Hello, comrades! My name is Sergei. I was born in the USSR in 1971. Since 1999 I have lived in the USA. Ushanka Show channel was created to share stories as well as my own memories of everyday life in the USSR. My book about arriving in America in 1995 is available on Amazon: www.amazon.com/s?k=american+diaries+1995&ref=nb_sb_noss Please contact me at sergeisputnikoff@gmail.com if you would like to purchase a signed copy of “American Diaries” You can support this project here: www.patreon.com/sputnikoff with monthly donations Support for this channel via PAYPAL: paypal.me/ushankashow Ushanka Show merchandise: teespring.com/stores/ushanka-show-shop If you are curious to try some of the Soviet-era candy and other foodstuffs, please use the link below. www.russiantable.com/imported-russian-chocolate-mishka-kosolapy__146-14.html?tracking=5a6933a9095f9 My FB: facebook.com/sergey.sputnikoff Twitter: twitter.com/ushankashow Instagram: instagram.com/ushanka_show/ Reddit: www.reddit.com/r/The_Ushanka_Show/
I never seen the finnish people in my soviet childhood but I adored and appreciated all the finnish goods that we could find in our shops: shoes and boots, jackets, raincoats, sportsuits, dresses. My big and very tall father he always had the perfect words for everything finnish " Welldone finns! Only them are able to make good shoes and right size!" I had a beautiful white dress for my school graduation, made in Finland. I remember a green plastic bottle of hair shampoo " Kastehelmi" still remember its smell..
I came across a Soviet fashion model during 70-ies in Leningrad and even today I wonder why she bought my platform shoes size 37 while her size was around 40 I would assume judging by her height.
My friend's grandfather used to run a shoe business in the 80s. All of their products would be sold to the Soviet Union, because their quality was not competitive on the Western markets. The company went bankrupt when the USSR collapsed. It's funny to hear that the Finnish shoes had a good reputation.
The difference is that Leningrad was more of a niche destination and it wasn't really mass tourism. Even today St. Petersburg isn't very popular destination for Finns because of all the bureaucracy involved. Tallinn is much easier and more convenient even though there's a sea in between... Also, importing alcohol is pretty much impossible from Russia. Unless you smugle it. And that's just dumb.
Finns visiting Leningrad for cheap alcohol reminds me of a story from Britain: Wales used to have a "dry Sunday" policy (no alcohol sales on a Sunday), so ferries from Liverpool (in England, but close to Wales) would come over to Wales, pick up passengers, sail them to Liverpool and back again...not because they wanted to go to Liverpool, but because they could drink on the ferry! I think one of Ringo Starr's jobs before he was in The Beatles was as a steward on such a ferry.
From Finland myself, and this was an intressting video for sure. Much of this I didn´t know so a very nice topic. Thx for all the videos that you do man. And keep making them :)
I went to Leningrad four times in the 80's. Local people came quietly (especially restaurant staff) to you asking to change money. Especially for US dollars. Then I remember those Beryozka shops soviets didn't have access to. We bought especially champagne Sovetskoye Igristoye or krasnoye and caviar, Ikra and of course vodka Stolichnaya, . And then had a nice hotel room party. Leningrad was awfully dark during night time, hardly any lights (at least working or whatever reason) . I miss those trips, golden memories and Soviet nostalgy. Surely Russians are better off now than then, it is a great country and well worth of visit. I really enjoy to watch this Ushanka show because it is down to earth instead of pushing ideologies through.
Finland´s clothing industry instantly went into a deep crisis when Soviet Union ended, it was so geared towards selling to the SU and was completely unprepaired when it happened.
I went to leningrad on a school trip from the UK in about 1984. It was like stepping into a black and white world. But I am from Finland originally, and was able to help the Lady who sat at a desk at the end of the hotel floor (can't remember the name) buy clothes from my fellow students (she spoke a little Finnish). I returned home with hardly anything. I remember body warmers (jackets without sleeves) were very popular at the time. And remember hoping my jacket helped keep a Russian youngster warm. I also remember bribing the band in the hotel to let a few of us play their instruments on stage, Wild thing Jimi hendrix style i remember....
Greetings from Finland! Thanks for the interesting video! I think the Soviet nickname for Finns might be a version of a Finnish term "puukkojunkkari". A pretty close English translation would be "a troublemaker". It's an old-fashioned Finnish term and means a person who behaves poorly, is constantly disturbing peace, causing fights in public places, gambling, stealing etc. I too young to have many personal experiences about Soviet Union, but one of my earliest memories is watching TV with my parents and I remember how they were very serious when the News host announced that USSR had collapsed. I was 7-8 years old that time. It's really enlightening to hear about how highly sought after Finnish goods were in the USSR - trading with the USSR must have affected our economy in a very positive way, as trading with Russia does to this day of course. I visited Russian Karelia in the early 1990s and travelling across the border was like travelling back in time 50 years. In Finland roads and buildings were all well-maintained, in Russian Karelia everything was in shambles. All the houses in villages were very old and poorly maintained. You could see unfinished large ugly apartment buildings everywhere. We visited Petrozavodsk, a small city, and all the buildings there were also looking old and ugly. I stayed a couple of nights at an old farm house where an old couple lived. They were nice and they immediately they offered me a vodka shot even though I was just 10-11 years old. My mother politely refused the offer. Later on I've understood they were offering us the best they had - they were very poor, living mainly off of what their small garden could provide.
This brings me back to the "Memory lane" I was a Construction worker for Finnish Companys in the Soviet Union during 83-90 (4 years and 3 months all together.) I think we had a very different wiew of the Soviet life ,than a normal tourist.
@@UshankaShow Drinking tourists can be found anywhere where alkohol is relativily cheap. But when you add the whole "Jeans to Vodka" equation to a situation when you have something that you can not bring home., and you have just hours to deal with it, well "Boys will be Boys" ?
I bet Finns were ruthless during the war, they were fighting for their very existence. It is a miracle and a wonder to this day that Finland remained its independency. They’ve lost Karelia and Vyborg and had to pay quite a lot of war reparations which they did in full and in record time. There are people alive today in Finland who have lost their land and homes and are still quite bitter and angry about it. Finland has always been very careful with their huge neighbor USSR. In the time of USSR they were on tight leash and surveillance by USSR and the leaders in Finland had to return political refugees. They knew and remembered how fragile their independence were.
Yep plus to times USSR made Finalnd to disimiss their PM's who were too pro west. Despite all economicly Fonalnd tried to get as close to west as possible. The joined nordic union in 1954 and made a deal with the EU (I do not remember old name) in 1974 and they alos had an agreement with sovoet economic union.
Some Soviet citizens did successfully defect THROUGH Finland. Seeking asylum from Finland was not possible, but it was possible to cross the border to Sweden... Some defectors even got help from the Finnish police. Some people have a heart and are willing to help people in need. So defecting to Finland certainly wasn't a guaranteed two-way ticket.
Hey Sergei! The drunk finns you mention are what we call "vodka tourists". Alcohol indeed was expensive here, and still is, which is a way to control how much booze we would drink. However this has utterly failed, and we always seek ways to get drunk for less money. When Glasnost began and Kostamus building programs opened the borders, many finns on their trips to Soviet Union would discover that finnish markka, after currency exchange would buy them loads of nearly free (from a finnish point of view) booze and get hammered until they could barely walk. This tradition then shifted to Estonia with the wild years of the 90s, and as taxations and pricings have shifted, Vodka Tourism has gone even southern to Latvia and Lithuania.
Greetings from Finland. Two weeks ago I visited first time in Russia at St. Petersburg. People were very nice and warmhearted. We have got some bad wartime history, but nowadays we can be friends. 🤗
No offense, but the problem has never been with Russian People (individuals), but rather with Russian government. The government's attitudes can change quickly and it's the government that decides to have problems with neighbors. All the Russian individuals i have met have been really nice.
Leningrad in particular owes the Finns a lot for what the Finns did during the War. The Siege of Leningrad was incomplete, it was not completely surrounded as Finland refused to cut the supply line from the North. Mannerheim had served in the Czars army and had no desire to destroy a city for which he had some warmth. The German's continually pressed the Finns to cut off Leningrad but they refused. Hitler also demanded that Finland deport it's Jews. Mannerheim's response: as long as there are Jews serving in my army there will be no deportations!
@@colinmacdonald5732 one would think so but nowdays finland is openly accused of that siege in russia. So as post wise finland should take part of that siege fully since we sre blamed for that anyway
Great video mate!🖒As a kid in the 80s,I spent every summer in Virojoki,Finland.Only 6 km from the Soviet Union.In the summer many locals went on holiday to Viipuri (Vyborg) and Leningrad.By the stories I heard,it must have been one hell of a party😃🍻
Finland was actually very lucky in the 70s and 80s when we were a part of EFTA and also had bilateral agreements with the USSR, especially in the oil crisis Finland got their oil from the USSR
These days, the fashion sense on shoes is very different in Finland and Russia, so Russian visitors no longer buy our shoewear en masse. Electronics, clothes and candy, however, are popular. Tourists from Russia (and anyone coming from outside the EU) get hefty tax free benefits, so towns in Eastern Finland rely on our neighbors for succesful business. What we don't have here are all the amazing gardening selections available in Russia - so many plants, seeds, bulbs and other gardening stuff.
Finland and USSR did a lot of business back in the day, I meand A LOT. We had a kind of special status in relation to the USSR, as I don't know another non-socialist, non-eastern bloc nation which had so much co-operation with the Soviet Union, at least in the western hemisphere. The war was awful for us, and for the many Soviets who were killed and we didn't enjoy being under special scrutiny by the USSR on several things, but our trade relationship with the Soviet Union for sure benefitted our industries A LOT. It was easier to rebuild and to develop our economy as after reparations we had a really steady trade partner in the USSR, and they bought all kinds of things from us. In some ways we were their preferred gateway to west, as we were "a friendly western nation" not ideologically in opposition to the USSR. I mean ideologically in the sense that we were not in NATO and we didn't have a hostile posture against them like the UK or the US.
