Urho Kekkonen (president of Finland) was on a state visit to the Soviet Union. In the evening he dined with Khrushchev, They were talking and drinking, and getting along tremendously. Suddenly Khrushchev said: "You know, Urho, I've been thinking... Our two countries get along so very well, and we have such great co-operation, and we are such good friends... Do we really need that border between us?" All the Finnish diplomats in the room froze. Kekkonen calmly emptied his glass and said: "You know, Nikita, I've been thinking about the same thing, but I've come to the conclusion that I'm way too old to rule such a large country!"
@@wintekowa5889 I support Russia, I guess you support NATO, and in a normal world, you argue with someone that is in opposite side or position that you're in. If you just want to argue with someone that have the same opinion of you, than you're a little snowball that need to be protected.
@@VodkaPandas You support an authoritarian autocrat who can hardly keep his shit under control, is losing to NATO, a crumbling economy, and no advantage except scale of bodies to throw at us, and a nuclear arsenal that may in fact be largely disabled. He is a former KGB agent. Russians have no right to protest, no right to free speech, and he has attacked Georgia and Ukraine for reasons of russian supremacy and idealism as opposed to legitimate strategic ones. Convince me why I should support him without just taking pot shots at the west. If he is a worthy cause, he can stand on his own without having to resort to some 'lesser evil' shtick. I'll hear you out.
It should have been mentioned that Finland as a culture (language, customs, etc.) existed as a separate entity but under Sweden for most of its existence - this beginning makes it appear as if it was originally part of the Russian empire (this was for a relatively short time).
This is the kind of context that is good to have, but not strictly necessary as the fact that it was at some point part of the russian empire is all that really matters since its why stalin wanted it these videos are short, remember
@@ethribin4188 Its hard to say. Finnish tribes have been culturaly independent even before nations formed, just like the swedes and sámi. Finland wasnt exactly a part of Mainland Sweden when it was in the Swedish Empire, same thing for the Russian Empire. The difference I would say is that under the Swedish Empire finland was never conquered as a nation or as a specific population, but more to do with sweden's basic incentive to expand during the early stages of the nation. Finland itself was just populated by majority finns than swedes, and add the sea between them, it became pretty different from mainland sweden quickly.
I'd argue that saying that "Finland chose war" is an oversimplification. What the Finnish politicians were afraid of (and rightfully so) was that the Soviets would keep on coming with new demands and in the end try to occupy Finland by force anyways. Going to war was not really a choice, it was the only option.
@@sergeyg436 Finland had no interest in going to war with the Soviets. They would have much rather stayed neutral and gone on with living their lives in peace and quiet. Minding their own business. Finland didn't choose war, they were forced into it.
@@tobesfb I mean Finland could accept the offer of the USSR and if the USSR had not stopped Finland would defend their lands with weapons. We know that the Soviets didn't annex the whole Finland during the WW2 but they could do that as Finland was an ally of Germany. So that, there was a big chance that the Soviets would not started the winter war if Finland had agreed to the offer.
@@sergeyg436 Just like happened when Estonia accepted the USSRs proposal? It is well documented fact that USSR was gonna try annexing Finland, the asking to move border to let less defensible position was just theater.
"Why didn't the Soviet Union annex Finland?" Simple answer: The Soviet Union existet until the 26th of Dezember 1991, Simo Häyhä existed until the 1st of April 2002.
@@racelkatyusha403 cold snowy mountain terrain can easily be defended with a simple handgrenade against a full tank batallion. even today its hard to conquer such regions, helicopters have also a hardtime there, jets are to fast to properly support ground troops and a full on infantry attack is costly. can easily end up 100:1 in losses while often ahrd to maintain over longer period. in short you really dont want to go there
In the 1960s, my Polish grandfather was given a place on the organised trip USSR-Finland. He gave it to my grandmother, who was very excited about it. She visited cities like Moscow and Leningrad and later, Helsinki. What is quite funny is that while Russians proudly presented them places like Red Square or Bolshoi Theatre, she and everybody else couldn't wait to see only Finland, a different world. They really wanted to visit a capitalist country. To this day, when she tells about it, her eyes shine with amazement when she reminds herself of Finland. Not magnificent Moscow or beautiful Leningrad, it was Finland everybody wanted to see and everybody remembered the most. The Lenin's corpse disgusted her btw
Turns out that just because you're really good at playing defense doesn't make you good at playing offense. Finland is great at the former, but they don't have enough people to properly challenge a country with as deep a talent pool as Russia. But enough about soccer.
Another fun fact - during Cold War Finland was essentially the only western country on permanent good terms with USSR, and end up being the traffic stop for significant chunk of USSR trade with the west which benefited Finland greatly. End of Cold War actually hurt Finland economy as Russia would now trade with other western countries directly without need for Finland bridge.
This was done largely because Finland, as the neighbour of USSR, was trying to avoid all negative remarks by their very large neighbour. Many thought that if they'd stop following the peace treaty (for example), it would be an immediate invasion by the Soviet forces.
Wrong, in the 80's Romania was the only country in the world to be debt free at the cost of hunger to it's citizens. So take into account the costs for WW stuff besides the usual debt. So Finland is not the only country to fully pay owed debts.
@@lixicus Romania seems to be an interesting case but it seems that SovRom drained Romanian resources to the point that the initially agreed reparations were never technically paid. (Edit: I understand that's basically the same as what you said.)
As a Finn I found it hard to recognise the Finnish leaders but got there in the end. Mannerheim was pretty easy, the one with the glasses I think is J. K. Paasikivi and the partially bald one with the small moustache is Risto Ryti (although Ryti is shown during the winter war, when the president was Kyösti Kallio.)
@Абдульзефир You wanted them to dissolve their fortifications on the border making them vulnerable from an attack. It also saw what happened to the baltic states after they agreed to a pact with the USSR and did not want to end up like them.
@Абдульзефир Misunderstood your comment but my point still stands, why would a country go to a war that would make them suffer 300k casualties and just want to demand 11% of the finnish territory, you can see in the original soviet battleplans about how they planned a complete occupation of finland.
@Абдульзефир They told the finns to dismantle their fortifications making defence much more harder, who would take such a deal. Finland declared its neutrality literally right when the war begun, why would a country with not even 4 million people recklessly want to go to war with a military giant that has 130 million people.
@@nowhereman6019 Polonisation is an ideology followed by the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth where the citizens of non-Polish nations are turned Polish. That is why everyone forgets about Lithuanians in the Commonwealth. Polonisation is like the Polish Manifest Destiny where we Poles wanted to expand East and instead of moving the native people but turning the native people into Poles. It was very common for Lithuanians & Ruthinians (Modern Ukrainians & Belarusians) to hate being forced to become a nation they weren't. That is why to this day Lithuanians hate Poles. If the Commonwealth annexed Muscovy/Russia in the 1600s in the Polish-Russian War, the Muscovites/Russians would be forced to become Poles and then the Commonwealth would become the superpower and become what Russia is in our timeline. Polonisation is nothing to do with divid and conquer but the opposite.
don't fool people, own culture? that culture you are responsible for it's total eradication is called SAAMI and it is a common northern culture between Norway Sweden & Finland.
@@salmanem.6017 Why don’t you stop fooling people…Finnish and Sami cultures are two different things and sami culture is Not eradicated. Do your research before making foolish claims like that
@@salmanem.6017 You are an utter fool to try to create a divide between the Finns against the Samis. We are brothers of the same language family and share a similar history of oppression all the way until 1917.
1:07 there's a little mistake there. The Soviet Union did want the land showed right there since Finland's border then was very close to Leningrad (Petersburg) in exchange for Finland getting some other land up north. But the reason Finland didn't accept was that they also wanted some islands from the south and they wanted to rent an area inside of Finland for military purposes. Finland couldn't accept these deals since they wished to stay neutral which is why the Soviet Union made up a story about Finnish mortars hitting their soil, giving the soviets a reason to attack.
Bull. Stalinin wanted to conquer the whole of Finland. He bragged that the Soviet Union will conquer Finland in two weeks. That did not happen. The Soviet Union knew very well Finland was not a dangerous country.
@@butterflies655 I was commenting on the fact that the video claimed that the Soviet Union said "give this land or war" while in reality it was "make this deal or else..." . You're probably right that if Finland accepted the deal that the USSR would still have invaded since a similar situation happened in the Baltics where they accepted some deals with the USSR making them weaker before invasion.
@user-wj6dt5bq3w For example molotov ribbentrop pact and the establishment of the terijoki government which was supposed to take over the entire country after the soviet invasion plus some common understanding of russian politics
Oscar Siddle I didn’t steal your comment I did mine before please don’t get mad, (I did a similar comment casually) I hate when someone steals my comments that why I am explaining you that I didn’t steal yours
nah, you dont know Stalin. If he wanted to annex it, he would simply move the entire nation directly to the North Pole, leaving only loyal communists and settling Nazi-supported nations from the southern regions in the empty cities as punishment.
Reminds me of an interview of George Pickett. He was asked why the assault on Cemetery Ridge failed on July 3rd, 1863. He replied: ”I’ve always thought the Yankees had something to do with it” - George Pickett, the Confederate General Major. Similar isn’t it?
I'd say that one the biggest factor was that Finland was one of the few western countries that USSR could do large scale trading with. It benefited them, but it most definitely benefited Finland that received masses of crude oil, natural gas etc. in the coming decades that helped lift it from agriculture to industry.
@@gordonski9310 Actually Finland is already late in that it should've joined NATO in the 90s while that drunkard Yeltsin was still president. Whole country filled with silos of Minutemen with minutes flying time to St Petersburg would deter any and all aggression from the east.
@@GreatPolishWingedHussars Poland does not like being called as Eastern country. You being good at geography where would you locate Finland or Sweden ?
Thanks for the video. The sentence "Finland chose war" struck my ear. Not to yield under bullying is not to choose war. It is just to stand your ground. Soviets chose war. And Finland withstood an amount of beating but did not ultimately shatter. A bit like Ukraine today. They did not choose war. Russians did.
Yet Zelensky keeps prolonging the war and sacrificing his own people ... why isn't he showing his "strength" and signing a neutrality act too? Finland is a free and well off country isn't it? This could very well be the solution to Ukraine who forcibly .... but that little clown and excuse of a puppet president Zelensky wants to join NATO.
I believe he's talking about how severe winter can destroy your war strategy, in which both didn't learn. The Swedish & Napoleon had done the same thing after all.
@@livinglifeform7974 no they didn't? They invaded finland because of stalin's paranoia lol if they didn't invade the continuation war wouldn't have happened and the Soviets would have more men for the eastern front, Stalin's demands were crazy why should the finnish be forced to give up land for no reason other than paranoia?
The fact that Finland could border such a massive superpower and NOT get annexed by it is like sitting a cage full of hungry lions and slowly walking out of it with not even a scratch.
We have this saying: "emme ole ruotsalaisia ja venäläisiksi emme ikinä tule". Basically means: "we are not Swedish and we will never be Russians". I'm so proud of our country and people who wanted to fight for us
Esc jon, the saying is: We are no more Swedes, we don't want to become Russians, so let us be Finns. This "no more" is missing in several occasions and it changes this quote a bit.
@@AbdullahKhan-pv1qz To be fair, you have to have a very high IQ to understand Rick and Morty. The humor is extremely subtle, and without a solid grasp of theoretical physics most of the jokes will go over a typical viewer's head. There's also Rick's nihilistic outlook, which is deftly woven into his characterisation - his personal philosophy draws heavily from Narodnaya Volya literature, for instance. The fans understand this stuff; they have the intellectual capacity to truly appreciate the depths of these jokes, to realize that they're not just funny- they say something deep about LIFE. As a consequence people who dislike Rick and Morty truly ARE idiots- of course they wouldn't appreciate, for instance, the humour in Rick's existencial catchphrase "Wubba Lubba Dub Dub," which itself is a cryptic reference to Turgenev's Russian epic Fathers and Sons. I'm smirking right now just imagining one of those addlepated simpletons scratching their heads in confusion as Dan Harmon's genius unfolds itself on their television screens. What fools... how I pity them. 😂 And yes by the way, I DO have a Rick and Morty tattoo. And no, you cannot see it. It's for the ladies' eyes only- And even they have to demonstrate that they're within 5 IQ points of my own (preferably lower) beforehand.
Video claims at 1:24 that "Finland looked to claim these lands". If I recall correctly from our history lectures, it was Germany that asked Finland to push that far, hoping to bind more Soviet troops to that front. Finland was more or less satisfied claiming the old borders and was reluctant to push further, anticipating the unavoidable counter-offensive.
Actually there were some talks in our government at the time to occupie places, where other finno-urgic people lived. Those places in the USSR include the Kola Peninsula and the rest of Karelia.
There were def some Finns who wanted to go further and a lot atleast wanted to take most of karelia, but also youre correct that majority wanted to be chill, in case of things going south, since we didnt want to give ussr reason to go into helsinki with "no matter what" mentality
Finland relies on defense doctrine that ”Russia can invade Finland, but the cost of that act will be that much painful that it’s not worth trying”. It was then and it is also now.
@@mensrea1251 Finlandisation is a way of maintaining peace and independence by submitting to more powerful neighbor. But military defense comes to play when finlandisation is not enough or if we are tired to do that. Like now. F*** off Russia!
Defense doctrine? It is a lie that the Soviets wanted to attack the Finns in 1941 because it's also a historical fact that the Finns have invited the German allied troops to their country and join them in attacking the Soviets. Finns and Germans did not defend themselves, but attacked the Soviet Union together. They were the aggressors in 1941. Nor was it a preventive attack by the Germans and Finns. Because the justification for a preventive attack requires the immediate danger of an attack. This imminent threat of war by Soviets existed neither against the Germans nor against the Finns because the Soviets signed with Finland in Moscow on 12 March 1940 a Peace Treaty that ended the war and Germans signed with Sowjets a non-aggression pact on 23 August 1939. By the way, the Finns deserved the Soviet occupation considering what they did. Because they were allied with the worst gang of murderers in world history! Yes, the Finns fought valiantly together with the criminals. Even with a swastika as a badge. The Germans did not invade Finland to force them to participate. The Finns were voluntarily the allies of the Germans. The Finns have invited the German troops into their country as allies. The so-called "winter war" from Nov 30, 1939 to Mar 13, 1940 was over with a peace treaty. Nevertheless then Finland took part in the German attack on the Soviet Union in 1941. That is why Great Britain declared war on the Finns and attacked Finnish troops with bombers too. Finland was so the enemie of Europe's liberators because Finland has allied itself with absolute evil. With this, Finland took part in the criminal war of this monster. The Finns fought side by side with these criminal mass murderers. Finland did this to conquer territory. Apparently Finland not only wanted the lost territories of the Winter War, but also wanted to take other territories away from the Soviets. The Finnish parliament declared that the aim of the war was to restore the areas lost during the winter war and to gain more areas in the east in order to create a "Greater Finland". President Ryti said this to the Finnish Parliament in 1941. By September 1941, the Finns recaptured the territories lost in the Winter War. However, the Finnish Army continued the offensive past the pre-1939 border with the conquest of Soviet territories, as well as halting only around 30-32 km (19-20 mi) from the centre of Leningrad, where they participated in besieging the city by cutting its northern supply routes and digging in until 1944. The Finnish fleet also participated in the sea blockade of the city. Incidentally, the Soviets made Finland an offer of peace. However, this was rejected by Finland and the Finns continued to participate in the inhumane siege of Leningrad. The blockade became one of the longest and most destructive sieges in history, and it was possibly the costliest siege in history due to the number of casualties which were suffered throughout its duration! A total of around 1 million people died, both soldiers and civilians. Mainly from hunger. Hundreds of thousands are starved to death. Finns were involved in the siege and thus also in the genocides on the Slavic nations in the city. Because the siege was part of the genocide against the Slavic nations of the Soviet Union. But also the genocides in other occupied areas could have been completed with the extermination of entire nations through this victory of this devilish allies. If the Germans and the Finns had won the war. Tens of millions more people would have died as a result of this victory. Fortunately, these aggressors lost the war together. One thing is certain, if the Finns had won together with the Germans. Then as a Slavic Pole I would be not alive today. Because the Germans would have exterminated us all with the help in war of the Finns. So the Soviet occupation would have been an appropriate punishment.
