What is it?”
”Will Veli have a headache and a sore stomach tomorrow?”
You smart little boy, Sisko thought and held out his hand to hug Erkki.
”Yes, I think he will.”
…
It took a few tries for Rieti to get the boat motor running, but thankfully he managed it before Salomo Vaara could reach the pier himself. Slowly, then, the boat started making distance to the Vaarala pier, floating further into the almost-darkness of the still Lake Kallavesi.
”This is dangerous business”, Rieti told Arvo, ”in my professional opinion, that is. Lake-faring by night. I hope I'm getting hazard pay for this, that's all I'm saying.”
”You'll get your damn money”, Arvo said, looking back at the Vaarala pier where a few people had gathered see the boat gather distance. It even looked like one of them would have been waving at him.
”The things we do for money”, Rieti mused, trying to acclimatize to the shifting near-darkness of the lake in front of them, illuminated only by the moon and the stars above.
Arvo turned his eyes to him, sharply.
”...Say what, old man?”
”Leave the comfort of the home shore and blindly take off towards the unknown, for a measly few markkas” he said, and looked straight at the young soldier.
Instead of the usual smile, this time his face looked mournful. He looked, in fact, older than his years, and the look on his wrinkled face made the young soldier feel icy fingers run along his spine.
Right then in that moment, words failed Arvo Vaara.
Later, during the war, Arvo sometimes looked back on that August night and wondered how things might have turned out if it had all happened differently. If his deal with his father had not gone down like it did. If he had parted from his siblings under happier stars.
If he had stayed and told everyone the truth.
After some time, the day and the night of his father's 50th birthday started to feel like something of a pivot in his life to Arvo Vaara, something around which many important things revolved.
But then after the fact, you can't change such things. The decisions you make, the events that transpire... They become crystallized, the more immutable the more days go by.
Eventually, they turn into history.
...
2009
The young woman walked through the big, abandoned house. There were piles of books and papers everywhere, on the floor and on the furniture. Everything was covered with a thick layer of dust. It had been a long time since anyone had been here. Some months since, the house's last occupant had left, old and tired, been taken to a hospital to never return back home.
Alone in the gloom, the young woman looked around, to see what was left behind by the house's last owner who had lived like a hermit here for many years. She leaned into the big desk and opened up the heavy drapes covering the window, sending dust flying into the air.
On the desk was an old black-and-white photo in wooden frames. The woman wiped some dust from it, to see two young men and a young woman, standing together, smiling a little hesitantly to the camera. One of the men was in an old-fashioned military uniform, like something from out of the 19th century, and the woman had a white cap on her head. Two of the people had been marked with little crosses, like people used to do, to denote those who had passed away.
As if we all wouldn't die at some point anyway, the woman thought.
Behind the frame only a few words were written.
'S.V. 50, Vaarala, elokuu 1939.'
The young woman had no idea who the people in the picture were, and what the text on the frame meant.
But she intended to find out. That was why she was here.
Stil holding on to the picture frame, she walked out to her car, sat down in the driver's seat, lit up a cigarette and turned on the radio.
What she got was some passable mainstream rock, from a local commercial station.
Finnish rock, she realized when she identified the band.
Despite herself, the woman smiled.
...
Notes:
[1] The Finnish term is emäntä. It is difficult to directly translate it into English.
[2] One of the biggest student nations in the University of Helsinki, the Savolainen Osakunta was founded in 1905 when it split off from the older Savo-Karjalainen Osakunta (Savonian-Karelian Nation).
[3] Kaepootko sinä viellä Hirvilahtee siellä isolla kirkolla assuissas, kaekkiin niitten immeisten kanssa?
To Be Continued
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This probably isn't going to end well (for the family, at least)...
Waiting for more, @DrakonFin; hope for a history book-style update...
Waiting for more, @DrakonFin; hope for a history book-style update...
That is exactly what the next update will be, though it might take some time before I have the time to complete it.
Things are not looking good for the Vaara family. Not surprised to see the two brothers fight one bit, either.
