I hate the Finnish exceptionalism regarding WW2 that has resulted in staunch patriotism. Many forget that the reason for the Continuation War was that Finland wanted to recapture the lost territories in the Winter War and even sided with Nazi Germany for that cause, yet these people are painted as heroes. In fact every year during Independence Day, public service airs the ”Unknown Soldier” film, even though it has nothing to do with the nation’s independence, while it was the Bolsheviks that recognized Finland’s self-determination to be independent.
In my experience, the Finnish civil war is almost forgotten in education, with it being only briefly covered while WW2 was discussed more, of course with the exceptionalistic lens, painting Finland as the ”brave” country fighting the ”big, bad” Soviet Union. Many of the war crimes committed by the fascist White Guard in the civil war are simply white-washed or forgotten and there is barely any mention that they were in fact fascists (neo-Nazis worship them, see e.g. Lapuan liike).
I hate the Finnish exceptionalism regarding WW2 that has resulted in staunch patriotism. Many forget that the reason for the Continuation War was that Finland wanted to recapture the lost territories in the Winter War and even sided with Nazi Germany for that cause, yet these people are painted as heroes. In fact every year during Independence Day, public service airs the ”Unknown Soldier” film, even though it has nothing to do with the nation’s independence, while it was the Bolsheviks that recognized Finland’s self-determination to be independent.
In my experience, the Finnish civil war is almost forgotten in education, with it being only briefly covered while WW2 was discussed more, of course with the exceptionalistic lens, painting Finland as the ”brave” country fighting the ”big, bad” Soviet Union. Many of the war crimes committed by the fascist White Guard in the civil war are simply white-washed or forgotten and there is barely any mention that they were in fact fascists (neo-Nazis worship them, see e.g. Lapuan liike).