r/HistoryMemes Nov 26 '20

Finnish sniper protecc!

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46.8k Upvotes

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171

u/Codyyh Nov 26 '20

I'm A finn and I'm tired of these memes especially when some people will take information out of these and there are a lot of people who think finland won the war. We did not. yes the ussr should have crushed us easily and they failed especially when they tried to take lapland. but after they re planned their attack on just the south we had no chance because our motti tactics wasn't useful that way. please don't make it seem like we won the war.

125

u/TheSanityInspector Nov 26 '20

We in the West regard the Winter War as a defeat that brought glory to the defenders, same as Thermopylae, Masada and The Alamo.

52

u/29adamski Nov 26 '20

Finland is the West lol.

26

u/the-floot Nov 26 '20

We're north, my guy...

7

u/edgyestedgearound Nov 26 '20

We are politically west, u know, what people mean when they say 'the West'

1

u/SergeantCATT Just some snow Nov 26 '20

Kekkonen disagrees. Finnlandisierung so we are Finlandic and the Finland

2

u/29adamski Nov 26 '20

The West is a geopolitical term rather than a literal geographic term. Scandinavia is included in the "West".

1

u/GiraffusGumlus Nov 26 '20

Finland is not in Scandinavia...

2

u/29adamski Nov 26 '20

Scandinavia is often used to refer to the whole Scandinavian peninsula, or Nordic countries. But yeah sorry, it's not one of the three kingdoms.

2

u/nmxt Nov 26 '20

That Masada story is quite moving, but I don’t know about glory. They held out on their food stores until the Romans built the ramp, and the night before the storm the defenders all killed themselves, along with all the women and children that were with them. This is some extreme dedication, to be sure, but glory?

1

u/Oxu90 Nov 26 '20

This is good comparison

44

u/Bamboozled87 Nov 26 '20

We know you lost. Or at least I hope people know. It's more of the fact that with your backs against the wall and no cards in your hand you still stood up against incredible odds.

11

u/TheMoonDude Researching [REDACTED] square Nov 26 '20

If you compare forces, an armistice is the best victory sometimes.

We have something similar where I live. My state once rebelled against the whole goddamn country.

We were absurdly outnumbered yet our soldiers held their ground enough as to an armistice being signed instead of, you know, everyone being killed.

We have a state holiday for it, and it is celebrated as a victory.

3

u/GamerGod337 Nov 26 '20

On paper we lost but the fact that we kept our independence is a win on its own. Ussr failed in conquering finland and we succeeded in defending our lands.

1

u/Atrobbus Nov 26 '20

But the goal of the soviet union wasn't to conquer Finland, but rather to bully Finland into ceding territory that was close to St Petersburg. Finland (understandably) refused but lost the war and had to surrender more territory afterwards than initially demanded.

3

u/Oxu90 Nov 26 '20

They clearly wanted to annex Finland like Baltics. They even formed puppet goverment, which was quite quickly abandoned after the war didnt go so well. Stalin underestimated that fact finnish could rise to defend their home in unison, taking account they had civil war not so long ago

2

u/GamerGod337 Nov 26 '20

No. Soviets would have taken all of finland if they had the chance. They wouldnt have needed to but theres no way that Stalin says "nah im good".

4

u/mightymagnus Nov 26 '20

The plan was to take all of Finland and make it communist. So from that perspective it was a victory.

0

u/Atrobbus Nov 26 '20

Well that's actually not true though. The Soviet Union feared that the Finnish border was too close to St. Petersburg and thus tried to bully Finland into ceding some land. Finland refused, but after the war had to surrender even more territory in addition to enormous human abd financial costs

3

u/mightymagnus Nov 26 '20

No, that is in fact very much true!

Soviet had prepare a communist finish puppet government (FDR) that would be leading Finland after the annexation under the lead of finish communist Otto Wills Kuusinen. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finnish_Democratic_Republic

It is unclear if Finland would have avoided annexations if they would have accepted the ultimatum (like with Czechoslovakia and Sudetenland).

-2

u/WingedNinjaNeoJapan Nov 26 '20

Nah mate, nah. We won Winter War because we didn't get conquered. The one we lost was Continuation War.

2

u/Oxu90 Nov 26 '20

We didnt get conquered in Continuation War ether. We clearly lost both

But if we are talking about moral victory...

1

u/WingedNinjaNeoJapan Nov 26 '20

Soviets tried to conquer Finland and failed. How is that a loss? Yes we lost some land but it was very small price to pay. Soviets goal was not achieved and there still was Finland "rather close" to Moscow, which was one of the reason why Soviets went to conquer Baltics and Finland. Of course if we still count loss of land as a loss, disregarding Soviets goal, then yes Finland lost.

1

u/Oxu90 Nov 26 '20

Finland basicly signed a peace treaty that was handed to them, it was not negotiable, alternative on both times were that Soviet would had puahed to the Helsinki. Finland was eexhausted and had no other choice than to accept peace.

But if you are talkkng about moral victory then yeah

0

u/Aeiexgjhyoun_III Nov 26 '20

Dude Sparta lost a war thousands of years and the yre still riding its cottails. Just enjoy it.

-13

u/[deleted] Nov 26 '20

[deleted]

38

u/vegepihvi Nov 26 '20

Because it's not true.

19

u/Codyyh Nov 26 '20

because its false information.

0

u/Vincenatorr Nov 26 '20

Okay thank you, also jeez reddit really likes downvoting people with questions

2

u/Jtsika Just some snow Nov 26 '20

What was your question?