Eight: The Last Summer in Kultaranta
Eight: The Last Summer in Kultaranta
In just one night
The forest behind the lake
Flashed into yellow fire
Now the evening star's fiery sword
Cuts and slashes the dark waters
My heart shudders
And reaches out for a summer
One never to return
Mika Waltari: Tuuli pohjoinen – Runoja (”A Northern Wind – Poems”), 1965.
That President Kallio had health problems was not news to the Finnish people. The president had suffered a stroke in January 1939, and only in early July had the president's office given out a statement that Kallio had not yet fully recovered from the ordeal. All through the summer, Kallio's health was closely monitored by his private physician. The president had spent much of the summer convalescing in Mänttä, and had only in late July decided to travel to to the official summer residence in Naantali. In retrospect, it appears this was too early. In his memoirs Kalle Westerlund, the president's head chauffeur, recounts how one day he had to bodily carry the old man from the sauna back to the main Kultaranta villa as Kallio's strength had failed him in the heat.
A local doctor in Naantali had been reached to attend the president after his collapse on the town pier. The president was alive but unconscious. There was a nasty cut on his head. It was decided that calling an ambulance would take too much time. Thus, it was again the trusty Westerlund who was called upon to help Kallio. In the presence of the worried-looking young doctor and with the help of two plain-clothed State Police officers present, the bear-like former Olympic medalist [1] lifted the president into the back seat of the 1938 Buick Special 8 and then took him post-haste into the Provincial Hospital in nearby Turku where better care could be organized.
The news about the president's accident were broadcast to the Finnish people on the Yleisradio on August 3rd, and the story made it into the evening editions of the capital papers as well. The reaction was a subdued-kind of a shock: nobody really was surprised about what had happened, but what with other recent negative news items, Kallio's stroke had a sobering effect on a nation on its summer holidays.
Upon the incapacitation of the President of the Republic, his duties fell on the shoulders of the Prime Minister. This was nothing new for Cajander who in practice had had to handle a lot of the president's duties and official appearances during the first half of the year. What the Prime Minister now lost, however, was even the possibility of getting the president's opinion and counsel on things where they would have been needed.
By the third day of Kallio's continued incapacitation he was moved to the Helsinki University Hospital, flown from Turku to Helsinki on AERO Oy's Junkers Ju 52 passenger aircraft chartered for the occasion. As the AERO pilot Väinö Bremer landed the plane at Helsinki's new Malmi airport, opened only the previous year, several thousand concerned Helsinkians had come to see the still unconscious president and his serious but determined wife return to the Finnish capital. Kaisa Kallio was visibly moved by the spontaneous display of loyalty to his husband.
On the day before the Finnish president returned to the capital, never to spend another summer in the Kultaranta villa again, the Finnish Foreign Minister Eljas Erkko was approached by the Soviet diplomat Pavel Orlov, then working for the Scandinavian Section of the Soviet Foreign Ministry, concerning ”matters of mutual interest”. When Erkko then received Orlov, he learned that what the Soviets wanted was a rekindling of the discussions about territorial reorganization between Finland and the USSR – or that was at least how the Soviet side would phrase it. In the discussions that followed, Orlov would rehash the spring's suggestions about Finland giving Russia areas on the Karelian Isthmus, as well as several islands on the Gulf of Finland. The ideas about joint fortification of the Åland Islands, as well as leasing the USSR a part of the Hanko Peninsula for military use were floated again. On the same day as Orlov first met Erkko, on August 5th, J.K. Paasikivi, the Finnish ambassador in Stockholm, met Alexandra Kollontai, his Soviet counterpart, at a diplomatic reception in the Swedish capital. Kollontai hinted to Paasikivi that Finland should take Orlov's message seriously – it was, according to her, drawn up at the highest level of Soviet officialdom, and Orlov thus should be seen as a messenger directly from the Kremlin.