1:25 source? from what i understand they just wanted to take back what was lost in the winter war. They stopped their advance waaaaaaaaay before hitler conveniantly exactly where the borders were pre-winter war. If they were looking to to take kola and even leningrad they could have.
Ridiculous to claim such a thing from a nation that only gained independence in the 20th century and before that was always mastered by foreign powers. Other countries also have this fate in Europe but are not megalomaniac and do not brag!
maybe in the past, but now nukes exit, don't they ? touch of button they don't exit anymore. So stop proposing war. It's better for finland to stay neutral. The war in Ukraine is because of multiple reasons. At this present age, russia has no interest in ginland or Sweden
@@Haliitti Well, who would freely giveup land of their country. Who would like to be invated. But with these kind of things it is very important to give all necessary information. Finns didn't just say "Duck you and take it if you want it". It was diplomacy all the way to shelling of Mainila. Soviet needed excuse for war. In continuation war when finns wanted theirs back. Only country that would aid against red machine was Germany. No one cared or helped when soviet tryed to invade. Many thanks to Estonian and Svedish + many more soldiers that willingly served and came to aid when finns fought against overpowering enemy.
'Choosing war' doesn't mean the country in question attacked, but that they decided something that would cause a war (see ultimatum) It's sad that 217 people misinterpreted this...
@@vilivuorinen8812 On the topic of the Winter War, the global opinion was on the side of Finland. Saying that no one cared is false. There isn't just much you can do to an invasion of a country straight outside of USSR when it's 1939. France and the UK also had a plan to assist Finland, which was also used as an attempt of blocking iron supplies by the UK. That plan required moving your forces through multiple countries, which Germany responded with threathening Sweden with an invasion
@@Vekkuli001 Finland decited not to give land freely. Then ussr tryed to take it. Would you give your land freely, and when they try and take it, would that be your choosing.
Finland always was and is watching after it's own country. It has done it very well so far. It is a prosperous country with high standard of living along with other Nordic countries.
Oh, BW: is is quite wrong to say that Finland *came into existence" as late as 1917. Remember that Finland, when it was still part of the Empire, had a great deal of autonomy as part of the Empire. This virtual independence continued up until the reign of Tsar Nicholas II, who inadvisably broke the agreement previous Tsars had with Finland and tried Russifying it. But before then, Finland was virtually independent, having its own Parliament and laws. In fact, Finnish nationalism grew more under the Russians than it ever did under the preceding rule of Sweden. There was even a land called 'Finland' before even the Swedes occupied it. So the true date of the origin of Finland should be some time back then.
SpectatorAlius Before the Russian 100 years' occupation Finland had been an integral East province of the kingdom of Sweden for nearly 700 years. When Sweden lost Finland in the early 19th century the kingdom lost 1/3 of its total land mass. Before that Finland had been Sweden's easternmost province for nearly 700 years. The arctic Petsamo region in the northenmost part of Finland was originally old Russian territory but the Russian government exchanged it with the Finns in 1923, so that Finland gave the Russians some land at the border region near Leningrad on the Karelian isthmus. The Russians took Petsamon back after the WW2. When the Finnish peace negotiator team had asked Stalin about the possibility of keeping Petsamo, the Generalissimus had responded that they 'usually sell their land only once'.
@@esah9182 700 years as a province is not what most people are willing to call "independent existence as a nation" or even "autonomy". But Tsar Alexander I gave near complete autonomy to Finland, which persisted until Tsar Nicholas II's foolish decision to 'Russify' Finland. But that was nearly 100 years of the most privileged position in the whole Russian Empire!
Finnish nationalism grew under Russian rule because the Russian's encouraged it. It was the obvious and easy way to destroy their traditional identity with Sweden. Same reason the early Tsar's treated the Finns well by Russian standards. Finns kept their Swedish style parliament and laws under Russian rule, trouble was that this at the time of the annexation gave the king near absolute power. Meaning that the Russian Tsar could do anything he liked, while appearing gracious and enlightened.
I think given the stiff resistance the Finns put up, and deteriorating realtions with the Allies during WWII, annexing Finland would have been problematic.
You are kidding, right? USSR steamrolled all the way to Berlin defeating the Nazi Germany and could not overcome tiny Finland? I know it is cool to think that Finland was able to withstand Soviet assault, but somehow people forget thet both times Finland seeked peace urgently and sacrificed a lot for USSR to accept it. And no onder - in 1940 it took the Soviets three months to break the Finns, while in 1944 - only 2 weeks to take them all the way to their original border with absolutely no hope of holding out much longer. Get real!
The main reason was because the british and french were planning to land troops in Finland and the war had been a diplomatic disaster for Stalin more than anything military related
@@yurikozhokin8348 consider that breaking an army doesnt mean the same thing as breaking the people. the finnish population would have sabotaged roads, poisoned wells, done whatever needed to make the occupying soviet army suffer, Finland would have been quite easy land for a guerilla army, small platoons of resistance members in the forests where soviet war machine could not reach. It would not have been a cakewalk for the soviets, hence why they agreed to a peace deal.
@@VictorTheProcrastinator please, do not overestimate the power of regular people. Many of them just want to live regardless of the politics. As for guerilla tactics, Soviets dealt with that in the Baltics and Ukraine. Yeah, it took a few years, but it got wiped out successfully. Finns are still people. USSR achieved it's minimum goals in both wars, hence was willing to sign. Again, the Soviets crushed the Nazi Germany - thinking that small Finland could fare better against the biggest country in the world is nonsense. Just a small example - in the first month of Germany's war against the USSR alone over 3 million German soldiers crossed the Soviet border. Finland's total population at that time was about the same number.
Paraphrasing: "The Soviet Union was afraid to drive Sweden into the arms of NATO, and Finland would remain neutral." Well, that didn't entirely work out in the end.
The Finnish motive behind Continuation War was not to conquer new territory from Russia, but to reclaim the areas lost in Winter War. There indeed were people in Finland who wanted to create "Greater Finland" by annexing parts of Russia, but this kind of thinking was not dominant among Finns.
My own history teacher explained it to me in a way that makes sense to me (not sure how accurate it was) where Finland took more than their previous borders to have some leeway after the war if they had to give up land
@@oxcare5 That would be understandable, as Russia was going to take what they wanted anyway. By rights, Finland wanted what was previously Finn land, which was probably outside of Finland's recent borders. Concerning Finland and Russia, I see Finland as always right and Russia always wrong. No matter what transpired, Finns most likely wanted to live with Finns, not Slavs. A little history. In 859, the Swedes went into Finn and Slavic territories, and subjugated them. The Finns were fighting other Finn tribes and also the Slavic tribes. Easy for the Swedes to move in. Either the Swedes left or were pushed out soon after. So the Finn tribes and Slavs went back to fighting each other, and in 862 called back the Swedes and said, rule over us, for all we do is fight. Evidently, the Swedes previously had some kind of order instituted there, basically the eastern Baltics and the western and southern side of Lake Lagoda. That was Rurik and company, who became the Rus, named Ruotsi, rowers or rowers from Roslagen in Sweden, by the Finns and Slavicized to Rus by the, of course Slavs. There was a Slavic tribes called the Rus from the Roman times, that disappeared a couple of centuries earlier, so the origin of Rus among the Slavs is debated. But Sweden is called Ruotsi to this day by Finns, it makes more sense. It may be a combination of both. Slavs hearing Ruotsi, sounding like Rus to them, some recalling the old Slavic tribe, the Rus, and well, you know, the debate goes on. I think it's some of both. Had the Swedes been called Svear by the Finns, and there was no Slavic tribe with a close name to it, Swedes would be obvious. I think the Finn word is the root of Rus, slavicized to Russia. Then there's the old word for Russia from Roman times....more debate. What I know, is that God knows. People? Sometimes they make up things to feel good about their "finds". More than we think. Rurik was said to be a Finn. Probably, but also, picked by the Swedes to restore order. The Finns would be more likely to obey him. Went outside the land of the Rus, and they encountered fierce Slavic tribes not part of the Rus empire, southward to the Black Sea. The lands of the Rus were mostly Slavic, with a minority of Finns, and less of the Swedish ruling and miltary class. There were also Finn and Slav rulers in their respective areas. The Swedes were mainly centralized, first in Novgorod, then in Kiev sending out ambassadors, etc.
Im just confused in the reason why the ussr didnt annex finland or make it a puppet state after ww2. I mean, finland did join the axis and contributed in operation barbarossa so how could they still stay neutral after that?
Therepist: How many times have you been laughed at for not wanting to push into a country because there would be an incredible loss of life? Joseph Stalin: Yes.
Not sure what, if anything, in 20th Century history gives the impression that 'incredible loss of life' was much of a consideration for anything Stalin did. Pretty sure it was more about military resources, allocation of divisions during the war, and chance that Finland would become a flashpoint for NATO intervention in the post-war years, putting the USSR in an unwinnable position if Finland was NATO along with Sweden.
It did get the memo from President Kennedy. Take out the missiles or we’ll nuke you Cuba (1963). Big Brother Nikita Kruschev blinked 1st. I was sitting on my front porch as a 12 year old in Winnipeg waiting for the nuclear missiles to pass over us between the two super powers. The USSR would have nuked the Canadian air ports to stop a Canadian Arrow retaliation while the USA would have blown Cuba off the globe with a pile of atomic bombs. After that a whole lot of countries and people would have been wiped off the face of the earth.
@@kenjones6658 It got the memo "we have nukes and will use them if you threaten us", it did not get the memo that "we are bigger than you so do as we say or pay the price", which is what happened to Finland. Cuba remained staunchly in the Soviet camp for the entirrety of the cold war.
Cuba didn't get the memo because Kennedy blinked. After the summit between Kennedy and Kruschev everyone could see that Kennedy was shaken. Kennedy had put some nukes in Turkey. Kruschev demanded that Kennedy remove them. Kennedy said no. Kruschev put nukes in Cuba. Kennedy blockaded Cuba. Kruschev threatened nuclear war if Soviet ships were unable to go to Cuba. Kennedy then agreed to end the blockade and remove the nukes from Turkey. Kruschev then removed the nukes from Cuba.
Stubbornness is deeply ingrained in the soul of the finish people, it is part of the finish culture and their national identity. The Finn's have a word for it, they call it _sisu_ which I think basically means something like no bitching, no whining, no crying, no backing down, no surrendering, you do what you need to without any complaints, and you stick to it and keep doing it, whatever it takes, until you finish it.
The part where you said "finland chose war" is not factual. USSR is the one who attacked Finland, not the other way around. Why would a country of roughly 5 million "choose" war ?
The Russian propaganda machine slowly changes history. Soon other UA-camrs will claim Finland had concentration camps and that Hitler was actually Finnish.
@@krypton1260 well, Finland did have concentration camps in the Continuation War where they gathered the Russian speaking civilians of East Karelia. They weren't death camps (more accurate term for Nazi camp system) similar to German ones, the aim wasn't to exterminate those Russians, but the camps still had pretty high mortality rates because of poor food and hygiene.
Yea. When russians attacted to Finland -39 they have orcestra instuments with in. Because winparade. Few of those instruments are possible to see war-museum in Hämeenlinna town.
@@Brockza ukraine is the second biggest country in Europe and is now losing like 30k soldiers while Russia has like 3k soldiers lost so your comment is delusional
Finnish General Adolf Ehrnrooth was visiting England in the 1970s. The English general wondered how many Soviet troops were stationed in Finland. ”A few hundred thousand," Ehrnrooth replied. - Where are they located? continued the British general. “In depth of two meters along the border,” General Ehrnrooth said.
@dimapez A wise man, that Finnish general. But if he lived now, there are so many enemies of the freedom that Jesus Christ gives, he would have most likely been befuddled, for NATO nations seem friends. But with socialism, they are controlled by an organization of elites. Only Christ can make a nation wise and strong, if the leaders would only believe. That is why the USA is the only nation strong enough to withstand communism the enemy, the Demoncrats stole the last election. They are purposely bringing America down quickly. Only prayer will stop them, God is against them because they are against them. If you want you, and your nation, to prosper, read 2 Chronicles 7:14, and elect Christian minded officials. I didn't say Christians, for very few will venture into that arena dominated by wickedness, but Christian minded. Why worry about judging them? You should be worried about God judging you. After all, concerning govt, it's all about what will they do for you. So you get what your heart wants, unless the enemy of your freedom and soul, steals your election. Pray always. Let God influence your thinking and actions.