You would be surprised how popular Soviet cars were in Finland. Sure, it was probably due to them being the cheapest out there most of the time at the time. But my grandfather loved those things. He got rid of his old Lada as late as somewhere in the mid 90's.
@@Stebetto3 Difficult to say. The same company that imported other Soviet cars to Finland also imported Ladas, so it's not impossible there was some political thing going on.
Sold by "force" is not likely. Ladas were not really bad cars, and found a market across Europe for a long period. Ladas and Polski-FIATs were sold at competive prices. I believe Lada had a better reputation than Polski-FIAT and many of the other eastern brands. However trading with SU and other sovet pact countries was a bit more complicated as their currecies were "non-converible". Yours Jens
Even to this day Finnish cheese and other food products are in high demand in Russia. People come to Finland, go to a supermarket, buy cheese, and then they sell the cheese at the local marketplace in Russia.
Back in the seventies we had Viola cheese in Finland in glasses. Once you ate the cheese you threw away the plastic lid and had a nice glass for milk or water. I remember having several of these at our small summer cottage. Unfair that you guys only got it in plastic jars!
I think I might know where ‘Puukorumchik’ came from. Before Finland was industrial everybody carried this type of knife called Puukko, for most cutting tasks. I read in the winter war the knives were very common with Finnish soldiers.
Yes, just as you say, it was used for most cutting tasks - including food, so most definitely every soldier carried one. Very practical tool. It was occasionally used as a weapon, by commandos and such, despite that puukko is in one aspect poorly designed for stabbing: it has no fingerguard. Fun bonus fact: Making puukkos was a popular pastime, among other crafts too, during the trench warfare phase. Different parts of downed Soviet aircraft were popular materials.
American with Finn ancestry here - grew up with grandparents speaking Finn. I deer hunt, and to this day all the guys in the family have their own puukko 's (not sure what the plural term or spelling is, but figured you'd like to hear that!)
Thanks for the video, always interesting to see what people in the Soviet Union thought of people outside the borders as is was a pretty closed in society. It would be interesting to hear what you thought or heard about Swedes and Sweden too.
I went to Finland in 1990, there was a State alcohol monopoly, the shops called 'Alko' apparently rationed alcohol and Finns could only buy so much and it was expensive. P J O'Rourke said in his book about going to the USSR (Holidays in Hell?) that in his hotel there were Finns who he said seemed to be their team in the World Dipsomaniac Championships beating the Russians at their own game.
You tell it like it is or how it was I should say, but you are honest! I have a lot of respect to you and I subscribed to your channel so much respect and you are awesome!
I am Finnish, lot of this is same what i have heard from my family and relatives. I think those names for Finns could be some butchered Finnish names. One of those names sounded like it could be Finnish, but was not any word i recognize. Finnish is difficult language and its really quite unique language group in Europe, like islands separated from mainland. It could well be that many Finnish names sound similar to foreigners, especially when foreigner tries to pronounce them, so it seems like they are more common than they really are. Same with lot of languages really.
I grew up in the tundra of Northern Minnesota ( a deplorable place ). There's a high Finnish population there, and of course the nearby ' Yoopers ' in Northern Michigan with many Finns. All the jokes I ever heard till I was probably mid-teens were 'Finlander jokes'. Finally I heard a Polack joke, but it just didn't quite make sense to me.
@@tepponieminen526 My teenage years were spent in Otter Tail County, MN where there were enclaves of Germans, Swedes, Norwegians, and Finns. No Ukrainians. Not sure about Danes. My grandmother came from a German village in Russian-ruled Poland, and her township had (and has) a lot of Polish-sounding names mixed with German ones -- all people from the same cluster of villages in Poland. I was in a German community where good-natured jokes were often told about the others, mostly among older guys. Those of my age (same age as Sergei's mother) didn't care as much about those differences. I also had a Finnish friend in high school. Those people spoke Finnish at home. The one "joke" I remember hearing about the Finnlanders was their alleged way of hunting deer - form a huge circle and drive the deer toward the center, and amazingly they never shot each other. But nobody wanted to be on a deer stand in the center of one of those drives. I don't know if that really happened, but that's what the Germans told about the Finns. New York Mills had (and has) a big Finnish community and boat-building company. Their Lund boats have been sold far and wide for many years, though maybe not as far away as Russia. (I'm not sure if that company was started by Finns, but I can't think of it without thinking of all the Finnlanders there.)
Finland wasn't neutral but was actually aligned with the Soviet Union in that it was obliged to aid the USSR if it was attacked and obliged to return refugees under the treaty that ended the Continuation War (1941-1944), and the Finnish Border Zone was strictly controlled at the Soviet border, with permits needed to enter. The Finnish Air Force used to track British RAF planes in the Baltic as the Soviets said if you don't control your airspace, we will. There was a term for Finland's situation 'Finlandisation' to refer to a country that 'gives in' to a larger neighbour. It was a bit unfair as Finland retained its internal freedoms by that method, rather than willingly giving them up.
Well, in Finland alcoholic beverages are heavily taxed even today. The prices compared to Germany are approximately doubled. When compared to Russia, I just don't know. I've never visited USSR or Russia. As we say it, the more you drink, the better citizen you are, as you pay more taxes.
Finland’s role in WW2 is incredibly complex and definitely in a moral grey area. It’s good to hear that Russians and Finns can mostly be friendly with each other despite the history as well as contemporary tensions
Why is it complex? Stalin bombed Finland first on June 25th 1941. Operation Barbarossa began on 22 June 1941. On 25 June the Soviet Union launched an air raid against Finnish cities, after which Finland declared war and also allowed German troops stationed in Finland to begin offensive warfare.
@@UshankaShow Yes Finland was defending itself from the USSR, and in that case Finland was 100% doing the right thing. But in order to do so they collaborated with the Nazis, and they also had ambitions of annexing some russian territory with the Nazis’ help, although that obviously didn’t work. But overall, I still sympathize with Finland much more than any other Axis-affiliated country. Thanks for your reply.
How about Turkey (a NATO country then and now) ? Since some off Soviet republics were "Turkic", the way the USSR approached diplomatically (and also in the Soviet media) to issues related Turkey were probably more critical than many other countries, no ? I really like your videos despite the fact that I found some of your comments (pumped up by the consumerism you have been "enjoying" in the US I presume) against the USSR a bit too negative. By the way Finns also built stuff for the USSR such as nuclear ice breakers (nuclear power propulsion being Soviet, the Finns made the ships themselves). I have a Leningradian friend whose father who was an engineer who spent time in Finnish shipyards to oversee parts of construction. I think Finns felt a lot more affinity towards Estonians than Russians. I wonder if it was common for them to visit Estonian SSR.
The thing about Lenin and Finland is not uncommon in Finland either, but I don't know if I'd call it a joke. I'd rather say it was/is a myth, maybe a politically convenient one to say that "Lenin gave Finland its independence". (There's a smidgen of truth in that - iirc no other country recognised our independence before the SU did.) I live a block away from one of the houses Lenin stayed in when in Finland (1906) - and when I just quickly googled it what came up was a blogpost where the only comment was just what you mentioned: "Maybe Finland got its independence because of this!". As I imagine was the case in the SU (and later in Russia?) Lenin was sort of the "good bolshevik". I remember as a child-young teen in the 80ies discussing with classmates about how if Lenin had lived longer maybe no Stalin (bad bad bad guy: wars, gulags, shooting all the competent people), and maybe the SU would be better off today and the Baltics would be free. Fascinating how the hagiography of Lenin knew no borders!
An old friend told me how he would travel to Leningrad or Estonia from Finland. One time he was drunk and woke up to guards/police pretending to be upset he was sleeping in the park he was terrified they were going to send him to jail, the aimed their guns at him talking in a threatening tone then started laughing and walked off. And yes, the women selling themselves to Finnish men was a big secret. Soviet women would sleep with a Finnish man for even just a pair of high quality pantyhose made in Finland. Finland was stuck between a rock and a hard place. They could not be leaning too western or too russian. But they are smart and struck a balance between the political tension using trade and neutrality and the desire for diplomacy to make the Russian government lose interest in invading Finland, preventing it turning into a soviet satellite. Helsinki's tallest building was home to Russian diplomats that closely monitored the situation and mentality in Finland to make sure they were "allied" enough towards the Soviet Union. Finland even had its own more neutral word for the Russian communist party/Soviety Union called "Neuvostoliitto" which translated means Council of Advisor's but not explicitly referring to Communism.
I have a question for you mr ushanka. How was hunting in the soviet union like? Was hunting animals allowed or was it against the law? I like hunting duck & wild geese. Therfore i own a Merkel08 made in GDR (German Democratic Republic/East Germany) but i recently looked over my ammunition and found that quite a bit of my shotgun rounds say "AZOT 12 gauge, made in USSR" and that sparked my interest. Was hunting a thing in the Soviet union or were they produced only for export? I looked a little bit online but i didn't really find anything about AZOT. So i thought i would ask you who actually used to live there.
My old boss allways loved to tell stories of times they smuggled lada heated seat elements with his friends around their body under their shirts. They apperently where extreamly rare in soviet unioin. They got so much rubles for them that they didnt have time to spend it all in a week😅😂. They bought a lot of ladas just to take the elements from the seats to go crazy in soviet union for weekends and vacation weeks.