Historians tend to disagree as to how much Kallio's incapacitation and its fallout in the Finnish political system had an effect on hastening the Soviets reaching out to Helsinki with their demands this time. The Swedish historian Per Nyström, an authority on the Finnish Social Democratic politicians of the Second World War period, argues in his article about Väinö Tanner's work in the Finnish wartime cabinets [2] that Kallio's condition most likely did not have an effect on the Soviet timing at all, but then on the other hand in the recent Finnish historiography it has been suggested that Stalin considered Kallio's combined stroke and accident as a suitable opening to again put the squeeze on Helsinki. This suggestion often includes the corollary that, as the Molotov-Ribbentrop Agreement between the USSR and Hitler's Germany was being finalized at the same time, it is possible that Moscow saw these Finnish developments as an opening where concessions by Finland could be made into a fait accompli by the time the agreement would be ultimately signed, giving the USSR a head start into taking control of its Baltic sphere of influence.[3]
What ever the truth about the matter is (and only the possibility to delve liberally into Soviet archives would give us the chance to say something definitive about it), it has to be noted that the issue is quite minor in comparison to other developments in August 1939. Generally speaking, the Finnish president's unfortunate condition and the newfound Soviet interest into Finnish territory had an immediate effect on the Finnish cabinet and the national military leadership. What extant information we have about the cabinet and Defence Council meetings over the following weekend allows us to understand that the Finnish leaders saw Kallio's condition and the new Soviet proposal as a significant weakening of Finland's foreign political position in European conditions where such a development was more unwanted than on ordinary days. C.G. Mannerheim had been recently embroiled in discussions with the politicians over funding the military, having suggested acquiring a sizable loan from the United States to buy the Finnish Army new, modern equipment as soon as possible, and he felt that any weakening of the Finnish position towards the USSR would make it more unlikely that such a loan could be organized.
Most topically, what the changed situation reflected into were the major Finnish war games just starting in the Viipuri area in southern Karelia in the following days. Similar military exercises on the Karelian Isthmus were by 1939 a tradition that had been upheld through the interwar years. The Isthmus was seen as the most likely location for a major attack against Finland from the east, and thus defence of the area was a main feature of Finnish pre-WWII strategic planning. In the summer of 1939, the increasingly volatile situation in Europe had prompted the Finns also to increase fortification efforts on the Isthmus; in a significant show of patriotism, many bunkers and trenches had been build over the summer months even by young, unpaid volunteers from different parts of the country.
In the August 1939 exercise, due to involve over 20 000 men from different infantry, artillery and cavalry units, as well as from the air force and the navy, the scenario included an incursion by a ”yellow” invading force attacking from the southeast, pushing back the ”white” defender's screening forces to the eastern side of Viipuri before being stopped there. After the concentration of the main ”white” forces to the northwest of Viipuri would be completed, a general ”white” counterattack to push back the ”yellow” forces would then follow. The ”white” forces would be led by Major General Hanell and the ”yellow” forces by Lieutenant General Laatikainen. The corps commander, Lieutenant General Öhquist, would act as a referee, a role for which the meticulous, pedantic officer was well-suited. The exercise would then be wrapped up by a major military parade in Viipuri.
These war games, that were due to become the biggest of their kind in 1930s Finland, would be a show of force and independent defensive capability by the Finnish military, and they would be attended by several significant foreign guests. This included the Swedish Defence Minister Per Sköld, the Danish military's C-in-C, General William Prior, the Swedish generals Erik Testrup and Ernst Linder [4], as well as a number of foreign defence attachés. From the Finnish side, Field Marshal Mannerheim was due to attend the exercise in its entirety, as would the minister of defence, Niukkanen, and the minister of the interior, Kekkonen, along with with the commander of the Civil Guards, General Malmberg. General Walden, Mannerheim's right-hand man in the Defence Council would be there, and a number of Finnish members of parliament as well.
Now, to boost the message this display of Finnish will and ability for defence, and of national unity, a number of last-minute changes to the war games were agreed upon. On the political side, Prime Minister Cajander, now de facto Acting President, would also join the exercise for the whole duration, in the company of Mannerheim, Niukkanen and Kekkonen, instead of attending only the closing ceremonies and official reception in Viipuri. On the military side, also the scope of the exercise was inflated: more troops were ordered into readiness across the nation, a part of the Coastal Fleet was ordered to sail to Viipuri to show the flag [5], and, finally, a number of new live-fire exercises was set up for the infantry and the artillery, as well as two more exercises involving the Air Force's new Blenheim bombers. As a result of these last minute changes agreed upon by the military leadership and put into motion just a couple of days before the main part of the war games was due to start [6], several Finnish military garrisons and the immediate Viipuri area would be at the end of the first week of August veritable ant hills of frantic activity.
