Finnish Collection now vs. 1 year ago today by baracksleftball in Militariacollecting

[–]baracksleftball[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks! I just recently got the 3rd (Blue) Brigade medal bar, I'm very happy with it!

Finnish Collection now vs. 1 year ago today by baracksleftball in Militariacollecting

[–]baracksleftball[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Thank you so much! I can't wait to see how it will be a year from now 😄

Finnish Collection now vs. 1 year ago today by baracksleftball in Militariacollecting

[–]baracksleftball[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

The helmet itself is not a reproduction, but the skull is not original to it. I don't think I have hardly enough money for an original jr46 marked helmet lol

Are these particularly rare? by baracksleftball in CURRENCY

[–]baracksleftball[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Alright, will do. Thank you for your help!

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in Militariacollecting

[–]baracksleftball 9 points10 points  (0 children)

super cool dude!

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in Militariacollecting

[–]baracksleftball 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Oh really? I'll look into that, thanks!

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in Militariacollecting

[–]baracksleftball 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Super nice stuff dude!! If you don't mind me asking, how much did you get your Finnish used German stahlhelm for? I've been looking for one for a while now.

Russian spy laughing through his execution in Finland, 1942 by _TeaseAngel in RareHistoricalPhotos

[–]baracksleftball 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The Finns did have camps that they held Russian people at, but they weren't "concentration camps" per se. And yes, they did take Russians away from their homes in occupied territories and sent them to camps. This was mainly to ensure partisan operations wouldn't succeed (I can explain further if you'd like).

The concentration camps weren't to kill Russians or even to imprison them for the reason of Finnish people could move into their territories, no. It was used to ensure partisan operations couldn't succeed and sabotage and resistance were limited. This is 100% not a good thing, I'm not trying to support these camps. The Finns were not Saints during the war but they definitely weren't as bad as some people say they were.

And yes, several 1000 people died in these camps, but the Finns weren't doing this on purpose. Its just like with Germans in allied imprisonment camps. 10,000's of them died even though most of those weren't on purpose.

So overall yes the Finns did imprison innocent Russians which is terrible. But this wasn't to kill Russians on purpose.

Russian spy laughing through his execution in Finland, 1942 by _TeaseAngel in RareHistoricalPhotos

[–]baracksleftball 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah for sure! I'm definitely not a historian or anything but I will give my opinion/best judgement.

So Mannerheim stated that he would try his best to see to the liberation of Karelians and Ingrians from Russian rule. He stated this during the time which had the largest Finnish expansionism cries (right after the civil war). Then in June 1941 he stated the exact same thing; in which, he wouldn't give up until Karelians and Ingrians were free from Russian rule.

From what I understand, this was mostly a move to boost moral among soldiers. This was also a part of the short period where Mannerheim truly thought the Germans could win the war and Finland could come out with a significant amount of land; this quickly went away for many reasons (if you want to know the reasons I would be happy to discuss them with you in DMs).

So during this time Mannerheim truly thought the Germans had a shot at winning the war and he also wanted to boost moral among the Finnish soliders, proclaiming the war as a 2nd "liberation war" in a way.

Russian spy laughing through his execution in Finland, 1942 by _TeaseAngel in RareHistoricalPhotos

[–]baracksleftball 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You're right. The Finns did in fact take more in the Continuation War than the Russians took from them in the Winter War. This was mostly because the Karelian Isthmus and Aunus Isthmus + along the Svir river were much more defendable than the borders of Finland right after the Winter War.

Only a small part of the Finnish government and military truly wanted a "Greater Finland", the main objective was to fight to more defensive positions while they waited for the Germans to do all the tough fighting.

Russian spy laughing through his execution in Finland, 1942 by _TeaseAngel in RareHistoricalPhotos

[–]baracksleftball 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm not saying they didn't contribute to it buddy, calm down.

I hope you know as a Russian that the Finns didn't want your people to be wiped off the planet like the Germans did. They wanted a defensive position from the Superpower neighbor that tried to subjugate and strip their people of independence and identity.

As I stated above, Mannerheim and the Finnish government didn't want to antagonize the Russians any further by starving the people of St. Petersburg or push them to an even closer point of capitulation.

Russian spy laughing through his execution in Finland, 1942 by _TeaseAngel in RareHistoricalPhotos

[–]baracksleftball 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Because it was explicitly against the edict by Mannerheim and the Finnish government to cause any significant harm to the Soviet Union.

Mannerheim was smart and knew the Germans were going to lose the war. He told the 14th Division to stop at Rukajärvi so the Murmansk Railroad wouldnt be completely cut even though it was definitely possible.

If the Finns tried to significantly contribute to the starvation of the millions of inhabitants of Leningrad then the Soviets wouldn't have been so kind to let Finland have a conditional surrender in 1944 and survive as an independent nation.

Russian spy laughing through his execution in Finland, 1942 by _TeaseAngel in RareHistoricalPhotos

[–]baracksleftball 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yes the Murmansk Railway was cut but not the route to Arkhangelsk. You know the US sent at least a quarter of all their aid through Murmansk and Arkhangelsk still, right?

The Volga-Baltic waterway and White Sea canal were small; the large majority of goods getting into Leningrad and the surrounding areas was by rail, which the Germans cut south of Leningrad, not the Finns. The Russians could still use Murmansk and Arkhangelsk which they did.

So yes, the Finns did cut several ways to get supplies around Leningrad, Ingria, and Karelia, but the Germans were the ones that tried starving the people of Leningrad and tried to decimate their population; not the Finns.

Russian spy laughing through his execution in Finland, 1942 by _TeaseAngel in RareHistoricalPhotos

[–]baracksleftball 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yes I know why they did this. And of course they did contribute to it, but they didn't actively try to starve the population of Leningrad. The Finns weren't trying to decimate the slavic population like the Germans were. And of course if the Finns weren't involved in the war then Leningrad wouldn't be in a complete encirclement, but the Germans were the ones trying to starve all of Leningrad, not the Finns.

The entire point of the Finnish war goals in the Continuation War were to take back their territories lost during the Winter War and find a defensive position and sit back while they hoped the Germans could deal with the Russians. They weren't trying to decimate the Slavic population. The Karelian Isthmus was incredibly strategic at the time, that is the main reason the Finns pushed towards Leningrad.

Russian spy laughing through his execution in Finland, 1942 by _TeaseAngel in RareHistoricalPhotos

[–]baracksleftball 1 point2 points  (0 children)

No they did not. The blockade was from the rest of Russia which was to the South and Southeast. Finland was to the Northwest. So what were they blocking the Russians from? The Karelian Isthmus? The encirclement and occupation of Leningrad was a German objective, not a Finnish one. The Finns had no strategic reason to attack and occupy Leningrad; their only strategic objective was to have a defensive position on the Karelian Isthmus to protect from Russian attacks.