I will relate a story from the war between the Whites and Reds in Finland in about 1917, in a tract titled, 7 Communists Go Singing Into Heaven. An eminent engineer named Nordenburg was appointed an officer in General Mannerheim's White army. The Red army had taken over a town and Mannerheim's troops had retaken it. 7 of the Red prisoners were to be shot a few days later on a Monday at dawn. Sunday night something happened in the basement of the Town Hall they were in. The hatred on both sides permeated the atmosphere, many prisoners called for their wives and children, too. But a prisoner, Koskinen, began to sing, he had not raved and cursed like the others. He sat on a bench, in utter despair. No one said anything to him. He sang, "Safe in the arms of Jesus, Safe on His gentle breast, There by His love o'shaded. Sweetly my soul shall rest. Hark, God the voice of angels. Born in a song to me. Over the fields of Glory. Over the Jasper Sea." A wild looking individual said, Where did you get that you fool? Are you trying to make us religious? Koskinen's eyes filled with tears, and he quietly said, Comrades, you asked me where I got this song: It is from the Salvation Army. I heard it there three weeks ago. At first I laughed at this song, but it got me. It is cowardly to hide your beliefs: the God my mother believed in, has now become my God also. I cannot tell you how it has happened, but I know that it has happened. I lay awake last night and suddenly I felt that I had to find the saviour to hide in Him. Then I prayed - like the thief on the Cross - that Christ would forgive me and cleanse my sinful soul, and make me ready to stand before Him Whom I should meet soon. It was a strange night, Koskinen continued. There were times when everything seemed to shine around me. Bible verses and Songs from the Book came to mind. They brought a message of the crucified Saviour and the blood that cleanses from sin, and of the home He has prepared for us. I thanked Him, accepted it, and since then this verse has been sounding inside of me. It was God's answer to my prayer. I could no longer keep it to myself! Within a few hours, I shall be with the Lord, saved by His grace. A comrade said, You are right, Koskinen, If only I knew there is mercy for me, too. But these hands have shed blood, and I have reviled God and trampled on all that is holy. Now I realize there is a hell and it is the proper place for me. Pray for me, Koskinen, tomorrow I shall die and my soul shall be in the hands of the devil (truly, the devil had his soul while alive, but after death, it is in God's hands before judgement). And there these two Red soldiers went down on their knees and prayed for each other. It was no long prayer, but it opened heaven for both, and we who listened to it (the White guards, and Red prisoners), FORGOT our hatred. It melted in the light of Heaven; for here two men who were soon to die sought reconciliation with God. A door leading into the invisible, stood ajar, and we were entranced by the sight. By 4 AM, all of Koskinen's comrades had followed his example and begun to pray. The change in the atmosphere was indescribable, men talking of spiritually things, others silent. One asked Koskinen to sing the song again for them. Some knew more verses and sang them, the guards joining in. Nordenburg thought, How I wished I could begged for grace for those men, but I knew it was impossible. When they were marched out, one asked if they could sing Koskinen's song once more. Permission granted. Then they asked to die with uncovered faces, and with hands raised to Heaven, they sang with might and main, Safe in the Arms of Jesus, Safe on His gentle breast. When the last lines died out, the lieutenant gave the word, "fire", and the seven Red soldiers had fought their last fight. We inclined our heads in silent prayer. What happened in the hearts of others, I do not know, but as far as I was concerned, I was a new man from that hour. I had met Christ in one of His lowliest and youngest disciples; and I had seen enough to realize that I, too, could be His. Jesus said, I am the resurrection and the life: he that believeth in Me, though he were dead (in sins and trespasses) yet shall he live. John 11:25.
In 1945, 12 Estonians escaped the Communists and fled to Sweden. When the Communists asked Sweden to return them, they got on a boat and determined to make it to America (I gave away the tract to 2 workers in a small store, so I do not have it. I could not determine what the nationality of the 2 was, one looked so guilty and a bit frightened, as if hell had showed up, or the Savior, never saw a look quite like that in my whole life, but the English speaking one took the tract. I entreated him to take it, he did.). So this is by memory, so it will be very short. After many perils and hazards on the sea, not a life was lost, and they made it to America, calling it the promised land. Pilgrims and sojourners they said they were. They compared it to the Bible. It was from a newspaper clippings way back then. Last year, I met a Polish woman where I lived, who came to the USA in 1980. She was so shocked and happy at the freedoms we had compared to Communist Poland where she had lived all her life. She said they were always being spied upon. More people from most other countries are truer Americans than many born here. The liberal minded ones, who the Democrats are their champions, have become the enemies of America. They stole the election. Tear down Christian values, you tear down America. Are any of you watching and understanding? Find, endorse, vote for, Christian minded leaders. It is the only true hope any nation will ever have.
An American gospel singer, Ira Sankey, for Dwight Moody, an evangelist, enlisted in the Union Army in the American Civil War in the 12th Pennsylvania. In 1862, in Virginia, while on sentry duty at night, a Confederate sharpshooter had Sankey in his gunsight, but before he could pull the trigger, Sankey started singing and the Reb lowered his rifle and never fired. After the Civil War, at a Christian revival meeting with Moody preaching, Sankey started to sing, and that Reb was in the audience and after the meeting he went up to Sankey, and said, when you started singing, I knew you were the Union sentry that I was going to shoot, but the Christian song you sang was the same one that my mother used to sing when I was young, I couldn't shoot you. They talked, embraced, and that was the last they talked to each other. The mercy and grace of God is beyond compare, my friends.
Molotov cocktails, but more effectively the Finnish sticky bomb. A Finnish solder would jump out of a covered hole and stick a tar/sap covered explosive to the tracks of a soviet tank and disable it. Also, don’t forget that in the Winter War the Soviet solders froze and starved to death. Whereas the Finnish solder would do two man shifts, kill 10 Russians then return for a hot meal and sleep. Every Finnish women and child citizen was also told to kill any Russian anywhere on Finnish soil. There was also a lake staged to look like forest, then when enough Russians, including tanks where on the ice the Finn’s blew it up sinking hundreds of men and equipment. I heard these stories from former WWII Finnish solders on the banks of the actual lake.
There are some details that are a bit misleading. Firstly, that small looking territorial demands included Finlands second largest city. For example, the second largest city in the US is Los Angeles. Can you imagine US just handing L.A over to a foreign power, simply because they asked nicely? I don't think so. Secondly, Stalin wanted to punish Finnish leaders for siding with the nazis. So a lot of "war crimes" were hastily conjured out of thin air in order to appease Stalin. After the death of Stalin, nearly all of those accused of war crimes were found to be totally innocent and pardoned. We were not interested in race theories like the nazis. Our people simply wanted their land back.
And let us not forget about the Mannerheim line. The only defense against a Soviet invasion couldn't just be handed to the enemy. We most likely would've ended up like the Baltics, first comes a territorial demand, then a ultimatum ... until there is nothing left.
0:18 No, it absolutely didn’t! Finland came into being as a nation-state as the Grand Duchy of Finland, a territory that was part of the Russian Empire and established during the Napoleonic Wars. It was during this period from 1809-1917 that Finland got a parliament and Finnish started being used in the administration as opposed to just Swedish. The Grand Duchy of Finland was also the first territory in Europe to grant women equal suffrage in 1906.
finland was part of Sweden but then Russian and Sweden had a war then Russian won but some times later Finland was too cold so Russian and Sweden got a deal that Finland is own country now and it's not yours or mines and then Russian wanted to do war with Finland but Finland won (sometimes not) Finland never wanted a war but Russian always wanted :(
Finland has actually been there all along as a culture and people, way before Sweden claimed the lands. As a proper state it has existed from 1809. The name itself dates back to at least 11th century, though it obviously has evolved since then. Despite the area shifting ownership and the border between Sweden and Russia jumping back and forth, the language and culture have stayed there. Under Sweden's rule it was geographically pretty obvious why the area stayed culturally a separeate entity despite over 500 years of Swedish rule, and wasn't really thought of as Sweden, but as a land under Swedish rule.
@@wombat4191 Yes. The tribes that lived here probably had wars amongst themselves, but also a defending system (linnavuoret) and some kind of judicical system (käräjät) etc. But as we had no written language, all this is considered pre-historical and the Swedes who came here to occupy and were already writing their history were mostly never interested in the original Finnish systems and traditions.
@Anna Hagen Yeah, why not. Surely it is possible to tell all kinds of facts about Finland or Finnish language in the comments of a video about Finnish history in the WWII, but I don't see any connection... 🙂
"along with this territory in north" it's called Petsamo and it has a mining city called Nikkeli (Nickel). Nazi Germany got half of their nickel during the war from there.
1:06 "Finland chose war" is a bit weirdly put phrase. Yes, it resulted in a war, but Finland chose not to abdicate. It wasn't like Kyösti Kallio just said "come take it if you can" when presented with the ultimatum.
@Steven Levernier How about you try to learn even one foreign language before starting to judge others' grammar. Also, not relevant to the subject at hand.
People should also know that Finland's population those days was less than 4 million... and now think about this whole setting again. That's some persistence and damn honorable bravery.
And how unusual it was that USSR decided that such a war with Finland would have been unsuccessful. And USSR, the Russian Empire and Russia are FOUNDED for invasions, wtf. USSR was dumb, founded and I'm dumbfounded!
This was a relatively correct explanation, but there were two clear historical mistakes. When the Finns rejected Stalin's demands in early November, they didn't realize, that it would lead to a war. If they would have been sure, that the only option for a treaty with Stalin would be a bloody war, they might have thought again. Now they figured, that this was only a nerve war, and the real negotiations would follow later. Keep in mind, that the public opinion in Finland was very much against a deal with Stalin. The Finnish goverment was much more flexible than the Finnish people, but still not flexible enough. However, the theree Baltic states were surely enough flexible, and that the Sovjetunion swallowed them in the summer of 1940. The second error was to claime, that the Finns jumped to the war wagons of Germany, because they wanted the lost territory of Karelia back. Surely they wanted Karelia back, but the basic reason for aligning with Germany was the fear of a Russian attack. My father was working in the Finnish radio surveillance after the Winter war, and they found out, that the Russian had made a plan to attack Finland. The preliminary starting date of this attack was 20.08.1940. However, this attack was cancelled. Finland had made a big nickel deal with Germany in June 1940, and even when the Sovjetunion twice threatened Finland with a war, if Finland would not back of from this deal, Finland refused to do that. Stalin began to assume, that Finland might have some kind of guarantee from Germany. Why else would that small country be so stubborn? Then a trusted man of Göring, colonel Veltjens made a trip to Finland just before the 20.08. Stalin knew about this trip probably earlier than the Finns. The espionage organisation "die Rote Kapelle" might have given this information to Stalin. Now this started to look serious from the Russian perspective. So Staln dumped this attack plan, and tried to look the hand of Hitler. Molotov was in Berlin in the middle of November 1940. The two big questons there were Romania and Finland. Molotov wanted free hands for the Sovjetunion, so the Russians could annex these two countries. However, Germany needed oil from Romania and nickel and timber from Finland. So Hitler denied the both demands. The German transcript and the English translation about these negotiations are now both in the net. Naturally the Germans informed the Finns about the Russian demands during that winter. Hitler made his final decision about the operation Barbarossa in December 1940. The Germans promised to back Finland politically, economically and militarily, but only, if Finland would continue as a pro-German country. If Finland would choose to be neutral, Germany had no obligations to back Finland. So the Finns could assume, that Germany easily could sell Finland to the Sovjetunion, again. That was a risk that the Finns didn't want to take. So the Finnish army was ready to join the Barbarossa operation, but the final decision was to be made by the politicians, and not the army. The government was willing to join the attack, because there were two Russian divisions in Hanko and much larger amount oig German troops in Lapland. To remain neutral was almost impossible and it could have meant, that Finland would have fight both against the Russians and the Germans. But the majority of the Finnish parliament was against a war. Finland had a similar problem as the Danish prince Hamlet. The Russians solved this Finnish problem by several heavy air plane attacks in 25.06.1941. Politically this was incredibely stupid from the Russians, but I think, that I know the reason. The high German and Finnsh officers had negotiated in late May and early June about the military operations in the near future. They had reached results, which the both sides accepted. There were German and Finnish transcriptions about these things. These two were similar except a prologue, which was only in the Finnish version. In this prologue was a condition, that these actions would be carried out only in the situation, whrer the Sovjetunion had attacked Finland. This condition did not exist in the German version. Which version is correct? My guess is, that it is the Finnish version, because by accepting the co-operation with the German attacking force without a seal of approval of the Finnish parliament, would have been a really serious crime. The parliament decides about war and peace, and the army only decides how the war should be carried out. And knowing how closely the Finnish army commander Mannerheim knew his limits of the power, I don't think, that he would have accepted the German version. But for the Germans this condition was just air. It is highly likely, that if the Russians had got a transcription about those negotiations, that was the German one, because they had that Rote Kapelle in the German HQ, but not in the Finnish one. So it is possble, that the Red army made these air attacks believing, that Finland was already tightly involved in the Geman attack. Militarly it was so, but not politically. However, after the Russian air attacks the Finnish parliament was later unanimously declaring a war against the Sovjetunion. Finland decided her side in the possible German- Russian war in fact already in September 1940. The possibilities about retaking Karelia were starting to be a real scenario just from the April 1941. Naturally the people, who had lost their land because of the peace, which ended the Winter war, had hoped all the time to get it back. Their amount was over 10% of the whole Finnish population. But neither the Winter war or the Continuation war were fought because of Karelia. In both wars it was a queston about the very existence of an independent Finland.
As a Finn I've been taught that the war with Soviets started at year 1939 due to artilliery shots fired at Mainila (Soviet's territory), so called "shots of Mainila". Soviets blaimed Finns for shooting them and that gave them the right to start the war. Later it has been revealed that the Soviets shot Mainila, not Finland, to get "the permission" to start the war. Good vid though! :)
@@ivanshuvalov3887 Maa = land. Suo = swamp. In general, in Finland we do know there are people related to the Finnish people living in Russia. We don't really see the reunification of the Finnish people however even though there's still a fading opinion that wants Karelia back.
@@ivanshuvalov3887 Nobody here does really think that either. The people who used to live there before it was lost to the soviets in WW2 are in their 80's or more now. Most of the citizens there were evacuated to other parts of Finland at the time.
A few years later around 2022, everything backfired when Russia (once called the Soviet Union) invaded Ukraine which was a peaceful country just like Finland. Now feeling threatened from a possible invasion of Russia, Finland is doing everything they can to join NATO right along with Sweden.
The Soviet Union wasn’t just Russia, it was Russia and 14 other nations including Ukraine. The USSR was effectively the Russian Empire minus a huge chunk of Poland and Finland. But yeah I see your point.
Finland was only part of Russia for about 100 years. We've now been independent the same amount of time. Finland was part of Sweden for hundreds of years. We have absolutely nothing in comming with Russians. Different language, different culture, different religion, different mentality and morale. Finland has always been democratic, Russia has always been a dictatorship. Don't you f*** come to say to us Lenin gave us the independence after two wars against Soviet Union. Finland should've been independent always. We can handle our own things just fine. Thank you.
@@psinschktz1192 true but it's disgrace to say ussr gave us our independense. Our grandgrandparents killed hundreds of thousands of soviets at that fucking border. 1 Finnish man took out on average 10 soviets before going down and that's why we are independent
I lived in Petrozavodsk for a little while and I met a few veterans from the wars with Finland. One guy said he was on the "clean up crew". His job was to go through after a battle and shoot the corpses to make sure they were really dead. He had trauma from it. The U.S.S.R. was brutal in war
Technically the Grand Duchy of Finland was independent already in 1917. It's just that the Grand Duke of Finland was also the Tsar of Russia. But, Finland had its own parliament and legal system.
Finland did not claim all of the land shown in the video. Nationalists wishing to conquer those lands were a fringe minority in Finland, and the government simply attempted to reconquer land it lost to the soviets. Stop painting Finland as the "bad guy"
Something to remember: Stalin expected the Finnish workers to have radicalized and turned towards the soviet but the anti-communist social democratic party had gained a large trust among workers gaining almost 40% of votes in the general election of 1939. The soviets saw the social democrats as a large threat, especially the leader Väinö Tanner who had - much like his inspiration Karl Kautsky - been highly critical of soviets. (Väinö Tanner was later imprisoned after the continuation war) During the cold war the relations between SDP and soviet union were so bad that the soviets would trust centre-right bourgeois governments more than the social democrats.