All in all, the Finnish leadership's approach to the war games was thus ”striking the iron when it is hot” and capitalizing on an event that had the potential take attention away from Kallio's stroke and the renewed Soviet demands, internally and externally, and also bolster Finland's position in Moscow's and Stockholm's eyes, not to mention those of other foreign powers. There were voices of dissent towards this approach, too. In Stockholm, J.K. Paasikivi disagreed with the decisions that had been made, and in his diary calls the enlargement of the war games ”inconsiderate and rash action, bordering on foolish warmongering”. The future would show whether the experienced diplomat was right in his assessment.
...
Notes:
[1] Karl Mauritz ”Kalle” Westerlund was an accomplished wrestler, and had achieved Olympic bronze in Greco-Roman wrestling in the 1924 Olympic Games in Paris. Westerlund served as the head chauffeur for all the presidents of the Finnish First Republic.
[2] See Nyström's article ”Väinö Tanner: The Last Man Standing” in the Foreign History Quarterly, 2/1987.
[3] One example to mention here is Juuso Kiveliö's recent book on the decisions of the Finnish pre-war governments, Ojasta allikkoon: Cajanderin hallitus ja elokuun kriisi uudessa tarkastelussa. (”Out of the Frying Pan and Into the Fire: A new look into the Cajander cabinet and the August Crisis”).
[4] Linder was well-known in Finland for volunteering to fight on the White side in the Finnish Civil War in 1918 and acting as one of Mannerheim's closest subordinates during the crucial first years of the creation of the independent Finnish military. Incidentally, Linder was also an accomplished Olympic athlete, being the gold medalist in individual dressage with his horse Piccolomino in the 1924 Olympics.
[5] This included both the sail training ship Suomen Joutsen and the armored coastal ship Ilmarinen, which on the morning of August 6th left the Katajanokka military harbor in Helsinki, both determined to beat the other to Viipuri. The diesel-electric Ilmarinen quite expectedly won this impromptu race, but the Suomen Joutsen managed to put up a surprisingly good effort well until outside Kotka when it ran out of favorable winds.
[6] The man ultimately in charge of the practical organization of the war games was Lieutenant General Hugo Österman, the Commander of the Military Forces (Sotaväen päällikkö).
...
To Be Continued
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I don't know which way the Winter War (assuming it still happens) is going to go here...
Good update, @DrakonFin...
Good update, @DrakonFin...
The Finnish First Republic? Uh oh.
Unless, of course, I'm missing something in Finnish historiography.
Unless, of course, I'm missing something in Finnish historiography.
Thanks!
I have a free weekend, and I'll try to find time tomorrow to write a fresh update.
Nine: September 2009
Nine: September 2009
Larry,
By the time you get this, I've already left for Europe. You said what you said, but I don't care. I have to do this, and I have to do this right now. It's about who I am – who I want to be.
I don't expect you to understand.
- Nora
As the airplane descended to below the grey clouds, the young woman could see the city below. A number of modern gleaming high-rises jutting out from among older, uniformly low buildings. The city centre stood on a head of land reaching out to the dark Baltic Sea, its yellows and neons shining now to the right of the plane to add spots of light to the darkening autumn evening.
The plane taxied towards the passenger terminal of the international airport and the passengers started preparing to embark, turning on their mobile phones, those most afraid of flying starting to slowly feel a relief washing over them, having made it through another journey up in the air. Next to the modern American passenger jet, the old terminal building looked like a 1970s vision of future in the eyes of the young woman – blocky grey concrete structures painted with cubistic bright orange decorations and numbers in a retrofuturistic lettering style. When it was built, it must have looked like the space age come real. Now it just looked anachronistic, with the crumbling concrete and the peeling paint.
HELSINKI-SEUTULA, the big orange text on the wall of the terminal proclaimed to the woman clutching her mauve carry-on bag and walking across the wet tarmac while drops of cold water landed on her dark hair. Behind the old terminal, she could see a new, bigger one being built.