The belief in Finnish product quality being so good still keeps on going, mostly its true, a lot of Finnish made stuff is very good, but the Russians belief in it feels some times bit over the top. :D I had a o funny moment about ten years ago when I was visiting Viipuri once. I stopped at a bar for drinks and had a talk with several locals there. I talked for a long while with a Russian girl, I can't remember her name, really cute blonde girl anyway. She said she's planning to move to Finland at some point and asked bunch of questions. I tried to tell her that life in Finland isn't all that rosy, although many things are better than in modern day Russia. She didn't want to believe some of the things I told and she said: "Don't you realize you guys live in a paradise on earth." That was so weird remark about Finland as its not that always that great. But tells a bit about how Russians often view our country. I have friends from Petroskoi, musicians and one of them is a passionate fisherman, I do fishing too so he's always talking about fishing with me. His usual thing is to show off new fishlures he buys every time he's visiting, always Finnish made and he's so excited about them. In his words they're the best, he wont even care about the high prices. I live in a bordertown, so we have a lot of tourists there all the time. Also a lot of Russians have moved in permanently. My closest Russian neighbor lives just across the street. It seems that majority have a very good views on Finland, excluding some tourists who might behave as if they own the whole place. But I guess that's a normal thing, tourists aren't always that nice and well behaved compared to those who have moved in permanently. What I like about Russians is that they bring their good characteristics with them, they are often very friendly and GENEROUS. But they expect that generosity to work both ways, which I think is fair. For example, when my Russian Karelian buddies come for visit, they ALWAYS bring something for me, vodka or food or cigarettes or what ever. They also always clean my place the next day, something which Finns usually consider to be the house owners duty to deal with.Everything is shared and it also works both ways, they might just go and make coffee without asking for a permission, or smoke my cigarettes or something like that, things that Finns wouldn't ever do just like that, but the price is that they always bring stuff with them and share it with me.
I understand that Soviet Russians used to cross the channel and go there to carry on the way Americans would do in Tijuana. I read a book when I was about 24 about living in Soviet Russia and the author (I think it was David Halberstam....this was the same time period that the movie "Gorky Park" came out, I think) said that Finland was a close-by place to do things they couldn't do what they could do at home (like Tijuana!).
Actually, after hearing the entire show, I see that the American journalist painted the story the exact opposite. It wasn't the Russians going to Finland to cut loose, it was the reverse. Even back in the 80's, we were being told a different story. (or, just as likely, I am not recalling it correctly.)
Just to notify that you showed pictures of Tallinn, Estonia and not Finland in your video. Besides Leningrad, Tallinn was also favorite destination of Finns as Estonian and Finnish languages are similar and because we always watched Finnish TV from childhood, most of the Estonians speak fluent Finnish. After Estonia got it’s independence, Finland had a big role to build Estonian economy to the EU level.
My mothers family is from Kemi. I got a puukko knife for my birthday this year after they visited. They went to St. Petersburg also and bought me a bible in Russian. Cant wait to travel myself. I want to piss off TSA in Portland when they see my stamp from Russia.
Did you know that where St Petersburg is today, there used to be a Swedish town, Nyen. In Nyen, there was a Finnish congegration and a church, which remained there even as St Petersburg had been built. After the revolution, however, the church had to be abandoned. Two silver candle sticks were moved along with some other stuff to the Finnish congegration in Stockholm and you can see them there to this day!
In the eighties nearly 10% of the youth of Leningrad must have been working as black market money changers! They were all over, opening their coats and displaying 10-12 fannypacks, and whispering: "change money"!
Can you go nation by nation and how Soviets looked at them. Every single one that you can recall of. Even if video is just a couple of minutes long. For example, I know that Yugoslavia quoted quite well. Even the song from our singer "Devojko mala" was so popular. I got it sung by two Ukrainian old musicians in Kievan restaurant, explaining to me how popular that song was at that time. How about Hungarians, Romanians, Germans, French, Sweeds, Norwegians (if any), Polish, Bulgarians, Turks, etc. etc. etc. How did Soviets at that time looked at them and what was the emotion towards that country. Mongols, Chinese, Japanese, Koreans, Iranians, Indians, etc. etc. etc.
Hello from Finland. Interesting video and nice photos! My dad is leaving to sgt. Petersburg as a tourist in like right now! You were right about alcohol price: it has always been high in Finland, gov monopoly (for national health reasons). I think "Finns didn't give mercy" was propaganda. There were many POWs, some were taken for agricultural work because there was a serious shortage of food in Finland during the Continuation War (41-44). Not so much during Winter War (39-40). I like Russia and Russian people, none of us people alive today are responsible to that horrible history. Some people like to hate and some are greedy, so yes there are still people who can't see Russia in positive light no matter what, but I think they are these days a very small minority any more. Definately Russia has these days been good and important balance against American imperialism. Unfortunately Finnish media is completely with the pro EU+NATO establishment hands and tries to turn Finnish people accepting NATO membership by demonizing Russia and Putin: that's not gonna happen, NATO membership is only supported by 20% of the people and the support has been decreasing. The propaganda is so apparent, people see through it. I'm hoping information era will break establishment monopoly in news and media, and people couldn't be fooled in wars again. Unfortunately establishment in the USA & the EU is now fighting hard to maintain this edge and shut down independent media. I'm also interested of prehistory, Stone Age and early metal ages mostly, and Russia is so interesting region in that sense. Especially to us Finns as our language family may have developped in Northern Russia. Also Finnish genetic admixture is very similar with Northern Russian (if interested, see this paper: Genetic Heritage of the Balto-Slavic Speaking Populations: A Synthesis of Autosomal, Mitochondrial and Y-Chromosomal Data). Our pagan age gods were common with the Slavs and the Balts (Finnish Perkele/Piru is the same god as Slavic Perun and Balt Perkunas), and we got Christianity from Novgorod (not from Sweden as our school books have claimed for decades). There has always been a close connection with our peoples, through millenias. Cold War was a sad phase in history, and I hope we don't see such dark time ever again.
Russia is a Finnish conspiracy to conquer and enslave the Slavic people but when a Georgian somehow started ruling Russia that plan backfired a little bit. I always say that Russians are no Slavs but Finno-Ugrians and Turks.
Karelia had been part of Finland until the Finnish defeat by the Soviets in WWII. The terms of the peace treaty were rather harsh towards the Finns, including deference towards Moscow in it's foreign policy, and if defectors were promptly turned back it was not because of lack of sympathy but for self preservation.
Some defectors did successfully defect through Finland to Sweden etc., even getting help from Finnish policemen. One of the most famous is an Estonian guy who crossed the sea on a rubber boat, and even a KGB officer (Oleg Gordievsky), who was a double agent and escaped to the UK and a Deputy Prime Minister of Estonia (Valdo Randpere), who came to Finland legally and then fled to Sweden...
Finns have a own word for Russian woman who did hunt men to marry them. It's venako if I remember correctly. Lived 13 years in Helsinki but never managed to get hold of the finnish language. 😑
I am from finland can confrim prohibation ended sometime in 1938-1950s. We didn't start war. We are still are sosialistic. We had also name for soviets "ryssä" it is not nice name we use it now. we have the sugar in paper bags. can ask other thing if one wants. ps we ware scared of soviet union sometimes. edit alcohol is hella epensive in finland.
I know from the chinese side, we use to look up to the soviet union as the big brother, many older chinese can speak russian and i know a fair few who went to university in the soviet union, but it was like a light was flicked and ussr became negative and yes it was because of the split, some who were educated in the ussr were victims of the cultural revolution, officially i know lenin and stalin was viewed positively but after that not so much But china did copy the ussr bureaucracy and i do know that khrushchevkas did have a lot of influence in terms of housing people
@@anthonypang7927 I can say from the Russian side. The emotions of the Russians were two kinds. First, we admired Chinese as the most ancient folk at the Earth who invented paper, gunpowder and the compass. There were many Chinese narrations translated into Russian as The Three Kingdoms. When I was at the University I visited tranings of the WuShu and the TaiJiQuan. The other, the Cultural Revolution was taut as an example of hell. Also such exemples as killing of sparrows and dogs, and trying to melt out steel in small melting pots at country yards. Also, the policy of Mao against the Soviet Union and Vietnam were considered as agressive. Nobody talked that there was Nikita Khrushchyov the trator who stepped off from policy of Josef Stalin. And now, China is viewed by many people as successful example of combining of market economy and socialist ideology. Many people think it's time to take a lesson from China how to develop the economy. Will be a success? We will see. So I hope I answered you question didn't I? 👪☺
@@ДмитрийВронский-в3с i was lucky enough to visit russia last year and i found russians and chinese actually very similar in many ways, i also found many chinese could join in with some russian folk songs But yeah russia is an amazing country, i must return and visit other parts, i was in moscow, st petersburg, kazan, nizhny, volgograd, sochi, samara, ulyanovsk, saransk, golden ring The thing i love about russians is, once you are befriended you are a friend for life
My Chinese friend's dad said that the Chinese were afraid of the Soviet Union. He said they'd have regular nuclear bomb drills at school in case of Soviet attack.
In my family there were some Finnish relatives that had moved to the USSR and when they got old and nostalgic they moved back. Some stayed there so I still have some Finnish family living there. I wonder if an ordinary Finn with no such ties thinks Stalin purged all those Finns, because that is the picture you easily get in Finland. Certainly many were purged and some moved to Canada or the USA, where they had immigrated to the USSR.
Priviet toverish.when covid ends I'll be back in petersburg.Visited 2 years ago and it was way more interesting then western perfect booring cities.So much to see.And we are vodka people too so party party.So prepare for another drunk finn on the street.paka paka.