That is really interesting stuff. I don't know Finnish history that well. As a Norwegian it is interesting to see many of the parallels between Nordic countries in the post-war period. In Norway we had a Labour party which in the 1920s was aligned with the Soviets, when they realized how brutal the Soviet rule was they got cold feet and became social democrats, which until the 1980s was really democratic socialists. Anyway.... after WWII there was a fierce struggle inside the party where anybody with communist sympathies got purged. One of the titans of the Norwegian labour party Haakon Lie, was known as a fierce anti-communist. He was married to an American women and really wanted to make sure Norway was on good terms with the US. The Norwegian Labour party under Einar Gerhardsen (one of our longest serving prime minister) did however want to maintain a good relationship with the Soviet Union. While there was great suspicion against the Soviet Union, they of course shared a common goal of creating a socialist society. The Soviet crushing of the Hungarian uprising was a major blow to the Norwegian labor party. I think it made them extremely disappointed in the Soviet Union. They had held out some hope of common ground. They shared a vision of socialism but for social democrats, democracy and freedom was non-negotiable. But I know on occasion Norway did piss off America, due to being a bit too friendly towards the Soviet Union. I felt when i came to the US the first time, that Americans looked upon the Soviet Union in a radically different way from how I had been raised in Norway. To us the Soviet Union was sort of our misguided neighbour, that we hoped would get on the right track. In the US it seemed more like some evil empire out of Star Wars bent on world domination.
Povel Vieregg I would love to know more about Norwegian political history, it seems very interesting ! Here in Finland the social democratic party’s main ideological founder was Karl Kautsky who worked on the Erfurt programme which us Finnish partially copied when the SDP:s predecessor changed its economic goals and actions from previously having been a bourgeois movement made to calm down the workers and by that preventing them from revolting to having a workers’ movement led by the working men themselves. Before the civil war the party had a communist minority - which started the revolution without a majority acceptance - but by the end of the war many communists either escaped to soviet union or they were executed. With the communist minority out of the party, SDP turned its ideological attention back to Germany and Kautsky and like them, criticised soviets heavily. The party leader Väinö Tanner famously said that the party is opposed to both the bolsheviks and right wing bolsheviks (mussolini, hitler, domestic far right people etc.) drawing connections to communists and nazis. SDP still advocated communists’ freedom of expression but to no avail since many Presidents - who were more than figureheads) were very right wing and co-operated with the far right in order to stop communists’ activities. After the continuation war SDP was in very bad terms with the soviets like i said in the previous comment but managed to turn it around in the 70’s when they ”took a small step to the left” and started co-operating with the Finnish people’s democratic league (comprised of socialists and minority communists).
@@clevername4188 Interesting stuff. I love comparative history. Like looking at different countries and seeing how they developed in similar or different patterns. To me Finland is a very interesting country from the perspective of what social democracy can achieve. E.g. Americans typically dismiss Norwegian success with: "You got plenty of oil and we protect you in NATO." Finland in contrast is a very impressive country because it has built a Nordic style welfare state without abundance of any valuable resources and without American protection. You built success "alone" and that makes Finland a very interesting case to study. But I wish there was more stuff that contrasted it with our history, because that makes it easier to understand for me. E.g. an Anglo-Saxon youtube video about Finland doesn't give me a great idea about how Finland developed different from Norway. E.g. how is Finnish Social Democratic values and traditions different from ours. I wish we did many things more like Finland. Both with respect to education and national defense.
@@clevername4188 The right, even far right, is always best, your statement proved it. But to keep Russia out of Finland, they had to appease Russia. I don't know if that should still be a good policy. But NATO is anti Christian, which the U.S. still is. Without the U.S., Russia beats NATO, but first, the Democratic party has to make America weak, by putting in socialism with communism, then NATO, with the U.S. in it, will still lose to Russia. Then the new world order moves in. Only Christian mindedness can stop them and communist aggressor nations. For your country and you, read 2 Chronicles 7:14, in the Bible.
May I correct, Finland never started any of these conflicts it has always been Russian side aggression against us. Winter war started after Russia staged as if Finn's had shot artillery over the border in Mainila region. This was not true though as there were no Finnish military forces in that area at all.
@@postmortemspasm. For people who are interested in history. We have history channels on TV that are about other countries, not mine, but are very interesting. The Netherlands, mainly written up in history as Holland or the Dutch, had a strong relationship with Sweden 300 years ago, in some nefarious practices, also. They helped Sweden, with Finns, establish New Sweden in America, didn't even last 20 years, the Dutch took it over, the the English took it from the Dutch, in the 1600s. They were the money lenders, if I remember right. Sweden controlled Finland during that time, so I am able to put together events in countries and understand more. It depends how much you want to know about history. Others do, so why question, because it doesn't make sense to you. It gives others knowledge. Who does that hurt? Honestly, it hurts the people who come to erroneous conclusions about history, and vandalize things because of knowing how bad people really are, as if they were saints. The answer is Jesus Christ, Who died for our sins, do we could be delivered from it's power over us, so God can take us into the joy of heaven, and we can escape the torment of hell. They are forever, you know.
Re-upload?
I made a mistake about the start year of the Winter War. Sorry.
@@HistoryMatters Damn you fixed it quick
Quick, I’m impressed Mr History Man
@@HistoryMatters Youre faster than my dad who couldnt find the freakin milk for 20 years
@@HistoryMatters Wow, you're really on top of that. Impressive.
Urho Kekkonen (president of Finland) was on a state visit to the Soviet Union. In the evening he dined with Khrushchev, They were talking and drinking, and getting along tremendously. Suddenly Khrushchev said: "You know, Urho, I've been thinking... Our two countries get along so very well, and we have such great co-operation, and we are such good friends... Do we really need that border between us?"
All the Finnish diplomats in the room froze. Kekkonen calmly emptied his glass and said: "You know, Nikita, I've been thinking about the same thing, but I've come to the conclusion that I'm way too old to rule such a large country!"
If that was true. Man had balls of Stalin steel
Good ONE 👍👍👍🇫🇮
Someone please fact check this. I am too busy doing nothing.
Brilliant!!! 😄👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
Finland is based
A wise man said , "don't EAT what you can't Finnish "
that was corny but ok
Ikr
Take my like and get out.
A Wise man once wrote in the UA-cam comments: "A wise man said , 'don't EAT what you can't finnish "
I hate you. Take my like of disgust.
“Which means no NATO”
*2023 Finland* “Yeah about that”
Always betrayed good will of slavs.
@@VodkaPandas If it weren't for your name I call you stupid but then i'd just be arguing with someone who already made they're position very clear so
@@wintekowa5889 I support Russia, I guess you support NATO, and in a normal world, you argue with someone that is in opposite side or position that you're in.
If you just want to argue with someone that have the same opinion of you, than you're a little snowball that need to be protected.
@@VodkaPandas You support an authoritarian autocrat who can hardly keep his shit under control, is losing to NATO, a crumbling economy, and no advantage except scale of bodies to throw at us, and a nuclear arsenal that may in fact be largely disabled. He is a former KGB agent. Russians have no right to protest, no right to free speech, and he has attacked Georgia and Ukraine for reasons of russian supremacy and idealism as opposed to legitimate strategic ones. Convince me why I should support him without just taking pot shots at the west. If he is a worthy cause, he can stand on his own without having to resort to some 'lesser evil' shtick. I'll hear you out.
@@VodkaPandas "Good will of slavs" you meant will of putin, please don't perscribe all slavs to russia
It should have been mentioned that Finland as a culture (language, customs, etc.) existed as a separate entity but under Sweden for most of its existence - this beginning makes it appear as if it was originally part of the Russian empire (this was for a relatively short time).
That would had been irrelevant for the video theme so no, it shouldn’t had add that info
Can't go over a nation's entire history in an intro to a 3 minute video...
This is the kind of context that is good to have, but not strictly necessary as the fact that it was at some point part of the russian empire is all that really matters since its why stalin wanted it
these videos are short, remember
If Im not mistaken, Finland is both its own culture and people despite sweden and Russia controlling it for long time periods throughout history.
@@ethribin4188 Its hard to say. Finnish tribes have been culturaly independent even before nations formed, just like the swedes and sámi.
Finland wasnt exactly a part of Mainland Sweden when it was in the Swedish Empire, same thing for the Russian Empire. The difference I would say is that under the Swedish Empire finland was never conquered as a nation or as a specific population, but more to do with sweden's basic incentive to expand during the early stages of the nation. Finland itself was just populated by majority finns than swedes, and add the sea between them, it became pretty different from mainland sweden quickly.
The USSR didn't have the financial support of James Bissonette to annex Finland
HAHA
WOW
SO ORIGINAL
Well. This does seem to happen all the time.
@@PANZERFAUST90 I KNOW
A wild Simo Häyhä appears.
Doubt anyone could have sorted the finances of the USSR
I'd argue that saying that "Finland chose war" is an oversimplification. What the Finnish politicians were afraid of (and rightfully so) was that the Soviets would keep on coming with new demands and in the end try to occupy Finland by force anyways. Going to war was not really a choice, it was the only option.
Yes, bully wont stop, until it is stopped.
And fighting back a bully, is the only way to stop one.
Why couldn't they choose war if the ussr hadn't stop in its demands?
@@sergeyg436 Finland had no interest in going to war with the Soviets. They would have much rather stayed neutral and gone on with living their lives in peace and quiet. Minding their own business. Finland didn't choose war, they were forced into it.
@@tobesfb I mean Finland could accept the offer of the USSR and if the USSR had not stopped Finland would defend their lands with weapons.
We know that the Soviets didn't annex the whole Finland during the WW2 but they could do that as Finland was an ally of Germany. So that, there was a big chance that the Soviets would not started the winter war if Finland had agreed to the offer.
@@sergeyg436 Just like happened when Estonia accepted the USSRs proposal? It is well documented fact that USSR was gonna try annexing Finland, the asking to move border to let less defensible position was just theater.
"Why didn't the Soviet Union annex Finland?"
Simple answer: The Soviet Union existet until the 26th of Dezember 1991,
Simo Häyhä existed until the 1st of April 2002.
Very underrated
@Jou Ti dunno man 1945 USSR can really just BOOM them with tanks bet simo hayha will need to use snti tank rifle
@@racelkatyusha403 Finland’s terrain is near impossible to traverse with tanks unless you use roads
Best comment ever
@@racelkatyusha403 cold snowy mountain terrain can easily be defended with a simple handgrenade against a full tank batallion.
even today its hard to conquer such regions, helicopters have also a hardtime there, jets are to fast to properly support ground troops and a full on infantry attack is costly.
can easily end up 100:1 in losses while often ahrd to maintain over longer period. in short you really dont want to go there
In the 1960s, my Polish grandfather was given a place on the organised trip USSR-Finland. He gave it to my grandmother, who was very excited about it. She visited cities like Moscow and Leningrad and later, Helsinki. What is quite funny is that while Russians proudly presented them places like Red Square or Bolshoi Theatre, she and everybody else couldn't wait to see only Finland, a different world. They really wanted to visit a capitalist country. To this day, when she tells about it, her eyes shine with amazement when she reminds herself of Finland. Not magnificent Moscow or beautiful Leningrad, it was Finland everybody wanted to see and everybody remembered the most.
The Lenin's corpse disgusted her btw
No
@@caiolima1-s9c do you want to deny the past?
wise grannny you had. communism destroyed peoples lives, still does.
🇫🇮😎
Pretty much every country except Russia, that has been under Soviet rule, is not a fan of Russia.
Everybody gangsta untill the snow speaking finnish
Ei tarvii pelätä kun oon suomesta
Lumi puhuu aina suomea
Everyone gangster until the trees start speaking Vietnamese
@@joecervantes8980 everybody gangsta till the North Korean army starts speaking chinese
@@fraxinus7122 Ei saa peittää
It would have been a long Lapland odissey trip without reason anywhere which could have made people insane as in Sunshine
More like why didn't Finland annex the USSR
When playing too much hoi4
@@nebras__ puppet China for infinite manpower
Turns out that just because you're really good at playing defense doesn't make you good at playing offense. Finland is great at the former, but they don't have enough people to properly challenge a country with as deep a talent pool as Russia.
But enough about soccer.
@@timothymclean It was a joke
@@Gabriel-pn4wd read the last part lol
Another fun fact - during Cold War Finland was essentially the only western country on permanent good terms with USSR, and end up being the traffic stop for significant chunk of USSR trade with the west which benefited Finland greatly. End of Cold War actually hurt Finland economy as Russia would now trade with other western countries directly without need for Finland bridge.
Finland should’ve built one or 2 pipelines through their country
@@scoldingwhisper this did not age well
grEATly
@@scoldingwhisper Well, a pipeline was built through territory that used to be part of Finland. lol
and the end part of the comment is one of the reasons it was good to join the eu
I lived in Finland for 6 months when I was 19 years old, back in 2004. It was one of the best periods of my life. I love Finland and Finnish people!!
Where in finland did you live?
@@TJO1733 In the Helsinki area (Vantaa and then Espoo).
Same for me, I lived the last 6 months in Jyväskylä. Best time of my life ever
@@marcotoscano5964 Good to hear :)
You are welcome to come again :)
Finland is still the only country to have fully paid back owed WW2 reparations.
And this was great for Finland because it stimulated the metal and forestry industry, developing Finland's industrialisation and urbanisation rapidly
This was done largely because Finland, as the neighbour of USSR, was trying to avoid all negative remarks by their very large neighbour. Many thought that if they'd stop following the peace treaty (for example), it would be an immediate invasion by the Soviet forces.
Finland was also the only country to pay back its debts to the US from the WW1 era.
Wrong, in the 80's Romania was the only country in the world to be debt free at the cost of hunger to it's citizens. So take into account the costs for WW stuff besides the usual debt. So Finland is not the only country to fully pay owed debts.
@@lixicus Romania seems to be an interesting case but it seems that SovRom drained Romanian resources to the point that the initially agreed reparations were never technically paid.
(Edit: I understand that's basically the same as what you said.)
Most importantly could you imagine the hockey power Russia would be if added Finland to Russia
or the hockey if germany invaded Ussr
Ovechkin & Pyotrik Laineckin on the same powerplay... unstoppable
@@topiheimola69 Pyotrik ilmaveivi Laineckin?
Genious 😂
@@mikaelwiberg5560 Mikalov ilmaveivyetrov Granlyondevski
@@topiheimola69 ainii... 😅Enhän mä muista kuka teki mitäkin enää😂😂
They were on a diet.
🤭🤭🤭👍
Finland is very healthy though. It contains a lot of **protfeinland**.
I'll see myself out.
Finland is pretty heavy and metallic and hard to eat!
Get it...?
@@BLVCKSCORP *GEDDIT*
Thanks for saving me the time man
As a Finn I found it hard to recognise the Finnish leaders but got there in the end. Mannerheim was pretty easy, the one with the glasses I think is J. K. Paasikivi and the partially bald one with the small moustache is Risto Ryti (although Ryti is shown during the winter war, when the president was Kyösti Kallio.)
i admire the Finnish people because they fought braverly and alone for their freedom against a super power.
Greetings to Finland from Athens, Greece
@Абдульзефир You wanted them to dissolve their fortifications on the border making them vulnerable from an attack. It also saw what happened to the baltic states after they agreed to a pact with the USSR and did not want to end up like them.