The woman waited to reclaim her meagre luggage at the Arrivals hall, still shivering due to the cold outside. She wasn't used to it, and now it had kind of stuck on her.
Is this how it feels like to be Finnish?, the woman thought to herself.
HELSINKI - THE NEW HUB IN THE NORTH, said a poster on the wall showing a Boeing 450 passenger jet in the jagged blue-white Finn-Aero livery soaring up to a sky colored by the northern lights while a group of three reindeer looked at it go. YOUR CONNECTION TO THE FAR EAST.
Navigating through a throng of Japanese businessmen and past an American tourist family arguing over a spread-out map of the Finnish capital area, the woman made her way to the exit.
”Hotel Barrière please”, she said to the taxi driver, a balding man with a bushy mustache, who only grunted in the affirmative and steered his mud-splattered early 90s model Peugeot Marechal towards the southbound traffic artery taking it to the city centre.
The driver snapped on the car radio, and then hummed along the slow, melancholy piece of music playing on it, while the young dark-haired woman looked out to the darkening autumn evening, the lights hanging over the streets swinging in the wind, the headlights of the buses, taxis and trucks piercing the cold rain.
The woman raised her head, stared out to the rain and looked at the driver through the mirror.
”What's this song about?”, she asked.
”Sorry?”
”The song”, the woman asked, nodding towards the radio, ”what is it.. about?”
The driver thought about it for a while. Then he looked at her through the rear view mirror and smiled.
”Life.”
"...Right."
The woman dug a number of crumbled papers from her pocket, straightened them out on her lap.
SUOMEN KANSALLINEN ARKISTOJÄRJESTELMÄ [1], the one on top said.
”The wartime documents are stored predominately in the Archival System's Leppävaara Unit. This includes the materials recorded by both the civilian and military authorities beginning from September 1939 and ending at...”
The woman used a pencil to underline relevant parts.
”...To reserve a research station at the Leppävaara Unit, complete a VL101 reservation form at the Archival System Main Office...Documents must be ordered by noon at the latest for them to be delivered to the pre-reserved research station during the same day...The documents are organized into several categories determining availability and required..."
”You in Finland... on business?”
What's it to you, cabbie?, the woman thought, irritated to be distracted from her work, but then answered him all the same.
”No, I am here to... To find my roots.”
The man looked at her without understanding for a while. But then he smiled again.
”Your family... Finnish? Finnish people... Vahvoja.”
The woman shook her head, not understanding the word.
The man raised his right hand and made a fist.
”What is word … Strong.”
Right then, the car was suddenly filled with flashing lights and the sound of sirens. Two large emergency vehicles in black and blue arrived from nowhere, overtaking the taxi and passing at speed. They came very close to hitting it.
”Saatanan kytät![2]”, the driver yelled, and the taxi suddenly swerved to the right.
The woman tried to hold on to her seat as the car careened off the road, then came to a violent stop.
Everything went quiet.
After a short while, the woman opened her eyes and fumbled to open her seat belt. With some effort, she got the door open and clambered out of the car.
It was silent by the side of the road. The traffic had died down, and even the rain had ended.
The dark-haired woman knocked on the driver's window, to see the cabbie nodding at her. Together, the two opened the door, and the woman helped the driver out of the car.
The heavy-set man looked shaken and there was a bloody bruise on his forehead. He looked at the woman and winced. Then a sheepish smile spread onto this face and he gently patted her arm.
”What did I say? Strong.”
The 'TAKSI' light on the roof of the cab flickered to life for a moment, and then went dark. The man sighed.
”What now?”, the woman asked.
The man looked at the damaged car and shrugged.
”We find phone, I call... tow truck. This is Finland – nothing works but everything can be arranged.”
The man lit up a cigarette and offered one to the woman as well.
The first drag she took felt, somehow, better than it had in ages.
Together, the young woman and the middle-aged man started walking towards the south.
...
I'll travel so far that I'll forget your smile
When the uninvited guests arrived again
And when that was only true
Which is not said aloud
...
Notes:
[1] THE FINNISH NATIONAL ARCHIVAL SYSTEM
[2] Fucking cops!
To Be Continued
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The plane landing in Helsinki reminded me of my own trip to Finland a few years ago.