Most of the Soviet units sent to Finland for the Winter War were Ukrainian conscripts with little to no training or winter clothing. My Great Grandfather served in the Finnish Army in the Winter War and WW2
Ushanka-man I think you will eventually find that what the Soviet people thought about Finns is unfortunately meaningless since the only information they had was just the BS from the soviet government. The Finns certainly have no reason to like any of the Russian governments. The Finns (Suomi) were various tribes, including the Karelians and distantly-related Sami (Lapplanders). The Swedes invaded and took control of Finland and then invaded Russia in the 1700s (the Finns didn't invade Russia, the Swedes did). Then the Russian tsar invaded Finland and claimed control, booting out the Swedes. The Russian Duchy of Finland ended when the Russian monarchy was slaughtered in 1917 and Finland declared independence Dec.6, 1917. Then of course the Russian Reds made war against Finland, a county with a population of 3 million at the time. And so on until Russia again tried to invade Finland in 1939... just can't leave it alone. The soviets were unable to invade all of Finland as they'd hoped. But just look at good (not soviet) historical maps and see how much land the Russians still have of Finnish peoples' land... besides all of Karelia, almost all of eastern Finland from Norway down to Lake Ladoga, Sortavala and Vyborg (which are hardly Russian names). When Moscow finally granted freedom to so many countries in 1991 why didn't it also liberate those Finnish lands and Karelia? Just wondering. I remember during the 1960s-1980s (yes, I'm that old) that poor little Finland was really living on a knife edge, having to always be SO careful not to give Russia the slightest excuse to invade again. I think that may be the reason that they dared NOT to keep any escapees (defectors) from Russia. As far as Finns all being drunks... pot calling kettle black, maybe? :) Just had to say all that because, although I really like your videos, I felt this one needed a bit more info. Keep up the great work!
Thank you for your awesome comment! I actually posted a question on Leningrad forum about the Soviet days and Finn tourists. So those were first-hand experiences, not newspaper articles.
Knute M Sweden never invaded Finland. Finland was a part of Sweden, a true heartland. Swedish-speaking people settled in the coastal regions of Finland before there were any Finnish people there.
@@hederoth7883 There wasn't a country called Finland when Sweden "invaded" Finland. But the Finnish tribes had already existed in those areas for a long time. Basicly Swedes just came and told that you are now going to pay your taxes to Stockholm and since you don't speak our language we kind of are just going to use your recourses (men for war and taxes to Swedish main land). It was a bit like colonialism. Russia actually cared more about Finland. Taxes stayed in Finland we could make own laws and so on. But often this is not highlited since later Finland wanted independence from Russia.
I think the question whether or not Finland was colonized by Sweden is on the same level as if the Anglo-Saxons ”colonized” the Celts in Britain. Firstly, there were very few people there in, say, the 12th century to be colonized. Secondly, the Swedish state was not yet a very clear or stable formation in those days. What I want to say is that Swedish speaking people were not sent to Finland by order of a King, backed up by troops. People probably went there because they wanted to explore the fur trade, find land for agriculture or even escape the rule of the Swedish kings. In any case, the combination of swedes and finns proved to be successful in the end. Paradoxically, a lot of the people who were instrumental in defining the Finnish identity were of Swedish origin (Elias Lönnroth, Mannerheim, Sibelius). At the same time, you are right insofar that the development of a Finnish national consciousness and identity became possible only under Russian rule in the 19th century. Sweden would most likely have oppressed such ambitions. What do you think the result would have been if Russia had not concquered Finland in 1809? What would that nation be like? Would the Finns have felt oppressed all the way up to modern times, or had they become fully absorbed, reducing the Finnish language into a language only for family and friends? Or would Sweden in its entirety be bi-lingual? Together, we would maybe have invaded Norway and Denmark and created a United Kingdom of Scandinavia? :-)
It was fairly difficult. There were organized student exchange programs, but even those were often cancelled. Then in 1988 or -89 such an exchange finally took place in our university; we got a group of students from Moscow to Helsinki for ten days and then we went to Moscow for ten days. This was totally arranged by the students and it is difficult to describe the situation when the train stopped in Helsinki and the Soviet students stepped on the platform - it was like your sisters and brothers had managed to get back from a risky flight to the moon.
How did soviet people view greeks, sergei? That is both greeks in greece, a post-wwii monarcho-fascist anticommunist state and following nato member, as well as their own greeks from black sea, mariupol, azov, caucasus regions as well as the wwii and greek civil war partisans that took refuge in ussr, eg. Tashkent, Uzbekistan.. I know a lot of cartoons about ancient greek mythology were popular in greece too around the 80es
To be fair to the Soviet Union, lying about an attack to justify a war is something the US has done. And yes it is a weird thing to do, it’s quite nefarious where ever that happens.
Karelians are a Finnic ethnic group indigenous to the historical region of Karelia. Karelians are closely related to Finns. Karelians living in Russian Karelia are considered a distinct ethnic group. Karelians living in Finnish Karelia are considered a subset of Finns.
@@UshankaShow What I meant is, how their relations are today rather than historically. Do the effects of Swedish colonialization/Lutheranism to the west and Russian rule/Orthodoxy to the east make for a permanent divide? Or has there been any reconnection after the end of the Soviet era? I come from Finland-Swede grandparents, and the small-cousins there are still speaking Swedish 500 years after relocating across the Gulf of Bothnia, some 200 years after Finland became a Tsarist Duchy, and a century after independence. _Conservative!_
@@hillside21 There really isn't a relationship between karelians in Russia and Finns these days. Karelians who evacuated from the Finnish karelia are still very active in their communities in Finland.
Geopolitical reasons. Finland had previously fought it's own civil war in 1918 and the white forces had won unlike in Russia. This was possible with the help of German troops, support and milliary training. The whole country was at that point run by the white anti-communists. Soviets feared that Finland was potentially too close to the Nazi-Germany. This was in a time when the man leading Germany had previously written a book about how he wanted to massacre the "slavic judeobolshevic sub-humans" and resettle Russia with aryan germans. So the threat was very real. The finnish border at the time was about 30km (20 mi in freedom units) from Leningrad (St.Peterburg) and this was a massive security risk in case if war broke out with germany and that seemed only a matter of time. Soviets wanted this border moved further west from Leningrad and in exchange they would give Finland more land further north that contained russian-finnish villages that had previously wanted to join Finland. The negotiations however were unsuccessful after some offers and counter offers and the war happened, because the risk to Leningrad still remained. In the end soviets took the areas that they had requested, but with casualties. Finland also did later ally itself with the Nazi Germany in continuation war, that was a extension of Operation Barbarosa. But was this only a revenge for winter war or done because of imperialism and with genuine fascist sympathies?(google greater Finland, Lapua movement and Patriotic People's Movement). Maybe It also could have been that war could have been avoided if Finland had did the land swap with the soviet union? Hard to say. Source: I'm a finn (and wikipedia)
Stalin attempted to coerce Finland to join the Soviet Union, as he had with the other Baltic countries. The Finns enlisted the support of the Germans (Nazis) to hold off the Russians. It worked. Later, the Germans attempted to force the Finns to close the circle around Leningrad. They wouldn't. The siege failed ("The 900 Days" by Harrison E. Salisbury is an excellent book on the subject).
Hello, comrades!
My name is Sergei. I was born in the USSR in 1971. Since 1999 I have lived in the USA.
Ushanka Show channel was created to share stories as well as my own memories of everyday life in the USSR.
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Do a video on what happened after ww2 that made ussr and Americans not friends anymore? We came to help them and now they didn’t like us?
I never seen the finnish people in my soviet childhood but I adored and appreciated all the finnish goods that we could find in our shops: shoes and boots, jackets, raincoats, sportsuits, dresses. My big and very tall father he always had the perfect words for everything finnish " Welldone finns! Only them are able to make good shoes and right size!"
I had a beautiful white dress for my school graduation, made in Finland.
I remember a green plastic bottle of hair shampoo " Kastehelmi" still remember its smell..
I came across a Soviet fashion model during 70-ies in Leningrad and even today I wonder why she bought my platform shoes size 37 while her size was around 40 I would assume judging by her height.
@@ImForwardlook I was living in far North-East of USSR, in Magadan region.
@@satusalmivirta9840 I am sure she made a good deal and sold you shoes or swapped them with someone for something size 40))
@@ImForwardlook I just hope that Finland is still producing that high quality stuff, not everything made in China))
My friend's grandfather used to run a shoe business in the 80s. All of their products would be sold to the Soviet Union, because their quality was not competitive on the Western markets. The company went bankrupt when the USSR collapsed. It's funny to hear that the Finnish shoes had a good reputation.
So bascically Leningrad was what Tallinn is today: a giant open air pub and alcohol shop for Finnish people.
that's what I was thinking. I guess Leningrad was the "Viinaralli" of the time
The difference is that Leningrad was more of a niche destination and it wasn't really mass tourism. Even today St. Petersburg isn't very popular destination for Finns because of all the bureaucracy involved. Tallinn is much easier and more convenient even though there's a sea in between... Also, importing alcohol is pretty much impossible from Russia. Unless you smugle it. And that's just dumb.
Big time.
Estonian language is also very close to Finnish,
Finns visiting Leningrad for cheap alcohol reminds me of a story from Britain: Wales used to have a "dry Sunday" policy (no alcohol sales on a Sunday), so ferries from Liverpool (in England, but close to Wales) would come over to Wales, pick up passengers, sail them to Liverpool and back again...not because they wanted to go to Liverpool, but because they could drink on the ferry!
I think one of Ringo Starr's jobs before he was in The Beatles was as a steward on such a ferry.