@Абдульзефир The original pact with the baltics also only had them give a military base each, and look how they turned out.
@Абдульзефир Didnt you watch the very same video that youre commenting on?
@Абдульзефир Misunderstood your comment but my point still stands, why would a country go to a war that would make them suffer 300k casualties and just want to demand 11% of the finnish territory, you can see in the original soviet battleplans about how they planned a complete occupation of finland.
@Абдульзефир They told the finns to dismantle their fortifications making defence much more harder, who would take such a deal. Finland declared its neutrality literally right when the war begun, why would a country with not even 4 million people recklessly want to go to war with a military giant that has 130 million people.
"Finlandisation"
Poland: Polonisation was better.
Compromise: Folinisation
Finnishisation
North or south pole - Polarization?
You mean getting divided and conquered by multiple empires multiple times? Nah, I think Finland had it better.
@@nowhereman6019
Polonisation is an ideology followed by the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth where the citizens of non-Polish nations are turned Polish. That is why everyone forgets about Lithuanians in the Commonwealth.
Polonisation is like the Polish Manifest Destiny where we Poles wanted to expand East and instead of moving the native people but turning the native people into Poles. It was very common for Lithuanians & Ruthinians (Modern Ukrainians & Belarusians) to hate being forced to become a nation they weren't. That is why to this day Lithuanians hate Poles.
If the Commonwealth annexed Muscovy/Russia in the 1600s in the Polish-Russian War, the Muscovites/Russians would be forced to become Poles and then the Commonwealth would become the superpower and become what Russia is in our timeline.
Polonisation is nothing to do with divid and conquer but the opposite.
Finland claimed its independence in 1917, but we had autonomy, our own culture, language, currency and laws before that.;)
A long, long before that.
don't fool people, own culture? that culture you are responsible for it's total eradication is called SAAMI and it is a common northern culture between Norway Sweden & Finland.
@@salmanem.6017 Why don’t you stop fooling people…Finnish and Sami cultures are two different things and sami culture is Not eradicated. Do your research before making foolish claims like that
@@salmanem.6017 You are an utter fool to try to create a divide between the Finns against the Samis. We are brothers of the same language family and share a similar history of oppression all the way until 1917.
@@Tuigens and most of the descendents of either have the blood of both.
1:07 there's a little mistake there. The Soviet Union did want the land showed right there since Finland's border then was very close to Leningrad (Petersburg) in exchange for Finland getting some other land up north. But the reason Finland didn't accept was that they also wanted some islands from the south and they wanted to rent an area inside of Finland for military purposes. Finland couldn't accept these deals since they wished to stay neutral which is why the Soviet Union made up a story about Finnish mortars hitting their soil, giving the soviets a reason to attack.
Bull. Stalinin wanted to conquer the whole of Finland. He bragged that the Soviet Union will conquer Finland in two weeks. That did not happen. The Soviet Union knew very well Finland was not a dangerous country.
@@butterflies655 I was commenting on the fact that the video claimed that the Soviet Union said "give this land or war" while in reality it was "make this deal or else..." . You're probably right that if Finland accepted the deal that the USSR would still have invaded since a similar situation happened in the Baltics where they accepted some deals with the USSR making them weaker before invasion.
@user-wj6dt5bq3w For example molotov ribbentrop pact and the establishment of the terijoki government which was supposed to take over the entire country after the soviet invasion plus some common understanding of russian politics
Conspiracy theory: He briefly removed the video because he forgot to mention James Bizzanette in the outro
Nope, he mentioned him
@@riko_sandokan Thats what the government wants you to think
Oscar Siddle I didn’t steal your comment I did mine before please don’t get mad, (I did a similar comment casually)
I hate when someone steals my comments that why I am explaining you that I didn’t steal yours
We all know that james bissonette is behind everything that happens to this channel
*He who controls patreon, controls the world*
@@williammedrez2634 True, government uploaded first time 😉
>why didn't USSR annex Finland
"I always thought the Fins had something to do with it." - Stalin, probably
I always thought Churchill said it
nah, you dont know Stalin. If he wanted to annex it, he would simply move the entire nation directly to the North Pole, leaving only loyal communists and settling Nazi-supported nations from the southern regions in the empty cities as punishment.
Reminds me of an interview of George Pickett. He was asked why the assault on Cemetery Ridge failed on July 3rd, 1863. He replied: ”I’ve always thought the Yankees had something to do with it” - George Pickett, the Confederate General Major.
Similar isn’t it?
@@ImPedofinderGeneral orc news. stalin wanted, but FAILED!
and now, in 2023, Putin did what Stalin feared to do: made Finland part of NATO :))
NATO wasn’t created until 1949
Stalin died in 1953, so he did saw the creation of NATO
and what has that done? nothing
@@pyrobeingpyro um, he did?
Neither Stalin nor Putin fear a Finnish NATO alliance.
I'd say that one the biggest factor was that Finland was one of the few western countries that USSR could do large scale trading with. It benefited them, but it most definitely benefited Finland that received masses of crude oil, natural gas etc. in the coming decades that helped lift it from agriculture to industry.
Finland wasn't much of a Western country back then.
let's hope the new generation in Finland don't throw it all away by moving the country into NATO's arms. It can never really help Finland.
@@gordonski9310 Actually Finland is already late in that it should've joined NATO in the 90s while that drunkard Yeltsin was still president. Whole country filled with silos of Minutemen with minutes flying time to St Petersburg would deter any and all aggression from the east.
It's so ridiculous to call Finland a western country!
@@GreatPolishWingedHussars Poland does not like being called as Eastern country. You being good at geography where would you locate Finland or Sweden ?
"why didn't USSR annex Finland?"
*Säkkijärven Polkka plays in the distance*
Years later in Continuation war: ”Ay blyat! The play that song again! Our radio mines don’t work!”
Säkkitärven Tolppa
Säkkijärven*
@@user-zp1lp1fv7k näin sut just Aleksin livessä :)
"come on comrades, there's no one out there"
*The white death quietly chambering a round in the snow*
He's a man, not a god! Come on com-*noscoped through the head*
@@ricojes Russian soldiers: < scared face >
White Death: You were saying ?
the story of how one man ground a superpower to a halt.
fucking simo hayha is my spirit animal. absolute chad.
@@ricojes he was one of the deadliest snipers ever and didn't use a scope he's damn near a god
@@taos6960 he has the most confirmed kills in history of snipers
Thanks for the video. The sentence "Finland chose war" struck my ear. Not to yield under bullying is not to choose war. It is just to stand your ground. Soviets chose war. And Finland withstood an amount of beating but did not ultimately shatter. A bit like Ukraine today. They did not choose war. Russians did.
^^ This.
And after that the smoke licked the ruins, you know how that feels.
Yet Zelensky keeps prolonging the war and sacrificing his own people ... why isn't he showing his "strength" and signing a neutrality act too?
Finland is a free and well off country isn't it?
This could very well be the solution to Ukraine who forcibly .... but that little clown and excuse of a puppet president Zelensky wants to join NATO.
@@14GoOdLiFe Zelensky is not a puppet lmao. The pay is shit in your little troll factory isn't it?
this is just semantics. out of "war" or "ceding territory", they chose the former. that's all that means.
_"Why didn't the USSR, the largest country, not simply eat the other one?"_
Nice.
Indeed
Haha yup
Because AE.
Noice
because they're trash, they're all talk just like online
The ussr did not eat finland because finland is not a food
Edit: Wow thanks for all the likes!
Uhhhhhh I eat waffles textured like *finnish flags*
@@bodhimations6098 got me there
That's a 2nd grade joke right there
@@regiluthfi ok and?
@@regiluthfi More like a dad joke.
Germany: invades USSR in late summer
Stalin: some people never learn from history
USSR: invades Finland in the winter
The USSR invaded Finland Before the Germans invaded the USSR. Know your history.
I believe he's talking about how severe winter can destroy your war strategy, in which both didn't learn. The Swedish & Napoleon had done the same thing after all.
Also, June is not "late summer". The 22nd of June is actually the first or second day of summer.
The USSR initiated the winter war out of neccesity not desire.
@@livinglifeform7974 no they didn't? They invaded finland because of stalin's paranoia lol if they didn't invade the continuation war wouldn't have happened and the Soviets would have more men for the eastern front, Stalin's demands were crazy why should the finnish be forced to give up land for no reason other than paranoia?
The fact that Finland could border such a massive superpower and NOT get annexed by it is like sitting a cage full of hungry lions and slowly walking out of it with not even a scratch.
Damn lucky fuckers
Russian are kind people, yet the west just keep betrayed them.
Russia when the snow starts speaking Finnish:
"What is this place..."
@Scammer Destroyer He also wrote the original one
This is Finland yes its me agan >:D
@Scammer Destroyer Da fricc when I comment the same comment after the original got removed...
*Aimo Koivunen has entered the chat*
lol
We have this saying: "emme ole ruotsalaisia ja venäläisiksi emme ikinä tule". Basically means: "we are not Swedish and we will never be Russians". I'm so proud of our country and people who wanted to fight for us
Ruotsalaisia emme ole, venäläisiksi emme halua tulla, olkaamme siis SUOMALAISIA !
To summarize this, our cultural identity and economic structures are too different from the Russians, this is why they failed to annex us.
Being the whole world's nothernmost country having a self-supporting agriculture, we understood that this works in our way.
Esc jon, the saying is: We are no more Swedes, we don't want to become Russians, so let us be Finns.
This "no more" is missing in several occasions and it changes this quote a bit.
@@vesakaitera2831 What do you mean? Technically Finnish people were never Scandinavian.
"He who defends everything defends nothing" Sun Tzu
Right you have to pick your battles
@Rupprecht Kurt Hasselbuttelmann-Fitzmeisterjaeger Nope
@Rupprecht Kurt Hasselbuttelmann-Fitzmeisterjaeger u have to have a certain level of iq to understand him
@@AbdullahKhan-pv1qz To be fair, you have to have a very high IQ to understand Rick and Morty. The humor is extremely subtle, and without a solid grasp of theoretical physics most of the jokes will go over a typical viewer's head. There's also Rick's nihilistic outlook, which is deftly woven into his characterisation - his personal philosophy draws heavily from Narodnaya Volya literature, for instance. The fans understand this stuff; they have the intellectual capacity to truly appreciate the depths of these jokes, to realize that they're not just funny- they say something deep about LIFE. As a consequence people who dislike Rick and Morty truly ARE idiots- of course they wouldn't appreciate, for instance, the humour in Rick's existencial catchphrase "Wubba Lubba Dub Dub," which itself is a cryptic reference to Turgenev's Russian epic Fathers and Sons. I'm smirking right now just imagining one of those addlepated simpletons scratching their heads in confusion as Dan Harmon's genius unfolds itself on their television screens. What fools... how I pity them. 😂 And yes by the way, I DO have a Rick and Morty tattoo. And no, you cannot see it. It's for the ladies' eyes only- And even they have to demonstrate that they're within 5 IQ points of my own (preferably lower) beforehand.
@@adonissherlock bruh moment.
Video claims at 1:24 that "Finland looked to claim these lands". If I recall correctly from our history lectures, it was Germany that asked Finland to push that far, hoping to bind more Soviet troops to that front. Finland was more or less satisfied claiming the old borders and was reluctant to push further, anticipating the unavoidable counter-offensive.
Actually there were some talks in our government at the time to occupie places, where other finno-urgic people lived. Those places in the USSR include the Kola Peninsula and the rest of Karelia.
There were def some Finns who wanted to go further and a lot atleast wanted to take most of karelia, but also youre correct that majority wanted to be chill, in case of things going south, since we didnt want to give ussr reason to go into helsinki with "no matter what" mentality
Finland relies on defense doctrine that ”Russia can invade Finland, but the cost of that act will be that much painful that it’s not worth trying”. It was then and it is also now.
Honey Badger Defense. Can a lion kill a honey badger? Sure. Is it gonna? FUUUUUK no!
Lol not exactly. I mean of course, but “Finlandisation” is an actual thing.
@@mensrea1251 Finlandisation is a way of maintaining peace and independence by submitting to more powerful neighbor. But military defense comes to play when finlandisation is not enough or if we are tired to do that. Like now. F*** off Russia!
@@KasperiVonSchroweNow Finland and Sweeden want to join NAto. Good job Vlad!
Defense doctrine? It is a lie that the Soviets wanted to attack the Finns in 1941 because it's also a historical fact that the Finns have invited the German allied troops to their country and join them in attacking the Soviets. Finns and Germans did not defend themselves, but attacked the Soviet Union together. They were the aggressors in 1941. Nor was it a preventive attack by the Germans and Finns. Because the justification for a preventive attack requires the immediate danger of an attack. This imminent threat of war by Soviets existed neither against the Germans nor against the Finns because the Soviets signed with Finland in Moscow on 12 March 1940 a Peace Treaty that ended the war and Germans signed with Sowjets a non-aggression pact on 23 August 1939.
By the way, the Finns deserved the Soviet occupation considering what they did. Because they were allied with the worst gang of murderers in world history! Yes, the Finns fought valiantly together with the criminals. Even with a swastika as a badge. The Germans did not invade Finland to force them to participate. The Finns were voluntarily the allies of the Germans. The Finns have invited the German troops into their country as allies. The so-called "winter war" from Nov 30, 1939 to Mar 13, 1940 was over with a peace treaty. Nevertheless then Finland took part in the German attack on the Soviet Union in 1941. That is why Great Britain declared war on the Finns and attacked Finnish troops with bombers too. Finland was so the enemie of Europe's liberators because Finland has allied itself with absolute evil. With this, Finland took part in the criminal war of this monster. The Finns fought side by side with these criminal mass murderers. Finland did this to conquer territory. Apparently Finland not only wanted the lost territories of the Winter War, but also wanted to take other territories away from the Soviets. The Finnish parliament declared that the aim of the war was to restore the areas lost during the winter war and to gain more areas in the east in order to create a "Greater Finland". President Ryti said this to the Finnish Parliament in 1941. By September 1941, the Finns recaptured the territories lost in the Winter War. However, the Finnish Army continued the offensive past the pre-1939 border with the conquest of Soviet territories, as well as halting only around 30-32 km (19-20 mi) from the centre of Leningrad, where they participated in besieging the city by cutting its northern supply routes and digging in until 1944.
The Finnish fleet also participated in the sea blockade of the city. Incidentally, the Soviets made Finland an offer of peace. However, this was rejected by Finland and the Finns continued to participate in the inhumane siege of Leningrad. The blockade became one of the longest and most destructive sieges in history, and it was possibly the costliest siege in history due to the number of casualties which were suffered throughout its duration! A total of around 1 million people died, both soldiers and civilians. Mainly from hunger. Hundreds of thousands are starved to death. Finns were involved in the siege and thus also in the genocides on the Slavic nations in the city. Because the siege was part of the genocide against the Slavic nations of the Soviet Union. But also the genocides in
other occupied areas could have been completed with the extermination of entire nations through this victory of this devilish allies. If the Germans and the Finns had won the war. Tens of millions more people would have died as a result of this victory. Fortunately, these aggressors lost the war together. One thing is certain, if the Finns had won together with the Germans. Then as a Slavic Pole I would be not alive today. Because the Germans would have exterminated us all with the help in war of the Finns.
