The Unknown Soldier - Finnish continuation war movie
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Another great fairly recent war movie you should see is "The 12th Man" Based on a true story. Go buy an Android box and you can watch any TV series/show or movie that was ever made and you only need your existing good speed internet! I don't have live TV anymore. It's actually aggravating having to wait for your show to come on and sit through commercials when you can watch anything any time you want! Pause, rewind, fast forward, just like a DVD player or PVR. Just go to Best Buy and talk to them about it and pick one up. They are only about $125 and then you never have to pay anything again! I can't believe people still pay for TV service still! It's waaay over priced for you to hurry up and wait for your show to come on!!!
Funny, I just mentioned "The Unknown Soldier" in another thread about obscure war movies. I saw it in a theater in Toronto back in the "60s, but I have no idea where you'd find a copy now. Maybe "Belle and Blade". They carry a lot of obscure war movies. I haven't received a catalogue from them in a while, but Google should be able to find them if they still exist. Incidently, the version of "The Unknown Soldier" I saw had been dubbed in German, then subtitled in English, but the soldiers' songs were still in Finnish. Probably an interesting story there. Maybe searching for "Der Unbekannte Soldat" would find it.
You oughta watch the cuckoo
September 1944. Several days before Finland, a co-belligerent of Nazi Germany, pulls out of the Continuation War against the Soviet Union, Veikko (Ville Haapasalo), a Finnish soldier, is turned in by his Finnish and German compatriots for being a pacifist and, in their eyes, a would-be deserter. As a punishment, the young man is placed in shackles, chained to a rock outcrop in a remote Lapland forest, left with nothing but a few supplies, a Karabiner 98k rifle and ammunition - effectively made a forced Kamikaze kukushka sniper. To ensure his willingness to fight, they dress him in the uniform of the Waffen-SS, as Soviet soldiers felt little mercy towards SS men. Days pass, and after several failed attempts, Veikko succeeds in freeing himself and heads for safety, shackles still attached.
Meanwhile, Ivan (Viktor Bychkov), a captain in the Red Army accused of anti-Soviet correspondence, is arrested by the NKVD secret police. En route to his court martial, Soviet planes accidentally bomb the vehicle carrying the disgraced captain, killing the driver and Ivan's guard. Veikko, at this stage still chained to the rock, witnesses the bombing through his rifle scope.
Not far away is the farm of Anni (Anni-Kristiina Juuso), a Sami reindeer farmer whose husband was taken away together with their whole reindeer herd by Germans four years earlier, never to return. Hungry and alone, the young and resourceful widow locates the bodies of Ivan and his captors while foraging for food. As she begins to bury the dead, Anni discovers that Ivan is still alive, but seriously hurt. She carries him to her wooden hut and nurses him back to health. Meanwhile, Veikko, in search of tools to remove his shackles, stumbles upon Anni’s farm. Thus World War II creates the unlikeliest of bonds.
Comic, and sometimes tragic, misunderstandings soon arise, resulting in a passionate and very human three-way relationship.
September 1944. Several days before Finland, a co-belligerent of Nazi Germany, pulls out of the Continuation War against the Soviet Union, Veikko (Ville Haapasalo), a Finnish soldier, is turned in by his Finnish and German compatriots for being a pacifist and, in their eyes, a would-be deserter. As a punishment, the young man is placed in shackles, chained to a rock outcrop in a remote Lapland forest, left with nothing but a few supplies, a Karabiner 98k rifle and ammunition - effectively made a forced Kamikaze kukushka sniper. To ensure his willingness to fight, they dress him in the uniform of the Waffen-SS, as Soviet soldiers felt little mercy towards SS men. Days pass, and after several failed attempts, Veikko succeeds in freeing himself and heads for safety, shackles still attached.