So it seems that Finnish-Japanese relations are even stronger iTTL, or just as strong, at least.
So it seems that Finnish-Japanese relations are even stronger iTTL, or just as strong, at least.
Ten: Veli, Sisko and Arvo
Ten: Veli, Sisko and Arvo
Veli
The August day had started out a little overcast, but by ten in the morning the sun was again shining brightly from between the slowly parting clouds.
It was as good a time as any for mending fences, Veli Vaara thought. Sure, his mouth was dry and tasted like something had crawled in and died in it, his head felt like if a horse had kicked it. Even standing still, the young man felt wobbly as waves of nausea washed over him.
But then, the work at hand took him away from the farm and out of the sight of his parents. In other words, today it was a definite improvement over staying at the farmhouse.
Jussi, one of Vaarala's farmhands, pulled the reins and stopped the van drawn by Rusko the horse. He looked at Veli with a measure of compassion.
”Hang in there”, he said, climbing down from the driver's perch.
”I've found it good myself to drink a lot of water, and keep myself occupied. When you can't go with the hair of the dog that bit you that is. Working helps for most things. Having something to do, and keeping your mind off it, that's the ticket.”
Veli looked at the older man and nodded feebly.
”If you say so.”
”I do. It's not my first time taking the vicar to the vicarage, as it were, when it comes to spirits. Now, be a good man and help me with the fence poles.”
Veli nodded and took a couple of unsteady steps towards the van. He felt that even Rusko looked at him compassionately.
Horses are wise beasts that way.
Veli's father had woken him up early and given him a stern scolding, like to a school boy. He didn't raise his voice. That usually wasn't his style. Salomo Vaara could hurt you with the choice of words, he didn't need to intimidate his children with being loud.
This time, the old man had seen that Veli was feeling highly resentful as it was, and thus he cut his talking-to short this time.
”You embarrassed yourself. You embarrassed me in the eyes of a few very important people. It was stupid, it was unbecoming of you as my son and as a member of this household. What with your brother deciding to continue playing soldier, though”, Salomo Vaara said, ”it looks like I am stuck with you...”
He removed his round classes and put them on his oaken desk.
”...And because of that, I am not having you turn into a bloody drunkard. That is the kind of thing that can ruin even bigger houses than ours. I am keeping my eye on you, boy - keep your hands off hard liquer from now on. I am being dead serious. Don't disappoint me again, Veli.”
Salomo Vaara was due to leave on one of his bank-inspecting tours on the eastern side of Kuopio just that day, and Veli wondered if he had already taken off while he and Jussi had been going over the fences by the far meadow. After Father gone, he would only have Mother to deal with. And with her, it was more likely the silent treatment than poisonous words. That still hurt, but it was not as bad.
”Cheer up, Veli”, Jussi said, sizing up the new fence poles in comparison to the the state of the old, decaying fence that looked ready to crumble any time, ”we all need to make our mistakes some time. All men make them. It is what we learn of them that proves a man's measure.”
….
Sisko
”I hope you could stay for a few days more”, Alma told her daughter who was packing up her things.
Sisko looked at her mother and smiled.
”Me too, Mother. But my professor wants me back in Helsinki, like all the other students. The new study year starts early this time, I need to be there in time...”
That wasn't strictly true. What Sisko wasn't telling her mother was that her early departure was more to do with Savonian Nation events than actual study issues. But then she thought that it was all equally important for her future, sor it was really just a white lie to the older woman who did not understand studying at the University of Helsinki like her daughter did.
”I'm taking Arvo's remaining luggage to town with me, too, to send them to Lappeenranta on the evening train...”
Alma and Salomo Vaara had had some words about the events of the previous night, Sisko knew, before the bank inspector again took off in a boat, wearing his three-piece suit and clutching a fat attache case. Alma Vaara was still upset about it all. She was more quiet than usual, and Sisko felt sorry for her. The birthday party had gone off without a hitch. It should have been a feather in the cap for the mistress of the household. But now, after the drunken brawl of the twins in the night, Salomo Vaara had unloaded some of his anger and resentment on his wife before again leaving her to hold down the fort.