So the Soviet occupation would have been an appropriate punishment.
What if James Bissonnette is Mansa Musa who got his hands on a Time Machine???
James bisonette would be the richest guy in history. Hopefully he doesn't cause another economic crash during his trip to mekka.
VexxfulOmega9 That would make so much sense 😂
E Kos economy of UA-cam will be destroyed
Second times the charm uploading this video
1:25 source? from what i understand they just wanted to take back what was lost in the winter war. They stopped their advance waaaaaaaaay before hitler conveniantly exactly where the borders were pre-winter war. If they were looking to to take kola and even leningrad they could have.
The problem with conquering Finland is that the Finns live there.
Trying to conquer them would irk them.
This is not recommended.
“(The Finnish) are…a stubborn people”
Sisu
Ridiculous to claim such a thing from a nation that only gained independence in the 20th century and before that was always mastered by foreign powers. Other countries also have this fate in Europe but are not megalomaniac and do not brag!
@@GreatPolishWingedHussars Loads of countries only got their independence in the 20th century. What do you have against them all?
maybe in the past, but now nukes exit, don't they ? touch of button they don't exit anymore. So stop proposing war. It's better for finland to stay neutral. The war in Ukraine is because of multiple reasons. At this present age, russia has no interest in ginland or Sweden
Shelling of Mainila, search Wikipedia. Finland didn't choose war. Lots of false or inaccurate information.
@@Haliitti Well, who would freely giveup land of their country. Who would like to be invated.
But with these kind of things it is very important to give all necessary information. Finns didn't just say "Duck you and take it if you want it". It was diplomacy all the way to shelling of Mainila. Soviet needed excuse for war.
In continuation war when finns wanted theirs back. Only country that would aid against red machine was Germany. No one cared or helped when soviet tryed to invade. Many thanks to Estonian and Svedish + many more soldiers that willingly served and came to aid when finns fought against overpowering enemy.
@@Haliitti was not a choise, if Finland said yes they whould just have gotten invaded later
'Choosing war' doesn't mean the country in question attacked, but that they decided something that would cause a war (see ultimatum)
It's sad that 217 people misinterpreted this...
@@vilivuorinen8812 On the topic of the Winter War, the global opinion was on the side of Finland. Saying that no one cared is false. There isn't just much you can do to an invasion of a country straight outside of USSR when it's 1939. France and the UK also had a plan to assist Finland, which was also used as an attempt of blocking iron supplies by the UK. That plan required moving your forces through multiple countries, which Germany responded with threathening Sweden with an invasion
@@Vekkuli001 Finland decited not to give land freely. Then ussr tryed to take it. Would you give your land freely, and when they try and take it, would that be your choosing.
"though cuba didn't get the memo" lolest
the punch line of the whole thing .
I laughed so hard that I was cured of COVID-19
Who's watching after Finland decided to join NATO?
Finland always was and is watching after it's own country. It has done it very well so far. It is a prosperous country with high standard of living along with other Nordic countries.
And this is all Russia’s fault
@@PremierCCGuyMMXVI Did US media told you that?
@@dedster3164 no the Russians did a few years ago when they admitted they invaded in 2014, oh wait you didn’t know that
@@looinrims Then did they admitted that? Send any proof
Conspiracy Theory:
History Matters IS James Bissonnette
I wish
@@jamesbissonette8002 The man, the myth, the legend is right here ! HELL FUCKING YEAH !
My god
3:33
@@jamesbissonette8002 There is a god amongst us mortals....
Oh, BW: is is quite wrong to say that Finland *came into existence" as late as 1917. Remember that Finland, when it was still part of the Empire, had a great deal of autonomy as part of the Empire. This virtual independence continued up until the reign of Tsar Nicholas II, who inadvisably broke the agreement previous Tsars had with Finland and tried Russifying it. But before then, Finland was virtually independent, having its own Parliament and laws. In fact, Finnish nationalism grew more under the Russians than it ever did under the preceding rule of Sweden.
There was even a land called 'Finland' before even the Swedes occupied it. So the true date of the origin of Finland should be some time back then.
SpectatorAlius Before the Russian 100 years' occupation Finland had been an integral East province of the kingdom of Sweden for nearly 700 years. When Sweden lost Finland in the early 19th century the kingdom lost 1/3 of its total land mass. Before that Finland had been Sweden's easternmost province for nearly 700 years. The arctic Petsamo region in the northenmost part of Finland was originally old Russian territory but the Russian government exchanged it with the Finns in 1923, so that Finland gave the Russians some land at the border region near Leningrad on the Karelian isthmus. The Russians took Petsamon back after the WW2. When the Finnish peace negotiator team had asked Stalin about the possibility of keeping Petsamo, the Generalissimus had responded that they 'usually sell their land only once'.
@@esah9182 700 years as a province is not what most people are willing to call "independent existence as a nation" or even "autonomy". But Tsar Alexander I gave near complete autonomy to Finland, which persisted until Tsar Nicholas II's foolish decision to 'Russify' Finland. But that was nearly 100 years of the most privileged position in the whole Russian Empire!
It's like saying that Germany "came into existence" in 1871. Maybe the modern independent state, but not the nation.
Finnish nationalism grew under Russian rule because the Russian's encouraged it. It was the obvious and easy way to destroy their traditional identity with Sweden. Same reason the early Tsar's treated the Finns well by Russian standards. Finns kept their Swedish style parliament and laws under Russian rule, trouble was that this at the time of the annexation gave the king near absolute power. Meaning that the Russian Tsar could do anything he liked, while appearing gracious and enlightened.
Spectator Alius Province here means the same as Svealand, Götaland etc. Thus the name Finland. An integral part of Sweden.
I think given the stiff resistance the Finns put up, and deteriorating realtions with the Allies during WWII, annexing Finland would have been problematic.
You are kidding, right? USSR steamrolled all the way to Berlin defeating the Nazi Germany and could not overcome tiny Finland? I know it is cool to think that Finland was able to withstand Soviet assault, but somehow people forget thet both times Finland seeked peace urgently and sacrificed a lot for USSR to accept it. And no onder - in 1940 it took the Soviets three months to break the Finns, while in 1944 - only 2 weeks to take them all the way to their original border with absolutely no hope of holding out much longer. Get real!
@@yurikozhokin8348Keep coping pjotr and eat the borsch soup that was made in your Papa putin's piss
The main reason was because the british and french were planning to land troops in Finland and the war had been a diplomatic disaster for Stalin more than anything military related
@@yurikozhokin8348 consider that breaking an army doesnt mean the same thing as breaking the people. the finnish population would have sabotaged roads, poisoned wells, done whatever needed to make the occupying soviet army suffer, Finland would have been quite easy land for a guerilla army, small platoons of resistance members in the forests where soviet war machine could not reach. It would not have been a cakewalk for the soviets, hence why they agreed to a peace deal.
@@VictorTheProcrastinator please, do not overestimate the power of regular people. Many of them just want to live regardless of the politics. As for guerilla tactics, Soviets dealt with that in the Baltics and Ukraine. Yeah, it took a few years, but it got wiped out successfully. Finns are still people. USSR achieved it's minimum goals in both wars, hence was willing to sign. Again, the Soviets crushed the Nazi Germany - thinking that small Finland could fare better against the biggest country in the world is nonsense. Just a small example - in the first month of Germany's war against the USSR alone over 3 million German soldiers crossed the Soviet border. Finland's total population at that time was about the same number.
Paraphrasing: "The Soviet Union was afraid to drive Sweden into the arms of NATO, and Finland would remain neutral."
Well, that didn't entirely work out in the end.
Yeah Putin bungled Stalin's play for more neutral nations by invading a neutral nation, thus driving other neutral nations into the arms of NATO.
"Why does Ross, the largest friend, not simply eat the other friends?"
Because it would cost too much to pay the funerals of both and the weight loss surgery.
Joey would be the largest and hungriest Friend
That would probably make Sweden Monica, wouldn't it?
"ugh, It is true what they say, men are from Omicron Persei IX, women are from Omicron Persei VII."
@@stonem0013 Well, he did get his own (amazing) show.
Finland gets mentioned, let all the Finns rejoice. Suomi mainittu :D
Torilla tavataan, tuon Suomi KP:eet ja kaljat :D
:D KAKSOISPISTE DDD
@Sam pellergrino Taiteellisia vapauksia kai :D
As a Canadian; I have no idea what's going on but yea Finland?
Juuri näin
USSR: “Haha, American- trees speak Vietnamese...”
USA: “At least they don’t speak finish...”
USSR: *Winter war flashbacks*
Ussr : at least we won
What if the sand started speaking Jihad (Soviet-Afghan War)
@@icet0p100 Jihad is everyones nightmare including usa
@@mongolballempire8664 True, but I think the Soviet Struggle/Quagmire is pretty noteable
Mongolball Empire lol how about the soviets got wrecked by poles in 1920s
The Finnish motive behind Continuation War was not to conquer new territory from Russia, but to reclaim the areas lost in Winter War.
There indeed were people in Finland who wanted to create "Greater Finland" by annexing parts of Russia, but this kind of thinking was not dominant among Finns.
My own history teacher explained it to me in a way that makes sense to me (not sure how accurate it was) where Finland took more than their previous borders to have some leeway after the war if they had to give up land
@@oxcare5 That would be understandable, as Russia was going to take what they wanted anyway. By rights, Finland wanted what was previously Finn land, which was probably outside of Finland's recent borders. Concerning Finland and Russia, I see Finland as always right and Russia always wrong. No matter what transpired, Finns most likely wanted to live with Finns, not Slavs.
A little history. In 859, the Swedes went into Finn and Slavic territories, and subjugated them. The Finns were fighting other Finn tribes and also the Slavic tribes. Easy for the Swedes to move in. Either the Swedes left or were pushed out soon after. So the Finn tribes and Slavs went back to fighting each other, and in 862 called back the Swedes and said, rule over us, for all we do is fight. Evidently, the Swedes previously had some kind of order instituted there, basically the eastern Baltics and the western and southern side of Lake Lagoda. That was Rurik and company, who became the Rus, named Ruotsi, rowers or rowers from Roslagen in Sweden, by the Finns and Slavicized to Rus by the, of course Slavs. There was a Slavic tribes called the Rus from the Roman times, that disappeared a couple of centuries earlier, so the origin of Rus among the Slavs is debated. But Sweden is called Ruotsi to this day by Finns, it makes more sense. It may be a combination of both. Slavs hearing Ruotsi, sounding like Rus to them, some recalling the old Slavic tribe, the Rus, and well, you know, the debate goes on. I think it's some of both. Had the Swedes been called Svear by the Finns, and there was no Slavic tribe with a close name to it, Swedes would be obvious. I think the Finn word is the root of Rus, slavicized to Russia. Then there's the old word for Russia from Roman times....more debate. What I know, is that God knows. People? Sometimes they make up things to feel good about their "finds". More than we think.
Rurik was said to be a Finn. Probably, but also, picked by the Swedes to restore order. The Finns would be more likely to obey him. Went outside the land of the Rus, and they encountered fierce Slavic tribes not part of the Rus empire, southward to the Black Sea. The lands of the Rus were mostly Slavic, with a minority of Finns, and less of the Swedish ruling and miltary class. There were also Finn and Slav rulers in their respective areas. The Swedes were mainly centralized, first in Novgorod, then in Kiev sending out ambassadors, etc.
Im just confused in the reason why the ussr didnt annex finland or make it a puppet state after ww2. I mean, finland did join the axis and contributed in operation barbarossa so how could they still stay neutral after that?
@@boranates1320 simple, Finland surrendered before they are truly crushed so they can fight again if the terms are that bad.
Therepist: How many times have you been laughed at for not wanting to push into a country because there would be an incredible loss of life?
Joseph Stalin: Yes.
Re: Stalin
☑we stan
Not sure what, if anything, in 20th Century history gives the impression that 'incredible loss of life' was much of a consideration for anything Stalin did.
Pretty sure it was more about military resources, allocation of divisions during the war, and chance that Finland would become a flashpoint for NATO intervention in the post-war years, putting the USSR in an unwinnable position if Finland was NATO along with Sweden.
I love having access to fun, entertaining answers to questions I'd never have. Love this channel
“Cuba didn’t get the memo” had me in splits
It did get the memo from President Kennedy. Take out the missiles or we’ll nuke you Cuba (1963). Big Brother Nikita Kruschev blinked 1st. I was sitting on my front porch as a 12 year old in Winnipeg waiting for the nuclear missiles to pass over us between the two super powers. The USSR would have nuked the Canadian air ports to stop a Canadian Arrow retaliation while the USA would have blown Cuba off the globe with a pile of atomic bombs. After that a whole lot of countries and people would have been wiped off the face of the earth.
@@kenjones6658 It got the memo "we have nukes and will use them if you threaten us", it did not get the memo that "we are bigger than you so do as we say or pay the price", which is what happened to Finland. Cuba remained staunchly in the Soviet camp for the entirrety of the cold war.
Cuba didn't get the memo because Kennedy blinked.
After the summit between Kennedy and Kruschev everyone could see that Kennedy was shaken.
Kennedy had put some nukes in Turkey. Kruschev demanded that Kennedy remove them. Kennedy said no. Kruschev put nukes in Cuba. Kennedy blockaded Cuba. Kruschev threatened nuclear war if Soviet ships were unable to go to Cuba. Kennedy then agreed to end the blockade and remove the nukes from Turkey. Kruschev then removed the nukes from Cuba.
@@richardthomas5362 but now the us put 50 nukes back to Turkey, and only stupid people would think Russia is not covering her back in Cuba again
Stubbornness is deeply ingrained in the soul of the finish people, it is part of the finish culture and their national identity. The Finn's have a word for it, they call it _sisu_ which I think basically means something like no bitching, no whining, no crying, no backing down, no surrendering, you do what you need to without any complaints, and you stick to it and keep doing it, whatever it takes, until you finish it.
Now a great film called Sisu, based on a silent Finnish miner who goes on a revenge murder spree of Nazis during WW2.
The part where you said "finland chose war" is not factual. USSR is the one who attacked Finland, not the other way around. Why would a country of roughly 5 million "choose" war ?
Well we didn't even have 5 mil back then it was like 3 mil
The Russian propaganda machine slowly changes history. Soon other UA-camrs will claim Finland had concentration camps and that Hitler was actually Finnish.
@@krypton1260 well, Finland did have concentration camps in the Continuation War where they gathered the Russian speaking civilians of East Karelia. They weren't death camps (more accurate term for Nazi camp system) similar to German ones, the aim wasn't to exterminate those Russians, but the camps still had pretty high mortality rates because of poor food and hygiene.
Well out of the 2 options, give in to the demands or war. Finland chose the latter. Listening comprehension guys.
Yea. When russians attacted to Finland -39 they have orcestra instuments with in. Because winparade. Few of those instruments are possible to see war-museum in Hämeenlinna town.
“Russia has so many solders and we are such a small country. Where would we bury them all?” …… Finnish solder.