Meanwhile, Ivan (Viktor Bychkov), a captain in the Red Army accused of anti-Soviet correspondence, is arrested by the NKVD secret police. En route to his court martial, Soviet planes accidentally bomb the vehicle carrying the disgraced captain, killing the driver and Ivan's guard. Veikko, at this stage still chained to the rock, witnesses the bombing through his rifle scope.
Not far away is the farm of Anni (Anni-Kristiina Juuso), a Sami reindeer farmer whose husband was taken away together with their whole reindeer herd by Germans four years earlier, never to return. Hungry and alone, the young and resourceful widow locates the bodies of Ivan and his captors while foraging for food. As she begins to bury the dead, Anni discovers that Ivan is still alive, but seriously hurt. She carries him to her wooden hut and nurses him back to health. Meanwhile, Veikko, in search of tools to remove his shackles, stumbles upon Anni’s farm. Thus World War II creates the unlikeliest of bonds.
Comic, and sometimes tragic, misunderstandings soon arise, resulting in a passionate and very human three-way relationship.
A one point Stalin offered the Fins an armistice to end the Continuation War but the Fins were too greedy on the territory exchange, and the war continued.
The Finish Government members responsible for not taking the offer were later tried for war crimes.
The Finish Government members responsible for not taking the offer were later tried for war crimes.
I am curious, as to where the aspect of greediness came in? The Finns were able to regain their territory that was lost in the Winter War (1939-1940), during the Continuation War (1941-1944). There was some debate in the Finnish parliament about going beyond the border, but they decided to only take what was lost. There also was a lot of mistrust of the Soviet Union, for many good reasons. Unfortunately, the retaken land was lost again in the Moscow Armistice.
As for "war crimes" these were " war-responsibility trials" in Finland, set up by the Soviets as part of the Moscow Armistice. These were Soviet kangaroo courts set up to punish the Finnish war time leaders as "the aggressors". No Soviet leaders were ever taken to court for starting the whole conflict by attacking Finland during the Winter War.
The Finns wanted their territory back plus part of whats now the Republic of Karelia, which had never been part of the Grand Duchy of Finland.
The wanted territory was east of the old borders of the old Grand Duchy of Finland
"war crimes" or " war-responsibility trials", people still die needlessly and that is a crime.
Finland could have stayed out of WW2 but chose to attack the USSR along with Germany.
There were other trials as well " Illegal Killing of Soviet Prisoners of War by Finns during the Finno-Soviet Continuation War of 1941-44 "
https://www.jstor.org/stable/40650407?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents
The extra territorial claims may have had their begining in the " The Heimosodat (The Finnish Kinship Wars of 1918-1922) ".
http://www.alternativefinland.com/the-heimosodat-the-kinship-wars-of-1918-1922-part-1/
The wanted territory was east of the old borders of the old Grand Duchy of Finland
"war crimes" or " war-responsibility trials", people still die needlessly and that is a crime.
Finland could have stayed out of WW2 but chose to attack the USSR along with Germany.
There were other trials as well " Illegal Killing of Soviet Prisoners of War by Finns during the Finno-Soviet Continuation War of 1941-44 "
https://www.jstor.org/stable/40650407?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents
The extra territorial claims may have had their begining in the " The Heimosodat (The Finnish Kinship Wars of 1918-1922) ".
http://www.alternativefinland.com/the-heimosodat-the-kinship-wars-of-1918-1922-part-1/
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I like old B&W version.Music is superbe and a lot of actors in it were veterans,not sure is both wars with Soviet Union or just one.
There was a book on that film,it's long out of print but I had a chance of reading it.Film was done on locations using surplus military equipment including some cameras.
Film wouldn't happen without support from military,some officers got in trouble with politicians for helping out movie makers.
BTW-New version is available on pre-order from Amazon
https://www.amazon.ca/Soldier-Eero-...9592&s=gateway&sprefix=unknown,aps,147&sr=8-2
There was a book on that film,it's long out of print but I had a chance of reading it.Film was done on locations using surplus military equipment including some cameras.
Film wouldn't happen without support from military,some officers got in trouble with politicians for helping out movie makers.
