Column|When everything looks bleak and many Finns naive, it’s good to remember that the attitude of the gun hoarders is still strong.
July towards the end, a group of history enthusiasts found a post-war cache of weapons in Asikkala. The cache of more than 200 rifles was so large that it became national news.
I happened to be on vacation and at a cottage, so my main source was the provincial newspaper Etelä-Suomen Sanomat. For that, it was big news, so the paper reported on it for several days and also on site. Fortunately, he reported, because important information came out from the villagers.
Although at the end of the war the hiding of weapons was done in secret, it was about preparing for a possible Soviet occupation, the information was reportedly “semi-public” in the village. However, no one ever revealed the hoarders, and there was no shouting about the hoarding either. The authorities were not told even after the collapse of the Soviet Union or the death of the hiders. Generation after generation kept their mouths shut.
Finnish I feel like I’m in an awkward position now. Everything is uncomfortable and boring.
That in itself is not a miracle. Times are dark in many ways.
Russia just continues its brutal war in Ukraine. Recently, it has accelerated its attacks on civilian targets and managed to occupy more and more areas all the time. The advance of Ukrainian troops on the Russian side has at least not yet changed the situation significantly, and the United States still does not allow Ukraine to use the weapons it provided for attacks on the Russian side.
Harsh news coming from Gaza. In Venezuela, the dictatorship got tougher. Mongolia welcomed the Russian leader Vladimir Putin welcome regardless of the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrant.
In the United States, on the other hand, a tearing election battle is underway. The final result should not be guessed yet, but regardless of the winner, European countries must ultimately take a stronger responsibility for defending their continent. The thought makes you cringe when you look at, for example, the internal politics of France or Germany and the election results, which of course also make you cringe.
Homeland the situation does not seem much brighter.
Although the economy is starting to show signs of recovery, investments seem to remain at a chronically low level and the development of the maintenance ratio is worrying. Economically, the other Nordic countries currently represent a dream level for Finland.
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Generation after generation kept their mouths shut.
Young people are starting to lose faith in the pension system, some in Finland’s ability to prepare for Russian operations, all in the future of public health care.
In the midst of all this, there seems to be a lot of anger, malice and anger in the public eye. The Bolshevik effort to overwhelm the opponent seems to have been established as a general modus operandi. Sometimes you see handouts, which usually have some kind of spike or demand to submit.
All in the midst of this misery, the silent loyalty of the people of Asikkala reminded us that Finland is not quite such a fearfully huddled country as it might seem. And not quite as naive in relation to the eastern neighbor as it might have seemed.
Emeritus professor came to mind Kimmo Rentola found reportwhich was from the spring of 1944 Juho Kusti Paasikiven a description of what would happen if the Soviet Union tried to trample Finland: “We will shoot from behind every stone and tree and we will continue to shoot for fifty years. We are not Czechs. We are not Dutch. We fight tooth and nail behind every rock and over the ice of every lake. I won’t fight much longer. I
am old, but others continue.”
The neighbor must clearly continue to take this attitude into account. Justly.
In Finland there is a lot to do, whether it is about strengthening the economy, closing loopholes in legislation left for hostile actors, or many other things, but too much gloom feeds bad feelings. Disagreement is a part of democracy, but anger and bitterness are also fertile ground for hostile information influence.
It is so difficult to eradicate that it should not be allowed to grow very widely.
The author is the editor-in-chief of HS.
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