This is a passage from my novel Running After Maria. I served on ships sailing to Finland from 1965 to 1969. This is something I heard quite often.
His eyes took on the misty look which I have come to recognise when a person to whom I am talking looks back with nostalgia to a by gone age. " I remember a winter when I was very young. Finland was at war with Russia, such a small nation but on our own because other nations had much bigger problems than to spend time caring about one small country on the edge of the arctic circle."
For a moment he scowled at the thought of the world standing aside and letting his nation down. " How were we to stand and fight against the superiority of Russia in both arms and men? The only weapons we had were surprise and an intimate knowledge of our country. To make use of our knowledge, our leaders decided we had to retreat into the forest, leaving the women and children behind in the towns and villages. Can you imagine how that affected the men of my father’s generation? Having to decide between surrender or abandoning their families to the enemy? "
He paused whether to add to his drama or because he found the memory too painful, I have no idea. All I can remember now is the football game was forgotten and I was spirited away in that moment to the forest, the trees and the snow. I saw quite clearly the sacrifice of the men as they marched away from those they loved. The first glimmering of what it means to be Finnish started to dawn and I paid close attention to what he said next.
" For years my parents and their friends had been fed a diet of propaganda, telling them that the Russians were barbarians. All Finns believed that the Russian soldiers would rape all the women and enslave all the children. Despite this, the men gathered up their weapons and set off for the forest, leaving their women and children to fend for themselves when the Russians came. I remember my father telling me about how cold it was in the forest and the snow. They buried themselves in the snow and waited for the Russians to come. Nobody complained, the feeling of being one nation buoyed them up and defending the right to live in their country, of how they wished to live their own way, not live as others would try to dictate to them. They wanted to live their lives in their own fashion."
He paused again, looking round the stadium as though to bring all the spectators into his circle. " The Russians came through the woods in the snow all bunched up in a convoy as though certain they would not be opposed. The Finns lay still and let them pass, hidden in their white suits by the snow. When the Russians were surrounded, our soldiers rose up out of the snow and defeated them in a bloody battle. We did that! This small nation had defeated the Russian bear by acting as true patriots, bound together by our sense of being a separate nation. This is the story that is told over and over again in our schools until it is ground into the very fabric of our very souls. It makes each new generation determined to live as Finns. It swells the breasts of those who come behind with pride!"
He looked at me, his expression at first serious and then he smiled. " Of course that sort of thing could not last and we lost the war. A great many of my father's friends perished but he never lost his pride in what they had accomplished. We have all learnt from that example that nationhood and independence are worth fighting for. The very act of defiance teaches each generation that our roots lie deep in our blood soaked soil and that a part of every one of us is buried alongside those who died to try to preserve our freedom."