BTW-New version is available on pre-order from Amazon
https://www.amazon.ca/Soldier-Eero-...9592&s=gateway&sprefix=unknown,aps,147&sr=8-2
The Karelian Isthmus and Ladoga Karelia inhabitated by western Karelians WERE part of the Grand Duchy of Finland. Only eastern Karelians remained under independent Russian (Soviet) administration after 1917. Eastern Karelians has always been viewed as a part of Finnish nation because they have a common language. After the Continuation War the Soviet aggressors joined by force not only eastern Karelians but also the Karelian Isthmus and Ladoga Karelia which were an integral part of Finland. So, not “greedy Fins” were guilty but the barbaric communist Soviet Union.
While torrents are illegal, there are copies of the 2017 version out there. Staying on the right side of the law is great if you can find a source for the movie in question but more than likely it will be a grey version if you can find it (found it and watching it Friday night). Looks pretty interesting, and for kicks I found the version from 1954 to compare it. Unfortunately I will not share the links because big brother is always watching and I don't want to go into the Finnish dog house!
The book I am using for reference, which I'll try to find next time I'm at the library, was referring to the Finnic peoples who were not included in the Grand Duchy of Finland.
These people and the area they lived in were part of the USSR and east of the pre 1939 Finnish Borders.
Try Googling, " map of finnic peoples ", the results are interesting.
These people and the area they lived in were part of the USSR and east of the pre 1939 Finnish Borders.
Try Googling, " map of finnic peoples ", the results are interesting.
During the 1920s the Finnish government, wary of the threat posed by the Soviet Union, pursued a defense alliance with Estonia, Latvia, and Poland. However, that effort was squelched when the Finnish parliament chose not to ratify the agreement. The Finnish-Soviet nonaggression pact of 1932 was directed at the same concern but failed to quell Finnish fears of Soviet expansionism.
Following the invasion, defeat, and partitioning of Poland by Germany and the Soviets in 1939, the Soviet Union sought to push its border with Finland on the Karelian Isthmus westward in an attempt to buttress the security of Leningrad (St. Petersburg) from potential German attack. To that end, the Soviets also endeavoured to gain possession of several Finnish islands in the Gulf of Finland and to secure a 30-year lease for a naval base at Hanko (Hangö). The Soviet proposals for those acquisitions included an offer to exchange Soviet land. When Finland refused, the Soviet Union launched an attack on November 30, 1939, beginning the Russo-Finnish War.
Soviet troops totaling about one million men attacked Finland on several fronts. The heavily outnumbered Finns put up a skillful and effective defense that winter, and the Red Army made little progress. In February 1940, however, the Soviets used massive artillery bombardments to breach the Mannerheim Line (the Finns’ southern defensive barrier stretching across the Karelian Isthmus), after which they streamed northward across the isthmus to the Finnish city of Viipuri (Vyborg).
Unable to secure help from Britain and France, the exhausted Finns made peace (the Treaty of Moscow) on Soviet terms on March 12, 1940, agreeing to the cession of western Karelia and to the construction of a Soviet naval base on the Hanko Peninsula.
Having approached Germany without reaching a formal alliance, Finland allowed German troops transit through the country after the outbreak of war between Germany and the Soviet Union in June 1941. The Finns then joined the fight against the Soviets, undertaking the “War of Continuation.”
An armistice signed on September 19, 1944, effectively concluded that conflict between the Soviet Union and Finland, contingent on Finnish recognition of the Treaty of Moscow and the evacuation of German troops (who refused to leave). The formal end of the Soviet-Finnish conflict came with the signing of a peace treaty in Paris on February 10, 1947.