”I am sure Father did not really mean some of the things he said to you... He was just angry and told you things he is regretting right now...”, Sisko said to her mother quietly.
Alma Vaara looked at her daughter and university student mournfully.
”Oh, Sisko, dear girl...”, she said, lowering her head, ”your father always means what he says. For better or for worse. He is an uncomplicated man that way. It is better if you learn, truly take that to heart at this point. It'll make it easier to understand him in the future.”
Sisko felt an anger rising inside her.
”You should stand up to him more, Mother”, she said, her eyes flashing.
”He can't keep treating you the way he does.”
Her mother just looked at her in silence and then left the room.
…
Arvo
When Arvo Vaara woke up, he saw a man in a uniform smiling at him with an annoying look on his face.
”Good morning, lieutenant! Your train is waiting for you”, the State Railways porter told him cheerfully, standing up to attention and making an exaggarated salute in the Prussian fashion.
”...Right”, the man on the wooden bench said, confused and irritated, and feeling slightly nauseous, and stood up. He tried to smooth his crumbled uniform and gathered what belongings he had.
The express train with its wheezing steam locomotive stood on the nearby track. Even from the outside, Lieutenant Arvo Vaara could see that it was packed to the gills, even if it had more carriages than the morning train would usually have.
Arvo's back was stiff from sleeping on the bench. When he got as far as central Kuopio, it had been the wee hours of the morning and he had decided that getting a room at the railway station's hotel would have been too late anyway. So, he had made his way to the train platform and sat down on the bench for the few remaining hours.
At some point he had fallen asleep.
The events of the previous night went through Arvo's mind as he climbed the steps to the train and started looking at a free seat. It wasn't easy. Arvo felt bad now for how he had treated his brother. Later, he would need to apologize to Veli. But then it would have to be in person, and there would be some time before that would be possible. Maybe he could write a letter?
The cavalry officer stumbled through a couple of third class carriages of mostly civilian travellers, men, women and children with their luggage in various forms, waiting for the train leave Kuopio for the south. In one of the carriages, the people were singing a popular song to pass the time. It cheered Arvo some, too, to look at a trio of young girls passionately and earnestly singing along with an older man who he thought was probably their father or uncle.
The third carriage Arvo entered, without yet finding a seat, was full of men in uniform – men in military grey on simple wooden benches, with their personal gear, chatting and smoking. Most were ordinary servicemen and non-commissioned officers, and there was an audible pause in the sounds of the carriage when he stepped in.
”Full house”, a man on his left said triumphantly. It was an artillery sergeant with a meaty face.
”Oh, fuck you Karvonen”, the man next to him retorted.
”You've the luck of the devil today. You'll have us all skinned before Pieksämäki at this rate!”
Arvo Vaara looked at the four men playing cards, using a fat suitcase as a makeshift table, and saw that there was a free seat next to them.
Keep moving, a voice at the back of his head told him. It's a bad idea.
Arvo Vaara felt his pocket with his right hand, to feel the bank notes there. He could sense the familiar heat inside animating him.
He silenced the objecting voice.
”Say fellows”, he said to the four soldiers, ”is this seat taken? I'd be happy if I can join the game".
The artillery sergeant turned towards him, and seeing his uniform and rank tabs, looked sceptical.
”I don't know, lieutenant, it's sort of a private game”, he retorted, glancing at the three others as he said so.
Lieutenant Arvo Vaara of the Häme Mounted Regiment pulled up a handful of notes from his pocket and smiled.
”Don't worry, I'm good for it.”
The artillery sergeant's previously sour face turned into a greasy smile.
”Well, that changes things. Go on, sit down, lieutenant. Welcome to the casino.”
….
September 2009
The young woman stumbled out of the taxi and looked at the gleaming high-rise shape of the hotel in front of her. The huge neon sign of the Barrière Group dominated the view. It was a casino hotel owned by the well-known French company. The woman was not the gambling type, not really. She had been to Vegas only once, and she had not really warmed up to it. The main reason she had decided to book a room at the Barrière Helsinki was that the hotel was so conveniently located for her plans. It stood in the part of town the locals called Pasila, a district dominated by new skyscrapers, and right next to it was the massive old concrete box that was the Helsinki Main Railway Station, the terminus of the Finnish railway system. From here, the woman had planned, she could comfortably take a local or regional train to most parts of the capital area.
