We do love our coffee indeed. According to some statistics, Finland is the #1 coffee consuming country in the world, an average Finn apparently drinks 2.64 cups of coffee a day, but at least I'm well above that average. And yes, Tampere is a great place, especially in the summer.
You're correct. The Soviets wanted to move the Finnish border further away from the city of Leningrad (now known as St. Petersburg) after the Winter War in 1939-40, that's why Karelia was strategically important to them. I'm no history expert, but I have a feeling that the Soviets weren't expecting such heavy resistance, and the weather conditions that winter were terrible as well, which worked in Finland's favour. Actually Finland did manage to recapture Karelia in the Continuation War in 1941-44, but that time we had a little help from the Germans. Too bad we couldn't hold on to it for long, and in hindsight it probably would have been a better idea to just leave the lost regions alone, but at least we managed to stop the Soviet invasion again. What ultimately saved Finland, I think, was that despite of the Soviets having a massive invasion force on the Finnish front as well, they had to concentrate their war efforts on the German front that was of course even more crucial to them. Luckily it seems like Stalin underestimated the Finnish resistance for the second time too - he had plans of occupying the whole Finland, but fortunately the Finns managed to put up enough resistance to slow down the Soviet assault again, so the Soviet madman had to change his plans and sign the peace treaty.
More to it than that, there was a civil war in Finnland around the time of the October revolution ... half the population were pro Soviet.. the other side was backed by Germany ... the same side you may know who backed the Finns in WW2 too.. The Finns have more of an old beef with the Swedes.. than any others..
Moi Tomi, i was in Helsinki well actually Espoo last week and had a Finish 100 year celebration Dinner. Great to open with a Napue & Tonic, Cranberries etc. Back to Helsinki next week. Hope you enjoyed the celebrations. Kippis
Actually, the Germans were against Finland at first in WW2 when they were allied with the Soviets. During the Winter War we didn't get much help, apart from a few thousand volunteers from Sweden. Fun fact of the day: Thirteen volunteers arrived from Great Britain, one of them was the actor Christopher Lee! Anyway, it was only in 1941 when the Germans suddenly wanted us on their side to support their attack in Soviet Union. Some say that we should have turned our back on them, but I don't think we had much choice at that point. I think our rivalry with the Swedes is more of a friendly rivalry.
Yeh Finland was a Nazi client state for much of the war ... then changed sides a month or 2 near the end ... As for the friendly rivalry ... its more than that from what Ive heard from Finns... a bit like Irish v English..
I think "client state" is a bit far-fetched, Finland was never even officially allied with the Germans. The Finns v Swedes rivalry is a bit complicated, I suppose. We love to "hate" each other when it comes to sports or other relatively meaningless things, but I'm sure that if someone attacked either of us we'd stand by each other. Our rivalry with Russia is much more serious business, and the general attitude towards Russians is still a bit negative, especially amongst the older folks. I don't know enough about the Irish v English rivalry to really comment on it, but I doubt that you really hate each other.
It was .. they were allied with the Nazis lock stock .. Changed sides in the last months of the war ..lol.. it's a fact . Anyway ..
They were never allied in the sense that Germany and Hungary or Italy were allied to the Germans. They had common objectives, they shared intelligence and the Finns allowed German units on their soil, but they were careful not to get politically entangled.
Fair enough, but I think that your good guys vs bad guys view is a bit naive. With the Soviets on the side of the Allies, were there any "good guys" in the war then?