From Finland myself, and this was an intressting video for sure. Much of this I didn´t know so a very nice topic. Thx for all the videos that you do man. And keep making them :)
I went to Leningrad four times in the 80's. Local people came quietly (especially restaurant staff) to you asking to change money. Especially for US dollars. Then I remember those Beryozka shops soviets didn't have access to. We bought especially champagne Sovetskoye Igristoye or krasnoye and caviar, Ikra and of course vodka Stolichnaya, . And then had a nice hotel room party. Leningrad was awfully dark during night time, hardly any lights (at least working or whatever reason) . I miss those trips, golden memories and Soviet nostalgy. Surely Russians are better off now than then, it is a great country and well worth of visit. I really enjoy to watch this Ushanka show because it is down to earth instead of pushing ideologies through.
Finland´s clothing industry instantly went into a deep crisis when Soviet Union ended, it was so geared towards selling to the SU and was completely unprepaired when it happened.
I went to leningrad on a school trip from the UK in about 1984. It was like stepping into a black and white world. But I am from Finland originally, and was able to help the Lady who sat at a desk at the end of the hotel floor (can't remember the name) buy clothes from my fellow students (she spoke a little Finnish). I returned home with hardly anything. I remember body warmers (jackets without sleeves) were very popular at the time. And remember hoping my jacket helped keep a Russian youngster warm. I also remember bribing the band in the hotel to let a few of us play their instruments on stage, Wild thing Jimi hendrix style i remember....
Greetings from Finland! Thanks for the interesting video! I think the Soviet nickname for Finns might be a version of a Finnish term "puukkojunkkari". A pretty close English translation would be "a troublemaker". It's an old-fashioned Finnish term and means a person who behaves poorly, is constantly disturbing peace, causing fights in public places, gambling, stealing etc.
I too young to have many personal experiences about Soviet Union, but one of my earliest memories is watching TV with my parents and I remember how they were very serious when the News host announced that USSR had collapsed. I was 7-8 years old that time. It's really enlightening to hear about how highly sought after Finnish goods were in the USSR - trading with the USSR must have affected our economy in a very positive way, as trading with Russia does to this day of course. I visited Russian Karelia in the early 1990s and travelling across the border was like travelling back in time 50 years. In Finland roads and buildings were all well-maintained, in Russian Karelia everything was in shambles. All the houses in villages were very old and poorly maintained. You could see unfinished large ugly apartment buildings everywhere. We visited Petrozavodsk, a small city, and all the buildings there were also looking old and ugly. I stayed a couple of nights at an old farm house where an old couple lived. They were nice and they immediately they offered me a vodka shot even though I was just 10-11 years old. My mother politely refused the offer. Later on I've understood they were offering us the best they had - they were very poor, living mainly off of what their small garden could provide.
This brings me back to the "Memory lane" I was a Construction worker for Finnish Companys in the Soviet Union during 83-90 (4 years and 3 months all together.) I think we had a very different wiew of the Soviet life ,than a normal tourist.
@@UshankaShow Drinking tourists can be found anywhere where alkohol is relativily cheap. But when you add the whole "Jeans to Vodka" equation to a situation when you have something that you can not bring home., and you have just hours to deal with it, well "Boys will be Boys" ?
@@UshankaShow It was the law between 1919-1932, so it was just soooo much cheaper with "jeans" like i told before.
@@ImForwardlook Ok. I understand the point, but it sounds a bit too harsh to me. Afterall they where young and "learning" ? Whos perfect ?
I bet Finns were ruthless during the war, they were fighting for their very existence. It is a miracle and a wonder to this day that Finland remained its independency. They’ve lost Karelia and Vyborg and had to pay quite a lot of war reparations which they did in full and in record time. There are people alive today in Finland who have lost their land and homes and are still quite bitter and angry about it. Finland has always been very careful with their huge neighbor USSR. In the time of USSR they were on tight leash and surveillance by USSR and the leaders in Finland had to return political refugees. They knew and remembered how fragile their independence were.
Yep plus to times USSR made Finalnd to disimiss their PM's who were too pro west. Despite all economicly Fonalnd tried to get as close to west as possible. The joined nordic union in 1954 and made a deal with the EU (I do not remember old name) in 1974 and they alos had an agreement with sovoet economic union.
Some Soviet citizens did successfully defect THROUGH Finland. Seeking asylum from Finland was not possible, but it was possible to cross the border to Sweden... Some defectors even got help from the Finnish police. Some people have a heart and are willing to help people in need. So defecting to Finland certainly wasn't a guaranteed two-way ticket.
Q: How do you tell the difference between an introverted Finn, and an extroverted Finn?
A: He's looking at your shoes, not his.
That's a software engineer joke
Hey Sergei! The drunk finns you mention are what we call "vodka tourists". Alcohol indeed was expensive here, and still is, which is a way to control how much booze we would drink. However this has utterly failed, and we always seek ways to get drunk for less money. When Glasnost began and Kostamus building programs opened the borders, many finns on their trips to Soviet Union would discover that finnish markka, after currency exchange would buy them loads of nearly free (from a finnish point of view) booze and get hammered until they could barely walk. This tradition then shifted to Estonia with the wild years of the 90s, and as taxations and pricings have shifted, Vodka Tourism has gone even southern to Latvia and Lithuania.
Greetings from Finland. Two weeks ago I visited first time in Russia at St. Petersburg. People were very nice and warmhearted. We have got some bad wartime history, but nowadays we can be friends. 🤗
No offense, but the problem has never been with Russian People (individuals), but rather with Russian government. The government's attitudes can change quickly and it's the government that decides to have problems with neighbors. All the Russian individuals i have met have been really nice.
Adelram Wolfrik ооооооуууу обнимашки🤗
Well St.Petersburg feels like the big wide world nowdays! It is a fantastic city!
Leningrad in particular owes the Finns a lot for what the Finns did during the War. The Siege of Leningrad was incomplete, it was not completely surrounded as Finland refused to cut the supply line from the North. Mannerheim had served in the Czars army and had no desire to destroy a city for which he had some warmth. The German's continually pressed the Finns to cut off Leningrad but they refused. Hitler also demanded that Finland deport it's Jews. Mannerheim's response: as long as there are Jews serving in my army there will be no deportations!
@@colinmacdonald5732 one would think so but nowdays finland is openly accused of that siege in russia. So as post wise finland should take part of that siege fully since we sre blamed for that anyway
Great video mate!🖒As a kid in the 80s,I spent every summer in Virojoki,Finland.Only 6 km from the Soviet Union.In the summer many locals went on holiday to Viipuri (Vyborg) and Leningrad.By the stories I heard,it must have been one hell of a party😃🍻
Finland was actually very lucky in the 70s and 80s when we were a part of EFTA and also had bilateral agreements with the USSR, especially in the oil crisis Finland got their oil from the USSR
These days, the fashion sense on shoes is very different in Finland and Russia, so Russian visitors no longer buy our shoewear en masse. Electronics, clothes and candy, however, are popular. Tourists from Russia (and anyone coming from outside the EU) get hefty tax free benefits, so towns in Eastern Finland rely on our neighbors for succesful business.
What we don't have here are all the amazing gardening selections available in Russia - so many plants, seeds, bulbs and other gardening stuff.
Thank you for your input
Finland and USSR did a lot of business back in the day, I meand A LOT. We had a kind of special status in relation to the USSR, as I don't know another non-socialist, non-eastern bloc nation which had so much co-operation with the Soviet Union, at least in the western hemisphere.
The war was awful for us, and for the many Soviets who were killed and we didn't enjoy being under special scrutiny by the USSR on several things, but our trade relationship with the Soviet Union for sure benefitted our industries A LOT. It was easier to rebuild and to develop our economy as after reparations we had a really steady trade partner in the USSR, and they bought all kinds of things from us. In some ways we were their preferred gateway to west, as we were "a friendly western nation" not ideologically in opposition to the USSR. I mean ideologically in the sense that we were not in NATO and we didn't have a hostile posture against them like the UK or the US.
You would be surprised how popular Soviet cars were in Finland. Sure, it was probably due to them being the cheapest out there most of the time at the time. But my grandfather loved those things. He got rid of his old Lada as late as somewhere in the mid 90's.
Didn't SU force Finland to buy ladas annually?
@@Stebetto3 Difficult to say. The same company that imported other Soviet cars to Finland also imported Ladas, so it's not impossible there was some political thing going on.
Sold by "force" is not likely. Ladas were not really bad cars, and found a market across Europe for a long period. Ladas and Polski-FIATs were sold at competive prices. I believe Lada had a better reputation than Polski-FIAT and many of the other eastern brands. However trading with SU and other sovet pact countries was a bit more complicated as their currecies were "non-converible". Yours Jens
Even to this day Finnish cheese and other food products are in high demand in Russia. People come to Finland, go to a supermarket, buy cheese, and then they sell the cheese at the local marketplace in Russia.
Russians have even SMUGLED cheese to Russia inside the car frame, because of the Russian import restrictions...
Back in the seventies we had Viola cheese in Finland in glasses. Once you ate the cheese you threw away the plastic lid and had a nice glass for milk or water. I remember having several of these at our small summer cottage. Unfair that you guys only got it in plastic jars!
Tallinn and Riga also were popular destinations for Finnish alconauts, and still are today.
This was very interesting please make part 2!!!!
Hi Sergei, my grandparents came to Michigan from Finland, many of Finnish descent in the Upper Peninsula.
I think I might know where ‘Puukorumchik’ came from. Before Finland was industrial everybody carried this type of knife called Puukko, for most cutting tasks.
I read in the winter war the knives were very common with Finnish soldiers.
Hah, I did not know this, perhaps the Russians too.
if you ran out of bullets in the winter war the puukko was your friend
Yes, just as you say, it was used for most cutting tasks - including food, so most definitely every soldier carried one. Very practical tool. It was occasionally used as a weapon, by commandos and such, despite that puukko is in one aspect poorly designed for stabbing: it has no fingerguard. Fun bonus fact: Making puukkos was a popular pastime, among other crafts too, during the trench warfare phase. Different parts of downed Soviet aircraft were popular materials.