The woman thanked the second Finnish cab driver of the day, a younger man with a goatee, who let her off without paying anything as a sort of a compensation for her ending up in an accident with the previous driver, and gathered her luggage. The taxi took off, with the driver turning up the radio to start blasting a piece of new Finnish music with a slightly Slavic feel to it. As soon as the taxi had left, the woman heard the voice of two more emergency vehicles passing at some distance.
Night life in the big city, she thought with a slight smile.
It was quiet in the opulent foyer of the hotel. The woman walked to the desk to come to face to face with a tall blonde woman in a tight dark blue uniform.
”Welcome to Hotel Barrière Helsinki! How can I help you?”
The woman told her name and showed her passport to prove her reservation and get her room. While the clerk was filling some paperwork, a man in a similar but more handsome uniform emerged from the room in the back. He had a metal key symbol on his breast pocket.
This must be the...What is it now? The conscierge?, the woman thought.
”Welcome to Hotel Barrière!”, the man with a slicked back hair said, viewed the screen and read off her name for effect.
”My name is Viljanen and I am here to help you anyway I can. We have a very nice bar and restaurant at the hotel, and there is of course our world-famous casino hall with various tables and slot machines. A helpful hint for you, Miss, if you don't mind, given that you are apparently new to Helsinki: there has been some disturbances in the city centre today, so I would not advice leaving the hotel tonight. The authorities are addressing the matter right now.”
The woman was perplexed.
”Disturbances?”
The man frowned.
”There was a VKP rally in Hakaniemi tonight that turned into something of a riot. Nothing too out of the ordinary these days, but there's still a bit of chaos in the eastern city centre. So – I'd say it is better to stay in the hotel tonight, if at all possible. There's some live music in the bar, and if you want to try your hand in gambling, let me remind you that as a valued guest in a Premium Suite you are eligible to free comp chips to the casino. Would you like to take your chips along now?”, the man said and plastered a stock smile onto his face.
”No thank you”, the woman answered, ”I'll be going to my room as soon as possible, thank you very much. I'm hella tired right now.”
”Very well, Miss. Would you like some help with your luggage?”
The dark-haired woman looked at her small mauve bag and then turned her eyes back towards Viljanen.
”No thank you, I'll manage.”
”As you wish."
The woman wasn't really accustomed to living in expensive hotels. In fact she wasn't really accustomed to being rich either. But then she had to get used to it now, she guessed.
The money ain't gonna spend itself, Aunt Donna would have argued.
She took the elevator to the fifteenth floor and then, reaching her room, flopped down on the bed.
She looked out of the window, seeing central Helsinki, the capital of the Finnish Republic, spreading out below her.
Once here, though, she suddenly didn't feel as tired as she did the moment before. Suddenly, now, she felt like a drink was more what she needed right now. And not one from a minibar, but one served by an actual bartender.
After retouching her makeup a bit and having a slight change of clothes, she exited the room. Even on a quiet night like this, she fully expected someone to come and try to pick her up, sitting alone in the bar. Right now, though, she decided that unless it was some total jerk, she would not even mind it. What with the flight and what with the accident in a foreign country, she was feeling kind of funny, kind of unreal right now.
The woman reached the foyer and took off across it towards the bar, hearing someone playing an acoustic guitar, when the blonde from the desk called at her.
”Miss – there's someone here for you”, she said, looking somewhat concerned, and pointed a finger to her right.
What the hell?
Needing to slow down her stride towards the sound of the guitar, she looked into the direction indicated and immediately noticed a man in a suit and a dark overcoat standing there. He was in his thirties, with buzz-cut hair and a sort of military countenance. As she stopped, the man took a few steps towards her and nodded.
”Miss Nora Farrah?”, he asked in accented English.
The woman nodded, not knowing what to expect.
”Yes.”
”Thank God I caught you”, the man said and put his right hand into his suit's breast pocket.
….
In transport. Young Civil Guardsmen and members of the Lotta Svärd in a Finnish State Railways carriage. Source: Finna.
To Be Continued.
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