Finland 100 years

Agreed. Look at Wernher von Braun. Instrumental in the design of the V2 rocket programme and then heavily involved in the US space programme..... Not sure what to think about this - even now!

 

Yes the Soviets were "good guys" to use your description.. 100% mate ..without them we'd have all been talking German..

 

I guess we'll have to agree to disagree then. I wouldn't describe one of the murderous regimes in history as particularly good.

 

I meant the ussr and red army , not getting into opinions on Josef Stalin...
It may be hard to admit to, but Finland collaboratoried big time with Nazi Germany .. it's a fact .. even the Finns i know are quite embarrassed by that part of their history Tom.
Le Fin .

 

But that doesn't make sense - you can't separate the two! Stalin was the leader of the USSR and the Red Army and he certainly wasn't a very nice man.

Are you just making things up now? Yes, the former part is of course true; no one's denying that Finland collaborated with the Germans (although the "big time" part of your claim is debatable). So it's not hard to admit because it's all in the history books. But I suspect that you're making up the latter part, because I don't know anyone who's particularly embarrassed by "that part of our history"... and I'm fairly sure that I know more Finns than you do! (I'm not sure if you realised before, but I'm one!) Instead, we're very proud of our history and how we stood up against the USSR. The war veterans and those who didn't make it back from the war are held in high regard. The nazi ideology didn't spread in Finland, we didn't take part in any genocide business, and we didn't join forces with the Germans to invade other countries, so at least in my opinion there's nothing to be ashamed of. We just did what was necessary for survival and to defend our borders, and it worked pretty well. I just wish it hadn't cost so many lives, but again, if you want to blame someone for that, you can point the finger at your comrade Josef.

However, before you start to think that I'm some sort of a nazi sympathiser, obviously I'm not saying that collaborating with the Germans is anything that I would gloat about either. But I doubt that you're very proud of the fact that you were collaborating and allied with the Soviets either. I think we're both glad that the Germans lost the war in the end, but personally I'm also very glad that the Soviets didn't occupy Finland and that Russian isn't my native language now.

 

I don't think you understand the history at all...Finland's enemy was Russia, Finland had cast off the Russian yoke in the 1920's and declared independence . They were again attacked by Russia in 1939 and very courageously fought them to a standstill at a time when Russia and Germany had the Ribbentrop-Molotov pact in place, I think I'm right in saying that other countries including Britain assisted the Finns . It's quite understandable that Finland would welcome the German invasion of Russia two years later, it rather took the pressure off them , and helped them secure their future, rather like Britain worked with the Russians to defeat Hitler .
To suggest Mannerheim or the Finnish people were Nazi stooges or Quizlings is not only outrageous but totally inaccurate.

 

Sorry to disagree RK...the Soviets were on our side for their own interests, as we were theirs, and that is not said to belittle the sacrifice of the Russian people...Google Katyn Forest massacre...or Soviet purge of Poles in 1937/8, or read about the Warsaw uprising and the fact that Stalin refused British supply aircraft permission to land in Russia ...and how he halted the Red Army outside Warsaw in order to allow the Nazi's to destroy the Polish Home Army....you need to do some serious reading before you make suggestions that look like they've come from a quick glance at Wikipedia.

 

lol dont get me wrong i love Finland ..
..But It's a historical Fact that Finland WAS on the side of Nazi Germany in the War against Nazism..

And yes German interference in Finnland started at least from around the time of the Finnish civil war 1918..


" Hungary became essential in the defence of the Reich's outworks. Good soldiers, the Hungarians were nonetheless pitted against the daunting Red Army and the Hungarian dictator General Horthy considered defection until Hitler kidnapped his son.

Romania also played a vital role in the German war effort. After a German-Romanian economic agreement in 1939, German companies came to control much of the Romanian economy. By 1941, German-owned companies produced nearly half of Romania's crude oil output, and the German war effort relied heavily on Romanian oil.

Britain declared war on Finland, Hungary and Romania on 5 December 1941, following the signing of the Tri-partite Pact and Finland's alliance with Germany.

However, all three of these countries were to change their allegiance before the end of the war. By March 1944, the Romanian ruler Antonescu made contact with the Western Allies, and Romania declared war on Germany on 24 August that year. Hungary started negotiations with the Allies in early 1944, and was occupied by German forces in March 1944; and Finland went contrary to German wishes and made peace with the Soviet Union on 19 September 1944.

The fact files in this timeline were commissioned by the BBC in June 2003 and September 2005. Find out moreabout the authors who wrote them. "