American with Finn ancestry here - grew up with grandparents speaking Finn. I deer hunt, and to this day all the guys in the family have their own puukko 's (not sure what the plural term or spelling is, but figured you'd like to hear that!)
@@DJScaleModels Singular is "puukko". The plural of that is "puukot".
I didn't know that history with Finland - thank you for the lesson
Great show
Thanks for the video, always interesting to see what people in the Soviet Union thought of people outside the borders as is was a pretty closed in society. It would be interesting to hear what you thought or heard about Swedes and Sweden too.
Thanks!
Welcome!
I went to Finland in 1990, there was a State alcohol monopoly, the shops called 'Alko' apparently rationed alcohol and Finns could only buy so much and it was expensive. P J O'Rourke said in his book about going to the USSR (Holidays in Hell?) that in his hotel there were Finns who he said seemed to be their team in the World Dipsomaniac Championships beating the Russians at their own game.
You tell it like it is or how it was I should say, but you are honest! I have a lot of respect to you and I subscribed to your channel so much respect and you are awesome!
Great video
Thanks!
your channel is the best
I am Finnish, lot of this is same what i have heard from my family and relatives. I think those names for Finns could be some butchered Finnish names. One of those names sounded like it could be Finnish, but was not any word i recognize. Finnish is difficult language and its really quite unique language group in Europe, like islands separated from mainland. It could well be that many Finnish names sound similar to foreigners, especially when foreigner tries to pronounce them, so it seems like they are more common than they really are. Same with lot of languages really.
I grew up in the tundra of Northern Minnesota ( a deplorable place ). There's a high Finnish population there, and of course the nearby ' Yoopers ' in Northern Michigan with many Finns. All the jokes I ever heard till I was probably mid-teens were 'Finlander jokes'. Finally I heard a Polack joke, but it just didn't quite make sense to me.
Can you remember any examples of these jokes, as a native fin I would much like to hear one :D
@@tepponieminen526 My teenage years were spent in Otter Tail County, MN where there were enclaves of Germans, Swedes, Norwegians, and Finns. No Ukrainians. Not sure about Danes. My grandmother came from a German village in Russian-ruled Poland, and her township had (and has) a lot of Polish-sounding names mixed with German ones -- all people from the same cluster of villages in Poland. I was in a German community where good-natured jokes were often told about the others, mostly among older guys. Those of my age (same age as Sergei's mother) didn't care as much about those differences. I also had a Finnish friend in high school. Those people spoke Finnish at home. The one "joke" I remember hearing about the Finnlanders was their alleged way of hunting deer - form a huge circle and drive the deer toward the center, and amazingly they never shot each other. But nobody wanted to be on a deer stand in the center of one of those drives. I don't know if that really happened, but that's what the Germans told about the Finns. New York Mills had (and has) a big Finnish community and boat-building company. Their Lund boats have been sold far and wide for many years, though maybe not as far away as Russia. (I'm not sure if that company was started by Finns, but I can't think of it without thinking of all the Finnlanders there.)
Finland wasn't neutral but was actually aligned with the Soviet Union in that it was obliged to aid the USSR if it was attacked and obliged to return refugees under the treaty that ended the Continuation War (1941-1944), and the Finnish Border Zone was strictly controlled at the Soviet border, with permits needed to enter. The Finnish Air Force used to track British RAF planes in the Baltic as the Soviets said if you don't control your airspace, we will. There was a term for Finland's situation 'Finlandisation' to refer to a country that 'gives in' to a larger neighbour. It was a bit unfair as Finland retained its internal freedoms by that method, rather than willingly giving them up.
Well, in Finland alcoholic beverages are heavily taxed even today. The prices compared to Germany are approximately doubled. When compared to Russia, I just don't know. I've never visited USSR or Russia. As we say it, the more you drink, the better citizen you are, as you pay more taxes.
Finland’s role in WW2 is incredibly complex and definitely in a moral grey area. It’s good to hear that Russians and Finns can mostly be friendly with each other despite the history as well as contemporary tensions
Why is it complex? Stalin bombed Finland first on June 25th 1941.
Operation Barbarossa began on 22 June 1941.
On 25 June the Soviet Union launched an air raid against Finnish cities, after which Finland declared war and also allowed German troops stationed in Finland to begin offensive warfare.
@@UshankaShow Yes Finland was defending itself from the USSR, and in that case Finland was 100% doing the right thing. But in order to do so they collaborated with the Nazis, and they also had ambitions of annexing some russian territory with the Nazis’ help, although that obviously didn’t work. But overall, I still sympathize with Finland much more than any other Axis-affiliated country. Thanks for your reply.
How about Turkey (a NATO country then and now) ? Since some off Soviet republics were "Turkic", the way the USSR approached diplomatically (and also in the Soviet media) to issues related Turkey were probably more critical than many other countries, no ?
I really like your videos despite the fact that I found some of your comments (pumped up by the consumerism you have been "enjoying" in the US I presume) against the USSR a bit too negative. By the way Finns also built stuff for the USSR such as nuclear ice breakers (nuclear power propulsion being Soviet, the Finns made the ships themselves). I have a Leningradian friend whose father who was an engineer who spent time in Finnish shipyards to oversee parts of construction. I think Finns felt a lot more affinity towards Estonians than Russians. I wonder if it was common for them to visit Estonian SSR.
The thing about Lenin and Finland is not uncommon in Finland either, but I don't know if I'd call it a joke. I'd rather say it was/is a myth, maybe a politically convenient one to say that "Lenin gave Finland its independence". (There's a smidgen of truth in that - iirc no other country recognised our independence before the SU did.)
I live a block away from one of the houses Lenin stayed in when in Finland (1906) - and when I just quickly googled it what came up was a blogpost where the only comment was just what you mentioned: "Maybe Finland got its independence because of this!".
As I imagine was the case in the SU (and later in Russia?) Lenin was sort of the "good bolshevik". I remember as a child-young teen in the 80ies discussing with classmates about how if Lenin had lived longer maybe no Stalin (bad bad bad guy: wars, gulags, shooting all the competent people), and maybe the SU would be better off today and the Baltics would be free. Fascinating how the hagiography of Lenin knew no borders!
And apparently it was Stalin at the time who argued that they should acknowledge Finland's claim.
I love your pictures 👍
An old friend told me how he would travel to Leningrad or Estonia from Finland. One time he was drunk and woke up to guards/police pretending to be upset he was sleeping in the park he was terrified they were going to send him to jail, the aimed their guns at him talking in a threatening tone then started laughing and walked off.
And yes, the women selling themselves to Finnish men was a big secret. Soviet women would sleep with a Finnish man for even just a pair of high quality pantyhose made in Finland.
Finland was stuck between a rock and a hard place. They could not be leaning too western or too russian. But they are smart and struck a balance between the political tension using trade and neutrality and the desire for diplomacy to make the Russian government lose interest in invading Finland, preventing it turning into a soviet satellite. Helsinki's tallest building was home to Russian diplomats that closely monitored the situation and mentality in Finland to make sure they were "allied" enough towards the Soviet Union. Finland even had its own more neutral word for the Russian communist party/Soviety Union called "Neuvostoliitto" which translated means Council of Advisor's but not explicitly referring to Communism.
4:50 Ah I see, the "Colosseum" was a hint for big spectacle in the cinema🤩.🤫 But to be honest, I have so my doubts about that.😅😉
I have a question for you mr ushanka. How was hunting in the soviet union like? Was hunting animals allowed or was it against the law? I like hunting duck & wild geese. Therfore i own a Merkel08 made in GDR (German Democratic Republic/East Germany) but i recently looked over my ammunition and found that quite a bit of my shotgun rounds say "AZOT 12 gauge, made in USSR" and that sparked my interest. Was hunting a thing in the Soviet union or were they produced only for export? I looked a little bit online but i didn't really find anything about AZOT. So i thought i would ask you who actually used to live there.
azot-patron.ru/
My old boss allways loved to tell stories of times they smuggled lada heated seat elements with his friends around their body under their shirts. They apperently where extreamly rare in soviet unioin. They got so much rubles for them that they didnt have time to spend it all in a week😅😂. They bought a lot of ladas just to take the elements from the seats to go crazy in soviet union for weekends and vacation weeks.
The "Finland never joined NATO" comment did not age well...
The belief in Finnish product quality being so good still keeps on going, mostly its true, a lot of Finnish made stuff is very good, but the Russians belief in it feels some times bit over the top. :D I had a o funny moment about ten years ago when I was visiting Viipuri once. I stopped at a bar for drinks and had a talk with several locals there. I talked for a long while with a Russian girl, I can't remember her name, really cute blonde girl anyway. She said she's planning to move to Finland at some point and asked bunch of questions. I tried to tell her that life in Finland isn't all that rosy, although many things are better than in modern day Russia. She didn't want to believe some of the things I told and she said: "Don't you realize you guys live in a paradise on earth." That was so weird remark about Finland as its not that always that great. But tells a bit about how Russians often view our country. I have friends from Petroskoi, musicians and one of them is a passionate fisherman, I do fishing too so he's always talking about fishing with me. His usual thing is to show off new fishlures he buys every time he's visiting, always Finnish made and he's so excited about them. In his words they're the best, he wont even care about the high prices. I live in a bordertown, so we have a lot of tourists there all the time. Also a lot of Russians have moved in permanently. My closest Russian neighbor lives just across the street. It seems that majority have a very good views on Finland, excluding some tourists who might behave as if they own the whole place. But I guess that's a normal thing, tourists aren't always that nice and well behaved compared to those who have moved in permanently.
