/history/ - History & Related Social Sciences

>the ONLY flaw with communism was its secularism

surely you jest

>Most of Karelia was occupied by the Finns from 1941 to 1944. During this period the population of the capital, Petrozavodsk, fell by half from the previous level of 70,000. Other modern towns, such as Kondopoga and Medvezhegorsk, were virtually wiped out. The Finns treated their Karelian kinsmen as inferiors. Corporal punishment was legalized, and sentences of whipping with the knout were carried out in public. Collective farm lands were confiscated and sold back to their members at inflated prices. Farmers unable to pay were branded vagrants and were shipped to Finland for forced labor or impressment into the army. The New York Herald Tribune correspondent, after visiting villages from which the Finns had been expelled, wrote:

>>"Like the Germans, the Finns stole the potatoes, rye and oats from the peasants, even the last sack in the house. Like the Germans, they drove the children in winter off the top of brick ovens so they might stretch upon it. Like the Germans, they pulled the boots and coats off men and women. And it did not stop there. Like the Germans, the Finns swaggered around insulting the natives. Like the Germans, they beat the villagers for the least misdemeanor with birch sticks."

- William Mandel, "A Guide to the Soviet Union," 1946, p. 49.

>>36

i wonder how reliable a book written only a year after the end of ww2 is lmao

>>42

I don't see how that matters much. It's not a book speculating on Finnish foreign policy or the inner workings of its armed forces. The paragraphs in question simply describe what went on in Finnish-occupied Karelia during the war.

Finland during WWII was allied to Nazi Germany. Its leader, Mannerheim, was an admirer of fascism who carried out the massacre of tens of thousands during the Finnish Civil War. Ryti, another Finnish leader, praised Hitler as a "genius."

I don't see how it's surprising that such a government would badly treat an area under its occupation. But yeah if you want a more modern source:

>In the early stages of the occupation, the Finnish administration pursued a policy of what can only be described as ethnic cleansing. Even before occupation, plans had been set in motion to move the Russian population out of the area once the war was over, and replace them with other Finno-Ugric peoples. Those deemed 'non-national' were rounded up and placed in concentration camps as the first stage of the process of expulsion. By early 1942, some twenty-four thousand were being held in these camps. A poor harvest and disruptions in the procurement and distribution of foodstuffs during the winter of 1941-42 caused hardship amongst the Finnish urban population, but proved disastrous for those interned, already on grossly inadequate rations. Over three thousand of those interned in the concentration camps, and ten thousand Soviet prisoners-of-war held in Finland are known to have died as a result of famine. . .

>the hearts and minds of the Karelians were not won over.

David Kirby, "A Concise History of Finland," 2006, pp. 225-226.