1939-40 Russo-Finnish Winter War

[Har]

Marshall Mannerheim, the White Butcher

[Chinaski]

Marshall Mannerheim, the White Butcher

Fuck off, he saved his country from the asshole Stalin.

[Har]

I just don't like anyone who is beyond all criticism.

[Chinaski]

I just don't like anyone who is beyond all criticism.

Some people are just awesome. If anything, blame Stalin for sending his troops to be butchered.

[Har]

Oh, I wasn't actually talking about the Winter War, but the civil war of 1918.

[Chinaski]

Oh, I wasn't actually talking about the Winter War, but the civil war of 1918.

That's a different story. I don't know the details, but I'll be researching it for my History paper eventually...

[Har]

Yeah, that sounds fascinating.

[Chinaski]

Yeah, that sounds fascinating.

If you have any particular opinion about Mannerheim's conduct, argue it here with factual evidence and sources.

[FedUpWithFaith]

Yay ^^ Let's have a mythology trivia thread!

We do, what happened Gawdzilla?

[klr]

Yeah, that sounds fascinating.

If you have any particular opinion about Mannerheim's conduct, argue it here with factual evidence and sources.

A potted history, mostly summarised from the William Trotter book I mentioned early in the thread:

Mannerheim was referred to some as "The Bloody Baron", a nickname that he shared with Roman Ungern von Sternberg. It might be coincidence, or (more likely) Mannerheim was given it as a back-handed reference to von Sternberg, who really was a bloodthirsty lunatic. Mannerheim was held responsible for the deaths of several thousand "Reds" during the "White Terror" of 1918, which itself followed on from an earlier "Red Terror". But Mannhereim's role and culpability in these mass deaths is disputed - there was a lack of proper communication and control, there was disease, famine, etc. On the other hand, he had great authority, and could have acted more decisively in some cases.

... so where does the truth lie? :hum:

[Woodbutcher]

Wood,

The more I learn about Finland, the more impressed I am. Also came across some really cool stuff about linguistic-genetic studies of the Finns and Laplanders too. Some really fascinating migration must have happened to and from that relatively small area.

I seem to recall that Finland was subjet to radiation poisoning from Chernobyl and possibly some other Soviet nuclear tests and accidents (particularly a nuclear sub that went kaput in your waters). What ever came of that?. Are people still getting sick? Did the Russians or Soviets ever do anything to help?

Finns' ethnic ancestry comes from tribespeople from around Russian Ural mountains. AFAIK the Huns and the Mongols pushed these proto-Finnic tribes ahead of them, across the Russian steppes and up through Hungary. Some settled there, others chose to move north, eventually settling in Estonia and Finland. Finnish and Estonian languages are fairly closely related, Hungarian has diverged greatly, influenced by slavic tongues. Some of the earlier inhabitants, the Lapps, had resided in Finland for a long time before this, since 4000 BC, if I remember correctly. Later on people moved in from Russia as well. Finns are not exclusively blond, many have dark brown or black hair, which is probably due to Russian influence. Lapps, who live in northern Finland, Sweden and Norway speak a language that is related to Finnish. Some of them also live in Russia on the Kola peninsula next to Finland.
I seem to recall about Chernobyl that the Russians wanted to keep it hushed. The first indication was that radioactive measurements in northern Finland suddenly flew off the scale. Eventually the Russians had to 'fess up that they were at fault, although at first they denied it. At first people panicked, but eventually radiation settled to normal levels. Since there is two months of no sun in northern Finland, a little radioactivity in reindeer would have been neat for the Lapps: they would have been easier to spot if they glowed in the dark.

[Woodbutcher]

Finns don't trust Russians to help. They think that the first thing the Russians would do is to send in an army. The sub I think was closer to Norway, as far as I know Finland has escaped most of the radiation effects from nuclear testing as well.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Yay ^^ Let's have a mythology trivia thread!

We do, what happened Gawdzilla?

Nobody gave a response that I saw.

[FedUpWithFaith]

Yay ^^ Let's have a mythology trivia thread!

We do, what happened Gawdzilla?

Nobody gave a response that I saw.

You didn't comment on my response. Are you sure you got your question right? - it's quite a coincidence.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

You didn't comment on my response. Are you sure you got your question right? - it's quite a coincidence.

It's not surprising that religions borrow from older religions, or that stories get "improved" when a good story comes along.