Source: https://www.britannica.com/event/Russo-Finnish-War
Following the invasion, defeat, and partitioning of Poland by Germany and the Soviets in 1939, the Soviet Union sought to push its border with Finland on the Karelian Isthmus westward in an attempt to buttress the security of Leningrad (St. Petersburg) from potential German attack. To that end, the Soviets also endeavoured to gain possession of several Finnish islands in the Gulf of Finland and to secure a 30-year lease for a naval base at Hanko (Hangö). The Soviet proposals for those acquisitions included an offer to exchange Soviet land. When Finland refused, the Soviet Union launched an attack on November 30, 1939, beginning the Russo-Finnish War.
Soviet troops totaling about one million men attacked Finland on several fronts. The heavily outnumbered Finns put up a skillful and effective defense that winter, and the Red Army made little progress. In February 1940, however, the Soviets used massive artillery bombardments to breach the Mannerheim Line (the Finns’ southern defensive barrier stretching across the Karelian Isthmus), after which they streamed northward across the isthmus to the Finnish city of Viipuri (Vyborg).
Unable to secure help from Britain and France, the exhausted Finns made peace (the Treaty of Moscow) on Soviet terms on March 12, 1940, agreeing to the cession of western Karelia and to the construction of a Soviet naval base on the Hanko Peninsula.
Having approached Germany without reaching a formal alliance, Finland allowed German troops transit through the country after the outbreak of war between Germany and the Soviet Union in June 1941. The Finns then joined the fight against the Soviets, undertaking the “War of Continuation.”
An armistice signed on September 19, 1944, effectively concluded that conflict between the Soviet Union and Finland, contingent on Finnish recognition of the Treaty of Moscow and the evacuation of German troops (who refused to leave). The formal end of the Soviet-Finnish conflict came with the signing of a peace treaty in Paris on February 10, 1947.
Source: https://www.britannica.com/event/Russo-Finnish-War
You have totally ignored the Winter War of 1939-40. Finland did not start the conflict between themselves and the Soviet Union. The Continuation War was an attempt to regain the land lost in the Winter War conflict, with the sentiment that it was only a matter of time before the Soviets would attack again.
Finland did not trust the Soviets and they had good reason not to. The Soviets tried to overrun Finland in 1939. Finland's population at that time was around 3.7 million, while the Soviet Union was close to 200 million. The Soviets had also overrun the independent Baltic nations of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, executing the populace or deporting them to Siberia. If Finland had chose not to regain lost territory, do you seriously think that the Soviet Union would have left them alone?
Also, all nations involved in the conflict during WW2 were guilty of war crimes of some sort or another. However, how do Finland's war crimes rate in scale vs the Soviet Union's?
The events I was talking about were after the signing of the " Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact ".
The Russians would have read Hitler's " Mein Kampf ", and it's idea of German expansion to the east.
The Russian land grabs prior to the German invasion would have been to set up a buffer zone to slow the the coming German invasion.
The grab of the Karelia peninsula was to protect Leningrad.
The Russian's lost lost a huge amount of territory in WW1 with the signing of the , " Treaty of Brest-Litovsk ", and the Germans went beyond those boundaries in taking over Russian land.
https://omniatlas.com/maps/europe/19180320/
Ural Mountains in Nazi planning
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ural_Mountains_in_Nazi_planning
Nothing happens in isolation !
The Russians would have read Hitler's " Mein Kampf ", and it's idea of German expansion to the east.
The Russian land grabs prior to the German invasion would have been to set up a buffer zone to slow the the coming German invasion.
The grab of the Karelia peninsula was to protect Leningrad.
The Russian's lost lost a huge amount of territory in WW1 with the signing of the , " Treaty of Brest-Litovsk ", and the Germans went beyond those boundaries in taking over Russian land.
https://omniatlas.com/maps/europe/19180320/
Ural Mountains in Nazi planning
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ural_Mountains_in_Nazi_planning
Nothing happens in isolation !
To make things perfectly clear, the Finns were not the aggressors. The Finns didn’t invade.
The Soviets launched a massive invasion totalling almost half a million men in Nov 1939.
The Finns were also not allied with Nazi Germany. They would go on to fight them.