I think this was by a ukranian as well
@@Brockza bruh this is why I love these two countries. I love people who are absolutely badass, even against a huge superpower
@@Brockza ukraine is the second biggest country in Europe and is now losing like 30k soldiers while Russia has like 3k soldiers lost so your comment is delusional
@@doommedd They did.
@@alx9889 😂😂😂
Finnish General Adolf Ehrnrooth was visiting England in the 1970s.
The English general wondered how many Soviet troops were stationed in Finland.
”A few hundred thousand," Ehrnrooth replied.
- Where are they located? continued the British general.
“In depth of two meters along the border,” General Ehrnrooth said.
@dimapez A wise man, that Finnish general. But if he lived now, there are so many enemies of the freedom that Jesus Christ gives, he would have most likely been befuddled, for NATO nations seem friends. But with socialism, they are controlled by an organization of elites. Only Christ can make a nation wise and strong, if the leaders would only believe. That is why the USA is the only nation strong enough to withstand communism the enemy, the Demoncrats stole the last election. They are purposely bringing America down quickly. Only prayer will stop them, God is against them because they are against them. If you want you, and your nation, to prosper, read 2 Chronicles 7:14, and elect Christian minded officials. I didn't say Christians, for very few will venture into that arena dominated by wickedness, but Christian minded. Why worry about judging them? You should be worried about God judging you. After all, concerning govt, it's all about what will they do for you. So you get what your heart wants, unless the enemy of your freedom and soul, steals your election. Pray always. Let God influence your thinking and actions.
I will relate a story from the war between the Whites and Reds in Finland in about 1917, in a tract titled, 7 Communists Go Singing Into Heaven. An eminent engineer named Nordenburg was appointed an officer in General Mannerheim's White army. The Red army had taken over a town and Mannerheim's troops had retaken it. 7 of the Red prisoners were to be shot a few days later on a Monday at dawn. Sunday night something happened in the basement of the Town Hall they were in. The hatred on both sides permeated the atmosphere, many prisoners called for their wives and children, too.
But a prisoner, Koskinen, began to sing, he had not raved and cursed like the others. He sat on a bench, in utter despair. No one said anything to him. He sang, "Safe in the arms of Jesus, Safe on His gentle breast, There by His love o'shaded. Sweetly my soul shall rest. Hark, God the voice of angels. Born in a song to me. Over the fields of Glory. Over the Jasper Sea."
A wild looking individual said, Where did you get that you fool? Are you trying to make us religious? Koskinen's eyes filled with tears, and he quietly said, Comrades, you asked me where I got this song: It is from the Salvation Army. I heard it there three weeks ago. At first I laughed at this song, but it got me. It is cowardly to hide your beliefs: the God my mother believed in, has now become my God also. I cannot tell you how it has happened, but I know that it has happened. I lay awake last night and suddenly I felt that I had to find the saviour to hide in Him. Then I prayed - like the thief on the Cross - that Christ would forgive me and cleanse my sinful soul, and make me ready to stand before Him Whom I should meet soon. It was a strange night, Koskinen continued. There were times when everything seemed to shine around me. Bible verses and Songs from the Book came to mind. They brought a message of the crucified Saviour and the blood that cleanses from sin, and of the home He has prepared for us. I thanked Him, accepted it, and since then this verse has been sounding inside of me. It was God's answer to my prayer. I could no longer keep it to myself! Within a few hours, I shall be with the Lord, saved by His grace. A comrade said, You are right, Koskinen, If only I knew there is mercy for me, too. But these hands have shed blood, and I have reviled God and trampled on all that is holy. Now I realize there is a hell and it is the proper place for me. Pray for me, Koskinen, tomorrow I shall die and my soul shall be in the hands of the devil (truly, the devil had his soul while alive, but after death, it is in God's hands before judgement). And there these two Red soldiers went down on their knees and prayed for each other. It was no long prayer, but it opened heaven for both, and we who listened to it (the White guards, and Red prisoners), FORGOT our hatred. It melted in the light of Heaven; for here two men who were soon to die sought reconciliation with God. A door leading into the invisible, stood ajar, and we were entranced by the sight.
By 4 AM, all of Koskinen's comrades had followed his example and begun to pray. The change in the atmosphere was indescribable, men talking of spiritually things, others silent.
One asked Koskinen to sing the song again for them. Some knew more verses and sang them, the guards joining in. Nordenburg thought, How I wished I could begged for grace for those men, but I knew it was impossible.
When they were marched out, one asked if they could sing Koskinen's song once more. Permission granted. Then they asked to die with uncovered faces, and with hands raised to Heaven, they sang with might and main, Safe in the Arms of Jesus, Safe on His gentle breast. When the last lines died out, the lieutenant gave the word, "fire", and the seven Red soldiers had fought their last fight. We inclined our heads in silent prayer.
What happened in the hearts of others, I do not know, but as far as I was concerned, I was a new man from that hour. I had met Christ in one of His lowliest and youngest disciples; and I had seen enough to realize that I, too, could be His.
Jesus said, I am the resurrection and the life: he that believeth in Me, though he were dead (in sins and trespasses) yet shall he live. John 11:25.
In 1945, 12 Estonians escaped the Communists and fled to Sweden. When the Communists asked Sweden to return them, they got on a boat and determined to make it to America (I gave away the tract to 2 workers in a small store, so I do not have it. I could not determine what the nationality of the 2 was, one looked so guilty and a bit frightened, as if hell had showed up, or the Savior, never saw a look quite like that in my whole life, but the English speaking one took the tract. I entreated him to take it, he did.). So this is by memory, so it will be very short.
After many perils and hazards on the sea, not a life was lost, and they made it to America, calling it the promised land. Pilgrims and sojourners they said they were. They compared it to the Bible. It was from a newspaper clippings way back then.
Last year, I met a Polish woman where I lived, who came to the USA in 1980. She was so shocked and happy at the freedoms we had compared to Communist Poland where she had lived all her life. She said they were always being spied upon. More people from most other countries are truer Americans than many born here. The liberal minded ones, who the Democrats are their champions, have become the enemies of America. They stole the election. Tear down Christian values, you tear down America. Are any of you watching and understanding? Find, endorse, vote for, Christian minded leaders. It is the only true hope any nation will ever have.
An American gospel singer, Ira Sankey, for Dwight Moody, an evangelist, enlisted in the Union Army in the American Civil War in the 12th Pennsylvania. In 1862, in Virginia, while on sentry duty at night, a Confederate sharpshooter had Sankey in his gunsight, but before he could pull the trigger, Sankey started singing and the Reb lowered his rifle and never fired.
After the Civil War, at a Christian revival meeting with Moody preaching, Sankey started to sing, and that Reb was in the audience and after the meeting he went up to Sankey, and said, when you started singing, I knew you were the Union sentry that I was going to shoot, but the Christian song you sang was the same one that my mother used to sing when I was young, I couldn't shoot you. They talked, embraced, and that was the last they talked to each other.
The mercy and grace of God is beyond compare, my friends.
@dimapez Maybe an older relative of yours knows something about things like this. You never know. Good day to you.
well look at what did push sweeden into the arms of nato
1. Finland accepts that it is totally lame.
Damn you, Stalin!
That should be a war crime.
I've been there it was cool, cold, old...
No so lame like Canada which literally translates to (Here's Nothin') if you translate that from Portuguese.
Soviets invade Finland.
Simo Haya: "So you chose death"
Häyhä*
Seo Häyhä perkeleen jenkki
Häyhä*
Soviets never invaded Finland.
@@rikuriku8031 they did try
Because of some dude skiing and yelling "perkele" throwing molotov cocktails at their tanks
Molotov cocktails, but more effectively the Finnish sticky bomb.
A Finnish solder would jump out of a covered hole and stick a tar/sap covered explosive to the tracks of a soviet tank and disable it.
Also, don’t forget that in the Winter War the Soviet solders froze and starved to death. Whereas the Finnish solder would do two man shifts, kill 10 Russians then return for a hot meal and sleep. Every Finnish women and child citizen was also told to kill any Russian anywhere on Finnish soil. There was also a lake staged to look like forest, then when enough Russians, including tanks where on the ice the Finn’s blew it up sinking hundreds of men and equipment. I heard these stories from former WWII Finnish solders on the banks of the actual lake.
And some hunter who decided to go for the highest k/d ratio
Thats right
Great channel. Short, informative and amusing. Wish there were more channels like this
There are some details that are a bit misleading. Firstly, that small looking territorial demands included Finlands second largest city. For example, the second largest city in the US is Los Angeles. Can you imagine US just handing L.A over to a foreign power, simply because they asked nicely? I don't think so.
Secondly, Stalin wanted to punish Finnish leaders for siding with the nazis. So a lot of "war crimes" were hastily conjured out of thin air in order to appease Stalin. After the death of Stalin, nearly all of those accused of war crimes were found to be totally innocent and pardoned. We were not interested in race theories like the nazis. Our people simply wanted their land back.
And let us not forget about the Mannerheim line. The only defense against a Soviet invasion couldn't just be handed to the enemy. We most likely would've ended up like the Baltics, first comes a territorial demand, then a ultimatum
... until there is nothing left.
@JGW 97 Finns didn't try. Troops in the north were mainly german. And USA threatened to declare war on finland if finns occupied the murmansk railway.
@JGW 97 That could be turned around quite easily.
Finland was never Russian, yet it never stopped the Russians from trying to take it.
Finns are the best
@LahtariFIN: and Finland had to push German soldiers part of army group north out of lapland in lapland war.
0:18 No, it absolutely didn’t! Finland came into being as a nation-state as the Grand Duchy of Finland, a territory that was part of the Russian Empire and established during the Napoleonic Wars. It was during this period from 1809-1917 that Finland got a parliament and Finnish started being used in the administration as opposed to just Swedish. The Grand Duchy of Finland was also the first territory in Europe to grant women equal suffrage in 1906.
finland was part of Sweden but then Russian and Sweden had a war then Russian won but some times later Finland was too cold so Russian and Sweden got a deal that Finland is own country now and it's not yours or mines and then Russian wanted to do war with Finland but Finland won (sometimes not) Finland never wanted a war but Russian always wanted :(
Finland has actually been there all along as a culture and people, way before Sweden claimed the lands. As a proper state it has existed from 1809. The name itself dates back to at least 11th century, though it obviously has evolved since then. Despite the area shifting ownership and the border between Sweden and Russia jumping back and forth, the language and culture have stayed there. Under Sweden's rule it was geographically pretty obvious why the area stayed culturally a separeate entity despite over 500 years of Swedish rule, and wasn't really thought of as Sweden, but as a land under Swedish rule.
@@wombat4191 Yes. The tribes that lived here probably had wars amongst themselves, but also a defending system (linnavuoret) and some kind of judicical system (käräjät) etc. But as we had no written language, all this is considered pre-historical and the Swedes who came here to occupy and were already writing their history were mostly never interested in the original Finnish systems and traditions.
@Anna Hagen Sure. :-) (I wonder why you told that here...)
@Anna Hagen Yeah, why not. Surely it is possible to tell all kinds of facts about Finland or Finnish language in the comments of a video about Finnish history in the WWII, but I don't see any connection... 🙂
I guess you could say they didn’t *FINNISH* them.
Damn this needs more likes
Go to gulag
Edge7YT the entrance to the Gulag is right there
Off to the gulag
It's because they just kept STALIN and STALIN.
I just so love watching your videos, thank you for the time and effort you put into them
"along with this territory in north" it's called Petsamo and it has a mining city called Nikkeli (Nickel). Nazi Germany got half of their nickel during the war from there.
Nikel*
wait... Petsamo was the territory in the north? there is an area in Tampere called Petsamo and i thought that was the only one
@@t0q14s9 Yes
@attack333 He ment the name of the place Nikel(wiki says Kolosjoen kaivos in fin).
For a very short time, that "more than half" was after 1943 and it was destroyed 1944... ;)
USSR: this about to be an easy W
Finland: benis
+ ":DDDD"
Spurdo spärdö
Finland coming in with the clutch
Ei viddu mage :DDDDDD
Jos tää tapahtuis nykyaikana, megisjonnet sähköpotkulaudoilla ajais ne pois
1:06 "Finland chose war" is a bit weirdly put phrase. Yes, it resulted in a war, but Finland chose not to abdicate. It wasn't like Kyösti Kallio just said "come take it if you can" when presented with the ultimatum.
Rings alot better though.
Well the obvious two choices were “surrender what we want” or “we fight you for it” ie war
I agree - the ones who chose war was the russians under stalin. The Finns chose to defend their territory.
@Steven Levernier How about you try to learn even one foreign language before starting to judge others' grammar. Also, not relevant to the subject at hand.
@Steven Levernier Sorry but they do not teach English in kindergarten where I live.
"(...) it would also have pushed Sweden into the arms of Nato."
I guess Putin did not get the memo.
Me: watches video
History Matters: It's rewind time
The Winter War humiliates the Soviet Union.
"You okay Stalin?"
"FINLAND!!!"
I mean, the Soviet Union still won the Winter War. Not as much as they wanted to, but they still won.
@@nl3064 A Pyrrhic victory, but a victory nevertheless.
DasBubba I mean if you think about it. The war was a strategic victory, a tactical defeat, and a political humiliation.
@@nl3064 It's less about how much they won, and more about at what cost.
@@nl3064 Finland achieved its strategic goals, soviet union did not... begs the question
People should also know that Finland's population those days was less than 4 million... and now think about this whole setting again. That's some persistence and damn honorable bravery.
And how unusual it was that USSR decided that such a war with Finland would have been unsuccessful. And USSR, the Russian Empire and Russia are FOUNDED for invasions, wtf. USSR was dumb, founded and I'm dumbfounded!
Great video 👍🏻
You forgot to tell about how Russia told the Finns to fight and evict the Nazis from Finland.
Soviets starts military build up in the border.
Finns: P E R K E L E !
Kyllä saatanan saatana
Nice profile picture
Perkele voi vittu saatana
Your profile pic is so odd 😂
Your profile is on point 🤣
Everybody gangsta until the Netherlands News used this clip on their news
And this video became relevant again.
This was a relatively correct explanation, but there were two clear historical mistakes. When the Finns rejected Stalin's demands in early November, they didn't realize, that it would lead to a war. If they would have been sure, that the only option for a treaty with Stalin would be a bloody war, they might have thought again. Now they figured, that this was only a nerve war, and the real negotiations would follow later. Keep in mind, that the public opinion in Finland was very much against a deal with Stalin. The Finnish goverment was much more flexible than the Finnish people, but still not flexible enough. However, the theree Baltic states were surely enough flexible, and that the Sovjetunion swallowed them in the summer of 1940.