What I like about Russians is that they bring their good characteristics with them, they are often very friendly and GENEROUS. But they expect that generosity to work both ways, which I think is fair. For example, when my Russian Karelian buddies come for visit, they ALWAYS bring something for me, vodka or food or cigarettes or what ever. They also always clean my place the next day, something which Finns usually consider to be the house owners duty to deal with.Everything is shared and it also works both ways, they might just go and make coffee without asking for a permission, or smoke my cigarettes or something like that, things that Finns wouldn't ever do just like that, but the price is that they always bring stuff with them and share it with me.
In 80's America, they said the same stuff about Halloween candy when we were kids.. People would put razor blades or poison in the candy.
Working in a Hospital and the best comrades are Russians .Finn living in Sweden .Thanks for a great Channel Spatsiba !
I understand that Soviet Russians used to cross the channel and go there to carry on the way Americans would do in Tijuana. I read a book when I was about 24 about living in Soviet Russia and the author (I think it was David Halberstam....this was the same time period that the movie "Gorky Park" came out, I think) said that Finland was a close-by place to do things they couldn't do what they could do at home (like Tijuana!).
Actually, after hearing the entire show, I see that the American journalist painted the story the exact opposite. It wasn't the Russians going to Finland to cut loose, it was the reverse. Even back in the 80's, we were being told a different story. (or, just as likely, I am not recalling it correctly.)
Just to notify that you showed pictures of Tallinn, Estonia and not Finland in your video. Besides Leningrad, Tallinn was also favorite destination of Finns as Estonian and Finnish languages are similar and because we always watched Finnish TV from childhood, most of the Estonians speak fluent Finnish. After Estonia got it’s independence, Finland had a big role to build Estonian economy to the EU level.
This video was about Finns visiting the Soviet Union, not Finland
My mothers family is from Kemi. I got a puukko knife for my birthday this year after they visited. They went to St. Petersburg also and bought me a bible in Russian. Cant wait to travel myself. I want to piss off TSA in Portland when they see my stamp from Russia.
Sounds reasonable
Sergei, the Soviet Anecdote authority:P
Did you know that where St Petersburg is today, there used to be a Swedish town, Nyen. In Nyen, there was a Finnish congegration and a church, which remained there even as St Petersburg had been built. After the revolution, however, the church had to be abandoned. Two silver candle sticks were moved along with some other stuff to the Finnish congegration in Stockholm and you can see them there to this day!
It sounds like no one heard about the famous Finnish sniper, Samo Häyhä.
Pukurumchik almost certainly came from the finnish word for chewing gum, Purukummi!
1:30 - isn't that Tallinn?
My little avatar is Moomintroll, from "Finn Family Moomin", I just remembered.
My father used to sell rubic's cubes for vodka in Soviet Union
Finnish plastic shopping bags and ball point pens were appreciated.
In the eighties nearly 10% of the youth of Leningrad must have been working as black market money changers! They were all over, opening their coats and displaying 10-12 fannypacks, and whispering: "change money"!
Valio still makes Viola.
I love how you continue to prove that communism sucks and always will suck! Keep up the good work
Can you do a video on how Soviet people viewed Polish people? I'm half Polish and have always been curious
Yes, it's on my list
Alleged Soviet saying: The Poles are mad: they want to earn like the Sweedes and work like us. Yours Jens
Can you go nation by nation and how Soviets looked at them. Every single one that you can recall of. Even if video is just a couple of minutes long. For example, I know that Yugoslavia quoted quite well. Even the song from our singer "Devojko mala" was so popular. I got it sung by two Ukrainian old musicians in Kievan restaurant, explaining to me how popular that song was at that time. How about Hungarians, Romanians, Germans, French, Sweeds, Norwegians (if any), Polish, Bulgarians, Turks, etc. etc. etc. How did Soviets at that time looked at them and what was the emotion towards that country. Mongols, Chinese, Japanese, Koreans, Iranians, Indians, etc. etc. etc.
Hello from Finland. Interesting video and nice photos! My dad is leaving to sgt. Petersburg as a tourist in like right now!
You were right about alcohol price: it has always been high in Finland, gov monopoly (for national health reasons).
I think "Finns didn't give mercy" was propaganda. There were many POWs, some were taken for agricultural work because there was a serious shortage of food in Finland during the Continuation War (41-44). Not so much during Winter War (39-40).
I like Russia and Russian people, none of us people alive today are responsible to that horrible history. Some people like to hate and some are greedy, so yes there are still people who can't see Russia in positive light no matter what, but I think they are these days a very small minority any more.
Definately Russia has these days been good and important balance against American imperialism. Unfortunately Finnish media is completely with the pro EU+NATO establishment hands and tries to turn Finnish people accepting NATO membership by demonizing Russia and Putin: that's not gonna happen, NATO membership is only supported by 20% of the people and the support has been decreasing. The propaganda is so apparent, people see through it. I'm hoping information era will break establishment monopoly in news and media, and people couldn't be fooled in wars again. Unfortunately establishment in the USA & the EU is now fighting hard to maintain this edge and shut down independent media.
I'm also interested of prehistory, Stone Age and early metal ages mostly, and Russia is so interesting region in that sense. Especially to us Finns as our language family may have developped in Northern Russia. Also Finnish genetic admixture is very similar with Northern Russian (if interested, see this paper: Genetic Heritage of the Balto-Slavic Speaking Populations: A Synthesis of Autosomal, Mitochondrial and Y-Chromosomal Data). Our pagan age gods were common with the Slavs and the Balts (Finnish Perkele/Piru is the same god as Slavic Perun and Balt Perkunas), and we got Christianity from Novgorod (not from Sweden as our school books have claimed for decades). There has always been a close connection with our peoples, through millenias. Cold War was a sad phase in history, and I hope we don't see such dark time ever again.
Russia is a Finnish conspiracy to conquer and enslave the Slavic people but when a Georgian somehow started ruling Russia that plan backfired a little bit. I always say that Russians are no Slavs but Finno-Ugrians and Turks.
Karelia had been part of Finland until the Finnish defeat by the Soviets in WWII. The terms of the peace treaty were rather harsh towards the Finns, including deference towards Moscow in it's foreign policy, and if defectors were promptly turned back it was not because of lack of sympathy but for self preservation.
Some defectors did successfully defect through Finland to Sweden etc., even getting help from Finnish policemen. One of the most famous is an Estonian guy who crossed the sea on a rubber boat, and even a KGB officer (Oleg Gordievsky), who was a double agent and escaped to the UK and a Deputy Prime Minister of Estonia (Valdo Randpere), who came to Finland legally and then fled to Sweden...
Talk about what they thought of people in central asia like Kazakhstan Uzbekistan Turkmenistan Kirghistan and Tajikistan
Cool
Finns have a own word for Russian woman who did hunt men to marry them. It's venako if I remember correctly. Lived 13 years in Helsinki but never managed to get hold of the finnish language. 😑
sebastian riemer Venakko.
Hey Sergei could you do a video on Soviet highschool?
@@UshankaShow Thanks
Do you have any opinions on 'shock therapy' (economics not medical)?
Finnish diary product is very good~~
I am from finland can confrim prohibation ended sometime in 1938-1950s. We didn't start war. We are still are sosialistic. We had also name for soviets "ryssä" it is not nice name we use it now. we have the sugar in paper bags. can ask other thing if one wants. ps we ware scared of soviet union sometimes.
edit alcohol is hella epensive in finland.
We are capitalist. We have free market
@@deeremies2266 Exept with alcohol
@@ImForwardlook Good point i forgot
We were called "Tsuhna" in Leningrad in the 70-ies
Tchuhnya is the racist term toward all uralic people not only Finns :)
Hey Sergei, are there any stereotypes that Americans make about the Soviet Union that gets on your nerves?
Yeah that Putin conspired to get trump elected.
What did the Soviet people think about China?
@1manuscriptman I already know about the Sino-Soviet split. What I meant was how did the ordinary Soviet citizen feel about China.
I know from the chinese side, we use to look up to the soviet union as the big brother, many older chinese can speak russian and i know a fair few who went to university in the soviet union, but it was like a light was flicked and ussr became negative and yes it was because of the split, some who were educated in the ussr were victims of the cultural revolution, officially i know lenin and stalin was viewed positively but after that not so much
But china did copy the ussr bureaucracy and i do know that khrushchevkas did have a lot of influence in terms of housing people
@@anthonypang7927 I can say from the Russian side. The emotions of the Russians were two kinds. First, we admired Chinese as the most ancient folk at the Earth who invented paper, gunpowder and the compass. There were many Chinese narrations translated into Russian as The Three Kingdoms. When I was at the University I visited tranings of the WuShu and the TaiJiQuan.
The other, the Cultural Revolution was taut as an example of hell. Also such exemples as killing of sparrows and dogs, and trying to melt out steel in small melting pots at country yards. Also, the policy of Mao against the Soviet Union and Vietnam were considered as agressive. Nobody talked that there was Nikita Khrushchyov the trator who stepped off from policy of Josef Stalin.
And now, China is viewed by many people as successful example of combining of market economy and socialist ideology. Many people think it's time to take a lesson from China how to develop the economy. Will be a success? We will see. So I hope I answered you question didn't I? 👪☺
@@ДмитрийВронский-в3с i was lucky enough to visit russia last year and i found russians and chinese actually very similar in many ways, i also found many chinese could join in with some russian folk songs
But yeah russia is an amazing country, i must return and visit other parts, i was in moscow, st petersburg, kazan, nizhny, volgograd, sochi, samara, ulyanovsk, saransk, golden ring
The thing i love about russians is, once you are befriended you are a friend for life
My Chinese friend's dad said that the Chinese were afraid of the Soviet Union. He said they'd have regular nuclear bomb drills at school in case of Soviet attack.
