Page 410 - Conflitti Militari e Popolazioni Civili - Tomo I

410 XXXIV Congresso della CommIssIone InternazIonale dI storIa mIlItare • CIHm

the strength of the own defence.
During the Winter War and the Continuation War the Russians dropped parachutists in
Finland, whom the Finns called “desantti”. This phenomenon gave wings to rumours and
horrifying stories and caused hysterical reactions, though it was not a big trouble. Those who
caused trouble in the border areas were the Soviet partisans. these troops attacked small
villages and solitary farmhouses far away from the bigger population centres killing people,
cattle and burning the houses. Most of the atrocities took place summertime in 1942-1944.
These killings were considered murders by the Finnish Ministry of Justice.
When the men went to the frontiers, a lot of workplaces were left behind. The jobs had to
be filled. It meant that also women had to take care of men’s jobs. After the war many of the
women continued in work because of the wages. With this, the wars brought a change into Fin-
nish society as well as to the family life with more and more women employed outside home.
The circumstances of the Second World War led the Finnish energy management to
chopped wood line. The evacuees from the eastern border areas and from the towns were
employed in the firewood forests. If they were not willing to go, they were forced and this ag-
gravated the relations between the evacuees and employment authorities. Voluntary firewood
workers compensated the refusals to some extent.
In the countryside there were Russian prisoners of war at work on the farms. They were
a good help in farming. The prisoners also seemed to enjoy their job and they were thankful
because they had got rid of the prisoner camps where the living was poor and nothing but
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drudgery.
Before the Winter War there were plans to bury the soldiers killed in action on the field.
The intention was watered down, by people who wanted to bury the fallen in their home
churchyard. Thus a practice to transport the corpses to their home parishes was developed
in Finland.
In principle, the next of kin of a fallen soldier got a letter of condolence from the mil-
itary chaplain of the unit. The relatives got also a printed form of condolences from Marshal
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Mannerheim . This revealed the essential features of Finnish thought of sankarikuolema,
a heroic death. It took place for home, fatherland and religion, and it was also a sacrifice to
Finland on the part of the relatives. God would help them in their mourning.
The funerals depended only to a small extent on the social status of the fallen. They were
a common mourning ceremony of the locality; the differences of 1918 were forgotten for a
while. A fallen soldier was a member of his local community, even if he remained a part of
the military, buried among his fellow soldiers. In this way, the heroic death became a process,
which stretched from the battlefield to the home front. After the war the names of the heroes
got their places in Pro Patria memorial tablets on the walls of their old school and other
establishments.
The families of the soldiers were ready to accept their loss and mourn their deceased as
heroes of the nation. One answer to how the Finns could tolerate the wartime casualties is the
religion. in Finnish nationalism religion and nation was almost the same thing.
During the Winter War the evacuation of people was successful, but the transportation of

6 Maisonlahti 1996, p. ; Kujala, 2007 p. 14 and Kirstinä 2006, p. 52.
7 Peltonen, form of condolences and Kemppainen 2006, p. 65 and 261.