The second error was to claime, that the Finns jumped to the war wagons of Germany, because they wanted the lost territory of Karelia back. Surely they wanted Karelia back, but the basic reason for aligning with Germany was the fear of a Russian attack. My father was working in the Finnish radio surveillance after the Winter war, and they found out, that the Russian had made a plan to attack Finland. The preliminary starting date of this attack was 20.08.1940. However, this attack was cancelled. Finland had made a big nickel deal with Germany in June 1940, and even when the Sovjetunion twice threatened Finland with a war, if Finland would not back of from this deal, Finland refused to do that. Stalin began to assume, that Finland might have some kind of guarantee from Germany. Why else would that small country be so stubborn? Then a trusted man of Göring, colonel Veltjens made a trip to Finland just before the 20.08. Stalin knew about this trip probably earlier than the Finns. The espionage organisation "die Rote Kapelle" might have given this information to Stalin. Now this started to look serious from the Russian perspective. So Staln dumped this attack plan, and tried to look the hand of Hitler. Molotov was in Berlin in the middle of November 1940. The two big questons there were Romania and Finland. Molotov wanted free hands for the Sovjetunion, so the Russians could annex these two countries. However, Germany needed oil from Romania and nickel and timber from Finland. So Hitler denied the both demands. The German transcript and the English translation about these negotiations are now both in the net.
Naturally the Germans informed the Finns about the Russian demands during that winter. Hitler made his final decision about the operation Barbarossa in December 1940. The Germans promised to back Finland politically, economically and militarily, but only, if Finland would continue as a pro-German country. If Finland would choose to be neutral, Germany had no obligations to back Finland. So the Finns could assume, that Germany easily could sell Finland to the Sovjetunion, again. That was a risk that the Finns didn't want to take. So the Finnish army was ready to join the Barbarossa operation, but the final decision was to be made by the politicians, and not the army. The government was willing to join the attack, because there were two Russian divisions in Hanko and much larger amount oig German troops in Lapland. To remain neutral was almost impossible and it could have meant, that Finland would have fight both against the Russians and the Germans. But the majority of the Finnish parliament was against a war. Finland had a similar problem as the Danish prince Hamlet.
The Russians solved this Finnish problem by several heavy air plane attacks in 25.06.1941. Politically this was incredibely stupid from the Russians, but I think, that I know the reason. The high German and Finnsh officers had negotiated in late May and early June about the military operations in the near future. They had reached results, which the both sides accepted. There were German and Finnish transcriptions about these things. These two were similar except a prologue, which was only in the Finnish version. In this prologue was a condition, that these actions would be carried out only in the situation, whrer the Sovjetunion had attacked Finland. This condition did not exist in the German version. Which version is correct? My guess is, that it is the Finnish version, because by accepting the co-operation with the German attacking force without a seal of approval of the Finnish parliament, would have been a really serious crime. The parliament decides about war and peace, and the army only decides how the war should be carried out. And knowing how closely the Finnish army commander Mannerheim knew his limits of the power, I don't think, that he would have accepted the German version. But for the Germans this condition was just air. It is highly likely, that if the Russians had got a transcription about those negotiations, that was the German one, because they had that Rote Kapelle in the German HQ, but not in the Finnish one. So it is possble, that the Red army made these air attacks believing, that Finland was already tightly involved in the Geman attack. Militarly it was so, but not politically. However, after the Russian air attacks the Finnish parliament was later unanimously declaring a war against the Sovjetunion.
Finland decided her side in the possible German- Russian war in fact already in September 1940. The possibilities about retaking Karelia were starting to be a real scenario just from the April 1941. Naturally the people, who had lost their land because of the peace, which ended the Winter war, had hoped all the time to get it back. Their amount was over 10% of the whole Finnish population. But neither the Winter war or the Continuation war were fought because of Karelia. In both wars it was a queston about the very existence of an independent Finland.
Nice
Finland was fully prepared for going to war with the Soviets. They knew that their actions could lead to war, it just wasn't a guarantee.
I like how you spell It as Sovjet union.
Thank you for the nuanced explanation, Vesa!
Thank you for the essay
As a Finn I've been taught that the war with Soviets started at year 1939 due to artilliery shots fired at Mainila (Soviet's territory), so called "shots of Mainila". Soviets blaimed Finns for shooting them and that gave them the right to start the war. Later it has been revealed that the Soviets shot Mainila, not Finland, to get "the permission" to start the war.
Good vid though! :)
joo. mutta ei ne siltu saanu oikeutta siihen.
neuvostoliitto potkittiin pois League Of Nationista sen takia
somehow youtubers making history videos always fail to mention this
Typical false flag operation for casus belli. Germans did it to Poland.
@@ivanshuvalov3887 Maa = land. Suo = swamp.
In general, in Finland we do know there are people related to the Finnish people living in Russia. We don't really see the reunification of the Finnish people however even though there's still a fading opinion that wants Karelia back.
@@ivanshuvalov3887 Nobody here does really think that either. The people who used to live there before it was lost to the soviets in WW2 are in their 80's or more now. Most of the citizens there were evacuated to other parts of Finland at the time.
Simo häyhä: hey Stalin.
Stalin: what?
Simo häyhä: Helsinki.
Stalin: i don't get it.
Simo häyhä: and you Never will. 😂
😂😂 they will never own Helsinki
@@videosfromrandomgames5708 Hell no 💪🇫🇮😂
Sama paska läppä joka videossa ja lopeta emojien käyttö
@@trenperse Noh. Onhan tuota kuullukkin jo useamman kerran.
@@trenperse True
A few years later around 2022, everything backfired when Russia (once called the Soviet Union) invaded Ukraine which was a peaceful country just like Finland. Now feeling threatened from a possible invasion of Russia, Finland is doing everything they can to join NATO right along with Sweden.
Ukraine is a facist and corrupt country which is thanks to the CIA since 2014 in a fucking civil war.
The Soviet Union wasn’t just Russia, it was Russia and 14 other nations including Ukraine. The USSR was effectively the Russian Empire minus a huge chunk of Poland and Finland. But yeah I see your point.
They couldnt finish them because they are already finnish
😂😂😂
Lol)
I searched the joke
my laugh will arrive in about 5-7 business days
So much Wisdom 🧠
Finland was only part of Russia for about 100 years. We've now been independent the same amount of time. Finland was part of Sweden for hundreds of years. We have absolutely nothing in comming with Russians. Different language, different culture, different religion, different mentality and morale. Finland has always been democratic, Russia has always been a dictatorship.
Don't you f*** come to say to us Lenin gave us the independence after two wars against Soviet Union. Finland should've been independent always. We can handle our own things just fine. Thank you.
My man, well said.
What happened to the friendship treaty mentioned at 2:30? Does it still exist?
@@backwoodsbungalow9674 it went away with collapse of Soviet Union
I think no Russian colony wanted to be part of it, they just couldn't and still can't militarily stand against it.
@@psinschktz1192 true but it's disgrace to say ussr gave us our independense. Our grandgrandparents killed hundreds of thousands of soviets at that fucking border. 1 Finnish man took out on average 10 soviets before going down and that's why we are independent
I lived in Petrozavodsk for a little while and I met a few veterans from the wars with Finland. One guy said he was on the "clean up crew". His job was to go through after a battle and shoot the corpses to make sure they were really dead. He had trauma from it. The U.S.S.R. was brutal in war
Yeah that sounds like pretty terrible work.
The USSR's position on imperialism was "It's bad when others do it".
Finland did not choose a war - Russia did, and got it!
The USSR did. Russia had no say in the matter since foreign policy was in the hands of the federal USSR government.
@@jodofe4879 Yes, ppl think the ussr is russian lol, even stalin is geogia
@UCNFnD4bdygDrLNS1RQlYToQ the USSR is also called soviet russia so fuck off stop nitpicking
@@andymccoy8370 So Russian are lord of ussr and Stalin are russian, yeah very good what more? Germany invade ussr to liberated soviet ppl?
@@canthi109 i'm sorry i can't read english that broken. either learn to spell or stop making a fool of yourself
I came back to this video after recent events...
Technically the Grand Duchy of Finland was independent already in 1917. It's just that the Grand Duke of Finland was also the Tsar of Russia. But, Finland had its own parliament and legal system.
And Finns didn't have to serve in The Russian Army I believe.
@@alanpennie8013 Some Finns did though. Several of the Finnish leaders in the Winter War were veterans from the Russian Imperial Army.
@@jodofe4879
A bit like The Irish in The British Army in the two world wars.
and you should be grateful to the Russians for that
Finland had a tetracameral legislature at one point during this time.
Finland did not claim all of the land shown in the video. Nationalists wishing to conquer those lands were a fringe minority in Finland, and the government simply attempted to reconquer land it lost to the soviets. Stop painting Finland as the "bad guy"
Finland was unquestionably the bad guy in the continuation war
Everybody chill in a warzone & in finland till some man in the snow starts taking shots from 1000+ yards with just fucking iron sights
While eating snow
Something to remember: Stalin expected the Finnish workers to have radicalized and turned towards the soviet but the anti-communist social democratic party had gained a large trust among workers gaining almost 40% of votes in the general election of 1939. The soviets saw the social democrats as a large threat, especially the leader Väinö Tanner who had - much like his inspiration Karl Kautsky - been highly critical of soviets. (Väinö Tanner was later imprisoned after the continuation war) During the cold war the relations between SDP and soviet union were so bad that the soviets would trust centre-right bourgeois governments more than the social democrats.
That is really interesting stuff. I don't know Finnish history that well. As a Norwegian it is interesting to see many of the parallels between Nordic countries in the post-war period. In Norway we had a Labour party which in the 1920s was aligned with the Soviets, when they realized how brutal the Soviet rule was they got cold feet and became social democrats, which until the 1980s was really democratic socialists. Anyway.... after WWII there was a fierce struggle inside the party where anybody with communist sympathies got purged. One of the titans of the Norwegian labour party Haakon Lie, was known as a fierce anti-communist. He was married to an American women and really wanted to make sure Norway was on good terms with the US.
The Norwegian Labour party under Einar Gerhardsen (one of our longest serving prime minister) did however want to maintain a good relationship with the Soviet Union. While there was great suspicion against the Soviet Union, they of course shared a common goal of creating a socialist society. The Soviet crushing of the Hungarian uprising was a major blow to the Norwegian labor party. I think it made them extremely disappointed in the Soviet Union. They had held out some hope of common ground. They shared a vision of socialism but for social democrats, democracy and freedom was non-negotiable.
But I know on occasion Norway did piss off America, due to being a bit too friendly towards the Soviet Union. I felt when i came to the US the first time, that Americans looked upon the Soviet Union in a radically different way from how I had been raised in Norway. To us the Soviet Union was sort of our misguided neighbour, that we hoped would get on the right track. In the US it seemed more like some evil empire out of Star Wars bent on world domination.
Povel Vieregg I would love to know more about Norwegian political history, it seems very interesting ! Here in Finland the social democratic party’s main ideological founder was Karl Kautsky who worked on the Erfurt programme which us Finnish partially copied when the SDP:s predecessor changed its economic goals and actions from previously having been a bourgeois movement made to calm down the workers and by that preventing them from revolting to having a workers’ movement led by the working men themselves. Before the civil war the party had a communist minority - which started the revolution without a majority acceptance - but by the end of the war many communists either escaped to soviet union or they were executed. With the communist minority out of the party, SDP turned its ideological attention back to Germany and Kautsky and like them, criticised soviets heavily. The party leader Väinö Tanner famously said that the party is opposed to both the bolsheviks and right wing bolsheviks (mussolini, hitler, domestic far right people etc.) drawing connections to communists and nazis. SDP still advocated communists’ freedom of expression but to no avail since many Presidents - who were more than figureheads) were very right wing and co-operated with the far right in order to stop communists’ activities. After the continuation war SDP was in very bad terms with the soviets like i said in the previous comment but managed to turn it around in the 70’s when they ”took a small step to the left” and started co-operating with the Finnish people’s democratic league (comprised of socialists and minority communists).
@@clevername4188 Interesting stuff. I love comparative history. Like looking at different countries and seeing how they developed in similar or different patterns.
To me Finland is a very interesting country from the perspective of what social democracy can achieve. E.g. Americans typically dismiss Norwegian success with: "You got plenty of oil and we protect you in NATO."
Finland in contrast is a very impressive country because it has built a Nordic style welfare state without abundance of any valuable resources and without American protection. You built success "alone" and that makes Finland a very interesting case to study.
But I wish there was more stuff that contrasted it with our history, because that makes it easier to understand for me. E.g. an Anglo-Saxon youtube video about Finland doesn't give me a great idea about how Finland developed different from Norway. E.g. how is Finnish Social Democratic values and traditions different from ours.
I wish we did many things more like Finland. Both with respect to education and national defense.
@@povelvieregg165 True, and the U.S. was and is right.
@@clevername4188 The right, even far right, is always best, your statement proved it. But to keep Russia out of Finland, they had to appease Russia. I don't know if that should still be a good policy. But NATO is anti Christian, which the U.S. still is. Without the U.S., Russia beats NATO, but first, the Democratic party has to make America weak, by putting in socialism with communism, then NATO, with the U.S. in it, will still lose to Russia. Then the new world order moves in. Only Christian mindedness can stop them and communist aggressor nations. For your country and you, read 2 Chronicles 7:14, in the Bible.
May I correct, Finland never started any of these conflicts it has always been Russian side aggression against us. Winter war started after Russia staged as if Finn's had shot artillery over the border in Mainila region. This was not true though as there were no Finnish military forces in that area at all.
And also, finnish artillery couldnt fire that long shots. Vittu eiku perkele
Couldn't fire that far because Mannerheim pulled artillery further away from the border. Perkele
Finland chose war when it rejected the ultimatum to hand out the land to the Soviets.
@@georgesmith6218 trade lands*
Granted it wasnt even close to a good trade for Finland, but the USSR still wouldve given them land in compensation
@@georgesmith6218 That's like saying that a woman chose rape because she rejected the advances of a man who didn't want to take no as an answer.
I learned valuable information, thank you very much!
I literally lost it when you mentioned that Cuba didn't get the memo. Brilliant
He had to reupload the video because James Bisonette temporary decided to stop sponsoring him
*[dramatic gasp]*
Never!
@@jamesbissonette8002 *[even more dramatic gasp]*
James Bissonette OMG you are real, please check the History Matters reddit I did lots of memes about you(From the respect of course)
They just showed this video on national television in the netherlands. Congrats, i guess!
Why?
Why not? It's history.
@@michaelalbertson7457 why this video though? It's got nothing to do with Netherlands
@@postmortemspasm. For people who are interested in history. We have history channels on TV that are about other countries, not mine, but are very interesting.
The Netherlands, mainly written up in history as Holland or the Dutch, had a strong relationship with Sweden 300 years ago, in some nefarious practices, also. They helped Sweden, with Finns, establish New Sweden in America, didn't even last 20 years, the Dutch took it over, the the English took it from the Dutch, in the 1600s. They were the money lenders, if I remember right. Sweden controlled Finland during that time, so I am able to put together events in countries and understand more.
It depends how much you want to know about history. Others do, so why question, because it doesn't make sense to you. It gives others knowledge. Who does that hurt? Honestly, it hurts the people who come to erroneous conclusions about history, and vandalize things because of knowing how bad people really are, as if they were saints.
The answer is Jesus Christ, Who died for our sins, do we could be delivered from it's power over us, so God can take us into the joy of heaven, and we can escape the torment of hell. They are forever, you know.
And here we are, two years later.