In my family there were some Finnish relatives that had moved to the USSR and when they got old and nostalgic they moved back. Some stayed there so I still have some Finnish family living there. I wonder if an ordinary Finn with no such ties thinks Stalin purged all those Finns, because that is the picture you easily get in Finland. Certainly many were purged and some moved to Canada or the USA, where they had immigrated to the USSR.
Priviet toverish.when covid ends I'll be back in petersburg.Visited 2 years ago and it was way more interesting then western perfect booring cities.So much to see.And we are vodka people too so party party.So prepare for another drunk finn on the street.paka paka.
Most of the Soviet units sent to Finland for the Winter War were Ukrainian conscripts with little to no training or winter clothing. My Great Grandfather served in the Finnish Army in the Winter War and WW2
Regular women turn tricks in russia that time for currency and clothes etc...So nice place to have fun.
Now you mention opinion about winter war,what do you think about Afghan war?
@@UshankaShow I mean the soviet intervention
Please do not forget the chewing gum - box of it and your journey was paid. And yes tourist could not bring no more 1 bottle of hard liquer tax free.
Ushanka-man I think you will eventually find that what the Soviet people thought about Finns is unfortunately meaningless since the only information they had was just the BS from the soviet government. The Finns certainly have no reason to like any of the Russian governments. The Finns (Suomi) were various tribes, including the Karelians and distantly-related Sami (Lapplanders). The Swedes invaded and took control of Finland and then invaded Russia in the 1700s (the Finns didn't invade Russia, the Swedes did). Then the Russian tsar invaded Finland and claimed control, booting out the Swedes. The Russian Duchy of Finland ended when the Russian monarchy was slaughtered in 1917 and Finland declared independence Dec.6, 1917. Then of course the Russian Reds made war against Finland, a county with a population of 3 million at the time. And so on until Russia again tried to invade Finland in 1939... just can't leave it alone. The soviets were unable to invade all of Finland as they'd hoped. But just look at good (not soviet) historical maps and see how much land the Russians still have of Finnish peoples' land... besides all of Karelia, almost all of eastern Finland from Norway down to Lake Ladoga, Sortavala and Vyborg (which are hardly Russian names).
When Moscow finally granted freedom to so many countries in 1991 why didn't it also liberate those Finnish lands and Karelia? Just wondering.
I remember during the 1960s-1980s (yes, I'm that old) that poor little Finland was really living on a knife edge, having to always be SO careful not to give Russia the slightest excuse to invade again. I think that may be the reason that they dared NOT to keep any escapees (defectors) from Russia. As far as Finns all being drunks... pot calling kettle black, maybe? :)
Just had to say all that because, although I really like your videos, I felt this one needed a bit more info. Keep up the great work!
Thank you for your awesome comment! I actually posted a question on Leningrad forum about the Soviet days and Finn tourists. So those were first-hand experiences, not newspaper articles.
Knute M Sweden never invaded Finland. Finland was a part of Sweden, a true heartland. Swedish-speaking people settled in the coastal regions of Finland before there were any Finnish people there.
@@hederoth7883 There wasn't a country called Finland when Sweden "invaded" Finland. But the Finnish tribes had already existed in those areas for a long time. Basicly Swedes just came and told that you are now going to pay your taxes to Stockholm and since you don't speak our language we kind of are just going to use your recourses (men for war and taxes to Swedish main land). It was a bit like colonialism.
Russia actually cared more about Finland. Taxes stayed in Finland we could make own laws and so on. But often this is not highlited since later Finland wanted independence from Russia.
I think the question whether or not Finland was colonized by Sweden is on the same level as if the Anglo-Saxons ”colonized” the Celts in Britain. Firstly, there were very few people there in, say, the 12th century to be colonized. Secondly, the Swedish state was not yet a very clear or stable formation in those days. What I want to say is that Swedish speaking people were not sent to Finland by order of a King, backed up by troops. People probably went there because they wanted to explore the fur trade, find land for agriculture or even escape the rule of the Swedish kings. In any case, the combination of swedes and finns proved to be successful in the end. Paradoxically, a lot of the people who were instrumental in defining the Finnish identity were of Swedish origin (Elias Lönnroth, Mannerheim, Sibelius). At the same time, you are right insofar that the development of a Finnish national consciousness and identity became possible only under Russian rule in the 19th century. Sweden would most likely have oppressed such ambitions. What do you think the result would have been if Russia had not concquered Finland in 1809? What would that nation be like? Would the Finns have felt oppressed all the way up to modern times, or had they become fully absorbed, reducing the Finnish language into a language only for family and friends? Or would Sweden in its entirety be bi-lingual? Together, we would maybe have invaded Norway and Denmark and created a United Kingdom of Scandinavia? :-)
Anyone know if you could be a Soviet citizen and go into Finland
If you got permission from Soviet administration, Finland it self didn't have any policies against it.
It was fairly difficult. There were organized student exchange programs, but even those were often cancelled. Then in 1988 or -89 such an exchange finally took place in our university; we got a group of students from Moscow to Helsinki for ten days and then we went to Moscow for ten days. This was totally arranged by the students and it is difficult to describe the situation when the train stopped in Helsinki and the Soviet students stepped on the platform - it was like your sisters and brothers had managed to get back from a risky flight to the moon.
Before I watched the video I thought it would not be great. Winter War and all that...
How did soviet people view greeks, sergei? That is both greeks in greece, a post-wwii monarcho-fascist anticommunist state and following nato member, as well as their own greeks from black sea, mariupol, azov, caucasus regions as well as the wwii and greek civil war partisans that took refuge in ussr, eg. Tashkent, Uzbekistan.. I know a lot of cartoons about ancient greek mythology were popular in greece too around the 80es
The Winter war and the continuation war!!?? Are you joking concerning Finnish neutrality during the second world war in relation to the Soviet union?
Finland took back what the Soviets occupied and not an inch more.
@@UshankaShow I wholeheartedly agree
To be fair to the Soviet Union, lying about an attack to justify a war is something the US has done. And yes it is a weird thing to do, it’s quite nefarious where ever that happens.
Cool
Black currency exchange rates were ten folds better than the officials so everything was free.
I'm curious how the Finns and the Karelians relate to each other.
Karelians are a Finnic ethnic group indigenous to the historical region of Karelia. Karelians are closely related to Finns.
Karelians living in Russian Karelia are considered a distinct ethnic group. Karelians living in Finnish Karelia are considered a subset of Finns.
@@UshankaShow What I meant is, how their relations are today rather than historically. Do the effects of Swedish colonialization/Lutheranism to the west and Russian rule/Orthodoxy to the east make for a permanent divide? Or has there been any reconnection after the end of the Soviet era?
I come from Finland-Swede grandparents, and the small-cousins there are still speaking Swedish 500 years after relocating across the Gulf of Bothnia, some 200 years after Finland became a Tsarist Duchy, and a century after independence. _Conservative!_
@@hillside21 There really isn't a relationship between karelians in Russia and Finns these days. Karelians who evacuated from the Finnish karelia are still very active in their communities in Finland.
I heard that Elvis music was smuggled into Russia via black market because it was banned? For real?
Not only Elvis. Probably 90% of Western music was banned. Because it was propaganda of sex, riots, etc
So this video is Finnished?
Please tell us about how Homosexuals are treated in the Confederation of Soviet States, please. We trust you for the truth about this.
ua-cam.com/video/1OBYE-x6xnI/v-deo.html
So why did the war start between Finland and USSR?
@@UshankaShow And.......why?
@@UshankaShow And what was the reason??
Geopolitical reasons. Finland had previously fought it's own civil war in 1918 and the white forces had won unlike in Russia. This was possible with the help of German troops, support and milliary training. The whole country was at that point run by the white anti-communists. Soviets feared that Finland was potentially too close to the Nazi-Germany. This was in a time when the man leading Germany had previously written a book about how he wanted to massacre the "slavic judeobolshevic sub-humans" and resettle Russia with aryan germans. So the threat was very real.
The finnish border at the time was about 30km (20 mi in freedom units) from Leningrad (St.Peterburg) and this was a massive security risk in case if war broke out with germany and that seemed only a matter of time.
Soviets wanted this border moved further west from Leningrad and in exchange they would give Finland more land further north that contained russian-finnish villages that had previously wanted to join Finland. The negotiations however were unsuccessful after some offers and counter offers and the war happened, because the risk to Leningrad still remained. In the end soviets took the areas that they had requested, but with casualties. Finland also did later ally itself with the Nazi Germany in continuation war, that was a extension of Operation Barbarosa. But was this only a revenge for winter war or done because of imperialism and with genuine fascist sympathies?(google greater Finland, Lapua movement and Patriotic People's Movement). Maybe It also could have been that war could have been avoided if Finland had did the land swap with the soviet union? Hard to say.
Source: I'm a finn (and wikipedia)
@@orim298s aggressive wars are illegal you know.
@@orim298s that's why you see agendas being pushed for intervention in foreign countries, see Afghanistan, Iraq, Venezuela etc.
1 Finnish vs 500 Russians= 1 Finnish winner. Anybody have any sisu?
FINNISH THEM!
Stalin attempted to coerce Finland to join the Soviet Union, as he had with the other Baltic countries. The Finns enlisted the support of the Germans (Nazis) to hold off the Russians. It worked. Later, the Germans attempted to force the Finns to close the circle around Leningrad. They wouldn't. The siege failed ("The 900 Days" by Harrison E. Salisbury is an excellent book on the subject).
Simo Häyhä, belaja smert, killed 500 Russian soldiers in Winter war.